<p>celeste: I am feeling the cold this year too. My D noticed recently that we seem to have skipped right over the 40s and 50s–it’s chilly in the morning! I love the idea that at least one of my kids might end up in the south and that I could potentially move there someday “to be closer to the grandkids.” :)</p>
<p>
We are in NE Florida. I think of a days drive as about 6 hours or less. That can take us north to Atlanta or similar, or south to Miami.</p>
<p>Driving/ Flying: The train can be another good option for transportation, depending on where you are. It’s obviously has more limits on location, but can work pretty well for up and down the east coast. Unfortunately it doesn’t go east/west from where we are any more, ever since Katrina. </p>
<p>Momsings, I think there is some ‘grass is always greener…’ effect on what the kids might be interested in. My D’s BFF really wants to go to Reed, and other NW locations seems really intriguing. Definitely places I want to go sometime, but not where I want to send my kiddo, unless I can come too! ;-)</p>
<p>My calendar reminder just popped up to tell me that ‘our’ SAT scores will be available tomorrow…not that I needed reminding! lol She’s been having a rough week. I really hope it’s good news. </p>
<p>Ijustdrive, I agree that it can really be beneficial for the kids to go somewhere that provides a new environment. We tend to be a bit of a ‘fish out of water’ family here…We are in the south, but not southern sort of thing…and I very much want D to find a place that feels like a better fit, and to get to be around people with a wide variety of backgrounds, etc. I just want her to somehow do that close to home! ;-)</p>
<p>Wolverine, you are too funny! It never ceases to amaze me to hear stories of people who live like that (lifestyles of the rich and famous)! That sort of lifestyle seems about as real as a fairytale to me. I guess, though with chartering a plane, you don’t have the same security things to go through, which is a big part of what I don’t like. I don’t like the idea of not knowing what I might be subjected to…at all. I just saw on the news one airport now has a set of 2 doors you have to go through before you can exit the terminal that basically lock you into a the small area between the doors for a minute while it ‘tests’ you. You can’t get out until a little green light comes on and unlocks the 2nd door. That is the stuff nightmares are made of.</p>
<p>Celeste,
I can absolutely imagine moving to wherever my D lands! Probably not for college, but maybe where she settles later (I would consider for college though if $ allowed, lol…not ON campus…lol lol). We are not fans of the area where we live. It has some big benefits that we do love, but it isn’t where we want to be in the long run. My whole family is like that. Noe of us particularly want to be here. We all have somewhere else in mind, but we want to be close, so one followed the other here…and here we are.</p>
<p>
Winter driving hadn’t even occurred to me. Being in the south, and days drive, wouldn’t likely involve snow. What I DO picture is all the news reports of flights getting cancelled and people sleeping in airports over Christmas break.</p>
<p>Ok, I will walk away from the computer and stop posting for a little while…sorry for taking over the forum for a while here!</p>
<p>SlackerMom…We have several “white knuckle” clients, so you’re certainly not alone. The beauty of a private charter is that the alcohol is included in the cost of the charter…so you can “relax” yourself as much or as little as you see fit. Trust me, we’ve had plenty of “relaxed” passengers over the years. It’s just that initial price tag that is a little hard to get past.</p>
<p>We were VERY reluctant to let D1 attend UMinn for all the reasons you all are mentioning here. It’s a 10.5-11 hour drive from us, so it’s “doable” in a day but certainly not comfortable…especially as we are getting older…er, I mean…becoming “veteran parents”. 
