I am sure Cleveland is a nice place, it is just not a destination city. If we are deciding whether to travel a 1,000 miles to visit CWRU, the promise of an afternoon in Cleveland is not the thing that is going to tip the scales. We did get a email from CWRU about the time Adam Savage visited, now that may have been worth the trip!
These schools spend MILLIONS every year on marketing to prospective students. It’s a racket, and ridiculously wasteful. Even the most selective schools that don’t need to remind students who they are do it. Some of them relentlessly – Swarthmore comes to mind. We decided way too late that we should have kept all the mailers our son got so at the end we could have taken a picture of him with the literal mountain of brochures behind him.
ha @citivas , that picture would be epic. We were keeping a lot of it too, until recently when my cleaned up his room.
Just saw someone with a NSHSS bumper sticker and I figured that they hadn’t read this thread!
A friend of mine asked about NSHSS (his son received the letter) and I told him that our group’s recommendation 
The marketing is a waste, but kind of fun. I’m glad I’m clued in to the real world of college admissions.
D has a classmate. I follow the mom on FB. It is heartbreaking how clueless they are in the process…good kid, decent class standing because he has taken zero APs and therefore has straight As mostly. I would assume an average SAT or ACT. FB informs me they are touring Vanderbilt and all sorts of schools that are major major academic and financial reaches. They don’t have a clue. She saw one of my posts last week and messaged me “What do you mean by EFC?”
This will be a brutal year. Super nice family though.
@carachel2 Are you going to extend a helping hand? Or just wait and see? It’s difficult sometimes because on one hand you want to help but on the other hand you don’t want to butt in other people’s business.
Colleges are engaged in advertising. I think you can say that much of any type of advertising is a racket and ridiculously wasteful. But someone apparently thinks its worth the cost. And presumably with respect to colleges, its not just the people making a living designing, creating and sending out the various advertisements that are produced. Some folks in administration/management believe it to be worthwhile too.
Email is pretty cheap. Print media isn’t as costly as it once was in terms of producing full color brochures. I expect that some kids are more impressed than others by the various forms of advertising. And my guess is the more a kid finds the “college experience” concept appealing, the more he/she will like the recruiting process. That a large group of kids/parents believe its money wasted doesn’t mean on a whole it is.
@CaucAsianDad I still think you are missing the point. Pretty much every recruiting brochure I have seen suggests visiting the nearby city/town when you visit the campus. Does that mean they believe that city/town is a destination city and the idea of visiting that city/town will tip the scales? Doubtful (though the applicable tourism bureau doesn’t mind the plug). They understand that selecting a college is more than just the physical campus. Off campus (including that city/town) is important as well. They want you to see both. And hopefully find the combination appealing.
And the idea of destination city is in the eye of the beholder, isn’t it? What someone would view as a destination city may not be viewed by everyone as such (outside the clear traditional such cities). Are there people who have been thinking about visiting Cleveland who would see a visit to Case as such an opportunity? I suspect yes. Would everyone? Clearly not. How much isn’t clear and how many do you need for it to make sense? Don’t know that either. But I do know there are a lot more hotel rooms in Cleveland than there were 10-15 years ago. People are visiting the area. And from what I read, you buddy Adam Savage enjoyed his trip here.
@HiToWaMom …I told her the basics and told her I was available at any time and never mind passing on what we have learned. I try to never come off as annoying or know it all, because I am still learning also.
But no…she never messaged me. I picture them as the type that will borrow $20K a year in Parent Plus loans to make it work.
My issue with college advertising or mailings is lot of kids they target don’t have a realistic chance of getting it in but colleges do to increase the # of applications. Their “holistic” approach gives hopes to too many and then bitter disappointment!
@Mom2aphysicsgeek yay for finishing the course descriptions!
@eandesmom awesome news on the grades. Fantastic!
@jeepgirl congrats on the wedding, but yikes on paying. Not looking forward to my girls bill when the time comes.
@HiToWaMom celebration for an A in pre calc! When is your D’s last day of school? Is it now time to break out the bubbly?
@carachel2 I know what you mean about clueless parents. Sometimes I want to set people straight but it may come across that I don’t have faith in their kid so I just keep my mouth shut.
@srk2017 …exactly. I think they are fun at our house (but a waste of paper for sure) but man, some kids truly think they are being singled out and it is kind of sad.
@greeny8 …yep. I totally know I can be annoying and I don’t want to be “that” mom. Plus, I may not know the whole story. But all these kids have gone to school together since elementary so I think I have a pretty good idea. It’s a smile and nod and smile and nod situation.
** Happy Summer Everyone!**
@snoozn I’ll break out that champagne with you even though my DS has been out of school for three weeks. I need it because DS has been out of school for three weeks and I just nag, nag, nag to get things done.
@eandesmom Congrats on the awesome grades this year! Your DS has worked so hard.
QOTD Came in today from Rice: Bestselling fiction writer Justin Cronin rejoins Rice faculty.
Honestly, I love these books but how many kids have read The Passage series?
@greeny8 Today is the last day!! She has confirmed the recommendation with one teacher that I know of. I don’t know if she talked to the other teacher. That’s my only concern.
Anyway, the junior year is over! I impulse bought lots of sweets for her when I went to a drug store today. I feel bad because I went there to pick up a box of Pepto-Bismol…
Congrats to those finishing the school year this week. Is that everyone on summer break now? <:-P
Looks like lots of rigorous schedules for next year!
