Grew up spending lots of time in Kentucky…it’s a beautiful state. Part of its beauty is the geographic diversity within a not so big place. There are the Appalachian mountains in the Southeastern section (my grandfather was a coal miner from here…strong accents), the bluegrass regions (horse and previously tobacco country…my other grandparents were here…some accent) and the more urban areas of Lexington, Louisville, and greater Cincinnati areas which have even less or no accent. Fun and interesting!
Semsters Vs Quarters: DD prefers semesters because she thinks they give her more room for exploring the subject. But the main reason is she wants to have breaks at the same time as her friends who will most probably have semesters
@Hades321 …Feel the same about quarters versus semesters…very clear when we visited UChicago that the start date of mid to late September is a drag after all your hometown buds have left/returned to their semester institutions. Also a drag in May when everyone else is off and securing/beginning summer commitments.
I did my undergrad (4 yrs) in a school with a quarter system and my graduate (4 yrs) at a school with semester. I was an undergrad Bio major so I agree with @VickiSoCal in that many classes were 2-3 quarters long. I didn’t feel that more material was given to us in any given week in a quarter when compared to semester and, again, I spent four years at each school. If anything, sometimes the semester teachers had more filler or “fluff” because they had the extra time.
I preferred the quarter system because I couldn’t procrastinate. Some classes had two midterms - at week 3 and 6 and then a final. I had to keep working at a steady pace from the beginning to the end of the quarter and then I got a break. In graduate school, I didn’t really need to start studying until a few wks into the semester. The last six weeks weren’t at the same pace as the first six weeks. Since it is building on the first half of the semester, the material given in the last 6 wks was the most complex and important. If I hadn’t kept up and understood some of the basic concepts introduced earlier in the semester, it was much easier to get lost and fall behind. Studying for a semester final took much longer than 1.5 times what it took to study for a quarter final. I would say it is more of a logarithmic scale than a linear one.
I think the biggest thing to consider when going to college is that your social life is going to be different than it was in HS. Many people stay up until 2-3 am and sleep until noon. There is always something happening in the late evening. Even if you don’t party, your friends are going to want to get ice cream or pizza at midnight and then hang out afterwards. Maybe not every night but there are a lot of distractions and 8 am classes and having the discipline to study consistently all semester when you don’t have homework assignments prompting you, is difficult.
One other thing, I did my undergrad at a school on the beach with a huge social scene. I knew that I needed to study in between classes and during the day because something was likely to be happening in the evening. I took my psych and bio books to the beach but did physics and math in the library. My graduate school was at a campus in a colder climate with much less of a social scene. I could procrastinate more because most of the social events were on weekends. I felt that I was much more disciplined studying at the school on the quarter system with more distractions than at the school on semester with not much going on.
That’s just my experience. It is kind of like asking if someone likes a block schedule or a traditional schedule. To each is own.
The UK schools DD is applying to don’t start until last week of Sept of first week of Oct and get out end of June. That will make Summer jobs harder. On the other hand, if she doesn’t come home for spring break, its pretty cheap to travel around Europe or visit friends over there. I have a friends whose daughter is over there now and her and her friends backpack around, visiting each other’s families or staying in hostels.
@vandyeyes One of my best friends is going to UChicago and she’s not looking forward to being stuck here until late September when all her friends will be gone.
This post is all about URoch so skip if it’s not on your list -
@4beardolls, URoch is great, but the poster who noted that has a distinct personality is right on the mark. Definitely interview and express interest, and try to attend one of their info days in the fall, in part because the parent programs were excellent and informative. They also have overnight visits for HS seniors which we were able to combine with the info day. If you can’t make it on an info day they will probably work with you to make sure you get to see everything of interest. Very impressed with their admissions department staff & facilities (and your student gets a free T shirt when you tour!). If you can’t get there at all, find out if an admissions rep will be visiting a school in your area.
My impression is that admissions are holistic but scores rule for significant merit aid. D got much better merit offers at most of her other schools, including USCal, CWRU, Tulane, & Drexel. URoch has some interesting scholarships that require separate applications but D didn’t fit any of their very specific criteria so she didn’t apply. Their website has good descriptions that I am sure you have already found!
If your D plans to continue to dance, imo the dance department was a disappointment. URoch was great about setting up a tour with dance faculty during our first visit (the assistant director or director, I can’t remember), and she was incredibly nice and enthusiastic about their program, but the facilities consisted of an old gymnasium and a new yoga studio in separate buildings. No sprung floors or dedicated space for the program, and her comments left me with the impression that the school kept it around to say they had a dance program but really didn’t give it much $$ support. However, there are quite a few student run dance companies, including one specifically for ballet.