It helps a lot that she’s in the Twin Cities with easy access to a major airport (we get her the UPass each semester with unlimited usage of metro bus/train system) should any emergencies arise. We also have one of our best friends from our college days (back in the dark ages) who lives about 1.5 hours away and visits her every few months and is available as a “surrogate parent” if the need arises.</p>
<p>Every family is different in regards to what is comfortable for them. The fact that we took the leap of faith with D1 and she has flourished makes it MUCH easier for us to consider OOS schools for D2 and S. Ideally, we’d hope they’d find schools that have similar overall “situations” to D1/UMinn such as nearby major airports with transportation from the campus, a friend/family member in “close” proximity, etc. Some of the schools they’re looking at fit that bill, while others…not so much. </p>
<p>D1 is also great about staying in touch with us, which helps quite a bit to close the distance gap. She calls almost every day, even if it’s just to say Hi, and she’ll Skype with us every couple weeks or so as well so we can “see” how she’s doing. We were curious to see how homesick she might be during freshman year but it never reached a level where she needed to come home. We did bring her home for Thanksgiving freshman year, but since then she’s done Thanksgiving with local friends. The cost of airline tickets for Christmas semester break and Spring break are a little easier to manage without that third one to worry about.</p>
<p>There have certainly been nervous times for us as parents over the last 2 1/2 years, but it’s been so wonderful to watch her grow and succeed on her own. Would we be more comfortable if she had chosen a closer school…yep. But we wouldn’t trade the success and happiness she’s found for anything.</p>
<p>Now we just have to cross our fingers and hope D2 and S make the same great choices…and that our “parenting skills” sunk in as much with them as it did with older sis. Time will tell.</p>
<p>shoboemom…Many of the folks that do fly with us echo your thoughts on the security measures. While private charter passengers are still subject to the same restrictions as airline passengers as far as what can be brought on board, I don’t see my boss allowing me to “pat down” anybody. And by “boss” I mean Mrs Wolverine…of course. :)</p>
<p>It’s also funny that some people assume because we fly folks who have a lot of money…that must mean that I have a lot of money. HA!!! Unfortunately, the money stops just before reaching the cockpit. Darn the luck!!</p>
<p>My D is 7 hours away and that is working well for us. It is a one-hour flight on Southwest and, at least for the time-being, has lots of choices for times. However, removal of the historical restrictions on Southwest in Dallas may significantly reduce those choices in the near future 
On the other hand, it is close enough that we can drive out there on a long weekend like Thanksgiving and not have to worry about changing schedules and crowded airports. S15 is more of a home body, but unless he decides to go to our state university here in town (not likely), he is going to end up further away than D.</p>
<p>sally305, hi again!</p>
<p>You probably know my D is in music (?) She went through in music exactly what your D is going through in dance, trying to decide between music major/minor or just performing in ensembles, and determined to have a 2nd major in any case. Unlike so many posters on music forum whose kids have been totally dedicated to music performance at conservatory since elementary school. </p>
<p>I don’t know a thing about dance, but have some ideas about things to think of where the experiences may overlap. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>Take AP tests. If she ends up doing a dbl major and at a school which is generous with credit, being able to skip some gen eds will make life a lot easier. Check AP credit policies at schools she is considering. I know your HS doesn’t do any English AP, but D took it online and at the test she ran into kids from the school who hadn’t taken any class, had self-studied, or were taking the test for fun to see if they could get a good enough score. Being able to skip a semester of essay intensive freshman English is pretty useful for dbl major. At least for my D, who is math/science kid. </p></li>
<li><p>Type of degree. For music we were looking at BM vs BA vs. minor. Dance has BFA instead of BM seems to be only difference. The confusing thing is how much the degrees vary from one school to another. At Michigan BFA is 90 credits and there is no BA in dance. At Twin Cities the BFA is 78 hours and the BA 45. At UW it’s 90 BFA and 62 BS. Minors can vary in credit hours from substantial, to very minor. If one is thinking of dual degree, this matters a lot. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>For music, so much depends on fit between student and professor, and unfortunately my D ended up liking profs only at schools with the 90 cr BM and no low credit BA option. Her school has a BA, but at 78 cr, not much different than BM and differences are in jr/sr year, so she is starting in BM and deciding later. I’m glad she is happy, but I consider it a big drawback that she chose a school without a low credit BA that she could drop down to if she wants. Almost certainly she won’t be finishing 2 degrees in 4 yrs, so have to think of financing when scholarships run out. That’s a good reason to move there, so she’ll get resident tuition 5th year!</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Foreign language requirements. At most schools the BM has no foreign language requirement, but the BA generally does. Don’t know how that works for BFA. Unless your D wants to take more foreign language at university, which can be difficult to fit with dbl major, should check policies. Can she test out with AP or SAT2 tests or placement tests given by university, or will those tests only place her at higher level and she’ll need to take more classes in any case?</p></li>
