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<p>@OHMomof2: Exactly. I’m still trying to figure out whether the kid will have enough time to take the first read through his summer book for AP Lit while en route to the next summer camp. (He will so look forward to this discussion when he gets home from the first one.)</p>
<p>The only reason why D basically has her common app essay ( she is making two small changes today) written is because that is her personality and it is something I think she needs to work on. If she has an assignment due in 3 weeks, she does it NOW. If she has to read a book and write something for a summer assignment, she does it NOW. She has a difficult time budgeting her time and doing a little each night, and she is not interested. So far it has served her well, but there is no way she can do this when in college. She will have to do a better job of budgeting her time- she has gotten a little better, but is not there yet. Yesterday she had a lot of free time so she thought it would be fun to sit outside and write. She even chose to stay home while we went to dinner because she thought writing the essay was " fun" and she did not want to lose her momentum. </p>
<p>The issue is that guidance sent out an email with summer " assignments" such as writing the essays, making the final list, etc so I guess she views this as " homework." At any rate I suspect that by the time school begins she will have written all of her essays ( we looked at a lot of them last night), finished all of the non common app schools, and will be well into doing the common app. </p>
<p>Needless to say this personality trait does not serve her well in group work. She feels that everybody procrastinates and it makes her crazy. Sometimes she just does the job for them -
which is really not a good idea. She needs to learn the skill of doing a little bit of work each day, and she needs to understand that everybody does not operate on her schedule. </p>
<p>Thanks for the blog, @pixleyy! That was a lot if driving. D isn’t looking at big universities but it was still a good read. Nice pictures too!</p>
<p>As for interviews, luckily D isn’t too shy and none of her schools require interviews. She had one when we visited one school over the winter. I don’t know if that one counts; she went into the interview to find out more about the college and what they offered to see if she even wanted to apply. </p>
<p>It’s up to her of she wants to do an interview or not. We won’t be able to visit all the schools on her list, so I may suggest interviews at the ones we have not visited. That may be the best way for her to connect with the schools.</p>
<p>@STEMFamily, your son may do much better than you expect. At this particular school at least, they matched the interviewer by interest, so the interview was not so intimidating. She said the weirdest part was being just the two of then in the room (glass French doors so it was open to reception area). </p>
<p>She has also talked with admissions directors just because that’s the person standing next to her at open houses or receptions. I’m finding out these are good practice situations.</p>
<p>@stemfamily- thanks for the laugh. I’ve got a kid like that too…</p>
<p>@pixleyyy, thanks so much for the link! Your trip sounds amazing and exhausting. I am completely unfamiliar with the part of the country you were visiting (except for a trip once to SLC/Park City). It was fascinating to read about the schools out west.</p>
<p>@twogirls, can you bottle up some of your daughter’s motivation? She is so impressive!</p>
<p>Pixleyyy I really enjoyed reading your story and the pictures are beautiful. Thank you!!</p>
<p>Sally305- I would love to share, as she exhausts me LOL. </p>
<p>The NYT Sunday magazine cover story is about boomerang kids and student debt:</p>
<p><a href=“It’s Official: The Boomerang Kids Won’t Leave - The New York Times”>It’s Official: The Boomerang Kids Won’t Leave - The New York Times;
<p>@pixleyyy - what a sweet boy you have! my D is interested in engineering too and is trying to get a small, hands-on education, which is kinda hard to find. the honors programs at the schools you visited sounded really, really good. and the mama bear and cub! so lucky…</p>
<p>Oops. So sorry about the link and I can’t go back in and edit to remove it. Thanks to all who read it. It was a whirlwind trip but offered some insight into where he is and what he’s thinking. We asked him to write his initial thoughts before we shared our opinions or talked about the school, so we didn’t influence his viewpoint of a school. </p>
<p>Question for you all: I’m trying to figure out how to tell if a college’s engineering program is good or just ok. Each one seems to offer different things that they say make them special, but since I know nothing about engineering I really don’t know how to interpret that. I need ideas on how to evaluate or lists that have ranked engineering (or computer engineering) schools. Ideas?</p>
<p>@pixleyyy, thanks so much for your link! I really loved reading your entries and seeing the pics. Your blend of humor, photography, and insight made this quite wonderful. For a split second, I wanted to pack up and get in the car to start our own college tour adventure. </p>
<p>Your son is a sweetie! (So is the puppy.) </p>
<p>@pixleyyy, I’m glad you can’t go back in and edit to remove it because I wouldn’t have seen it if you had. I hope it stays put. :)</p>
<p>We have some engineers in our family and their feeling is that because the curriculum is pretty much universal and set, engineering programs don’t really offer much variation in the way of curriculum. I’d guess the hands on part probably differs? I also don’t know if that extends to computer engineering. What do the schools say about what distinguishes them? </p>
<p>@3girls3cats , oftentimes the schools will list certain certifications they have for engineering, additional resources like MECOP or special research labs/opportunities. </p>
<p>I’m not sure if one is really “better” than another, but I know that when we visited we got a sense that some seemed more advanced than others. For instance, at OSU (Oregon State University), the students all build a robot freshman year that they improve and change over their college years. At UP (University of Portland) they had a similar program where you build a robot to address a challenge given to you, however they used lego mindstorms instead of a build-it-from-a-kit robot. </p>
