Congrats @TwoBoyzOneG1rl!
LOL! I can relate…
Congrats to those with good news today! My S just seems crankier tonight so no college discussions today. {sigh}
As a lawyer myself, I’ve never asked or expected anyone to call me Dr. I do like @carolinamom2boys advice to @labegg 's D.
The kids in my daughter’s accepted student chat group are arguing, jumping at each other over just the smallest thing. Some kids are trying to cool things down, and one kid exited, saying things were getting too heated. My daughter is sitting here alternately laughing and exploding with mock rage.
Hmmm.
It’s been exciting to hear all of the good news about recent acceptances for your kids - so happy to hear that many are closer to the time of making their final decisions! What an exciting time for all of them 
Hard to believe that in just about a month our kids will be making their final decisions!!!
We are coming up on the first of our son’s admitted student days this weekend, and it’s for his top choice school. I’d really like for him to attend all 3 admitted student visits since he’s waited so long to decide on which school to attend (and the remaining two are within in 1 1/2 hour drive of our house), but he seems very set on his top choice so he may finally decide by this weekend.
Have any of you attended the parent portion of the ‘admitted student’ visits? Since this one is 3 hours away we’re making a mini-vacation out of the trip, and plan to go with our D18 to the parent sessions while S16 is at the admitted student sessions. I’m just curious if others have attended the parent visit, and if so, whether they felt it was worthwhile?
And, any successful tips for getting your kids to go to more than one ‘admitted student’ visit even if they are pretty sure they want to attend the first school and want to skip the others? I think our S16 has made his selection primarily based on some social media connections he’s set up with other admitted students, rather than really thinking about the features of each school. His top choice has done a nice job of keeping in contact with him, though - sent him a t-shirt, a birthday email, were quick to help him change majors, offered him the only scholarship he received, etc. We think he’d be happy there, but don’t want him to ignore his options since the other 2 schools have admitted student visits only 1-2 weeks after this one.
Oh, dear. My D16 melted down tonight. Just overwhelmed by feeling she has too much to do – for high school, for college prep, for life. It’s spring break, too…so a bit of fun would be nice. She’s feeling so stressed and is beating herself up. Poor kid. We’ll try again tomorrow. Will try to help her see it’s all manageble.
@lifeguarding I attended parent sections at all of our admitted student weekends and found them very helpful. I was able to see how organized and accessible the different departments were, how well they communicated, and how they stacked up against DS16s first choice. And I quickly found out that they didn’t measure up favorably . I also learned that all of these programs that the schools bragged about providing were fairly consistent across the board. All of them had study abroad opportunities, all had coops and internships , career placement etc. I was able to find out were the classes taught by professors or TAs, etc . So in a nutshell , I found them very helpful.
To answer your other question about getting your kids to go to more than one accepted students weekend. I basically told my son that the expectation was that he would make an informed decision before depositing for housing or tuition, and that the only way he could truly assess each school was to give them
equal time. I told him after we visited each school, we would send in his deposit and not until then. We were lucky that all of our choices were within 3 1/2 hrs away. Good luck.
@Waiting2exhale my D basically said that most of the talkative kids on the accepted students FB pages and chats are people who scare her and she would never be friends with. I’m thankful that she understands that there are presumably plenty of quiet ones like her lurking and that she shouldn’t write off a school because of the extremely vocal accepted students.
Well our final acceptance/denial notification won’t be postmarked until April 1!!! It is my son’s current first choice and I have no FLIPPING idea if I have to get a plane ticket or not!!!
@Waiting2exhale Thankfully the accepted students group for my college is very laid back and supportive. If it was like your D’s I would leave it. @dyiu13 I’m sorry. Hugs. This process is overwhelming. I’ve had my share of meltdowns
@lifegarding I attended 2 admitted student events with my DS. One had events designed just for parents the other did not. I found the parent sessions very helpful and informative but the greatest value was for my DS to be with the other admitted students. The car ride there and back was the perfect time to go over pros and cons (at his initiation, not mine) and for me to hear the excitement in my DS’s voice about the school. He did not decide until a full week after the last visit but I had no doubts about how or why he had reached that conclusion because of the discussions we had in the car. I was glad I was available when my DS wanted to talk about it. He is the stereotypical, teenage boy of few words most of the time.