<li><p>Audition policies for various degrees. I don’t know if it’s similar in dance, but in music, while the 90 cr BM always requires audition prior to admission, for other options it varied. Some also required auditions for BA and others not. Most didn’t require auditions for minors but a few did. Then need to know how difficult it is to get in if you go to a school that does auditions for BA later after enrolling at university, as a few did.</p></li>
<li><p>Access to courses. If dance also has options where auditions may come later for certain degrees, then what is course and performance group access like for students who have not yet declared/been accepted into program? In music some schools restrict almost everything, classes and ensembles, to majors only so the first year can be problematic. Then some have all performance groups open to anyone who can pass audition. And others have only certain groups open to non-majors, so if not majoring need to know if those groups perform at a suitable level.</p></li>
<li><p>Campus layout. A few schools have fine arts at some distance from rest of campus, or in a far corner of main campus, and how does D feel about that? For Michigan, it’s a bus ride away and though parents assured me that their dbl major kids had no issue with it, my D did. It was just too far for her. At her school, since she is in honors college, her dorm is not right by music bldgs, but since weather is good year round she can easily bike. No hills and really connected to rest of campus, not separate like Michigan. Even so she is annoyed by the time spent going back and forth. But under no condition was she willing to go where she’d spend time waiting for buses on a daily basis.</p></li>
<li><p>Admissions procedures. Some schools will do academic admission first and music/dance school admission later after audition. At others there is no admission at all until pass audition. If academic is first, you get early read on passing through that hurdle and also possibly info about academic scholarships at those schools. If everything waits on audition, then you just have to wait at those schools. Also, not sure about this, but my feeling is that if student is academically strong, can get more money at schools with the 2 stage admissions. Because the academic scholarships come first through admissions office and music money later through the dept, independently and they don’t even seem to be aware of the academic scholarships. At schools with post-audition admission, it seems like they are really looking at a package and a big academic scholarship award might cause them to reduce the music scholarship and save that for someone else. But this is just speculation.</p></li>
<li><p>Other related degree opportunities. Universities are catching on that in arts not many can hope to get the dream orchestra or dance company jobs and wanting their graduates to be gainfully employed, are designing all sorts of special programs as related majors for double majors, or minors, or degrees that incorporate the fine arts as a ‘concentration’ within the program. There may be special business or marketing minors for fine arts students. The thinking is that students may want to be involved in the field even if they can’t make it as a performer and this gives them skills for supporting jobs. Or if they do perform they may be self-employed, doing private gigs, putting together their own ensembles and running private studios so they need business skills for that. There are electronic media options. IMHO it’s good to look for schools that support students this way. AT D’s school they have designed a cross-institute degree with engineering school called ‘digital culture’ which has a concentration area in one of the fine arts. But students who want to dbl major can expand the fine arts concentration into a major. If they want to just do the digital culture major, being in it gives them access to courses that are normally for fine arts students only.</p></li>
<li><p>Course scheduling for possible 2nd degree choices. At most schools the music/dance majors will be small majors and the degree programming, esp for BM/BFA, very rigid. Eg, music theory/history classes are offered one section a year and taken in specific sequence. 2nd degree has to fit around this. This works best if 2nd major is either large with lots of course sections, or if small, not rigid in structure so you have flexibility to fit coursework in around the dance classes. If you are looking at small majors, should check course catalogs. Course times stay the same from year to year in these rigid majors, so can see how feasible it is to work in a proposed 2nd major.</p></li>
