<p>Forgot one thing about Northeastern: if you do not get accepted for the fall they have a program where you get accepted for the spring, and in the fall you do a semester abroad. I overheard a few kids talking who were doing this.</p>
<p>Crepes when we visit the SUNYs I don’t really learn much from the info sessions- all the info is on the web sites. For me the biggest advantage is walking the campus and learning about the " vibe." We visited 10 SUNYs - all in the upstate area and each one had a completely different feel to it. I have not been paying much attention to the AP credits that they take.</p>
<p>Crepes - Re: Alg 2 Regents exam. Did you get your daughter a tutor because you thought she needed extra help throughout the year, or was it focused on the actual regents exam? I am wondering if kids get tutors even if they are doing fine in the class, but just looking for added assurance that the regents exam will go well.</p>
<p>VMT, the Regents was just 10% of the final grade and I was more concerned about overall performance. In the 1st of 3 marking periods D had an 80 average rather than the high 80s/low 90s that she’s had for the past several years. She went to the teacher for extra help and in the 2nd marking period her grade went up to 83. </p>
<p>Even then what worried me most was that she used to be much more confident in Math but for a while this year even though her grade did go up a little bit she seemed to have almost given up. We were talking about review and mastery of concepts and she said “I don’t think I have mastery of any of the concepts.” 
That really made me feel it was time for tutoring and I wish I had gotten it earlier, before she felt so discouraged. </p>
<p>When she had her 1st tutoring session the tutor pointed out 2 very basic issues–she hadn’t mastered factoring and she was doing the problems too quickly, just to get them over with. She had 5 or 6 sessions with him and he said that she really did work at it, which made me feel much better, especially since one other reason I went for tutoring (in addition to performance in this class and in the Regents) was for her to have a good foundation for PSAT and SAT math. I really don’t want her to feel lost when it comes to SAT math!</p>
<p>Henrietta Lacks was really good in audiobook format. I was surprised but it was a very compelling listen. </p>
<p>I generally am looking for both reading and listening material. Some great reads make lousy audiobooks and vice versa.</p>
<p>One thing I learned this trip is that the Olin waitlist really is for waiting. Kids who are wait listed are guaranteed a spot in the following year’s class (after a gap year). I thought that was pretty cool. It’s a tiny place!</p>
<p>IJustDrive, thanks for pointing out that Henrietta Lacks is a good audiobook! I just checked out our driving itinerary this summer and we have 4400 miles coming up over the next 2 months (yikes!!) so any audiobook suggestions are very welcome.</p>
<p>For US history buffs, this is one audiobook I highly recommend, a good read and good audiobook too:
The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey / Candice Millard</p>
<p>And if you like non-fiction audiobooks, these essays weren’t all wonderful but many of them were quite engaging:
What the Dog Saw: And other adventures / Malcolm Gladwell
Here are some of the topics: “Among the pieces: his investigation into why there are so many different kinds of mustard but only one kind of ketchup; a surprising assessment of what makes for a safer automobile; a look at how we hire when we can’t tell who’s right for the job; an examination of machine built to predict hit movies; the reasons why homelessness might be easier to solve than manage; his famous profile of inventor and entrepreneur Ron Popeil”
And there’s also “a dissection of Ivy League admissions and who gets in” which we didn’t get to.</p>
<p>This one we enjoyed, but the author’s accent, an odd combination of midwestern and British, can take a little getting used to
A Walk in the Woods:Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail / Bill Bryson</p>
<p>Happy Father’s Day to any dads reading! :)</p>
<p>My favorite audiobooks are
- Steven Fry’s reading of the Harry Potter series (British version)
- Lisette Lecat’s reading Alexander McCall Smith’s No.1 Detective Agency series
- Christopher Timothy’s reading James Herriot All Creatures Great and Small</p>
<p>Came back from visiting Columbia and Princeton. The visits are just wonderful. got answers to many questions. D. is really inspired. She noticed how these schools emphasize global interaction. She wants to add Chinese to her FL. she has taken 3 years of French. will keep taking French. She’ll be done with French 5 by the time she goes to college. We are looking into having her taking Chinese with an instructor from a local college. </p>
<p>The ladies who hosted the info sessions are wonderful, esp. the one in Columbia. The tour guides are both college students. They’re great too, esp. the one in Princeton, who just finished freshman year there. He shared a lot of his own experiences and told many anecdotes about Princeton. </p>
<p>We learned a big difference between Columbia and Princeton - Columiba has core curriculum while Princeton doesn’t. Also P doesn’t give double majors (due to thesis requirement) but they give majors and concentrations. C encourages double majors, majors/minors. etc. We found out many details about FA too, as well as Princeton’s bridge program, which sounds attractive. We also learned about the small class size in both schools (for most classes), which is really a surprise to me.</p>
<p>These are our first college visits. It’s a great experience. Whenever we have time, we’ll visit some more colleges. It’s very inspiring, and great fun. (The guide in Columbia asked who were taking the college visit the first time. We were the only people who raised hands. But of course most kids there were rising seniors.)</p>
<p>@Max, thanks for the report. I was on the fence about the information session and tour at Columbia. We will not be in NYC anytime soon and so we will do both based on your report. DD will also visit Barnard.</p>
<p>I wasn’t planning on doing college visits during the summer but DD will be participating in a Fall sport this year. After talking to the coach, the team will have practice scheduled on most of the scheduled days off. </p>
<p>Her schedule so for will be UMD (financial safety) in June, Columbia, Barnard, and Penn in July. I will have to schedule the schools in Va,NC, and SC during Spring Break.</p>
<p>I am not sure we will be able to tour the Boston area schools, but D loved the area when we vacationed there a couple years ago (in the summertime, she has never experienced a snowy winter!). We think we will get up to DC this summer, so may take a look at schools there and along the way. I am not at all excited about her possibly going so far away for school, but the northeast sure has some great ones! I’d just prefer she fall in love with one closer to home.
