<p>eyemamom, my S applied to UNH (and other yankee schools) specifically because he wanted to be in the frozen tundra north. What was the draw for your daughter? We’ll be visiting next month.</p>
<p>UNH is on the list for a lot of reasons. We researched it for my son 2 years ago. It has a good business school, it looks beautiful, it’s a nice size, nice location. She is ever the youngest child, while she was all focused on the south at first, towards the end she started saying she did in fact want one or two options up north, since her brother is in upstate NY. Maybe she did in fact like the snow. Honestly, she likes clothes from Jack Wills - an english store - lol Her friend even toured it and said he could see her there. It looks like a nice, traditional school, though I’m a little concerned if it’s an over the top party school. And honestly Univ of Vermont would probably be a bit too granola/liberal for her.</p>
<p>A year ago September I flew into Atlanta to visit family on the opening Saturday of the college football season, and Auburn was playing Clemson in the Georgia Dome. The entire city was overwhelmed by the schools’ student fans. It was really a kick. Tons of school spirit, and given that both schools are the “Tigers” it wasn’t all that easy to tell the two schools’ fans apart!</p>
<p>We’re in northern California also, and I’m impressed that your daughter is open-minded enough to be looking at those schools. As you know, very few kids here go any farther than Oregon or Arizona if they go out of state. Good for her. . . And Auburn vs. UNH is also quite the interesting choice. What interesting kids you all have!!</p>
<p>Gigem86-we are from So Cal and my DD applied to Clemson too. When we visited we stayed at the Marriott near campus. Everyone recommended a BBQ place across the street from the hotel which we enjoyed. I found the campus food at Clemson to be pretty good. Be sure to visit the ice cream place on campus. The ingredients from from the campus dairy. Of course we drank a lot of sweet tea while in the area. </p>
<p>When you tour be sure to check out the dorms. I don’t know which dorm it was but we found it was one of the nicest ones we saw during our college visits. Be sure to set up visits with the dept. heads of her major. We did that and we met with the director of enrollment for mechanical engineering. Both gave my DD a lot of Clemson things (t-shirts; frisbee etc.) They did a great job of presenting the university. </p>
<p>Ijmom-some where on the parents’ forum is a great thread about what to buy and take to college as well as what some students found worthless. I will try to find it because it was very helpful. Some things that my DS very much appreciated were a flashlight; one of those lights that you turn the handle and it generates light and can charge a phone (it helped in emergencies and I got it at Costco) and a tool kit from Home Depot. That kit made him the most popular student on his floor. I also put together a first aid/sickness remedy kit (aspirin; bandaid; cold medicine etc. He found the last two things the most useful thing. I swear the cleaning products I bought remained untouched 4 years later. </p>
<p>Like others I have found an admission rep can make all the difference. At Ohio State with my DS the rep became like family. During our orientation over the summer she made a point of finding us while we were having lunch to see how things were going . She took my DS out to lunch his first week of school and kept in contact with us his entire freshmen year. With him being so far away it left me with a very good feeling about such a large university. </p>
<p>Vandyeyes-I must confess I went into the business after DS since I hated the counseling department so much. I do thing of stories as “hey that would make a great CA essay”. Sometimes the simplest story is the best one.</p>
<p>“K2 made a decision from all of the EA results (and one deferred) and bought a sweatshirt.”</p>
<p>Congrats fogfog! No going back now!</p>
<p>Now that I think back to my D’s experience- you never know when you’re going to board the ISS Indecision. Barnard was her absolute top dream school so when she got that acceptance, I figured it was a done deal. All of a sudden, she thought maybe she just go to Michigan instead. I was flabbergasted. I couldn’t believe she was weighing another option. Honestly, I think she just wanted to FEEL like she had options and choices in the end. Three of her other favorites hadn’t admitted her so she had to feel like she was in control of the process, I think.</p>
<p>Coffee is on</p>
<p>This new format may take some getting used to. Check out the emoticons in the upper right corner of the dialogue box. :))</p>
<p>eyemamom - I recommend going to the accepted students day - but be prepared for huge RA-RA WE WANT YOU!! In our S1’s case the school really made an effort to make the kids feel really special. My S1 loved it. OTOH, it was his first choice so he wouldn’t have been deterred if they had served cold SPAM for lunch and told him a cardboard box would be his freshman housing. As it turned out, the cardboard box would have been better. </p>
<p>Itsv is spot on - check out the dorms!! That is easier said than done though, since the dorms are all locked down and the tour guides only show you the staged dorm room or the nicest/newest. Sometimes tour guides will give a heads up. At one school, the guide pointed at an older dorm and said, you have four choices on your housing app, that dorm should should be fifth or sixth."</p>
<p>On the Decision Front, things just became more interesting. On top of his acceptance to Penn State, one of S2’s safety schools (Washington and Jefferson) just tossed a Nice merit scholarship on the table. I think James Madison is still his #1, but we will see. Two schools still out there. He has merit money from two other safeties, but nothing like the W&J $$. </p>
<p>Itsv - the cleaning supplies we sent came back unopened as well! We did find out however, that due to a box of crackers and some bananas left behind during break, my S1 and his roomie found a need for a mouse trap. That was the ONE THING we didn’t send with him.
