<p>Momofwon: Is you child involved in an activity that she is planning on continuing in college (theatre, mock trial, a sport?) Go2girl has contacted the admissions office directly to see if they can arrange a student she can talk to directly regarding her activity. It’s helped a lot.</p>
<p>I contacted a couple of schools that have supplements posted on the Common App with no indication as to whether it’s for the previous class of 2013 or the incoming applicants for 2014. Two of them told me they won’t have the supplements posted until mid to late August! Really makes so little sense to me!</p>
<p>Great suggestions everyone re: touring IU when tours are on hiatus. I just posted a request in the IU forum to see if a student might be willing to help us out that day (assuming they already know their class schedule for the fall). </p>
<p>Other options we can do are to line up a visit to a sorority (gasp…mom and both g’mas were sorority girls…but don’t hold that against us ;-), so D may consider rushing in the fall.</p>
<p>I’ll also contact the admissions office and see if they offer options for D to meet students (she’s planning on majoring in marketing/fashion). </p>
<p>Can’t believe I’ve never been to Bloomington after living in IL for 25 years. We’re also visiting U of IL and Purdue. We’ve been to U. Wisc. several times and D will be applying there, but it’s a big reach (as is U of I).</p>
<p>Good luck, Momofwon. I’m sure someone will come through for your daughter. I can’t imagine a sorority turning down a request.</p>
<p>Go2mom: Did you ever find the answer to your question about the ACT and SAT subject tests? Spygirl was told that SAT subject tests were unnecessary if you’re only submitting the ACT.
Can anyone confirm or deny this?</p>
<p>Thank you for the warm welcome for the newbies like me! So, hear is a question for you - what is involved or recommended regarding expressing interest in a college?</p>
<p>It seems like it would make sense to a) send an email to a local admissions contact if the prospective school has one and b) sign up at the college’s website as an interested person. I can’t see any downside to this.</p>
<p>Agent99 - I don’t remember Go2’s question about SAT Subject tests, but many schools accept the ACT with Writing in lieu of them. There are a handful of schools that require SAT Subject tests no matter what (Harvard, Williams,some Cornell colleges, Georgetown, etc.)</p>
<p>Gigem86 - Welcome! You are correct on expressing interest. Some school care more than others. And some love to have you visit (and might even waive application fees). But when you can’t visit, signing up and contacting admissions reps are good alternatives.</p>
<p>Quick update re: IU tours. Thank you to those who suggested posting a request in the IU forum for a student to help give us a mini-tour at IU because I was told last week by an admissions rep that there would be no tours the first week of school. </p>
<p>Turns out a poster said that wasn’t the case and they toured last year during week 1. Sure enough, I checked IU’s tour calendar this afternoon and there ARE tours now available for 8/28. I quickly booked us for both a tour and info session! Whew! Still, if a student wants to chat with us for a few minutes, we won’t turn them down for additional info/comments about IU.</p>
<p>Too bad Ithaca College’s admissions office is closed on Sat. 8/31, but D has a friend who goes to Cornell and has graciously offered to give us a private tour of Ithaca College because it’s so close to her school.</p>
<p>Hi all! My son (a senior this year) is trying to finalize his college list and came up with the following criteria:</p>
<p>3.86w (not sure about unweighted, maybe 3.6ish?), honors and AP (except for math)
top 25% of class
SAT - 710(cr), 600(m), 640(w) (will take again this Fall)
SATII - 740 (French)
Virginia resident, white male, first generation, plays saxophone and piano, Bank of America marching band two years, various clubs, has a couple of leadership roles this year, accepted to the Governor’s School this summer for French, hosted a French foreign exchange student this summer
Major: double French and International Relations (studies, affairs, etc.)
Location: Mid-Atlantic, Northeast, or Florida (lol)
Size: At least 5,000 students
Students: Shiny, happy, diverse, accepting
Greek life: No opinion
Sports: No opinion
Weather: No opinion
Cost: We will have to take out loans for the first two years, so merit aid would be nice. </p>
<p>Any thoughts on schools that would match his list? Thanks!</p>
<p>hi spritle,
That is a very smart kid you have there!