We have officially visited just one school (Rollins, here in Florida) and D felt awkward about it since she was a sophomore at the time, and hasn’t been very enthusiastic about other tours (She did like Rollins, loved the small school feel).</p>
<p>D is out with her dad learning how to operate a stick shift. She has had her learner’s permit for a while now, but hasn’t been very interested in getting her license…doesn’t like the driving experience.</p>
<p>D’s summer assigned reading is Don Quixote.</p>
<p>Maxwell, Since your D expressed interest in Chinese and visited Columbia, she might be interested Ina little known program that combines 2 years in France (where there are several language study options including Chinese at Sciences Po Le Havre) with 2 years in NYC at Columbia <a href=“http://gs.columbia.edu/sciences-po/[/URL]”>http://gs.columbia.edu/sciences-po/</a></p>
<p>4Cookiemonster, you might want to add Washington and Lee to your list. 10% of freshman are awarded full tuition room and board through <a href=“http://www.wlu.edu/x33307.xml[/URL]”>http://www.wlu.edu/x33307.xml</a> the Johnson scholarship program. They fly finalists out at W&L’s expenses. My D13 was offered the Johnson but chose her Stamps scholarship instead.</p>
<p>@Apollo, Thank you! That looks quite interesting. </p>
<p>One fun fact about Columbia is that they have requirement for 2 year PhyEd. Everybody except for engineering majors are required to swim 2 laps. Why are engineers special? guess they are supposed to figure out ways to make themselves afloat.</p>
<p>My D is <em>finally</em> done with the end-of-year showcase for her dance studio. She had rehearsals this past Monday, Tuesday, and Friday afternoons; performances on Thursday and Friday evenings; and both matinee and evening performances on Saturday and Sunday. She has spent ~25 hours at the theater this week … and has finals next week. Gulp!</p>
<p>Congrats to your D, mihcal!</p>
<p>Congrats Mihcal1!! Mine is taking her Spanish final now. Tomorrow is health and the chem Regents and then she is done. My older one ( just finished freshman year of college) just had 3 wisdom teeth pulled. They did not pull the 4th because it was too close to the nerve so they said to wait and pull it only if it causes problems in the future. They put her out ( ugh) but the whole thing lasted about 20 minutes and she came out of it right away. She is resting now and icing both sides every 15 minutes. I will be picking up her antibiotic and pain med soon. I feel bad for her but I am happy for this to be done. I was shocked at how fast the procedure was- the whole thing was 50 minutes and that included filling out the paperwork, taking x-rays, and asking a million questions.
Maxwell sounds like you had a great time!</p>
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<p>Mortimer Adler, famous person and inventor of the Great Books Peogram, which survives as the core curriculum at several institutions including St. John’s College, and heavily influenced others such as Chicago and Columbia, refused to take the swimming test, and couldn’t graduate. He went on to a Coumbia PhD, and was eventually awarded an honorary BA.</p>
<p>Maxwellequations, funny about the exempt floating engineers! Cornell still has the swim test requirement too. I remember one of my college profs, a really brilliant woman, telling us about her fear that she wouldn’t graduate from Princeton back in the 60s because she had trouble learning to swim.</p>
<p>Mihcal1, that’s a really gruelling dance schedule, hoping your D does well on her finals. At least dancing is good for physical stamina! </p>
<p>twogirls, wishing your D a quick recovery from the surgery. We have Chem Regents review going on here too.
Thanks for all the SUNY insights, good to know we can get the info online without a formal tour. 10 SUNY schools, you have much more energy than I do! I have to say that there are some I’ve just crossed off the list as too cold or remote, like Buffalo and Oswego; we’re not really looking at Oneonta either (even though we’ve been in that town a few times) because we know 2 families who had very bad experiences there.
I was thinking about Cortland but recently spoke with a family whose son transferred out after a year, feeling it was too remote and the choice of majors was too limited. D and I were trying not to laugh when we overheard a woman at the Cortland table at a college fair asking the rep where it was and was Cortland a big city–she obviously had no clue but we know the town, have driven through that area many times.
And what did you think of SUNY ESF? It has the best national rating of all the SUNYs on US NEws but comments on students review com are frighteningly negative.</p>
<p>Crepes what is SUNY ESF? The reason why we have seen so many SUNYs is because we toured 8 while looking with my older one during her junior year. There are only 2 or 3 that would be appropriate for my current sophomore ( soon to be junior!). Thanks for the get well wishes! BTW: I find **************.com to be negative about many schools.</p>