<p>@SomeOldGuy, I love the efforts to keep us mellow. If it is not working during the summer months (i.e. the calm before the storm), imagine what it is going to take next winter!!! </p>
<p>@SomeOldGuy: “stigmata” didn’t help much, and it scared my dogs out of the room. Maybe some Neutral Milk Hotel?</p>
<p>@jennie11, D got that email as well, also not applying.</p>
<p>I’m SO JEALOUS shoboemom! D will be applying to Tulane but we haven’t figured out a time for a trip there yet. See if you can squeeze in a trip to Cafe Du Monde for a beignet. Touristy, but also fun and very good people watching.</p>
<p>New Orleans is a fun city to visit! If you like history, the National WWII museum is there.</p>
<p>My D did yearbook pictures at school which were terrible so we are going to the same photographer that we used with D12 ( her friends mom). We get the yearbook picture plus more in different outfits etc for a very very reasonable price. The photographer that most use here is very expensive. These kids rarely use the school yearbook picture. </p>
<p>Shoboe enjoy Tulane!! </p>
<p>@college4three: How about the Avett Brothers covering Neutral Milk Hotel? </p>
<p>[The</a> Avett Brothers – “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea”](<a href=“The Avett Brothers Sing, In The Aeroplane Over The Sea By Neutral Milk Hotel - YouTube”>The Avett Brothers Sing, In The Aeroplane Over The Sea By Neutral Milk Hotel - YouTube)</p>
<p>@jennie11 – We have that same email from UChicago. They actually sent out an email with their questions a few weeks ago, too.</p>
<p>@shoboemom – I’d love to hear your thoughts on Tulane once you have visited. It’s too far for us to visit, but we’ve heard some great things about it.</p>
<p>I have a DC at UChi, so let me know if you have any questions about it.</p>
<p>Penn State has some very reputable engineering majors. Run the NPC at UPenn and Purdue and see what that gives you. Purdue is OOS tuition but they have a great co-op pgm whose engineering participants make big bucks while in college while bulking up their resume.</p>
<p>Unless she absolutely must have engineering, I’d suggest having her visit at least one women’s college–if she doesn’t like it, fair enough. </p>
<p>Rochester wants to see love/demonstrated interest. A visit would be worthwhile (as opposed to, say, Stanford, which doesn’t care a bit if you visit or not). </p>
<p>@SomeOldGuy: I’m a purist…<a href=“Neutral Milk Hotel - The King Of Carrot Flowers, Pt. 1 - YouTube”>Neutral Milk Hotel - The King Of Carrot Flowers, Pt. 1 - YouTube;
<p>Recital etiquette question - we’re going to a friend of d’s solo piano recital tomorrow night. If the performer were female, we would bring flowers. But the performer is male, so we should bring…what?</p>
<p>hs2015mom, I think flowers for males are acceptable as well, but maybe more informed folks here will chime in.</p>
<p>I have a question for the peanut gallery: I’m running the NPC at some schools that also require the CSS profile. I’m worried that I’m not going to get an accurate picture of what aid might be offered without the CSS information. Does anybody know how to estimate for those? Or does the NPC generally ask questions that would be covered by the profile?</p>
<p>hs2015mom:
How about chocolate?</p>
<p>Or maybe a card with a gift card to a fun local restaurant?</p>
<p>erlanger,</p>
<p>Is U Chicago as intense as they say? Is it still a good place for quirky kids? My oldest didn’t like it when he visited because the people he met (ok, one dept. chair) felt rather cold and distant. My current son will likely not apply but he did love the essay prompts. There’s not really a major for him unless he does go for the arts or music.</p>
<p>Re. senior pictures–uh, so my 2012er never got official ones. It was April of 2012 and we both suddenly realized that, so he put on a nice shirt and we went outside to a nearby small canyon and I took a bunch of pictures of him! LOL They came out pretty good. What we did was to do a collage postcard instead of one photo, and we gathered a couple from that shot, our fav. picture of him as a 3 year old, and a great pic of him from a wedding he djed. All in all, for spending next to nothing (except the cost of printing at CVS), we were very pleased with the end result.</p>
<p>When the budget is limited, a little creativity goes a long way. :-)</p>
<p>I’ve only done one NPC for CSS school so I don’t know if this is across the board or not, but this school’s NPC was very detailed and asked questions that non-CSS school’s NPC did not ask. This NPC asked about my house and it’s worth and some other items that I know the CSS asks for.</p>
<p>I think running the NPC for each school you are looking at will give a fairly accurate picture of the aid you will be offered. </p>
<p>@sbjdorlo, It is not for everyone. Intense, yes, quirky, somewhat, but more social and active (both on campus and with Chicago) than we expected. The common dominator seems to be kids’ who are extremely academically motivated, but not lopsided learners because the Core Curriculum has em taking across the board that they might not otherwise choose. Also, they need to be prepared to be humbled all the time (lots of true genious there). The intensity never lets up because of the quarter system: midterms and papers can come at any time from weeks 2-9, and then you go straight to reading period and finals, so there is no let up academically. If you have a kid who likes challenge, is not intimidated, and wants to be surrounded by the same, it can be very rewarding. </p>
<p>I appreciate the description, erlanger. What is your D’s major, if you don’t mind me asking?</p>