<p>You guys are awesome. I’ve enjoyed SO much being part of our group from, as one might say, from soup to donuts…I joined CC a little late for S’12 as far as being part of community of parents. Our 2015 group is tight and I really appreciate knowing you all…</p>
<p>Every single school on my kid’s list gives out merit awards which will make the school affordable. Some of the schools are very competitive in terms of getting in and/or getting the awards, but she is going to try and see what happens because she works hard and I feel she has earned the right to apply to such schools. Many of the schools are “medium” in terms of getting merit ( this is just my opinion and I still feel as though the awards are competitive to get) and a few will be easier or easy- one or two are automatic. Can’t get easier than that!! 
Many of the schools on her list are academic safeties, but that does not necessarily mean they will give her decent money - we shall see. She has at least one in state safety and she may apply to a second where she stands a good chance of some big money. Next year at this time I expect to need some wine, or Tums, or something…All she can do is put together the best possible package and hope for the best. </p>
<p>My kid wants a big school, although she loved a few schools that were not so big- go figure. She is the type to talk to her teacher and get very involved in class discussions, so I do not see her in huge lecture halls that many of these big schools have, at least initially. I am liking the idea of an honors program within a big school- kind of the best of both worlds I think. Of course some schools honors programs also have the kids taking some classes with the non-honors kids which may bring us back to the 300 person lecture hall issue, but maybe not. Time for some more detective work. I am hoping that next weeks visits add some clarity to the situation. </p>
<p>We have two snow days left before they start taking from the April break. Tomorrow will definitely be a snow day. </p>
<p>~O) enjoy the day!!</p>
<p>This is the final sentence on this morning’s weather.com snow update:</p>
<p>“No matter where the rain and snow lines eventually set up, there will likely be widespread travel disruption in the Middle Atlantic and Northeast from Virginia to Maine in the Wednesday night through early Friday time frame.”</p>
<p>We are leaving Friday morning. H and S1’s flight is at 12:35. Hopefully the snow will be done and crews will be out clearing roads and runways and we won’t have any travel problems. Technically I have until 2:30 Sat. to get us to DC for the first vball game but I’m meeting my nieces for dinner Fri. night and I don’t want to miss that.</p>
<p>I think you should be fine on Friday - I wish I could say the same for my hubby who is flying home from England scheduled to arrive at Dulles at 3 pm Thursday :/</p>
<p>I follow the capital weather gang on twitter - they seem pretty good at forecasting this area and they update often. Btw the temp on fri is supposed to be 40 degrees.</p>
<p>OHMom, I got divorced when my older D was in college. My ex live in PA (we live in CT) and has some serious mental health issues. He hasn’t worked since 2009, so no child support. On the other hand, I don’t make much money in my non-profit job, so younger D will qualify for Pell Grants (see, there’s always a silver lining!)</p>
<p>We are driving to Rochester on Friday to make a school visit. There is supposed to be snow all weekend, but we are New Englanders and we will survive.</p>
<p>My Ds are flying out to California tomorrow to see their dad. (I tried to get D to go see USC, but she doesn’t want to.) The weather here and there is fine, but I’m worried about flight delays because of this bad weather out east and south. They are flying by themselves for the first time, with a connection, and we are all a bit nervous about it.</p>
<p>@two girls UVA is on Sunday. Your plan seems ambitious if you are visiting all of those this week. When we looked with S1 we found that three schools per trip was the limit. In fact there were two schools that got dropped because we just couldn’t sit through another info session. Good luck with your visits.</p>
<p>Thank you!! We did something similar with D12 during February break and although we were exhausted, we somehow managed. My husband has enormous amounts of energy and requires little sleep…LOL. </p>
<p>@twogirls I know you are looking at Emory this weekend
Have you thought about Emory at Oxford?
