@MotherOfDragons – I can respond to the Cornell Engineering co-op question, or at least how it operated ‘back in the day’, as I had friends who were on co-op. Of course, this may have changed in 30 years.
Co-op students remain on campus the summer after soph year and take a full semester of classes, much the way Dartmouth runs their D term. They then work elsewhere (anywhere in the country) for fall semester, return to Cornell for spring semester Jr year, work full-time summer between Jr & Sr year, and then finish out the full Sr year on campus. So they are only away from campus for one semester, but away from home for at least one summer, but generally two, depending on job location.
It was interesting touring some of the smaller LACs with older son b/c we heard about the 90% study abroad rate (I am exaggerating the %), but I don’t feel that the study abroad rate was that high at Cornell. Some students went to Cornell in Washington or Semester at Sea, but it did not seem as dominant as it does at LACs. This is just a vague feeling I have; I do not know if it is backed up by reality!
CBH is about research in whatever field you are interested in pursuing. The computer aspect is learning to write programs for processing research data. It is not about CS, though CBH’s freshman courses do replace 2 CS reqs most majors bc the coding it that intense. (I’d have to confirm with Ds, but I think they even count toward CS majors.)
Research and research presentations are the main objectives.
Ahhhh I forgot her Stanford visit - she will definitely be applying and it’s the closest to home. But of course given the acceptance rate, it’s the least likely!
U of Washington (I think it is still on the list)
Yale (yes)
Berkeley (no)
Stanford (yes, but the longest of long shots)
Harvard (no)
Tufts (yes)
MIT (yes)
Columbia (no, only b/c restrictive nature of core would make double major too challenging. He really liked it.)
Princeton (yes, that surprised me)
Hopkins (yes, presented much better than expected)
Future visits (in case @dfbdfb is available for touring and compiling excellent notes)
U of Chicago (doubtful, but have not visited yet)
Northwestern (maybe)
CMU (will be shocked if he does not apply)
Rochester
Will apply, but not visit:
Georgia Tech
UMD-CP
Michigan
USC (b/c of the automatic scholarship)
I think UIUC has fallen off the list.
We have not formally visited Cornell but he has been there a lot and intends to apply. He does not seemed overwhelmed by their CS faculty.
I have never been a big fan of college visits. Seems to me they aren’t very helpful and lead to superficial determinations in many cases. Maybe they are more helpful with smaller colleges though we never looked at any. Also more important if you are a “fall in love” type person in terms of first setting foot on a campus.
That being said, we visited more colleges with my son two years ago. Daughter went on many of those visits. She tends to prefer rural setting places more than urban ones. She liked Cornell and Miami of Ohio. Didn’t like U of Cinci, Carnegie Mellon or Case.
As someone who was born and raised, she has been visiting Ohio State since she was 4 and is very comfortable there.
She liked U of Kentucky when we visited a month or so ago. Is visiting Michigan State this week. Chasing merit so it likely comes down to KY, OSU or MSU. Likely will be best deal offered unless the difference isn’t significant and there is a preference of one school over the other.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek S17 took Intro to Geology at our UC last summer–6 week class. It was taught by a PhD candidate who had about a year left. It was a good class, and he enjoyed it quite a bit. She also talked about her research and took them on 2 field trips. It made him want to someday take more geology classes, even though he doesn’t want to major in it. So, no harm no foul for not having a professor for that class.
There are also quite a few non-tenure track lecturers, especially in English, at our UC. I know several, especially the ones who teach technical writing part time and work as tech writers part time.
Somewhere we toured (Stanford?) said that all the main lectures (not sections and labs) are taught by people with PhDs except in foreign languages, where it is difficult for even Stanford to find people who are both highly proficient in a language and teaching and have a PhD.
Schools visited officially and unofficially
Texas (yes for business)
Emory(doubtful, but I will push)
Vanderbilt (yes)
Duke (yes, but long shot)
Wake Forest (yes)
UNC (highly doubtful)
Maryland (no)
Penn (yes, long shot but ED likely)
UVA (yes)
Johns Hopkins (no)
GW (no)
American (no)
Delaware (no)
Bowdoin (no)
Northwestern (no)
Michigan (yes, but can’t afford)
Boston U (no)
Berkeley (yes)
UCLA (yes, cause I am making him. wants to leave area)
USC (no)
Claremont consortium (no)
Stanford (no, impossible)
Cal poly slo (no)
Santa Barbera( i am insisting, he says no)
We could use one or two more Big MAC schools, haven’t figured out which yet…I don’t love the list. Too Many reaches, not enough middles that he would be happy at…
In order of visits, including without official tours:
UCSB (yes)
MIT (no tour, in town for H running marathon and speaking at MIT – yes)
Univ Nevada Las Vegas (no)
CMU (yes, but not for physics)
NYU (no)
Caltech (yes)
Harvey Mudd (yes, but small)
UC Santa Cruz (yes, ok as safety)
Stanford (yes)
UC Berkeley (yes)
CU Boulder (probably not, haven’t heard, though he really likes the campus)
Our list is shorter than a lot of yours. DH doesn’t see the point of a lot of college trips prior to admits. DS hasn’t even toured Calpoly, USC, or UCLA, which are all easy driving distance (because we are lazy or busy or something).
I noticed that there were a number of No answers (or surprised yes answers) for Princeton. Why? For the East Coast schools on S’ list, we would only visit if he is admitted. The eating club thing seems quite snooty. Is that the problem?
For us, the college visits were very helpful, especially for DS’17 who had no idea what he wanted to study and felt intimidated by the whole process after having to follow his siblings’ footsteps for his whole life. So we started off with school types…small liberal arts vs large university, rural vs city. And when other people told him (because Mom doesn’t count ) that even though he doesn’t have a 4.0 he could still get into college, maybe with some scholarship money, he began to take a lot more interest in the whole process.