<p>@Pixleyyy D’s main pathway into her engineering interest has been robotics. so she would like to continue problem solving, working in the shop, machining and 3D printing parts, and coding. she is looking for an engineering program with opportunities for undergrads to get hands on early, (as in freshman year), small class size, undergrad research and internship/coop opportunities. olin, harvey mudd, rose hulman and others are like that. these things can also be found at larger universities, but the student will likely have to be proactive and assertive to get them. and it may be that those opportunities are only found in clubs, and not integrated directly into the curriculum. also, one way at a large university to get past big intro survey courses in things like calculus and physics is to take the AP in high school. as for ranking of engineering schools, they are broken into two lists, those schools that offer the PhD and those that don’t. here are some older links on cc that list the rankings… </p>
<p>for schools with graduate degrees:<br>
<a href=“2013 U.S. News Rankings (UCs vs Cal Polys engineering) - Cal Poly Pomona - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/cal-poly-pomona/1391425-2013-u-s-news-rankings-ucs-vs-cal-polys-engineering.html</a> (although they mistakenly omitted Stanford on that list) </p>
<p>for schools with undergrad only:
<a href=“2013 U.S. News Rankings (Regional University West Rankings) - Cal Poly Pomona - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/cal-poly-pomona/1391081-2013-u-s-news-rankings-regional-university-west-rankings.html</a> (actually the third posting, not the first)</p>
<p>Threads I found interesting this week:</p>
<p>The first thread focuses on essay writing. The OP has an issue with parents shelling out money for essay writing seminars/camps. I personally have no issue with a family paying $14K for an essay writing bootcamp–to each their own. I belong to the DIY camp, and believe there are a ton of free & low-cost resources and materials out their to somewhat simulate the $14K bootcamp experience. I mentioned the two essay writing texts BHG uses in previous posts. Also, I found the NYT article linked in the OPs opening post quite interesting with descriptions of in- left- field essays submitted to top 20 schools. /
<a href=“FOURTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS for a one week essay writing camp??? - Parents Forum - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1659817-fourteen-thousand-dollars-for-a-one-week-essay-writing-camp-p1.html</a></p>
<p>Next up, a discussion on colleges requiring summer orientation sessions prior to move-in dates. For some families, if their child is attending school a fair distance from, this requires traveling to the college twice in a short period of time. And for families that are holding visits until after acceptance and receipt of financial/merit awards, this could potentially mean 2 visits to the campus, plus flights for move-in. Read the thread post your take on the orientation system at some schools. <a href=“Summer Freshman Orientation: Timely or Too Early? - College Life - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-life/1660418-summer-freshman-orientation-timely-or-too-early.html</a></p>
<p>The last thread is regarding the Middle Class donut spoken about frequently within this thread. Two of my good friends are in this situation, and both are thinking about taking out Parent Plus loans or private loans for a portion of college tuition to fund top 40 schools for their children. <a href=“Too Poor for College, Too Rich for Financial Aid - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>Too Poor for College, Too Rich for Financial Aid - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums;
<p>Just spoke to D. After our college tour extravaganza I left her in NY and her dad took her to Brown today to check in for her 3 week class. She reports that she “is oriented”, has a roommate from Hong Kong, has all the supplies she needs to start class tomorrow and is happy. Yay :)</p>
<p>I am encouraging her - no, begging her - to attend some of the workshops being offered. They range from “how to take notes effectively” to “mock interviews” to “social class in college”. To me it looks like a great wealth of resources and information that she should make every effort to take advantage of, to her it apparently looks like “I promise I’ll go to at least one a week”. Sigh. </p>
<p>This week: <a href=“http://www.brown.edu/ce/pre-college/outside-classroom/guidebook.php?w=26”>http://www.brown.edu/ce/pre-college/outside-classroom/guidebook.php?w=26</a></p>
<p>I am 23 messages behind but I have info that I don’t want to forget to share. I attended a college admissions workshop today and they said that the only real change to the common app this year is that they are bringing back the mini essay about an extra curricular. I had no idea this was on the table again. So now we all know.</p>
<p>@BunHeadMom I would be thrilled if you can mention those essay books again as we cannot afford the $14,000 essay boot camp and my D would rather watch paint dry than write an essay about anything other than science. Need inspiration in a big way! Many thanks!</p>
<p>@pixleyyy, Loved your tour report. Thanks for sharing. It looks like you all had a good time.</p>
<p>S’15’s b-day today. Turns the big 1-7! <:-P I had a healthy “debate” with my brother (as brothers do) O:-) over the “value” of a 4 year degree. Brother holds a “C-level” position in a billion (with a “B”) dollar digital tech company in town. He’s been there 29 years and he said “right now there is no difference in hiring premium between a 2 year Electrical or Electronic and Communications Engineering Technology degree and a 4 year B.S. in the same field” THANK YOU RECESSION! He conceded that the career trajectories over time, can diverge (but argued this is more related to the competency and ambition of the individual). AND, what you pick up in work experience and income hitting the street 2 years earlier? all things being equal, will push that further down the road. And if you hook up with the right company? they’ll pay for you to continue your ed to a BS or even Masters (his company does). He is looking to hire 40-50 Engineers out of the 2014 grad class</p>
<p>Any way… food for thought for some STEM kids.</p>
<p>@mugglemom, thank you so much for that piece of information. That may throw a bit of a monkey wrench into D’s essay plans and it’s better to know now vs. later.</p>
<p>@saismom, I would let her write her essay about science. 
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