<a href=“http://oxford.emory.edu/prospective-students/”>http://oxford.emory.edu/prospective-students/</a></p>
<p>I think there merit scholarships are a little easier to get than Emory scholars. D1 was invited to the interview weekend but it fell the same weekend as another scholarship interview weekend. After 2 years at the Oxford campus students transfer and finish at Emory. Scholarship goes with them. May not be a large enough campus for your d, but worth considering if she likes Emory. </p>
<p>2girls, regarding big lectures at big schools with honors programs, it is easier to investigate this if your D has some idea about possible major,even if you can narrow that somewhat. At a given school, this can vary widely by major. I can give you some ideas of things to look at.</p>
<p>First thing is to check the school’s AP/IB/dual enrollment credit policy to see what classes she’ll get credit for. Then cross check that with their gen eds to see what is still needed of non-major classes. Have to check course catalog to see if there are small honors class offerings of the classes she’d be likely to take to fulfill gen-eds.</p>
<p>Need to ask at school visits if honors students get scheduling priority or not, and if so, how is it structured. If not, then how does scheduling priority work at the school in general, and will AP/IB/dual enrollment credit allow student to jump up in priority pool. This is especially important to understand how likely D is to get into honors sections of courses. Ask frankly what school does when sections fill up. Do they open a new section, or do rest of students have to take regular courses in large classes?</p>
<p>At D’s school, scheduling for all honors students starts on the same day with vets and athletes before all other students. For her classes, there is not an issue. Some don’t even fill up by the time classes begin. But for kids in popular majors like engineering, pre-med, econ, etc., getting into honors classes can be difficult. There may be one honors section of a bio course that fills up in the first 10 minutes after scheduling opens, and that is it. You need to be on your computer a couple of hours ahead of time, because everything jams up at opening time, keep refreshing and hope your computer doesn’t freeze up at the critical moment.</p>
<p>It looks like D will never need to sit in a huge lecture hall. She does need to take a couple of CS classes that are 125ish size, but is taking them this summer at our local college in a class half that size. Not doing it to avoid the big class though, rather because programming makes her nervous and summer is easier with not so much going on. Her major classes all run <30. </p>
<p>You should check major course requirements and peruse the course catalog thoroughly. If a course limit is 25, do they routinely go over and allow 40 in the class? Typical is to have huge lower division courses with small honors sections of some of those, and then some smaller standard course size for upper division. But this can vary. I’ve been checking UMN-Twin Cities for S. He probably wants to major in math like D, and at many big schools including UMN, that is a major with a good honors track and/or small classes once you get beyond diff eq. Now he’s suddenly gone head-over-heels for economics, getting exposed to it in AP class, and talking about it all the time, wondering about jobs, etc. So I checked that at UMN, as well. He’d get to skip the first 2 awful ‘big box’(650!!) classes with AP. Then the 3rd class in sequence, which he would have to take, is still big, 250, and no honors sections. After that, it’s OK, not as cozy and pleasant as math, but not totally awful. Some honors classes at upper div level every semester. Of the rest of classes, about 2/3 are 40 max or lower and the rest 70. Dept is very highly ranked for grad school. Have to go visit and sit in on a couple of these classes. He can see how a class of 70 feels to him. </p>
<p>Thank you Celeste and Sally for the helpful information!! Yes I mentioned Oxford to her and she was not thrilled, but we will bring it up for discussion again. She may decide to only apply to the Emory Scholars program- who knows LOL. The next 15 months are about to become quite interesting…</p>
<p>Celeste I forgot to mention that as of today she is a chemistry major/ Spanish minor or will double major if allowed. She reminded me that the tour guide at UPitt was a double major in chemistry and Spanish. Surprised she remembered- I guess behind that " don’t discuss college" face was a kid who was actually listening. </p>
<p>Having the mix of big and small classes isn’t bad-in fact I loved it and my sons love it. They go from a small honors history class, with lots of class discussion, to a huge calculus lecture to a small engineering lab. Great change of pace for them and helps students learn how to learn under varying circumstances, in my opinion. One thing to keep in mind, if you notice that a class size limit is small, that may just mean that the lab or recitation is small, but the lecture may still be huge. When the students sign up for classes, there may be 20 different section numbers, each allowing 20 students, but every one to those sections has the same professor and time for lecture, just a different lab or recitation.</p>