Our list is quite small compared to most of yours. We are in Oregon, and there just aren’t many affordable schools for us to visit locally, and I don’t have the money or vacation time for a lot of cross-country visits. We will visit a few schools in August, after the school is in session but before our high school starts.
Completed tours:
Oregon State University (yes)
University of Oregon (no)
Arizona State University (she says no, I say yes)
University of Arizona (she says yes, budget says no)
Upcoming tours:
University of Alabama
University of Central Florida
University of Oklahoma
The Binder of Destiny has nine schools right now. I’m going to ask D to add at least one more that is completely her own choosing this Sunday during our “college talk” time.
I need to find a goofy name for the weekly meeting, and send out google invites :). Repeat 1x weekly until Dec 1…
@saillakeerie – I am weary of college visits and in general, they have not revealed all that much that we could not have gleaned from thorough reading and posting questions on this website. They were much more helpful with older son as @mdcmom said as he did not have a clear idea on major, location, size, etc. Younger son is intensely focused and has eliminated some schools simply by drilling down on their faculty.
At this point, we are only visiting schools that STRONGLY suggest the importance of an interview. The Chicago schools are add-ons while flying to Pittsburg, and just an excuse to visit Chicago, although there are much better ways to spend half a day. Summer visits are of the least value as son cannot attend classes and I cannot sit around eavesdropping on student conversations and interactions while he is in class. I did find that useful but even then, it is just a snapshot. The only real trips we took were Northern California and the upcoming Pittsburg/Chicago, but they have also functioned as mini-vacations, seeing friends along the way. Visiting all those east coast schools only required two nights in hotels as I stayed with friends to did day trips from CT.
Also as @mdcmom said, my comments do not hold as much weight, so sometimes he needs to see these places for himself to draw the conclusion I have.
@Ynotgo – I was one of the surprised yes responses for Princeton. Prior to visiting, he was concerned that it would be ragingly preppy, and that he would not like it for that reason. We live in one of the preppiest towns in America so I found his thinking amusing. Reality was that it was far less preppy than where we live, and he enjoyed the classes he attended, so it is on the list, but I think pointlessly so as Princeton does not seem to admit students from our HS. Even the recruited athletes don’t go there and we send recruits to every other Ivy, MIT, Stanford, the NESCACs, the military academies, etc. It may fall off the list after the early round.
I’m not counting the schools D visited as a tag-along younger sibling. Those did help her narrow the focus away from small LACs and rural schools without a surrounding decent-sized town.
U of Maryland-College Park (yes; will revisit to sit-in on classes)
American University (ditto)
George Washington University (wishy-washy, likes the academics but hates the campus; will also revisit)
U of Mississippi (yes)
U of Delaware (loves the campus, plus it’s the ultimate safety, but does not have enough Arabic)
To visit this fall:
U of Oklahoma
Ohio State
She will also return to Ole Miss in the fall to sit in on IR classes and see what campus feels like during the academic year (plus check on the dining situation).
QOTD: How many schools will your student be applying to? How many reach/match/safety? I think I asked this early on, but now that they are actually submitting applications, we probably have a more accurate count.
I found and liked the following explanation of reach/match/safety:
Safety – 90%+ chance of admission
Near Safety – 70-90% chance of admission
Match – 40-60% chance of admission
Reach – 15-40% chance of admission
Huge Reach – Less than 15% chance of admission
D is applying to 15. Admissions reach = 0, Admissions match = 0, Admissions safety = 15
Financial reach = 14 (NMF merit or competitive Big Mac), Financial safety = 1
With lower than expected SAT subject test scores released this week, we decided DD is better off not sending them at all. In addition, she never took SAT, only took ACT.
With this new approach, we are now going back to reevaluate DD’s college list. Some colleges are very clear with whether the SAT subject test scores are required. In fact, only a handful clearly stated they are required. However, others schools are vague. I am trying to interpret the wording on the college website to determine if, for the particular school, not submitting SAT Sub test scores would disadvantage her. So far, I don’t know if not submitting SAT sub test score would make her a less desirable candidate to the selective colleges.
@snoozn - If you have any questions about UR, my D’17 is biomedical engineering major there, and I’d be happy to answer any questions you may have.
Actually, I’m going to add that my son is a graduate of U Miami and my daughter is a rising senior at the University of Rochester. If anyone has any questions about their experiences with Professors, residential life, or financial/merit aid, I’m happy to try and help.
@dustypig Welcome! Has your D at Scripps taken any classes at Mudd, and what’s her major? I got a quick tour of the other 4 campuses (not much of Pomona though) from an old friend who is now in Pitzer admin while S was sitting in on a class at Mudd. Scripps looked nice, but obviously not for S. We talked with a girl who has one major at Scripps and another at Mudd.
@BigPapiofthree That’s quite a list. I’m interested in your “too expensive” note for Michigan, but not Vandy, Duke, Wake, Emory, etc. I agree UofM is too expensive. D17 is going to maybe apply since she is a triple legacy. Short of Stamps she won’t go. =))
I forgot, we toured Emory as well. Beautiful campus, but we didn’t care for the school at all.
QOTD- right now my DD is planning on applying to 4 schools. We have one application in and I could see her stopping with that. She wants to be done, but I don’t want her to change her mind at the last minute. Her brother only applied to one school. We hope to have her essays almost done in the next 2 weeks.
) that even though he doesn’t have a 4.0 he could still get into college, maybe with some scholarship money, he began to take a lot more interest in the whole process.