@SincererLove My recommendation for Georgetown is to have her do a guided tour if she can. I would have loved to hear more about the school and programs instead of just seeing how beautiful the campus is. Also, have her check out the shops/area on M Street so she can get a feel for the neighborhood. Unfortunately I don’t know anything about Atlanta but some others have given you some good tips for that.
Explain that it’s just a longwinded way of saying “Case of Ohio”—Ohio was previously the Western Reserve of the State of Connecticut (that is, Connecticut’s territorial claim in the Old Northwest).
@2muchquan, I also tried to talk my D into considering Alabama, but she said the same thing as your D, so it’s a no go. Interestingly, my S20 is intrigued by the idea that just test scores (with a decent GPA) can get you free or nearly free college. So, I’m hoping those thoughts percolate over the next few years. Of course, who knows what may change in 3 years if these scholarships get to be too popular. My S20 is a good test taker (>1800 on old SAT as 7th grader), so I’m also hoping to push him into a bit of test prep for the PSAT. I need to be careful and not harp on that since it is a couple of years away and I don’t want him to feel it’s do or die for one morning of testing. I’m glad we’ll have a lot more info on the “new” SAT for him though.
My D is excited at the thought of having a full-tuition ride at UA. She is not, however, excited about UA…yet. She has definitely gotten on board with the crazy cost of college, the whole EFC thing and she knows the budget and she knows she will be applying to UA just to have it on the table when all the final decisions have to be made.
It was so interesting the other day when her IB friends were here working on a project. I could hear the talk drift to school. One of them in particular was having none of Ds talk about the pursuit of merit, etc. etc. She wants out of the south. PERIOD. Well…she doesn’t even know her EFC. She has no idea how much her parents can pay. At one point I was in the hallway (funny how that happened) and drifted into the conversation. We talked about how you really can’t say anything with absolute about college until you absolutely know how much your parents can pay. She also hasn’t even taken the ACT and SAT yet even though she is ranked around 5-7 out of over 600 kids!
We also talked a LOT about putting pressure on your parents to take loans to finance an experience and a dream. I held back and tried not to overload her with info…but she toned it down a bit once she learned how much schools cost and the reality of debt, etc.
My D was not excited about UA, (really, Mom, Alabama??) but agreed to a visit after learning about the great OOS scholarships, and that they offered a major that she wants. After visiting, she is fully on board and is wanting to get her application in as soon as it opens. She’s had a few teachers question what seems to be her #1 choice, but she’s convinced she’ll be happy there and have plenty of opportunities.
@canypava, It’s been interesting watching my S21 see the search process his sister is going through, as well. He’s a decent student, but really seeing the opportunities available has, I hope, given him a bit more motivation!
@Momof2TX Talk to me about Alabama. It and UA-B are on our potential list because of National Merit, and our S also sees the appeal of a mostly-paid-for education. I’ve read several reviews/threads on CC, but we haven’t had a chance to visit. How “Southern” does it feel? Would a small-town Iowa kid possibly be overwhelmed by that or maybe have difficulty fitting in, especially one that isn’t interested at this point in a Greek system? (I know it may be hard for you to say, but I’m curious about overall impressions, your D’s thoughts about current students, etc.)
We’ve been to Oklahoma and Oklahoma State (but over spring break so few students on campus), so if you have and can compare it to those campuses, maybe that would help.
Next week the junior’s in my son’s school spend a day with the GC’s in some sort of workshop to get them prepared for the fall application period. Hopefully they teach the kids the importance of getting stuff done over the summer and I hope they work with the kids to get good letters of rec from their teachers.
Parents go in to school for a meeting next week too, where the GC review the whole process with us.
I’m trying to get my son inspired to get some studying and practicing done for the ACT coming up, but not having a lot of luck with that yet. Maybe this weekend.
I just realized that I hopped right in here for the first time, feeling like I know some of you already! I’ve been reading and following for a while, learning a lot from everyone, hoping not to mess up anything with my D17 being the oldest!
@IABooks My D was extremely negative toward Alabama at first, after looking at some student review sites. She was also concerned about the perceived heavily Greek campus. She’s not interested in Greek life at all. We convinced her to visit over our Spring Break, attending one of their University Days. We haven’t been to OU or OSU, so I can’t speak to those specifically, but Alabama has a beautiful campus in what felt like a small town, so if your son likes the small town aspect, I think he’d feel at home. We were there while classes were in session, and D was pleasantly surprised at how friendly everyone was. It’s a big school, but didn’t feel as huge to her as UTexas. It felt “Southern” but modern to us, with beautiful facilities.
There was an informational fair before our morning session and she was amazed at how many different organizations and clubs there were on campus, so she felt that she could definitely find some groups that she would be happy to join. Your son would probably feel the same. I was impressed by the students we met and the beautiful campus. We may set up a second visit through the Honors College this fall, if she makes NMSF, just to have the whole picture.
I think overall, D was surprised at how much she liked Alabama. She knows she wants a big school, but she thought she wanted to be in an urban setting, and still fell in love with the campus. It is definitely worth a visit!
