Son17 woke up finally and he actually logged onto his online IOS app development course and did some work for a bit. I am impressed. That’s his only real " studying" he is doing all summer. I hope he learns something.
@CaucAsianDad: But, as Ian Hunter so clearly taught us, Cleveland rocks! 
Anyway—this is a fun one—most pathetic reasons for touring…
[ul][]Boise State U: We have a blue football field!
[]U of Puget Sound: 100% of our tenure-line faculty hold doctorates! (A bit esoteric for most kids, and for kids like mine for whom it isn’t, it’s an incredibly narrowly tailored claim without knowing the proportion of tenure-line to contingent faculty.)
[]U of Idaho: We’re the Vandals! Come visit and find out what a Vandal is!
[]Drake U: We host the Drake Relays, one of the premier high school track and field events in the country!
[]Oberlin C: Come visit our art gallery! We have kittens! (No, seriously—this was the entire point of one email she got.)
[]C of St Benedict/St John’s C: We’re cool because we have a raft at our on-campus beach! (This led to months and months of emails and mailings encouraging visits with the “college on a raft” theme. Really?)[/ul]
From WashUSL’s flyer: “Cost Will Not Be A Barrier To A Great Education”.
Liar liar pants on fire…
I would be tempted by Oberlin’s kittens. More tempted by any college that had tiny puppies, though. Haven’t seen a brochure with puppies yet. Get on it, colleges!
Petition for the schools to stop sending marketing materials, and use the money saved to waive application fees. Nice dream, right? 
Chatting with S yesterday, so that I could give him early warning that we could be starting on applications very soon. He basically says to me that he’s not really motivated to do much until NMSF info comes out because “it could change everything/he doesnt want his hopes up/he doesnt want his hopes down/whats the point.” I felt very stabby mcstabberson.
@MotherOfDragons WWU brings in puppies and kittens during finals…though it isn’t stated on the brochure. LOL!
I told my S that a legislation to ban deceptive marketing by colleges could be one good speech (Advocacy) topic Other topic is electoral reform (I am a political junkie!), but given his science activities and applying to colleges he is not sure he will compete in speech this year. He will definitely won’t compete in fall semester.
@eandesmom, congrats on your son’s achievement with his grades. I know the feeling. S didn’t have a B of any sort this year. First time ever!!!
@Mom2aphysicsgeek . Yay on getting those course descriptions completed. I bet that is a relief and a great way to celebrate summer.
I am happy for all of the families celebrating today as their last school day of 2015-16. Come on summer break.
@CaucAsianDad, D15 is spending her summer in Cleveland doing an internship and said it is much nicer than she expected. She is enjoying it, and has the extra added bonus of getting to go to the victory parade for the Cavs Wednesday. The whole city got the day off.
We get lot of love from Case Western Both email and snail mail. We ignore all that even though it’s in our list (for BS/MD).
question?
Do colleges and universities get some sort of tax break or mailing discount for the literature they send out?
Today my son got some beautiful brochures, in huge envelopes. Bowdoin had the nicest one. How can they afford it? We must get 10 pieces of mail a day. Son17 gets 15 school emails a day, and I do realize that email is more cost effective. I just don’t know why some schools like UChicago are sending us these expensive pieces when we have never shown any interest at all. I also understand it is a marketing game to drive applications up, but at what cost?
@mtrosemom But that only happens once every 52 years , and look how much fun Ferris Bueller had in Chicago on his day off.
@RightCoaster We got the Bowdoin brochure too! Perhaps the nicest we’ve received. We are keeping the postal system in business for sure with all the mail my DD receives!
Yay!! D’s pre-calc teacher rounded up the numbers and gave her an A!! He said D asked a lot of good questions and worked very hard so she deserves an A. It is big time grade inflation and you can see through it because her ACT math score is 23 and 24! But I’m not complaining!
ACT was disappointing. Her composite went down 2 points. Only math went up 1 point but everything else went down. Oh well. She didn’t prep at all, we had a big fight the day before and her friend didn’t go home till late the night before. Sigh. Expected but disappointed.
D got a book (yes, that thick) from Yale a couple of days ago. I don’t know why they think this is helpful after we already visited the campus.
@CaucAsianDad This comes admittedly from a Cleveland homer. I am pretty sure that Case doesn’t expect downtown Cleveland will be the deciding factor when compared to Miami, Chicago, and Southern California (and some other cities as well such as Boston or NYC). But that appeal may well be aimed more at parents than the kids. Cleveland has the river that caught fire, is a city that went into default and is known to many as the Mistake by the Lake. The fire and default were when today’s parents were in high school/college. Mistake on the Lake is something ongoing (though the Cavs likely erased at least some of that).
Cleveland has a lot of great things to offer. And much of that is new in the last 10-20 years. World class orchestra and healthcare facilities. Great theater district. A lot more top notch restaurants than a city its size should have. Great and diverse ethnic communities. A great lake. Great sporting venues (with defending NBA champs).
Again, does it beat those other cities you mentioned? No. But it gets a lot closer than what many people would expect. Time and time again, I hear people who travel here for one reason or the other who say they are surprised with how nice the city is and how much it has to offer. My guess is that is what Case is trying to tap into.
Steps down from my Cleveland tourism perch…
Ok you all are all scaring me, I haven’t checked the mail in a couple of days and am now afraid it will explode!
@snoozn, @RightCoaster thanks!
@mtrosemom exactly, except this is his first year without a C.
@HiToWaMom that is an outstanding result in precalc, I wouldn’t complain either! <:-P No grade inflation there for us but since he brought up AP Physics to an A- and AP Lang to an A at the 11th hour I am pretty happy. I wish the UW GPA was a bit higher, I have no idea how that works when transferring credits and it impacting gpa at the school it is transferred to, but it’s not horrid either.
I am 100% sure that spanish grade is inflated.
:))
@whataboutcollege well at least you’ve shown some interest, so they want to stay in touch. I can’t fault that. I would say that is "smarter"marketing. They are trying to entice you further.
I just find it odd that so many schools send very nice literature packages to kids like my son that are not interested and most likely not academically qualified for attendance.
So, my son literally gets bombarded by tons of no-name schools or super elite schools regularly, yet receives only modest amounts of stuff from schools he has shown any interest in.
The school my son has the most interest in actually has the best marketing campaign to keep his interest. They email once in a while, sent 1 nice brochure, but the Dean has sent a couple of nice notes expressing their interest to review his app asap. They are not emailing us crap about cats, puppies, or circus events on campus.
@HiToWaMom bummer about ACT, my son’s didn’t go up either. He says he wants to take it again unless he aced the SAT a few weeks ago. We’ll see, not holding out much hope.
I’d take some grade inflation any day and be happy. We always seem to get grade deflation, seriously.
@RightCoaster The largest amount of our snailmail definitely comes from schools that S wouldn’t actually get accepted to.
He did finally get big fancy mailing from Missouri S&T this week. I have to assume that’s coming out of PSAT/NMSQT lists because I’m pretty sure we hadn’t heard a peep from them so far (and they’re somewhat local).
@CaucAsianDad …I second the comments from @saillakeerie …I went to Case back in the 80s, and while it served me incredibly well academically, I can’t begin to describe the marvelous transformation University Circle, and Cleveland in general has undergone since then. It’s really remarkable!