<p>Guys, thanks so much for your quick responses and help. Love you people. One more thing… We are upper middle class but by no means wealthy. Our kids are hard working and have been given all opportunities to succeed but not a silver spoon. They would go to USC on partial scholarship. I hope the student body isn’t too snooty. </p>
<p>What are these sorority recs you speak of? I loved my sorority but we didn’t need a pkg or recs. </p>
<p>@staceyneil - Good luck with your surgery! Hope all goes well!</p>
<p>We are still on the boat and a midnight chocolate buffet sounds wonderful! DD thinks she’s made a decision but will wait until after the ASD next week. She wants to make sure that she’s choosing the school because she really likes it rather than because she’s ruled everything else out. Makes sense I guess but that means we will be on the ship for another week. Maybe we’ll disembark on her 18th birthday and have a combined celebration!</p>
<p>@snowme Was just rereading old posts. You should definitely take some photos of the decision-making wall art. It sounds amazing.</p>
<p>@staceyneil, sending wishes for a speedy recovery!
We are still on the boat, too. S14 thought he had a number 1 choice, but after big state U interviewed him for their best scholarships and subsequently offered him a full ride, things have changed. He is thinking that big state U really wants him, and all the benefits that could go along with that. This scholarship has group outings, mentors, and other advantages. Luckily, he has a friend who is attending big state U but transferred from his #1 choice for financial reasons. She gave him a helpful point by point comparison of the two schools from her vantage point. He has one more thing to consider; he’s a finalist for a big local scholarship (up to 25K a year, renewable) and he should know about that by Monday. So I think the decision will be made then, after another run up to big state U for a personal tour. His teachers and friends tell him he should go to his #1 choice, but he thinks that is because it has more prestige in our area. We had a discussion about how some people think more expensive means better, and sometimes it is and sometimes it isn’t. It’s a good learning experience for him, and a decision that he has to make on his own. He’s thinking that even if he gets the big scholarship, he might still opt for state U. Maybe I’ll be mixing and serving adult beverages on the cruise Monday, if he makes a decision. Back in the day, I was a bartender. I bet I’ve still got he hang of it. (Spinning cocktail shaker in my mind!)</p>
<p>Hey, thanks, everybody, for your kind words! </p>
<p>@staceyneil, wishing you the best for a speedy recovery!</p>
<p>Just a quick check in from London. We ran into a group of Latin students from DS’s school who are spending a few days here on their way home from Rome. Bumped into them at Stonehenge of all places, where they stopped after visiting the Roman baths. It was the Latin teacher leading the group who recognized my son! and he doesn’t even take Latin. More remarkable is that this is a big public HS with 1800 students.</p>
<p>@onlyonemom – my DS will be at case Western this fall and he chose it because it’s a small-medium sized school with a strong engineering program and where he was offered a chance to play his sport. He describes it as very much like his high school – pretty nerdy and focused students (he goes to a STEM magnet school) and he liked that. This, by the way, is a high compliment, because he loves his school and is thankful for all the amazing learning opportunities and wonderfule mentors he’s had there. He feels like he would find the same at Case.</p>
<p>Its male/female ratio tilts male, but not as skewed as other tech oriented schools like RPI. Cleveland is not exciting like NY or Chicago, but there is plenty to do around campus. </p>
<p>@eyemamom - we also have 1 or 2 sororities that we cannot find a rec for, and get the same runaround with national and local Panhellenics. I have also heard it is better to have 2-3 recs per sorority - so we have literally exhausted our contact list and will barely make that (and for some we only have 1). We also know of the sororities that primarily take in-state girls, but interestingly enough, those are the ones we have the most recs for (there are just a lot of their alumnae in our area) - you can’t win!</p>
<p>@3tallblonds - I’m not sure when the whole “letter of rec” thing started for sororities, but it is primarily for SEC and Texas schools (I’m sure there are some others as well). The rushee is asked to get letters of rec for each sorority from an alumnae - this helps introduce the girl to the sorority ahead of rush, and with some schools having > 1,000 girls going thru rush, it can help them “thin the herd” when they need to make cuts early on. If your girls go to USC and plan to rush, USC is actually one of the few schools on the West Coast where it is recommended that you get letters of rec.</p>
<p>Circling back to the discussion on car insurance…definitely call your insurance company to get your rate adjusted for a student away at college. I think our company requires the distance to be 200 miles away to get the full discount. Also, my insurance co. discounts for a “good student” which is a B average. You can get that now, if you haven’t done so already as it is good for high school or college. The good student discount is not huge, but every penny counts! They may just need a copy of a report card or unofficial transcript every so often. Just called to see what the change will be for my D’14 as she will be over 500 miles away from home without a car-- her rate will go down by almost half!</p>
<p>@1dilecon: Thanks for asking! D’s solo trip is still underway; she seems to be enjoying herself, but I don’t think I’ll hear anything substantive until she gets home tomorrow. Then one more accepted student event, at the end of next week. I’m hoping for a decision by the morning of 1 May, so I don’t have to be worrying about time zones in the final hours before the deadline!</p>
<p>Ok so I’m just confused… The letter of rec, you get it from someone you don’t even know? </p>
<p>@3tallblonds - There are a couple of ways to get letters of rec. Preferable is through friends that were in a sorority (does not have to be from the school your daughter is going to) that know your daughter. That way they can write detailed, personal information in the rec. Or, there are some major cities that have Panhellenic organizations representing most sororities, that will secure the letters of rec for you, or help you get them. This is not something I know much about, as my area (SF Bay Area) doesn’t really have this. But cities like Houston and Dallas do. You “register” with the City Panhellenic, and they help you get recs.</p>
