<p>@klm8500–If you can ask your friend what her D loves about Middlebury, the collective mind of the 2015 thread could probably come up with a pretty decent list of schools. Another option is purchasing a current PDF of the Rugg’s College Recommendations book. It provide lists by majors, then by school of the best programs for each major category for most selective, very selective, and selective universities and colleges. It also list the size of each school, too. </p>
<p>I just reread my post to Twogirls, and realized my phone auto-corrected/spelled definitely to defiantly. I better check before hitting the send key.</p>
<p>The fact that the majority of classes are taught by professors is a BIG plus. Also, research how they are moving towards more classes like their Scale-Up classroom model:</p>
<p>S15 finally got his AP certificate in the mail - AP scholar with distinction. He’ll never make national scholar because his new school is IB only but they did throw in an AP international diploma because he was at a school outside the U.S. He had an ACT 34 in 2011 so I think he’s done with that one, too. Waiting for SAT and PSAT scores. I’m doubting he’ll score high enough on the PSAT but miracles do happen…:)</p>
<p>Apollo,I’m thinking if he already got a 34 on ACT 2 years ago, he just might manage a good enough PSAT score with no miracle. Unless the ACT score was also a miracle?</p>
<p>Because he’s at an international boarding school he has to score at least 223. The last time he took the PSAT he scored 207. I don’t think the SAT is his test but we’ll see…</p>
<p>Apollo, that’s not a big leap at all. One of my girls scored lower than that as a sophomore and then scored 230 as a junior. You may be surprised. </p>
<p>Very nice OHMom!! Our school sent out the Naviance packets a few weeks ago. In December they have a " college night for juniors" where parents and kids gather with the counselors to get the process started. In January there is an evening " chat with the counselors" followed by individual meetings that the kids have as we move into spring. The GCs meet with the kids individually and review college lists etc. There is also a financial aid night where FA questions and topics are discussed. I have been through this once already and I am not so sure that I need to be at all of these meetings, but I will probably go anyway. In the spring I will remind my daughter to ask two teachers for LOR, and over the summer she will start writing her essays. </p>
<p>Apollo congrats to your son! BHG thx for the info- I am going to read right now.</p>
<p>OHMom, that is very impressive. The counselors have a preliminary meeting with the kids as sophomores and are available for informal contact but they don’t do anything with the juniors until the spring after the seniors are done with all their apps. We did get access to naviance last year but no real help in understanding how it’s used at this school. They also offer a class period with the kids but not until senior year, which in my opinion, is too late.</p>
<p>Bunheadmom- thanks for the reminder about the bargain up north in North Daktota. I need to plan a trip through both Fargo and NDSU on the way to Winnipeg to visit U of Manitoba. Getting to live in a ‘different’ kind of place is high on my D’s list so not sure I will get her to go for it, but who knows. AFter our visit last weekend, she is thinking hard about what kind of experience really matters to her. She is a bit perplexed bt how different they all are, and we have not even done the east coast tour yet!</p>
<p>What we did on our visits was to have BHG take pictures, video record (people only with permission), and journal about likes, dislikes, vibe, clubs, food, dorms, college town , and etc. She also grabbed student newspapers and other publications to add to the school file. </p>
<p>We then created a computer file, a storage box file, and a poster board for each school. The poster boards seem over the top, but offer a great visual aid when needing to remember specifics about a school. We store the boards in a portfolio my ex-H made that we keep in my office closet along with the storage box of printed data, class catalog, school correspondence and viewbook for each school visited and or on BHG’s list.</p>