@mamaedefamilia Western Washington is D’s favorite so far. Very nice campus; D loved the sculptures.
Congrats to everyone whose DC have submitted their first applications! I sense it’s going to be awhile before we get to that point, but I imagine it must feel good to have gotten the ball rolling.
@4beardolls Ds just called, so I asked him about where the other REU students are from. I think your ds will be surprised: MIT, UPenn, Rice, Case Western, Notre Dame, Wooster…(I told him he could stop there!)
HTH
@cararchel2 The A&M sessions in general were all poor. As a Aggie engineering grad it was very disappointing. I agree they seem indifferent whether you come or not which is not how we felt at the other places we have visited. I find it interesting since A&M has an initiative called 25 in 2025. They want to have 25K engineering students across all their compuses. Not sure that is going to work out for them with there current attitude and approach. It is still on my daughter’s list but it is not at the top currently
@Mom2aphysicsgeek, thank you for the follow up. This helps.
DS has no excuse now. [-X
@Mom2aphysicsgeek it sounds like the type of program you’ve really been looking for. I think we would apply and wait and see, then visit if we were still interested after we knew more about what our real options were going to be. Good luck. This is not easy for sure!
My son got a job delivering pizzas this summer. With tips, pay is pretty good. Though for the next two weeks, he is teaching at a computer camp in Georgia. With daughter still in Germany, wife and I are on a two week empty nest trial run. Definitely will be different when we go full time with it in a year.
On working. Ds does not have a job during the school year too many EC things he wants to stay involved in. He does however work each summer. This is his 3rd summer at a local marina. Makes good money, puts his paycheck in the bank and uses his tips for spending money. It’s hard work but it’s outside and he likes making and saving money and not having to ask us for any. He works 40 hrs/week in the summer and weekends at this job in May/June and September.
Went to visits U of Kentucky this week. Really liked it, so much new construction it’s crazy! DS said its top 3 on his list right now. They did tell us their app/essay prompts won’t be out until “sometime late August”. He also started working on his CA essay in the car so that made me happy. It’s hard when he wants to go to all these schools 10+ hours away. Just not enough time to do all the visits but I feel better now like he will find a place that’s a fit academically, socially and financially BUT he now knows he needs to take the ACT one more time in September. Hoping for just a 1 point boost.
Teen jobs
D17 works, probably a bit too much for our taste. She has two jobs, a summer job and a year round job. For her summer job, she is a camp counselor M-F from 8-3. For her year round job she works at a hippotherapy center, Thursdays and Sundays. Thursday she works/volunteers from 4 to 7. She works Sunday from 8 to 5. They often don’t have enough volunteers/employees so she is often asked to work Saturdays too. For the past two weeks she was working 7 days a week. Fortunately, the therapy center is closed for the long weekend and she gets 3 full days off.
We have already told here she needs to scale back in the fall / spring for a few campus visits. (And hopefully in the spring for some scholarship visits.)
Jobs
We believe in the value of our kids working. I think it teaches them valuable life lessons. Appreciating the value of a dollar, some level of financial independence, and how hard work is rewarded.
My S worked throughout junior year. 2 days a week worked 4-5 hours for a rare book dealer. And two days a week he tutored middle school students. He worked 5-6 hours total on this. He made 20-25 an hour as a tutor, and 10 working for the business. Next year he wants to expand on the more lucrative aspects of tutoring. His SAT tutor offered him weekend work for this fall, and said he would pay him much more than his current rate. He will use him as a math tutor as he got 800 on all versions of math SAT and Subject. We will see.
This summer he is away for 8 weeks as a camp counselor. The pay is very little(1400 for summer) but he loves it. He is making enough money that we do not pay for many things for him. Some clothes, college related stuff, and not much else. Since he began working, he pays for entertainment, eating out, gas, and dates and gifts for his GF.
I have him saving some money for college. I told him he does not have to work his Frosh year, but he will after that. Want him to have one year to get his sea legs and establish his college life. I had this same approach with older D’s.
Very few of his friends have jobs during year, and many not this summer. I know this is a national trend, but I don’t agree with it. Just saying…
@Ldoponce I missed your posted but @mommdc does raise a good point. Depending on which schools your daughter is looking at, merit scholarships are scarce but there are some for hispanic students. Even if applying to highly selective schools, your daughter’s safety school(s) may have some scholarships available. You didn’t mention your daughter’s PSAT score, and I understand with a 36 on the ACT being done, but I would imagine your daughter’s PSAT SI would have been high enough to qualify for NHRP? BU is on my son’s safety school list and a school he is really excited about so the $20K/ yr BU is offering for NHRP is something we will seriously consider regardless of what other schools accept him depending on what other scholarships he is offered.
Most Texas schools have auto admission. I left out Rice since admission is not guaranteed based on top 10 or 7% rule. However, I have heard A&M changed some rules recently for admission to engineering (I think I read probably on this forum that they don’t admit to the major when they give admission?).
UChicago - I love their new approach to score reports! No need to send official score reports UNTIL ACCEPTED! I wish all schools would do that and save us all a lot of money on the score reports.
@texaspg …yes, A&M no longer is auto admit for engineering. It sounds uber competitive to get in and then even more competitive to get your major of choice after one year.
@paveyourpath, That is a great new policy of UChicago! =D>
Every school should do the same. Why make all applicants pay $10/test to College Board before they are accepted!
@BigPapiofthree You don’t have to like this trend. But the reality is… a) H.S. students have more homework than they ever had so there simply isn’t time to fit that formal job in during the school year. b) Those jobs that used to be teen jobs are often (at least where I live) done by adults so there are fewer available. There are still some but the competition is fierce.
California State schools (not UC’s) user this approach with transcripts. You don’t submit an official transcript until after you are accepted. Your acceptance is conditional on your reported grades matching with those on your official transcript. But it saves the schools from all that processing & saves on application costs.
* I figured out how to quote.*
^ That’s true also for UCs about submitting transcripts after being accepted.
To those submitting UA and Ole Miss apps, a couple of questions: 1) Is your child a possible NMSF/NMF? 2) What are the honors essay topics?
Trying to decide if D should go ahead and submit her app now or wait for NMSF announcement … First decisions don’t go out until September even if you submit an early app.
I’m getting ready to submit score reports for D. I’m thinking about just sending the subject scores to each school since its the easiest thing to do than pick and choose scores. Good or bad?