Olin looks extremely cool. Very hard to get into but I can see where for the right kid, it would be amazing.
I love the diversity of the snail mail today
University of Wyoming
Reed
:))
I don’t have access to any of D’s accounts because it is simply too much effort to monitor them. She made a FB her sophomore year but that was only for school clubs that had pages for announcements and events. I am her friend on there, but she never actually posts anything. We’re also not allowed to tag her on FB.
She also has a snapchat, but I’ve never used the app and don’t know anything about it. She also has a tumblr that she goes on for about 10 minutes every day to post a daily “what happened in presidential history on this day” fun fact since that is her odd passion. She doesn’t actually browse tumblr as far as I know.
Her email is her own responsibility, and she does actually keep on top of that. The only thing is that she puts all her college mail in the “Promotions” tab of gmail so that they don’t clog up her important information. She is all too happy to ignore the Promotions tab altogether, at the possible expense of important information.
I am not on Facebook, but their dad and siblings are all always tagging each other.
My D17 rarely checks her emails which has been a bone of contention with me…she needs to get into the habit because she may have to respond to something etc. I had gone through her emails a while back because she had over 500 and she said it was too daunting. I unsubscribed to most of them but she still gets. Here’s her top 10 as of today:
Furman
Florida Southern
Tulane
BU
UPenn
Syracuse
Berry
Vanderbilt
Wash U
Rice
Quite an assortment.
I finally sat down with her and she started to fill out the CA!! Woo hoo. However, she has been extremely conflicted and isn’t even sure where she wants to apply! WHAT?!! Just a few months ago she was firm on her ED and now she is second guessing it.
Only schools we have every gotten snail Mail for are University of Chicago (The most by far & we have no interest). I’ve seen mail from Lewis & Clark & Oregon State which are both schools we visited. Honestly not a lot of snail mail except the UofChicago stuff.
@Ynotgo Don’t know what you are hearing but in terms of general reputation but I’d rank UCSD 3rd in line after Berkley & UCLA and has been for years. It has been giving both of them a run for it’s money. It does depend on what you are studying though and I would really compare on individual departments rather than overall repuation.
@2muchquan My son is a 2nd year at UChicago and they have been very generous with financial aid. We are paying less than our EFC. He had no big hooks but a few smallish ones. I wonder if D17 gets in if they will even come close on what they gave him. In my group from my son one other was accepted to UChicago and they got 10,000 less per year than they were offered by Penn and Columbia so obviously they did not go to UChicago. It’s all so random.
@Ynotgo I don’t think you have to worry much about those “other than usual social media” platforms! LOL!
Fee waivers: At this point, the list is effectively set, so any fee waivers would simply be a bonus, not an inducement. Wouldn’t argue against one, of course, though…
Last ten schools: Not counting stuff related to her application to Kansas, the last ten in her inbox, starting from the most recent, are: *St Thomas (Minnesota), *George Mason, Boston College, Cal Poly (San Luis Obispo), *Muhlenberg, †Amherst, Washington College (Maryland), Johns Hopkins, †Penn, and †Westminster (Utah). I’ve asterisked the three on her list, and daggered the three others that have ever been on even the most expansive version of her list.
Access to email (and other stuff): First off, the email deluge has gotten a lot better since she’s started unsubscribing from schools that neither remain on her list nor stroke her ego. (So, for example, she hasn’t unsubscribed from any of the Ivies.) Second, we have free access to her college-spam account (but only that one), but we only read through them if she’s there. Finally, we don’t check up on her texts and social media and stuff, but we reserve the right to run random checks, and she knows it.
OK. Just saw the thread about online privacy. I give S17 a fair amount of online privacy. I haven’t friended him on FB, although he has friended his grandmother. 
Honestly if it wasn’t for marching band DS wouldn’t even be on FB. I don’t have his email password, but I was the original creator and could break in if I really wanted to. That and I do have administrator password for his computer. We haven’t discussed if he’s making a new email for college apps, so far he’s registered for tours with his regular email.
