Stress: My stress level is currently pretty low, because I knew going into summer that DS wouldn’t be able to work on essays from June 26-Aug 3 and from Aug 9-16. He starts school on Aug 22, but the dual-enrollment classes don’t start until Sep 22. I’ll be stressed if a good number of essays aren’t nearing final drafts by Sep 22. First set of applications due Nov 1, but he will be pretty busy once HS & UC classes plus ECs kick in.
Transcripts: I heard that the school is mailing out transcripts and fall course lists to students/parents next week (via PTA email asking for help with envelope stuffing). I think this mailing may have updated ranking. I think they send transcripts electronically to most colleges via Naviance.
Asteroid: DS’ summer program team got pictures of their asteroid–yay! From the program’s blog, they went to the National Center for Atmospheric Research today and are going to a dark sky observing location in the Rockies tonight.
In the “not sure if this is a good idea” department, DS says “I’m getting good ideas from the other kids for experiments for Science Club meetings next year. Making gun cotton is really easy.” Ummmm. [-X They made chlorine gas last year, but it was out by the swimming pool, so it was “OK”.
Mini college visit: I had an extra hour or so down in LA since traffic getting to the pickup location for DC21 was good (getting home was another story). So, I stopped by UCLA and walked around a bit. I’d never been on the campus, and just wanted a mental picture. Seems like a nice campus–really big. So many pretty brick buildings that I had to check online about earthquake retrofitting. An article from early 2014 says they had finished 49 buildings then and will have completed retrofitting all 66 buildings that needed it by 2019.
So, DC21 is back from camp , but DH is off on another weeklong business trip to Europe (without me :-w ).
@CT1417 , CMU can be more expensive than Ivies, with very little financial aid or merit aid. To D, also too close to home. (USC is on her list!!) D is also not getting CS degree, so the allure is not there. According to her, there are so many good engineering schools with better values,
University of Pittsburgh (which we are not applying, despite the email notifying the application open) is just nearby and there are a lot of nice, historic buildings you can walk over to. Mt Washington is a tourist favorite if you have time. Shadyside is a nice area to visit/dine if you are staying near Oakland. Also the most competitive major at CMU is Music Theatre, not CS, just in case they ask that question in your presentation. We accompanied out of town friends there before
Sounds like my life. Everyone seems to go on amazing adventures but me these days. S17 has a break from camp tomorrow Eve. & will be staying with his grandparents for two days so I’ll be able to talk with him for a day or so before his last two weeks. He is totally off the grid when he’s there. My husband was just in Iceland. And I’ve committed myself to saying home on a new project all summer. ;( At least the project is going somewhere.
@CT1417 Who is the Pitt interview with? We’ll be visiting soon as well. Have a request in for a departmental visit, but didn’t think they did interviews.
@SincererLove —thanks for the sightseeing tips! He will be studying CS and Math, so that is the appeal of CMU. I am going through the motions of taking him to all these places and then hoping he will come around to my opinion, but I can’t force it. During the course of today, UW was off the list and now back on the list. I thought that Berkeley was off the list but I am not even going to ask. There is no written or typed list, and I am nagging endlessly about this. We were in the car quite a bit today, so captive audience.
@2muchquan --CMU interview, and I have no idea. It is one of those ones that you schedule online so I assume someone in admissions. Based on my experience with older son, some schools have summer interns conduct the interviews during the summer months.
@mdcmom, are you talking about linking your taxes return to FAFSA with DRT?
If I remember correctly have your D sign into FAFSA, then click on make a correction, then financial information of parents (and /or student if she has filed taxes too). Then select taxes completed and try to link to IRS.
Weirdly, I have several comments to make regarding this one page and they’re all pretty irrelevant to college (or anything that really goes with this thread.)
We have to drive all the way across Kansas to get to my in-laws. One of the first times we made the trip, we were talking to the waitress at a restaurant where we stopped. She said that she really missed her boyfriend and didn’t see him often because he’d gone to school in Manhattan. We agreed, yes that is pretty far away! She answered something like “I know, it’s almost 100 miles.” We smiled and nodded and thought she must be really bad with distances. About 100 miles later we passed the exit for Manhattan…
My sister lived near D.C. years ago and was flying to Atlanta for our oldest D’s baptism. She took a shuttle and made sure to get to the airport early because the baptism was the same day and she didn’t want to take any chances. So yep, you can all probably guess what happened. She was at Reagan (National back then I guess?) and no such flight. The realization of her mistake set in. Panic! She jumped in a cab and said “Get me to Dulles as fast as you can!” Cabbie did so and she made it just before the doors closed.
First, that sounds pretty awesome! But getting to the irrelevant part…
A friend of mine has pet ferrets. I don’t know how we got on the topic of dead ferrets and where to bury them, but she had quite the story. She’s a pretty sensitive, emotional, odd person and was very distraught after her first ferret died. She wanted to bury him somewhere really special and beautiful. So she picked NCAR. I said “Well, you mean near NCAR, right?” She answered “No, on the property. We were so worried we’d be caught but that’s where I wanted him buried.” She’s had three ferrets die since that time and guess where they are? Yep. I have strange friends.