Good luck with reaching a decision to all but especially those like @LKnomad that are still awaiting notices of acceptance. I think a CC version of the serenity prayer is in order but I am not quite that creative at this hour.
I’ve seen several posts recently on this thread and others regarding " melt downs" I know that the stress level is climbing and that occasional episodes are to be expected . I urge each of you parents to step back and really assess the situation objectively to see if this is just a temporary isolated incident or a trend. Many times people get so wrapped up in getting their children off to college, that they miss or dismiss warning signs of more serious conditions or illnesses. It is not too late to seek help or postpone starting college if need be. Typically, these issues don’t get better in college if they are not addressed early on. I equate it with the bride who knows walking down the aisle that she should not be getting married to her fiancée , but is too far gone to back out because of all the planning involved and not wanting to let everyone “down”. It rarely ends well. I’m not trying to be " preachy" , but trying to save you and your children from a lot of unnecessary heartache. I commend any parent who is willing to make some very difficult observations and seek whatever assist is necessary.
^^ What she said.
We attended admitted student days with D a few weeks ago at what we were pretty sure was her dream school. At one point during day two, we realised maybe it wasn’t. As it turns out, she really wasn’t too keen on going off to a residential college altogether once she got to take a good look at it. D is young for her age, a bit immature-- and ultimately, the best thing for her has been to turn down Dream School and let her get another year or two under her belt before heading off to see the world.
The AA-then-transfer thing is not a particularly popular one on CC (nor would I expect it to be; you don’t really need this sort of resource to accomplish it).But for now, it’s what’s best for my daughter. She and her brother are very definitely running individual races.
@MuggleMom - my D is part of those facebook groups, but just as an observer. She too is quiet and while most of the people in the groups are looking for roommates, she is willing to go random.
Yes, those Facebook groups are not always helpful.
@petrichor11, that is a very mature decision. I applaud you and your D for giving her this extra time.
One of my D’s friends wanted to go away, but is now transferring closer to home.
@Waiting2exhale, haha, now I could use a mirror, but back then I only weighed 120 lbs.
A question came up last night that I’m hoping the collective can help me answer. I put together a budget/factoid spreadsheet for my S’ remaining choices for schools. My wife wanted me to add some information on the number of classes taught by professors versus TAs.
Does anyone have any ideas where I might come up with this information? All of the schools are large universities (13k-27k undergraduates), and all but one are public universities.
It varies from school to school and major to major. You can go to a particular major and see if you can map the classes your kid will take and see who is listed as an instructor. You can also simply call the department or admissions to get that info.
On the topic of professors vs TA’s - when we first started looking I thought this was important, but then I changed my mind. There is no guarantee that a full professor is going to be a better teacher than a grad student. In fact, grad students are younger, closer in age to the undergrads, and more likely to remember what it was like to be learning the topic. By virtue on working on their PHDs, most are on the cuting edge of research and are still enthusiastic about what they are studying. For us, this wasn’t a factor at all in deciding between schools. Of course, we all have different views on this, but this is ours.
@me29034 that’s a great perspective. Not one I’d thought of…
Keep in mind that just about all universities will say their classes are taught by professors. This means the lectures. Discussion sections and labs are almost always taught by grad students. I’d more interested in how many lectures are taught by adjunct faculty. Not because I think adjuncts don’t teach as well (I’ve been one) but because they aren’t paid much and usually don’t have offices or benefits. They are likely overloaded. I don’t think treating them poorly is good for anybody.
@crowlady, agreed. Our assumption is that most larger lectures will be taught by professors with discussion led by a TA. I don’t think there’s an issue with this (assuming the TAs can actually instruct/guide the undergrads).
I think your point about adjuncts is, likely, spot on.