Oh, I agree about priority registration. I was (obviously unsuccessfully) attempting to emphasize that substantial difference beyond those typical perks can exist in honors programs/colleges.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek What about CBH was so special for your son?
Add me to the list of people who deeply love priority and protected registration. I know I can get all the classes I need in my major at my school because it’s protected, and listening to the kids who are freshmen and sophomores talk about getting shut out of their non–major classes, I also love that I’m a senior (I’m a senior senior, lol) and I can get those classes with no problem as well.
Some of those kids are taking years to get the class they need, and they’re not allowed to take upper level courses until the lower level ones are completed-but the lower level ones fill up so they have to wait and try again next year-it is so discouraging to them. I tried for both semesters to get a comp sci class at my non-home campus and gave up, and now I’m taking it online. That feeling of being shut out is the pits.
One of my friends mentioned corporate negotiators as a possible career track (ie like a lawyer but not a lawyer). I have no idea what younger D could major in, but any career that paid her for arguing would be amazing.
CBH is an honors program focused on research and research presentation, so students are immersed in developing those skills. Their freshman yr is spent is learning coding. (CBH freshman classes replace some of the CS major courses.). They learn fortran, C++, and I’m not sure what else. They work one-on-one with research professors. They have to give multiple presentations on their projects (one of them is televised). They have an entire floor of the honors college just for them (40/yr, so 160 students total have access to their facilities.) They have their own computer lab, 3D printer, and funding for projects.
The dean of the honors college is also very active in CBH and he is always available for questions, etc.
What can I say, ds loves it.
Here’s Bama’s description:
Of course that is missing my ds’s enthusiastic perspective. 
Thank you for sharing how awesome your son is @eandesmom. I’m proud of him for standing up and speaking and I don’t even know him!
Big celebration for @MotherOfDragons D on AP world!!!
@srk2017 and @eandesmom I hope your D and S can pull an A in their courses. My D is borderline in Latin right now. Fingers and toes crossed
@Tgirlfriend brag away! Woth so much doom and gloom in the world, a little good news and sunshine is always welcome. Congrats on 1st place!!!
@canypava I love your name! I sometimes wonder how some names are created. I will now look at yours differently.
Re: law, I can see my D16 as a lawyer. Very argumentative and strong willed. She might get her law degree just to have it, but right now she’s focusing on maybe business and math.
I missed a couple of days and it look me forever to get through all of the posts. Welcome to the de-lurkers!
So, school was cancelled due to weather today which means they add a day of school next week. Ugh. One more day to get up early. I was hoping S could have a day of rest between school and the SAT Subject test. The rain continues and the thunder is so loud, it sounds like jets are taking off.
@2muchquan Lurking…I lurked on the 2015 thread. Those parents were awesome and so supportive of each other.
@srk2017 Delayed start times…our schools is starting 5 minutes earlier to shave off a day or two next school year. It really stinks.
@dfbdfb Congratulations on the summer program!
@thermom I have had this same talk with my DS a lot lately. There are many kids in his classes that brag that they don’t work to get their As or cheat. I told him the same thing. Who knows what they do at home and it may be a persona they project. The situation just stinks. I’m glad she is feeling better. We are also looking for a school with laid back intellectuals.
@eandesmom How mature your son must be to keep his cool and argue effectively. That takes a lot of self control.
@motherofdragons Congrats to your D on her history test. Yay!
@canypava Good luck at the dance competition!
@Tgirlfriend Congrats to your S on Calculator Applications competition! I had no idea that was a competition category. My son loves programming on his calculator. I wish he knew more about the school competitions. All he does is dance.
Ok, off to do the only thing that can be done in this awful weather–make cookies and read a book. For the parents who liked The Martian, try Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek I read the description before but never fully understood. Thanks for the explanation. It does sound amazing!
@eandesmom What a great kid! Thank you for sharing the story!
Great work @MotherOfDragons daughter18 !
Congratulations @Tgirlfriend S !
@canypava It came out to be a nice and creative username!
Let me try… coohctil+ doesn’t work well. looks like cocktail or cooties 
So much to catch up on! Congrats to you @eandesmom – it says a lot about your son and a lot about you that he was able to do that.
Also congrats to your DCs @MotherOfDragons, @dfbdfb and @Tgirlfriend .
After reading through these threads, I think we can expand CCC and just create a college for our children. They all seem so similar with enough differences that I think they could have some super interesting conversations. I also have an argumentative, highly logical S who would like a collaborative engineering experience…
Super ugh! Stay dry (well, as dry as you can).
QOTD: How many safeties (Earth/Likely/SlamDunk/NoBrainer) do you have in your list?
I ask because I showed someone “our” list, and he said that there are only 2 safeties and suggested having 1-2 more.
Umm, … I am thinking why do we need more than ONE safety? Isn’t that enough?
There were several discussions on what a safety school means.
Ideally, a safety school will be
- Affordable - you are capable and willing to pay its cost. It could be $0 or $10K or $75K depending on your idea of affordability and bargain.
- C is willing to attend if it is the only school that accepts C - It should have a reasonable fit and academic programs where C can thrive and that will lead to a job or path after graduation.
- Almost guaranteed acceptance - This is where people disagree. Is 50% acceptance rate high enough? Probably not. 80% acceptance? Maybe. A guaranteed or automatic acceptance (by grades or test scores) would make the school an ideal safety.
Even in this strict criterion (guaranteed admission) one could have the “list” composed of mostly “safeties/Earth/ExtremelyLikelies/guarantees” while others may be content with having only One.
What do you think?
