<p>@2014novamom: I’d be interested in hearing your views on WPI…</p>
<p>Not sure why that gibberish posted earlier! Clearly I need caffeine!</p>
<p>Anyone have any tips on planning this college trip? We live in the NYC area. S wants to visit Furman (Greenville SC), Sewanee (in Sewanee, TN – about 2.5 hours from Atlanta – in the southeastern part of TN) and Rhodes (which is in Memphis, way over in the southwestern corner of TN). I could: fly to Charlotte NC, drive to Furman, drive down to Atlanta, stay in Atlanta, drive up to Sewanee, keep driving to Nashville, fly to Memphis, then fly home, or do it all in reverse (NYC to Memphis first).</p>
<p>The flights from NYC to Atlanta are the cheapest; the non-stops from NYC to Memphis are the most expensive.</p>
<p>Or he just applies “cold” to Rhodes then visits if he gets in. Sewanee and Furman are at least within range of Atlanta.</p>
<p>When do we want to go? S said anytime after August 20. What’s the significance of that date? Is it in his horoscope or something? No – that’s when all his buddies start football practice. So he might as well leave town with mom :)</p>
<p>Memphis is a haul from Atlanta; a cold apply to the Memphis school makes sense. TOO funny on his reasoning!!! the south may be a bit of a shock for a NYC area kid… Have y’all considered that? I think Atlanta is pretty cosmopolitan though.</p>
<p>Mathmomvt- we are headed to Univ of Rochester next week. Looking forward to seeing the campus. Not scheduled for RIT, but will do a quick stop there.</p>
<p>CinMom what is your student interested in studying? I’ll be interested to hear your impressions of UofR. My son is interested in Mechanical Engineering, and is looking for a smaller school where Engineering is strong, so UofR sounds like a potentially good fit.</p>
<p>Hello from HOT NorCal- temperature is expected to reach above 105 for next 6 days!!!</p>
<p>Just booked Senior portraits for mid July- made it under the wire, appointments are about filled up. We will take DS to visit UCSB and Cal Poly SLO mid July. Beautiful beach trip- can’t wait!</p>
<p>Most of you are from Mid-West/ North East? California/ Western States families have a different college sensibility- big public schools are more the norm and privates seem to be mostly religion affiliated.</p>
<p>minymo, We are on east coast.</p>
<p>@Mathmomvt- Bio-medical Engineering followed by Med School is the plan for now. Have never been to upstate New York before, so I’m looking forward to the trip.</p>
<p>Minnymom, here, too. Most of the students head to state schools or to privates with religious affiliations. We’re quite a bit further west than Ohio, which seems to be the very definition of ”Midwest" on cc.</p>
<p>ctl987 – thanks for the input – yes, I have considered that he may experience a little adjustment. He’s used to going into the city (Manhattan) but I think he’d be too distracted if he was near a city like that. College should be mostly about bonding with your peers. And learning. I think you’re right – it would cost too much to include Rhodes in the tour. I’ll save it if he gets in.</p>
<p>For difficult/expensive to visit schools, I’d go ahead and save visiting until after they get admitted (or not, in which case you save the money/time/hassle).</p>
<p>Minnymom: Thanks for reminding me about scheduling senior portrait!</p>
<p>Argh. I’ll have to ask D1 when kids around here do senior portraits. She’s pretty organized, so I suspect she’ll have a clue. I clearly have no clue at all.</p>
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<p>745 AM? I wish. We have to have DD at the airport for her Ecuador trip at 4:20 AM tomorrow morning! Thank goodness the airport is only a 20 minute drive at that hour. Debating whether to just stay up (I am a nightowl) or get a nap, then get up and go to the airport, then come back and go back to bed. Somewhere tomorrow I know there will be a lot of extra caffiene. :D</p>
<p>mathmom - my son attends univ of rochester. We found it because it was so close to RIT I threw it in since we were there.</p>
<p>I’d suggest the AM Univ of Rochester tour - throw in the interview before/after the tour, then the afternoon RIT. They’re super close together, maybe 15 minutes, very do-able in one day.</p>
<p>I don’t even know what we’re supposed to do about senior portraits. My son transferred in as a senior, I completely forgot about them and didn’t get them done. I would like to do them for my daughter and still the school doesn’t say peep or even give recommendations.</p>
<p>Avon – how exciting for your daughter! And I certainly don’t envy you that 4:20 dropoff time, but at least it’s a one time event. Rousing teenagers at 6:30 am Monday-Saturday during the summers is not fun, although once they are at practice/meet they are fine. At least my 13 year old gets a break in August. DS starts practice in August which means having to be at school by 7:30 am and he is not a morning person!</p>
<p>Sometimes information regarding Sr pictures is on the school website so you might check there. If not I’d call the front office. Most schools are staffed administratively, even minimally, year round. If the pictures are in summer and somehow your student misses them it has been my experience that there are always dates for retakes in the fall. </p>
<p>We actually just got something in the mail from the studio the school uses with an assigned date and appointment time. I assume if the student has a conflict it’s their responsibility to reschedule. I can see with a very large class how this is most efficient. If I’d received something with information to make an appointment I honestly would have set it aside in the to-do pile. I don’t let things hang there long, but I wouldn’t have felt an immediate need to take care of it either.</p>
<p>At our school, until this year it has been up to the student to arrange the senior portraits independently. Most kids did arrange a session with a private photographer, but some would have a friend or parent take photos, or they could use their student id photo taken at locker assignment for the yearbook (which is what they do for non-seniors) if they didn’t want to submit a different photo. </p>
<p>This year, they’ve arranged for all the kids to have a session with a professional photographer during the summer, at the school’s expense. (Nice, but I hope this was funded by a donation and not our tax money earmarked for actual education purposes…) Anyhow, they are also going to have the student id photo taken at the same time, so the session is “mandatory”. Which is fine but… it’s smack in the middle of the summer when many kids, including mine, may be out of town. DS said he already told them (I guess the kids knew about this plan in advance) and they said it’s fine and they will work something out with him when he gets back.</p>