@nw2this Yes, definitely a southern accent in Kentucky. It reminds me of the downstate Illinois twang my nephews have, compared to my fast talking nasal Chicago accent. We will be moving D16 in at UKy in mere weeks. Go Wildcats!
QOTD - Semesters or Quarters
I don’t think S cares. His HS is semesters and he is used to that, plus he can be a procrastinator. Personally, I like quarters. I went to UCSC and we were on quarters. I liked the pace. I agree that there was little time for fluff, so you had to be on it. My ADD was probably better served by quarters! :))
@curiositycat333, FWIW, Cornell College (not University) in IA also has the block scheduling (one class at a time) like Colorado College has. Plus I think they offer merit aid. Colorado College is not very generous that way.
I should add that, as an employer who regularly hires kids straight out of college, kids who are on the semester system and finish in May have an advantage over those on the quarter system who finish in June. If you are on the quarter system, I would recommend interviewing over spring break so potential employers know you are interested. Personally, I will hold a position for a month for the right candidate from a quarter school rather than hiring someone less qualified in May. The important thing is that I need to know that the kid from the quarter school exists and is interested. If he or she doesn’t contact me until after graduation, I will have likely already hired the less qualified employee from the semester school.
I’m in So Cal so we deal with this a lot because most UCs are quarter and Cal States, USC, LMU, etc are semester.
Although to me semesters feel like they make a very short school year. DD was on a semester system and it felt like she was only in school half the year between all the breaks. Seems she was home every time I turned around.
@fun1234 Re: ACT English
This is a very very helpful book: https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Guide-ACT-English-2nd/dp/1484831454
Now that your kid has taken a full-length ACT test, it’s time to hone in on the sections giving the most trouble.
A good schedule would be a chapter of the book I listed above for one hour on one day and then a practice ACT English test on the next day.
@curiositycat333 wrote:
That is how I feel about DS’s breaks (in a good way 
). Every year around this time, I plan and buy the entire fall semester’s plane tickets home for DS: Driving him to college in Aug; Family Day in Sept (we go to visit him); Fall break in Oct; Thanksgiving in Nov; Christmas in December.
Then for Spring semester, Spring break in March then bringing him home for May.
@fun1234 No. Composite ACT score only includes the four multiple choice sections. The Writing section is completely separate.
Heading out in a bit to a lax tourney with son17. Coaches from a few prospective schools will be there and he is a bit nervous. My son is hoping to go to small DIII and maybe play lax, but he won’t be a superstar recruit. He’s hoping the coach just lets him on the team so he can keep working on his game and improving. It’s also super hot. 95 degrees. Not very good lax weather. Hopefully he can stay focused and do OK, he doesn’t love playing in the heat, but has gotten used to it this summer. It’s been a really hot June/July. He’d prefer to play when it’s 50 degrees out. I can’t imagine how those kids in the deep south can play lax year round. It must be brutal.
Son17 staying out of the heat right now doing some school work- yay.
@RightCoaster good luck at the LAX tournament! I remember those hot summer LAX days! My son played for years but gave it up this year. I was so disappointed-what a great game!
Anyone using Naviance already moved schools to the “colleges I’m applying” section? Or for those with prior Naviance experience…
I put D’s schools in Naviance and some of them say something like, initial submission “pending.” What exactly does that mean and what are they sending out as soon as you enter schools in that section?
@itsgettingreal17 This is just from memory of what our GC told us, but we as parents and/or students can only put schools on D17 ‘interested in’ list. For our HS, a submission of a transcript request will eventually lead to that school being moved (manually by GC or office staff) to the ‘applying to’ list.
I don’t recall any ‘pending’ status or tab…but ‘we’ have mostly been working in CA. I believe our Naviance is mostly for requesting LORs and looking at the school data.
I tried to order first ACT score report over the weekend but site was down for maintenance. So today sent the score to PITT!
@itsgettingreal17 we have not moved any over yet (waiting till after the “enhancement” in august). Only S can move them (though I certainly could log in as him lol).
Really good question. I thought it simply put the schools into the official HS review mode for requesting transcripts and LOR’s and then showing up in Naviance as being applied to. Ours does not show the 2017 admission cycle yet, perhaps that is the pending part?