Wow, @jedwards70, such a bummer about another day of school. Having grown up in VA, I was used to snow days impacting the end of school, but usually by April, end of year stuff was locked down. Our kids have today off, so my D is in the middle of her 1 hour Physics sample test! I’m making her do another one Monday and then that’s probably it before Sat. I really need to get my helicopter blades surgically removed…
I really did LOL @payn4ward!! It looks like you are maybe asking for a cocktail after having one too many!
Also, I think your QOTD is really like the question of the next 4 months. I struggle with this too. Agree with your 3 criteria, I’ve seen that many times on CC. For my D, SDSU “should” be a safety, but its acceptance rate is ~35%. So we might need to add more. But then how many? I would think 2-3 (total). Unfortunately, my D really doesn’t want CC (community college) as a safety, which would be easy to do. We know a lot of kids who start that way and end up at a UC, so it can be a smart way to go.
To me, you need comfort that your kid will get admitted to at least one school that works (in terms of academics, financial, comfort, etc.). So there should be at least one school that is near 100% (kid is within top quartile (or at least above average)) of typical freshman class. Otherwise, you run the risk your kid is living with you in the fall of 2017 with nowhere to go. I think you can also use the idea of rolling safeties. Apply to one or two and see if you get in. If so, you are good. If not, consider adding another safety or two (at least one of which is more safe than first safeties).
Rolling safeties are great. It does give the feeling of achievement and excitement to get that YES, even if you know you’re a shoe in.
I really hope I can convince S to apply to a couple of rolling or nonrestrictive early action safeties for the feeling of accomplishment/peace of mind! I have to remind myself that my peace of mind is not what needs to be driving this process, but I would really like to know he has at least one solid option that is guaranteed. Otherwise I’ll be on pins and needles until at least February.
@payn4ward and others, I agree that the definition of safety is elusive, and am not sure how many to include on the list. Same goes for match, IMO (not sure what the definition is). Most schools S is looking at are reach schools, but this is based on their admissions rate (<25%), and not his credentials (based on credentials alone, most schools are a match - which is great in a way, but also means we’re oriented towards a lot of schools that really are long shots). When we talked to an admissions counselor, she used the term “likely” (I think meaning “safety” but am not 100% sure). I think she was trying to point us toward schools with >30% admissions rates, but the range of admissions rates in the schools she suggested was very wide (29%-70% or so).
One thing I am especially uncertain about is whether we can consider UIUC general studies (the default major they assign students who are admitted but don’t get into either of the two majors they requested on their application) to be a safety. S’s ACT is comfortably several points higher than their IQR, the overall admission rate is around 60%, we can afford it, and a lot of the smart kids at his HS/his friends already go there or are headed there next year (so he would be happy to go there). Based on all this S wants to just apply there and to a bunch of reach schools, and no other safeties/matches, but I’m extremely uneasy about this plan (especially since, as far as I can tell, they don’t release admissions decisions until February… also not sure how happy he’d really be to go there if rejected from choice majors).
tl;dr: Safeties are hard to define, especially for high stats kids. S wants UIUC be his one safety, and I don’t like that plan. Rolling safeties sound great; hope I can convince him to apply to some.
Leaving aside the two in-state non- and minimally-competitive schools that are on there precisely and only because in-state, out of the 11 remaining on the Spreadsheet of Serendipity, I’d say three are definitely admissions safeties (two of those in the sense that she meets the “guaranteed admission if you apply by this date” requirements, even), with one and maybe two more also being safeties by most definitions of the term.
@payn4ward For us, he has a good safety with the TX auto-admit rule. I think that he will find something that he wants to study there and likes the campus and it is affordable. That is the definition of safety, right? It isn’t his first choice but he thinks he could be happy there. Even though he has a safety, I want him to look around a little more and see if we can add another safety to the mix. I am on the fence about any reachy-reach schools. Some days I think he should go for it, other days I feel like the pressure would be too much.
The University of Alabama rep is coming to visit next week and he is signed up for a 20 minute meeting with the rep. Some of his senior friends are going there and are really enthusiastic about it. Now, he has to look through the brochures and website to come up with some thoughtful questions. He has this rain day that he should be able to use, right? Unfortunately, he is sucked into Lego Dimensions and I don’t know if he will find his way out of Hill Valley anytime soon.
@canypava I asked him to take one of the practice SAT Subject tests today too. The helicopter blades are on full rotation here. I need to shut them down. If he wants to do it, he will. I just need to accept it and move on.
Yes, I would really love to have one acceptance in December or as early as possible and be able to say,
“Yay! DS is going to a college!” (Not going to play DOTA in the basement next fall! He might play in the dorm though.)
Addendum to QOTD:
Is your safety/VeryLikely an EA or Rolling Admission school that releases decision by December?
CWRU has EA, but certainly not a safety/Likely due to acceptance rate (38%) and cost (merit size?)
Colorado-Boulder has EA. (73% acceptance per school Naviance)
@jedwards70 Yes, that fits even “ideal” safety definition due to being an auto-admit.
Having more safety/SlamDunk options won’t hurt, I imagine.
The school is out.
My helicopter is working only on S19. Both S17 and S19 are taking Physics Subject test. It would be strange if S19 gets a better score, oh well.
From reading other posts on CC, it looks like SDSU starts notifying in mid-Dec (higher stat kids). I think UC Riverside might as well. But it also seems that some (many?) CA schools release info in waves, which is great if you find out in the first wave, but it can generate a lot of anxiety if you have to wait! Probably it is just because there are so so many applications to all the UCs and CSUs.
Re: Physics subject test, ugh. My D is right around what her chem score was, which is what she wants to beat. Looks like it could go either way then. It looks hard to me!! So glad we didn’t have these back in our day.