<p>As kind of a last resort, you can contact a sorority’s national organization and ask if they know of any local alumnae who could write a letter. Often the alumnae would ask to have coffee with the girl so she could learn a little more about the girl. As @eyemamom mentioned, you put together a “recruitment packet” with a resume, pictures, transcript, etc. so in theory, a sorority alumnae could write a letter of rec just from the info in the packet. But, the more personal the relationship, the better. </p>
<p>That is what I have learned in this process, but I am no expert. Now that we have more and more girls going to Alabama, Ole Miss, etc. from our area, I’m sure our area will become more educated on the process. </p>
<p>There is a website called Greek Chat (not sure if CC will let me link it but if you search on those words it should pop up) which has a wealth of info on current Greek recruitment, etc. I highly encourage you visit it if your daughter decides to rush.</p>
<p>Oh my goodness! So much news in the last couple of weeks. Congratulations to all who have made decisions, planned graduation parties and are making deposits. Wish I could say we are there…but we’re not. go2girl is at her last ASD and comes back tonight. I have no idea what to expect because she has not texted me since yesterday. </p>
<p>Freaks me out that now that we’re done with scholarship letters of recommendations, we might have to do sorority rush recs! So much work! </p>
<p>We’re still on the cruise, for those who want company. My son was unable to travel during spring break so we are visiting one large state flagship next week. It’s not a very selective school but it’s top ranked for his academic program. Meanwhile, he’s been falling for a small private school (and I don’t blame him). The others have fallen by the wayside: one rejection (rather unfortunately his BFF and GF will be attending this one), one spring acceptance with fall study abroad that doesn’t appeal to him (though all my adult friends think it sounds amazing), an East coast school we couldn’t visit, a very intense specialized school (he wants to have a life, go figure)… I’m happy that he’s thinking maturely and processing all of this. The big state school is going to have to wow him - if it does, the decision will be hard! </p>
<p>Wish us luck for our flight and visit. He’s on crutches after a season-ending injury and surgery. Not the April I’d hoped for. </p>
<p>@3tallblonds – We did A LOT of homework on USC in our family. In no particular order:</p>
<p>-- am not surprised that the girls were favorably impressed. After your long winter, the southern CA ambience (and sunshine) must have been wonderful. And the crossover of top notch pre-med and extraordinary performing arts must be pretty unique.
– our sons’ private HS doesn’t send a lot of kids to USC, but we’ve known a pretty fair number of local kids who’ve gone there, and have heard about many others. Every one of them has absolutely loved it there. Cannot overstate this point.
– although there are a lot of pre-meds, there are also an incredible # of opportunities for USC kids b/o the large and loyal alumni network.
– theater resources prob are unmatched, from every perspective. As you noted, the key will be to figure out whether your girls will be able to take advantage of them, or if they will go to the performing arts majors.
– the “value” at half-tuition is a tough one. It is a really big school, and in pre-med especially there will be a lot of big big classes. However, if your girls are the types who connect w faculty and can make their own breaks they’ll get your money’s worth.
– only 30% of kids at USC are full pay - about 25% get some merit aid, and 40+% get need-based aid. But a lot of that 30% has a lot of money, as probably do some of the merit-based kids. And it is Southern California, which for you northeast folks may be hard to imagine – put another way, you prob can’t imagine that so many people can exhibit such poor taste. Lots of bling, and in our age category lots of cosmetic surgery. The daughter of friends of ours who live in a 2+ million dollar home came back on a break her freshman year and said, “you know what? We’re really not that well-off.” So there will be girls with $300 shoes and $1,000 purses (and guys driving $50K Beemers), but I wouldn’t imagine that, given who your daughters are, it will affect them. Most of those girls will be communications majors who make up the bottom quartile of the SAT range. Your girls will be happy they’re not them. </p>
<p>So, I don’t know if USC is the right choice for your girls, but unless they meet disappointment w the theater stuff (and maybe even if they do), my guess is that it is a decision that they’d never regret. </p>
<p>Well, our visit to Kalamazoo College (fondly referred to by everybody as “K”) just muddied the waters. He really liked it and could definitely see himself there. I’m never getting off this boat. I need a very large drink. </p>
<p>@staceyneil Keeping you in my thoughts- hope surgery went well. </p>
<p>Just curious . . . Anybody else planning a final family vacation? Oldest d is heading into her senior year, and after graduation will probably start studying full time for boards. Who knows what kinds of opportunities the youngest will have? Between the summer jobs, externships, and orientations, finding dates has been next to impossible.</p>
<p>@go2mom - a little organizational advice. I made a spreadsheet for every sorority at the school, then put in the names and contact info on each one. One thing I wish I had done that I heard later was in these packets, and you have to research how to write a “social” resume - is to include a stamped postcard back to yourself when they mail in the rec. It keeps you from what we have to start doing - contacting everyone to find out if they wrote it. However, once you start asking and finding people, they usually know others who can help. I thought it was worse than college apps - and she doesn’t even know 100% she wants to be in a sorority! It’s insanity, I don’t get it and it frankly seems a step out of time. </p>
<p>@ordinarylives - we’ve been discussing the topic of a final vacation also. We’ll probably never get another opportunity. But we’re having trouble because everyone’s definition of “vacation” is so different. I told myself I’d work on a plan after I’m done with the Easter entertaining this weekend.</p>
<p>@ordinarylives we’re taking a family road trip to Yellowstone. So glad we decided and booked it before my S could start thinking of other plans!</p>
<p>I know, right? Two of us have summer jobs (me and d’14) and d’11 has an externship (absolutely NO missing any of that). Of course, d’14 has an orientation. I have 3 (am an academic advisor next year and have to be at all). And has going overseas to see family. We’ve got one week where everybody is open, and even then, H will miss the first day. Booked those tickets before anybody else planned anything. </p>