Congrats <:-P <:-P to all the kids who brought up grades @eandesmom and @HiToWaMom ,
kids who are starting jobs @greeny8 @HiToWaMom @eandesmom,
kids doing research @srk2017 ,
and moms finished with course descriptions @Mom2aphysicsgeek !
Snail mail: We aren’t getting all that much college snail mail these days. Maybe one a day. DS said he unsubscribed from emails for a bunch of colleges. Perhaps they take you off the snail mail list eventually if you unsubscribe from email? Maybe I should be sure to subscribe him at least for the schools on his list. I added a column about interest to my spreadsheet – there are 2 that rate interest as important and 4 where it is considered.
Dual enrollment: It’s interesting how differently dual enrollment is viewed regionally. Our school profile says DE at the community college is viewed as equally rigorous with AP and IB. I know the DE Calc BC class is more rigorous than AP, because while the final is similar to the AP test, you have to get 90+% to get an A, whereas the AP test is somewhere around 65% to get a 5. And there are 2 extra calculus chapters that aren’t covered by AP.
APs: Wow, amazing numbers of APs offered at some schools! I think we have 19 APs and 9 IBs, and I’d thought that was a lot. Four of those APs (Calc BC, both econs, and stats) are really dual-enrollment classes taught on the HS campus, and students can take the equivalent AP test. They aren’t listed as AP on the transcript.
AP Comp Sci: @262mom S actually took the test in 8th grade after taking a couple programming classes from Art of Problem Solving, including one that was basically the old AP Comp Sci AB class (included intro data structures). He hasn’t taken any DE CompSci classes, so he’s self-taught after the AoPS classes and doesn’t have any CompSci (other than Discrete Math) on his transcript.
Resumes for LoRs: DS has one that is updated to about spring break of this year. He’ll update it again in August and also do the Brag Sheet and give those to his LoR writers. I’m wondering what he should give his English teacher, because his resume is very STEM heavy, except for debate and accreditation committee participation. His last writing award was in 4th grade.
Marathons: That’s DH, not me. He’s done Boston 3 times, Berlin once, and several others. But, he’s had two meniscus surgeries, and the doctor warned him that he only has so much meniscus left. So, he’s given up marathons and switched to 1/2s and (supposedly) not racing super hard. (I’m up for hikecations. When we have nearby wildfires, we go on evacucations.)
I had to speed-read through so many pages of this thread.
Been busy helping DD shop and pack as she is leaving for her 7-week summer research internship. She will be staying in a college dorm so we had to bring things such as sheets, pillow, towels, fan, lamp, etc… Packing is challenging as she will be flying with all these bulky dorm stuff.
All the shopping and packing for DD’s dorm life really gave me a sneak preview of what next year this time might be like… Back to more packing with a mixed emotion!
Eek… We’ve had evacucations too @Ynotgo. I’ll go with the hikecation. H and I (plus a group of friends) are going on a hikecation starting tomorrow in Iceland! We are going with another couple and will tour the Westfjord area for a week. Then we meet up with two other couples for a 7 day hike from hut to hut in the volcanic interior of the country. The tour company carries the gear and makes the meals. We hike with a guide, day clothes, and lunch. No kids. Wow…what a thought. I am practicing being an empty nester. We did get a texting package while we are gone so we are not really out of touch. I am sure I will be sooo behind on this thread that I will just jump back in from where it is. I will let you all know how many posts you put up in a 2 week period.
@mtrosemom Wow, have fun in Iceland!! I’m looking forward to your trip report! We are going there for a week in August. We haven’t really decided exactly what we’ll be doing yet. We are taking the kids and my mother-in-law. MIL will probably sit out some hiking and find museums.
There is a thread here with some people going to Iceland in June and July: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/19651255#Comment_19651255
:))
Checked the mail and guess what was there?
NSHSS
Cracked me up.
Newest rash of junk email and snail mail seems to be parent directed, apparently I need to remind my kid to read his mail and email among other things. But hey at least there were a few different types today than the usual big booklet or postcard. One sent a sticker (note to their marketing…a sticker on the outside of a postcard does not fare well through USPS) and a “select” application notification from another. Hmmm will that mean a waived fee? :-?
3 postcards from the same school in one day though…that is a bit much. I wish this particular school sent less mail and higher quality if they are going to do so, they may win the most postcards award but also the least imaginative.
QOTD
Not funny but it did make me open the email.
Particle Accelerator? We’ve got one of those. Come, see.
Hmmn I’ll need to think about that one as usually if it is pathetic or desperate it goes right into the trash. Most often they are just unimaginative or cliche. “Located in Beautiful Southern California” which for S, is a huge turn off so did not help their cause at all!
@greeny8, @Ynotgo, @jedwards70 thanks!
@Ynotgo I subscribed S to the schools on his list. He isn’t happy about it but I’ve found we are getting info we weren’t otherwise so it’s helpful and shows interest. He can suck it up. LOL! Thumbs up for hikecations, but down for evacuations. We are hoping to do more hiking this summer, S17 has rediscovered his love for it thankfully and S19 needs to break in the new boots I haven’t bought him yet for his summer 50 miler. Boston and Berlin, wow!
@mtrosemom Iceland, wow! It is supposed to be amazing, we know several that have gone.
@4beardolls 7 weeks, that is a long program! I’d have shipped a box to her.
AP’s
I found out that a 2016 girl at our school just took the record for the most AP’s ever at 13. She does not have music of any sort in her lineup which is the only way you could attempt to pull that off and must have gotten a PE waiver. Cheer captain, perfect ACT and 4.0. S had a hard time believing that there are other kids out there like that.