@iabooks My ds is not involved in Greek life at all. Only a couple of his male friends are. It is more of a presence amg his female friends. He says it is about 50/50 amg the girls.
He says it is part of the campus culture, but he says it doesn’t affect him personally, and he pretty much ignores it w/o any difficulty.
We will be visiting U of OK this summer b/c Bama is not a fit for dd’s major at all. She wishes that it was b/c she loves Bama (and she is not at all interested in sororities.)
@IABooks D visited Bama, OU, and OSU and liked OU, but loved OSU and Bama. Beautiful campus, good honors programs and perks, really nice honors dorms, and friendly students. Also great accounting program and D loved the support and opportunities offered to students in the business school. D is not into Greek life but feels that won’t be an issue. Bama is D’s top safety because since she decided on Arabic as a second major, there are some better options, but she would be more than happy if the other schools didn’t work out (not enough merit) and she ended up at Bama. That’s the kind of safety every kid should find.
Thanks, all, for the comments about UA. We do hope to get down there early this fall. It helps, though, to get some perspective from you guys. I feel the same as @Momof2TX – as though I know many of you already.
The other problem I found with UA is that the mascot is an elephant. Rose-Hulman is out too.
@RightCoaster I’m very jealous that you and others have a GC who will hold these workshops or meetings about college application/selection process. I can’t get ours to return a call about NMSF and I’m pretty sure the 10 minutes spent with S scheduling next year’s classes have never included any conversations about colleges, LORs, applications, etc. (To hear S tell it, it barely included conversation about next year’s classes :)) He had to work pretty hard to get into the two electives he wanted to take now that he’s pretty much exhausted the core classes, and nothing’s really guaranteed until final schedules are handed out just before classes start in the fall. Congrats to your S @eandesmom on getting out of the PE requirement!)
Thank goodness you all are here to help us through this! It’s schools like ours that could really use CCC.
The GC team at our school is pretty good. They meet with the kids a few times a year. I’v still had to learn a lot of stuff regarding college app stuff on my own, thankful for this site. The GC’s invite the parents into an auditorium 2x per year to keep us posted, but really on a high level. We’ve been able to talk with our GC a few times though and she has been helpful. Not great in selecting schools that seem to be a fit for my son, but she has been good on other things so we appreciate her efforts.
The biggest weakness our school has regarding “guiding” the kids is in my opinion, not telling the kids that they should strive to take the toughest classes they can. I think they do this so they keep a balance, but it definitely affects kids overall GPA and class rank. My son, probably should’ve taken the highest level classes his freshman year, but did not, and now is way behind others in terms of class rank. He is taking high level classes now and doing fine, so hopefully colleges appreciate his rise in performance.
I look forward to seeing what the GC team has in place for next week, the summer, and fall.
D’s school has updated Naviance with March SAT scores. Not sure what method of comparison they are using to compare to old scores.
@itsgettingreal17 Our’s got uploaded too. It doesn’t really help us too much as my son’s ACT scores convert a bit higher on the graphs.
UA is in my Binder of Destiny and there it shall remain until D17 visits, talks to professors, and THEN rules it out. It is TOO good of a deal to dismiss it for any other factors for us.
Luckily we live in Georgia, so the whole “Southern” stigma is more, um, well, we know what we’re dealing with and it’s less scary when you live and breathe Southern (culturally I grew up in Boston and DH in Wisconsin). 50% of the kids who go to UA are from out of state, and there’s a fairly sizeable contingent of NMF/NMSF kids who are very bright and very budget savvy, so there’s her tribe right there.
I had NO idea the UA mascot was an elephant-you NEVER see it, and there is Roll Tide stuff everywhere here. It’s all the letter A and “roll tide”. Not a pachyderm to be seen.
Actually, there are elephants all over Bama paraphernalia. Ds found out at school that Crimson Tide/Roll Tide is b/c one of the announcers said that the red shirts running on to the field looked like a Crimson Tide…It stuck. But I am clueless as to how War Eagle equates to the Auburn Tiger??? (I am not into sports and I kept seeing tiger tails on the back of cars with Auburn stickers. I thought they were the Eagles.)
@MotherOfDragons If my kid could get a full ride somewhere that wasn’t totally atrocious but didn’t completley love the school, I’d resort to some sort of bribery. Such as, " if you go to school here for 4 years, it saves me X. And because you saved us x, I will now offer you ( something) in return for being a smart, good kid willing to save his family $$."
My kid usually just frowns when I mention some place other than his desired choices.
This. We’re hoping that UA can sell itself to her this summer the way Kansas did last summer (plus have her maternal aunt and uncle in Huntsville convince her that the South isn’t as bad as what she’d expect given her experiences with certain, um, interesting relatives on my side of the family).
It took a while for her to even entertain going on a tour there. It took probably seven months of just mentioning the school or pointing her to a video and so on, and then letting the whole topic sit undisturbed for a couple or three weeks—but as of a month ago, she agreed to contact the UA Honors College to set up a personalized tour, so I count that as success.