Sent from my ipad
8-| </p>
<p>8-| </p>
<p>Hmm, old dog, new tricks… but I suppose quite useful at keeping the brain young by learning new things. :-B </p>
<p>Oh, nothing new “college-wise” here unless you could the fact that I’m letting my guy sleep in until 11am this morning - REALLY rare at our household. It’s kind of been a lazy morning.</p>
<p>^^^ Same here…snow still coming down here and I’m feverishly drinking ~O) just to stay active. D went to a friends house last night and not sure how she’s getting home. :)) The parents live on a hill and until the roads are cleared I doubt anyone will be moving. Guess I can get more done on the taxes. <:-P </p>
<p>Here on the west coast, blue skies and the bulbs are already surfacing. Preparing for a drought and higher produce prices. Almost feels like we are living in different universes. go2girl is asleep upstairs. Finals are done. She deserves it. I want to do something special with her. The focus this crazy, mad senior year has been school, apps and scholarship essays. Moving back to “normal” before she actually launches will be an adjustment. </p>
<p>I wanted to add that I so appreciate all of the suggestions and feedback on different schools. go2girl’s younger brother (go2dude?) is such a different student. He will be starting high school next year and I’m already preparing myself that his college journey will be very different from his sister’s. He is one of the most charming, articulate, poised fourteen year olds you would ever hope to meet but his organizational/study habits are polar opposite to his sister’s. </p>
<p>I got up late, and the first thing I want to do was to check out CC. Google Chrome gave “something wrong circle” when I clicked on my bookmarked CC. I had to call in the doctor in the house to remedy the situation… what a panic not being able to read CC posts. The moment my DH refresh the site, it was fine. it is confirmed… I am technologically challenged. ;)) </p>
<p>BTW, I like the new format of this site. I will go and have my coffee now ~O) </p>
<p>itsv, I am seriously going to make that list today. </p>
<p>Well, college decisions on our end have been thrown into a bit of confusion. CC post on the original #1 (deferred from ED) has thrown significant questions into son’s mind regarding his willingness to attend there. We told him not to take it as gospel truth but to keep it in mind going forward. FAFSA, now filed, yielded an EFC pretty much what we expected. But, what we didn’t expect was aid money pouring in from current 2nd and 3rd choices (3th choice is now de facto free tuition, plus money towards room and board). Much as I like current #1, I can’t quite imagine how it it worth the 4x pricetag of #3, which is maybe technically considered a better engineering school than #1. #2 is just different and splits the cost difference in about half. I’d be OK with it if DS wan’t to go in that direction.</p>
<h1>1 has a better faculty-student ratio and seems to support individual students academically in an outstanding way compared to #3, but outcomes of the two programs (engineering retention, 4 year grad rate, placement rate) are about the same.</h1>
<h1>2 has a specialty engineering field only a few places (maybe 6) in the country have, so that makes it attractive in its own right. It would have very close faculty student relationships because of the specialty, but is also a very small department.</h1>
<p>Finally CC is up. I was having College Confidential withdrawal.</p>
<p>The mobile apps don’t work, and that’s mostly how I read! It doesn’t work on my Android phone or on my iPad. Aagh.</p>
<p>Go2mom: Perhaps we’ll be talking to each other again in a few years, as I also have a Class of 2018 (daughter in my case).</p>
<p>LOTS of snow here today…up and at it at the house early today with last HS debate tournament for DS14 and swim meet for DS17. Week was interesting as DS14 and spouse traveled to NOLA to visit Tulane…finally. Despite visiting over 20 schools over past couple of years, didn’t actually step foot on Tulane…both really liked…hello, big surprise…what’s not to like about 65 degrees in January!</p>
<p>vandyeyes—what did they like about Tulane….if a H and S can vocalize their likes! My son was accepted and the scholarship award made us consider it, but he was subsequently accepted to his ED school so we never got a chance to visit Tulane. Their CC forum is certainly active. It seems to offer a lot while also not being too large.</p>
<p>Just checking out the new emoticons! =D> </p>
<p>Change is difficult! Oy, the new forums will indeed take some getting used to. Nothing new on the college front here, but semester 1 just ended and the kid pulled off awesome grades. He <em>doesn’t</em> seem to have major senioritis in terms of neglecting his school work, but getting him to finish up his last app, check the portals he needs to check, and apply for the two scholarships he ought to apply for – that he has no patience for anymore.</p>
<p>Yes, this is going to take some time to get used to. I can’t find threads I want to find. I’m also getting emails whenever somebody posts on this thread and that’s becoming extremely annoying. I need to figure out how to make that stop. </p>
<p>I wish the name of the user was above the Avatar. That’s where my eyes go to look for who posted. And I find it odd that posts from December don’t have the date- it just says December 2013. </p>