I immediately think of Georgetown School of Foreign Service for him because of his interest in French and international Relations. Not sure if it meets the 5000 student mark though.</p>
<p>William & Mary has a joint program with St Andrews in Scotland – 2 years here, 2 years there – maybe that would be of interest.</p>
<p>I just found out that there are now 2 kids in my son’s class who are already accepted to college. And one sophomore. Guess I should have made him keep playing lacrosse, huh?</p>
<p>Spritle: Virginia has one of the best public university systems in the world. Be sure to check out UVA, James Madison, George Mason, Wm. & Mary, VCU - depending on his interests, maybe VA Tech or VMI. Best of luck!</p>
<p>^ Re: lacrosse. My son also reported the same for his school, few of them got into ivies. However, I don’t know for sure whether these are firm commitments or not as my son is not into sports at all so don’t know how this works. </p>
<p>Gigem86, welcome! For demonstrated interest, I also look to see if some schools are visiting in our area or visiting my son’s school. This way if we can’t visit all schools at least he gets to talk to or sit in on the info sessions locally. Though many detest these type of settings (me too) I know my niece was not able to actually visit a school on campus but was able to make such info session. This was also a school that marked demonstrated interest as impt on their CDS. She did get in and is currently attending.</p>
<p>I see on our school’s website that quite a few schools are coming to visit our college counseling office this Fall. It’s a mixed bag of safeties, matches and few reaches. No ivies. </p>
<p>Wondering if this is the norm for AOs to make the rounds to drum up some applications?</p>
<p>ognopgod – one is an Ivy, one isn’t. And we have a pretty full calendar of AOs coming to school. They seem to do this every year.</p>
<p>If anyone on this thread is seriously considering Emory and needs financial aid, I have a bunch of horror stories to tell you. Their process is very subjective and bizarre. I made less than my mailman last year (ok, he’s a very good mailman but still) and got nothing from them. Nothing.</p>
<p>Beware of American U. It’s the subject of a recent article regarding bait & switch. You may receive merit for freshman year, but funding may severely drop the following years.
The article is was written by Lynn O’Shaughnnesy on July 24. Interesting reading.</p>
<p>Classof2015 - I dint think my son would be admitted to Georgetown; his stats are too low. W&M is his top choice, but honestly, I dont think he will get in there either.</p>
<p>glido - You are so right, Virginia has some fantastic public schools!</p>
<p>go2mom - Both of those are on his list and we plan to visit this fall. DC is definately his kind of town. </p>
<p>Agentninetynine - That was a very upsetting article. Other than avoiding the schools altogether, I cant see a way of avoiding decreasing aid.</p>
<p>spritle: As a teacher in VA, I do not believe your son’s stats are that low for William & Mary. Is he retaking the SAT? That could only help. Did he interview there? If not, he should, as it can help with admissions. Also, a good essay may be important. I had a former student who applied early decision to W & M several years ago. He got in with a 1250/3.6 GPA. His essay probably clinched admission for him.</p>
<p>That said, your son should consider CNU as a backup. They have a good study abroad program. But moreover, they offer scholarship money through their honors program or the leadership program.</p>
<p>My oldest son got into W & M, but never intended to go there. My younger son has no interest in the school. Too bad. Williamsburg offers great shopping opportunities!</p>
<p>College visits today: Rice and U of Houston (Honors College). Son #2, 17 year old rising senior (I’ll call him N) had to be talked into a visit to Houston (we live near Austin). He is very high on Duke and Tulane, and we also plan a visit at the end of Sept to L.A. to look at Occidental, Claremont & Pitzer. He plans to major in biological sciences, with an eye on pre-med. Well he was pleasantly surprised at how much he liked Rice today. We went for an information session and tour. Each was about an hour long and very informative. He really liked the idea of the residential colleges, and his preconception of Rice as a place for humorless nerds was pretty much blown out of the water by everyone he met. We had a great tour guide, an engaging athletic fellow who was obviously super smart and very funny. N told me afterward, “Well Rice is definitely in my top 3 now - I wasn’t expecting that.” We stopped by U of H afterward just to see what their Honors program is all about. N did not care for the vastness of the UH campus, even though the Honors classes are smaller and they have their own section on campus. He really likes the size of Rice. He has good grades, test scores and extracurriculars, so I think he has a decent shot. He wants to visit Duke to see which school he might want to apply ED to. It will be tough fitting it in with football season about to start. I selfishly want him to go to Rice, so he’ll be closer to home, but I have a feeling it would also be a great fit for him.</p>
<p>Georgetown is in the 5,000 - 7,000 undergraduate size range as DS-11 is one of them and that was the size school he wanted. If he has any interest in language(s) and IR, he really should take a hard look at Georgetown’s SFS.</p>
<p>I just opened the common app. It looks annoying. You can only list “5 honours” which is awkward because a lot of awards fall into one category for me. And the 10 EC activity list is brief. Very brief. </p>
<p>Ick, I just don’t like it. I know as a teenager, I’m supposed to love electronic things but I honestly prefer paper for forms. Whatever.</p>