Okay, I’ll do one relevant comment. I believe @flatKansas gets the prize for first student acceptance on the thread! Congrats! <:-P
@snoozn DS said some of them went for a hike at NCAR today. I’ll ask if they saw any ferret grave markers. O:-)
DS also says "There’s a wildfire here. Smells like home. " From the map I found, it looks sufficiently far away to be safe for Boulder.
Just curious, Could your D do grad school in Russian and undergrad in something else (with independent study in Russian)? Hope you don’t mind my asking.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek - That’s really disappointing (and surprising) about the Catholic and Jesuit schools; I had thought that most of them - with Georgetown as the glaring exception - were pretty generous with merit.
I have no idea how the finances might shake out, but ave you looked into McGill? I see that they have Russian as a major, and goodness knows, she’d get lots of exposure to French there! Also, you won’t have to worry about translating the teacher rec
This you would have to check on, but I believe that they had exemptions for international students paying international tuition rates if they were taking certain levels of French. I’m not sure how that works. They also seem to have some merit aid.
Just trying to think outside the box…I’m on hiatus from my own stress-fest as D17 is off at a 6-week program…but I’m sure it’ll be ramping up in August.
As for the name, I was fond of it until a recently heard a Shakespearean scholar rail against people calling The Bard “The Bard.” Too late now.
@flatKansas congrats on the first admission! Very cool! I didn’t realize schools with rolling admission were sending results out immediately. While D can apply immediately to a few, decisions won’t start going out until September.
@nw2this We had sort of wondered about the same thing, except more with French than Russian. We are learning that foreign language depts just don’t seem to function the way other depts do. Ds will be taking grad level courses bc they will build on what he knows. Universities don’t seem to focus on language acquisition skills the same way. Most don’t even seem to have language acquisition as a focus beyond a certain point. The critical language flagships are the notable exception. Interesting in that some of the smaller depts that she originally didn’t think offered enough courses actually have higher acquisition students. It is why her list is in a state of flux bc she is getting responses that are really surprising her. UR, for example, has told her that most of their 2nd and 3rd yr students are already in the advanced levels. That is unlike many larger programs where intermediate high/ advanced-low is the graduation goal.
I find it all extremely confusing bc it is unlike any other college search we have ever done.
@LoveTheBard We have looked at McGill before. I’ll have Dd contact them, but I am pretty sure their waiver only applies to the classes taken in French. That would make the other courses too expensive.
The University of Ottawa was on her list for the longest time bc they have an immersion program where as long you take 3 classes taught in French then the entire international waiver applies. They also allow you to take 8 classes P/F and have a language center specifically for immersion students. But her Russian teacher strongly disliked their Russian offerings, so she took it off her list. But, maybe she should put it back on bc her Russian teacher doesn’t like any of the schools on her list! And at the end of the program, you can test for being certified bilingual in French.
We are planning to visit CMU too – Most likely early Sept. - would like to see it in session and possibly the “Turning Tartan” weekend will be of interest. Will need to schedule interview - not sure how interviews will go - DS likely could use a bit of coaching and perhaps should do a couple of interviews first for colleges he’s not very interested in as practice. Any interview tips from our veterans here?? @mommdc & @SincererLove – thanks for the tips for around CMU - we can use them too!
Congrats on the early college acceptance @flatKansas !!
@snoozn – love your stories!! The ferret one (RIP little critters!) is so touching & hilarious.
@Ynotgo – your DS’ summer program sounds “out of this world” - any links to their program/project to share? Re UCLA - we toured last year - were in Pasadena for Harvey Mudd, Cal Tech & then saw USC another day - and then thought we could drive to UCLA for a tour in morning - took FOREVER to get there with traffic & missed CS tour. So we rescheduled and had a do over the next day. Tour was nice - of course we leaned there and at USC their stories about the birth of the internet so that was kind of funny. UCLA has a room enshrined with some of the equipment - DS LOVED seeing that. Campus was huge and spread out - tour guide student was very friendly & upbeat - enjoyed the vibe. DS won’t be apply - great programs in his areas of interest but just too big & too much to “navigate” - same at Cal Berkeley too – and so expensive as OOS ($58,000+) wo some of the benefits of smaller privates.
@jeepgirl KState @itsgettingreal17 Our state schools autoadmit, so while I was surprised to get the letter immediately I guess they may as well start sending them out right away! He technically hasn’t been admitted to COE there yet, so we do get a little bit of suspense
re: early acceptances - It was a nice little boost for S at whats the start of a long and stressful process. We embarassed him with applause.
, but DH is off on another weeklong business trip to Europe (without me :-w ).