He isn’t really into twitter, snapchat, Instagram or Tumblr. Its all about gaming. What he cares about is youtube & twitch accounts. For most things he doesn’t use his real name online.
@eandesmom @MotherOfDragons A friend’s daughter goes to Olin and loves it. As you said very small, hard to get into and probably not for everyone. At least isn’t very near a big college town.
S17 wasn’t interested in Boston schools at all. We were there in May for his sisters graduation & he didn’t want to look at any schools.
I don’t really monitor D’s social media. I just need to have access to it. We discussed the rules of use when she was first allowed to get the accounts, the dangers, and why I needed access. I also know her phone log in. I used to do random checks on all, but no longer. D uses social media responsibly and I have no concerns about her posts. But I do think some parents are a little too trusting given what goes on on social media these days - lots of safety issues there. Just my two cents. D and a few of her friends are FB friends with me and I do tag her on occasion. She rarely uses FB as “FB is for old people.” And she recently made me get a Snapchat because texting me pictures took too much effort. lol (I haven’t taken the time to figure it out except to see what she sends me). It works for us. D and I are super close so she’s not concerned about me “invading her privacy.” Sometimes I have to tell her TMI. lol
@2muchquan - I had the same problem with Ole Miss. What you can do is call ACT ask for the date it was sent to UA and the batch # her ACT was in. ACT said sometimes the colleges have trouble matching it up because they no longer send the SS# with the student.
Fee waiver in the mail today for University of Tulsa where we have no interest. Also in the mail today a big magazine style piece from Northeastern, flyers from Knox and Loyola and a postcard from Iowa State. We are working to make sure our local post office doesn’t close - lots of mail to our house!
@acdchai Agree about the total randomness. Sounds like your S got a sweet deal. Congrats!
Now, care to share about your username? AC/DC HAI? ACD CHAI?
We have just gotten glossy mag from Northeastern & a fun viewbook on Boston U. Unsolicited book from U. Chicago - not interested.
@Atyraulove You got me to open the TU packet D received in the mail today. And yep, there was a fee waiver included. D will not be applying, however, as she didn’t feel that it was a good fit. I may have missed others, as we no longer open college mail from colleges that D is not interested in.
My kid is active on Instagram, Tumblr, Snapchat, and I don’t know what else. She has complete cyber freedom and we aren’t connected in anyway. She stopped using Facebook a few years ago when old people caught on and her uncles started commenting on her posts 
.
Oh while I don’t have my S17’s password to his account. I have up until this coming August made him use him his computer in the living room instead of his bedroom. This meant we could always simply look over his shoulder. Was planing on asking him to move to his bedroom once he gets back. He’s only a few months off 18, we haven’t had a problem with his online use since he was 12. And we will have a crowded house till he leaves for college, I want him to use his bedroom more.
JOTD: A termite walks into a bar. He doesn’t see anyone behind the bar, so he asks a guy sitting there: Is the bar tender here?
Ugh, D18 just texted me-she’s running a 99.8 fever and thinks she has strep. She just went over to the camp nurse and got some advil. Usually strep gives you a higher fever than that, so I’m hoping it’s just a virus that she can kick in a few days. No fun being woken up with a text like that, or on her end, a cold like that. 
D17, H and G are headed home today. Last night H said she was “touristed out, colleged out” and didn’t want to do any more exploring today. I wonder if she’ll still feel the same way this morning? I don’t think, outside of maybe BU, that there are any other colleges that are a good match for her in Boston. BC is too religious, and Harvard is not what she’s looking for.
H and I discussed how to talk about colleges with her from here on out, and he said one of the guides gave advice that he liked-pick a day and time, each week, to talk about colleges. And then outside of that time, no nagging, no discussing it. Just save it all up and make notes to go over in that chunk of time. I think that’s an excellent idea that will work really well with my BOD and deadline-checklist oriented way of thinking.
The girls don’t have electronics in their rooms-messes with their circadian rhythms, is my argument. We don’t have electronics in our room, either, so it’s not a do as I say, not as I do kind of thing. I take a good night’s sleep very seriously-I think a lot of misery is caused by bad sleep habits.