<p>I agree with Barfly. Especially for the quiet kid who becomes anxious at having to contribute in small class formats, having the break of the big lecture can be a welcome respite. My husband, who is not at all the shy retiring type, hunted out at least one or two big classes each year so that he would not have to be prepared for discussion. </p>
<p>Barfly, right, and you can see this in catalog where sections are normally normally marked LEC, REC,or LAB. Often the LEC is listed first with a long list of REC below it for a large class.</p>
<p>But I don’t know about a huge calculus lecture…not for me for sure. Schools do that to save money, not because it’s a great way to deliver content or best practice teaching. Some people do like it, but many others just tolerate it because they have to.</p>
<p>My S rebelled at the last minute against my take-it-easy scheduling advice for next year and insists on going to the U to take his math. I was horrified to find that regular MV calc is taught in a class of 250. H claims that budget cuts made it necessary. Years ago they didn’t have these large classes. However, they do have a size 30 proof-based honors class that covers MV, lin alg and diff eq over 2 semesters and breaks into even smaller sections for recitation. He wants to take that. I’m anxious about the high level, but having him in a class of 250 without the constant feedback between teacher and small group of students would have been worse for him.</p>
<p>A huge lecture doesn’t necessarily guarantee anonymity. My D1 had 450 kids in her Chem 1A lecture. Yet, in second week of the semester (third class meeting), when she raised her hand to ask a question, the prof called on her <em>by</em>name_. Some profs use seating charts to learn hundreds of kids’ names. Or maybe it’s because she had already been to office hours twice. She likes to go to office hours early in the term, when few other students show up, and just talk with her profs. She says they always seem glad for the company. :)</p>
<p>My D1 also says about big lectures “if you’re sitting in the second row, it doesn’t matter how many hundreds of kids are behind you.” :D</p>
<p>Safe travels to all those with college visits coming up. My D has a long weekend and is supposed to leave Friday for a camping trip with the school hiking club. She has gone camping in the winter/snow, has the gear and really enjoys it (did not get that from me!) I hope they won’t have to cancel because it is such a great break for them- no electronics, physical exercise outdoors and just chilling. No room for homework in their backpacks. D says it really helps her to turn off the stress and thinking. I personally think a couple days at the beach would be better but I know this would be a great break for her.</p>
<p>Good luck to those waiting on SAT results. May the odds be ever in your favor for one and done!</p>
<p>It sounds like the large lecture takes the pressure off the kid who doesn’t want to participate though. The professor may know the student’s name but if the student isn’t comfortable raising his hand in a large lecture hall, it sounds like there’s no penalty associated with that. It’s quite different in small seminars and in high school (and in law school) where speaking up is expected and required. </p>
<p>I love the idea of going to the professor’s office hours where it’s possible to have a one-on-one interaction, something that is far more appealing to my D. </p>
<p>3girls I agree with what you said. I already know that my D will be going to her professors during office hours all the time because she is the kid who is always at extra help- practically everyday she goes to ask her questions, get her papers checked, etc. I just don’t think a large lecture hall will be her " thing" but time will tell I suppose. I just mentioned to her that if she likes the south we should add the U of Georgia and the U of SC honors programs to the list. She actually seemed fine with my suggestion- shocking! </p>
<p>All of a sudden I feel stressed… :-L </p>
<p>Some kids seem to know what they like. I sure didn’t. After 12 years of small Catholic schools, I thought I wanted a small college and mainly looked at and applied to small schools. Then at the last minute picked a big state school and loved it. I liked the “option” of anonymity - being able to hide in the back of a huge lecture hall with coffee and bad hair, or being able to sit up front to ask questions, while in the same semester having classes of 20 in my major. My sons went from huge public high school to huge state school. One doesn’t care to know his professors even in the small classes and one has profs in huge lectures call him by name. The big school works for both of them, but of course it’s not for everyone. I just made sure, when they were making college decisions and considering pros and cons, that they considered some of the pros of the big lectures, and the cons of the small lectures, along with the obvious and oft touted reverse.</p>