<li><p>Procedures for declaring 2nd majors, and openness of classes in other depts to non-majors. At D’s school, music majors can’t add 2nd major until have taken 16 credits in the 2nd dept. Doesn’t matter for her since her 2nd major is a ‘service’ major and anyone can take their classes. But if she wanted to major in a subject which restricts most classes to declared majors, she’d have to go around getting special permission to register.</p></li>
<li><p>More info. For music, at a couple of universities there are webpages with lots of helpful info about choosing a path, be it conservatory or university, and type of degree. JHU Peabody is one. I wonder if there might be something similar for dance if you browse sites. Also, a music parent compiled a wonderful thread a couple years ago, that everyone references, about negotiating the music development and school app process. If you go back in time on dance forum, maybe there is something like.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>We kept big spreadsheets of all this stuff and also to help organize audition date requests to fit everything in. Sometimes auditions ran so that in one big swing through an area over several days could complete 2-3. For music also needed to fit in lessons with prof. in advance of audition date, or in some cases while on campus for auditions. Don’t know if dance is like that though.</p>
<p>Thank you everyone for all your kind words. My college experience certainly wasn’t typical but it made me who I am and I’m sure I’m a better parent bc of it. I hope I didn’t set too many of you into a tizzy over distance. I know this is my hangup and it may just be one that I have to, as my D loves to say, “build a bridge and get over it.” With my luck, she will actually get accepted to Stanford lol!!!</p>
<p>I don’t mind airplane travel and do it quite often. But even with great flights, it’s just not the same as jumping in your car and going. Yes in an emergency you can get home but unless you are Wolverine’s clients, it will be cost-prohibitive to go there and back on a weekly basis.</p>
<p>On a lighter note, I just got free One Direction tickets to the Good Morning America show for Tuesday morning. Now I just need to figure out how to get 7 teenagers to Central Park before 6 a.m.</p>
<p>keepme - if your D gets in to Stanford and if it makes $ sense to your family, I hope you would seriously consider. It’s my D’s #1 reach school but I doubt she has any chance getting in. Naviance data for D’s school shows for the class of 2013, out of 25 kids who applied to Stanford, 5 got admitted (20%) which is better than I expected.</p>
<p>Keepme and frommd - I have twins who are freshmen at Stanford and we are east coasters. They are having an amazing time and although they are far away, I have no regrets about sending them to the west coast. It happens to be a beautiful place to visit…</p>
<p>“Naviance data for D’s school shows for the class of 2013, out of 25 kids who applied to Stanford, 5 got admitted (20%) which is better than I expected.”</p>
<p>Holy mackerel! How does that happen? How big is your school?</p>
<p>^ I suspect FromMD’s child goes to a very good high school in one of the top school systems in the country. Good system with good teachers.</p>
<p>Wow, those are some numbers for Stanford!! Our little school had 4 people apply in the last 6 years. One person got admitted in 2008 but didn’t attend lol. Maybe his/her mother was a crazy lunatic like me ;)</p>
<p>All of this talk about Stanford made me go an check our Naviance. From 2006-2014 ( including 2014) we had 23 kids apply, with one acceptance in 2010. The 2014 acceptances are not in yet. Naviance places GPA at 4.64, SAT cr/m at 1570, total SAT 2370. Nobody got in with SAT scores as high as 34 and a GPA of 4.5. We live in a competitive district where there is no grade inflation. I knew Stanford was difficult to get into, but I had no idea. </p>
<p>I want these tests here already. My kid is ready…</p>
<p>keepme…I will have to keep your 1Direction news secret from D2, since she would probably give her left arm to see the boys live (she has Niall tied for first at the top of her future husband list with Cody Simpson). Of course, if you have room for an 8th teenage girl she’d start walking now and meet you at Central Park. :)</p>
<p>Our local HS doesn’t use Naviance, so I have no idea what their acceptance stats are at highly selective schools. I know they did have one student a few years ago who was admitted to Stanford but had to decline due to an academic cheating issue. In any case, we feel that our HS has done well by our kids in preparing them for college so in the long run I’m not sure whether not having Naviance is a big deal for us or not.</p>
<p>Last year we had 2 Harvards, one MIT, one Princeton, one U of P and a few Cornell’s. Stanford and Yale- not so much.</p>
<p>For the last 8 years, our Naviance shows about 3-4 students admitted each year out of around 20 applicants for Stanford. ALL that were accepted enrolled. I know two of the students last year and both were recruited athletes but also had great grades. My d attended a summer program at Stanford in 2012 for 4 weeks. She loved it but realizes that the odds aren’t very good. If she decides to apply and is accepted, I would let her go.</p>
<p>Last year a few HPM but 4 for Yale and 6 Penn. Penn, Yale, and Stanford # are consistently higher than HPM since 2004.</p>
<p>@keepme, can I get one of those 1D tickets? D would cry. I can’t take going to see 1d anymore. I was crushed by a million girls last time riding the metro to the show.</p>