@AsleepAtTheWheel That’s exactly what happened at Clemson when they broke the top 20 for public universities . Applications, especially from the northeast went through the roof, and many of our instate students who would’ve have been admitted 4-5 years ago were no longer competitive for admission .
Surprising movement in ranking for UCs. UCSB is ahead of UCSD. UCI is ahead of UCSD and UCD.
Speaking of UC’s, D received “UC for You” postcard today with an access code. For top state students, I think? She’s not home yet so I don’t know what the deal is.
My DS did too. I heard Napolitano interviewed on a call-in show a few months ago. One caller said that his kid was almost going to go to a private school (started this fall), because with merit aid alone - no need-based - the cost was significantly lower. She really didn’t have a response for that.
I’m pretty certain that DS is going to have a similar option, where at least one if not more of his possible schools would be cheaper overall than a UC. Even if he were to get a Regents’ Scholarship, it’s just not that much. He has friends from his school who are at various UCs now, struggling like crazy just to get into the classes they need to take, and they’re planning on 5-6 years to graduate. It’s just not good.
A college counselor told a group of us a year or so ago that four years at U of Oregon can be cheaper than a UC degree, just because UofO isn’t oversubscribed. Eugene’s pretty - but DS isn’t going there. So - I dunno. It could be a good option, but I don’t think DS is even going to apply to any UCs at this point.
I couldn’t agree more with the advice about when to finish testing. S13 and D16 had their tests done by the end of their junior year. The one thing I learned from watching their friends’ application process was that those who hoped to get a better score in October or November of senior year had a really hard time narrowing their college list and made some bad choices because they didn’t know their final scores. Too late for those of us on this list, but maybe we should jump to the HS Class of 2017 and share our wisdom? ;))
Part of me thinks: Rankings, Shmrankings. I think they are there to sell those magazines. The other part thinks: I hope colleges who go up or down take notice of what they are or are not doing well and strive to improve.
My son had planned on being done with his tests at the end of his junior year until we realized he was 1 point away from receiving twice the merit money at 2 of his top choices, so he’s sucking it up and retesting one last time for each. At least nine of his choices require subject tests.
None not nine require subject tests.
Same here. The plan was to be done by senior year. Unfortunately her science SAT is not up to the par with the rest of her application, so needs to be fixed. Last year she only covered half of the material in school. This year she is taking the second half. Hopefully she will reach her target score in October.
My DD took 2 SAT II subject tests - English literature and math II. She did not satisfy math score but decided not to retake. She talked with her GC and GC told her her score is OK.
The rankings are interesting but will not change the list at this point. I do not think I looked at them as closely last year. Does anyone know when the top undergraduate engineering list became schools that offer up to a masters instead of just a bachelors? That list has changed a lot by changing the group.
The list I would like to see updated is the WSJ one where employers ranked schools. The most recent one is no longer recent.
One thing that’s been happening recently is that the kids in D and S’s class are trading around college mailers. S got info from Duke that didn’t help him, but he passed it on to a friend who’s applying. And a bit ago we got a mailer from Oberlin about fly-ins. D isn’t applying to Oberlin, but I passed that information on to the mom of one of her classmates who called about travel grants. At least it doesn’t go to waste that way.
We were surprised earlier this week when DS16 received an invitation to visit a LAC in Virgina with a voucher for travel expenses. The school’s never been on his list and he’s never shown any interest.
First day of school. DD said she wants to replace AP Psychology with other class because it is boring after the first class. Her choice is one of English course and if she changes, she’s taking 3 English classes out of 6 total class this semester. I asked her to take at least one class from social studies such as economics. Not sure what she’ll choose.
At her school, all the required courses will be fulfilled by junior and every class is elective. Therefore, some students take either humanity/social science only or math/science only courses, which is not recommended by school.
S got the “UC for you” card also. S is going to enter access code and see what happens. I hope it is not just a guarantee admittance to UC Merced because S has no interest in going there. Today I called all my sophomores (I only have about 5-6) aside and showed them the UC postcard as a reason to do well this year in school. I also told my juniors to get their testing done this year.
As for USN&WR, I’ve been a subscriber for two years just because I love data and have a curious mind. I also use my account to share info with my students if they are curious about colleges. I don’t share the account, just the info, fwiw. It’s funny, because this year I’ve hardly looked at it. Although like was mentioned, I was surprised to see UCSB pass up UCSD.
@Themommymommy, thanks for the info on the book, S came to my class today complaining of writers block. He did tell me that he just started writing everything. I’ll have to look into that for him.
Attended part of an MIT presentation this evening. Surprised to see so much diversity in the crowd. Looks like MIT makes an effort to send mailers out targeting many different groups of people.
Chatted with a friend who is at a UC that wouldn’t ever be on DS’ list (too big, too many parties - but he’s coming around to the idea of applying to at least one) - and it sounds like a little bit of the pressure is off this year for overenrolled classes and students not getting what they need. UCs & CSUs both got extra money, and hired more adjuncts, mostly. Still a sharp dropoff in tenure & tenure-track, which is a little disappointing, but at least it’s a little easier to get into classes.
It’s frustrating as an in-state parent to know how many in-state kids don’t get in because they’re taking out-of-state students to make more money. There’s a photo going around about how CA has built 11 prisons in the last ~30-35 years or so, and only one UC. That’s a problem. I hope that the state will value education again someday, and even expand offerings at the UCs we have now.
I envy UC system. My daughter said she does not want to go to SUNY schools even though they are in her school list as a safeties.
I just read that MW, W and SW states built up their major public universities systems while lobbying from the earlier established private colleges in the NE stymied similar efforts in those states. Hence poor SUNY system and awesome UC system. Don’t shoot the messenger. Just repeating what I read re history of higher ed in the U.S.
DD will be applying to few UCs. The mid level UCs are the only safeties on her list (if unpredictable UC can be considered safeties for anyone). She also will be applying to one CalState school.
We count ourselves lucky to have such great public schools in VA. However my son prefers the privates and his two favorites in VA would cost us less than a public due to their very good financial aid.
@carolinamom2boys which LAC was it in VA?
As for college rankings- DD’13 attends the #1 school in the country but it didn’t come up on our list originally because of that. We searched by schools that offered her major and then sorted by most affordable for us and saw the Ivies at the top of that list. Before that we never even considered anything other than VA publics.