I wish I’d shipped my D to a summer program just for the dorm experience. I’m making sure she visits friends at college this coming year.
Regarding question " what schools are you looking at/"
Son17 has a rehearsed answer…… “small business schools in the Northeast”. That pretty much covers it, but leaves out larger state safeties.
@snoozn look forward to your thoughts on UVM, hope you had fun in VT.
@2muchquan – I’ve also been wondering about how to answer that “where else are you applying” question. My S14 was never asked but he only had about four interviews. Hubby and I discussed it and we had different takes on it. I thought that the answer should be fairly general like @RightCoaster suggested. Hubby thought that D17 should list off the schools. So…would love to hear some more feedback on this!
Our high school has 2800 kids and 5 guidance counselors. I’m not sure our GC would recognize my daughter if we were walking down the street and saw him . Oh there’s also an intervention specialist but I assume you only get assigned to him if you have serious issues. I am guessing he has some kind of form letter he writes based on transcripts, activities, etcetera.
@LoveTheBard Make sure you check the required Undergraduate GPA required as well. They give you dual enrollment but then if you fall short on GPA looks like you fall out.
@itsgettingreal17 I think the key to your statement you are talking about very specific types of summer programs (at US Universities) and using them for “admissions at elite schools”. Many of our kids aren’t applying to elite schools. And many summer programs for teens are paid for my their parents even the more unusual ones.
@2muchquan It used to be that schools could see not only the other schools listed on your FASFA form but also the order listed (as if that was an indication of interest. Dh filled out FAFSA. He didn’t know one school from another!)
Things have changed, but they might still be accessed?? http://time.com/money/4124705/fafsa-listing-colleges/ This explains it, but I lost interest. 
@Mom2aphysicsgeek Yeah, that’s basically what I heard, but it seems like a conspiracy theory to me. Who knows…my first time through it. I thought that in many cases kids were offered admission prior to FAFSA deadlines. I guess I can see ‘some’ schools using this tactic, one which I have now lost interest in as well. 
For you folks with NM kids looking at UKy:
QOTD:
** Where do YOU want to go to school?**
After looking at schools for the last year or so, if YOU could go to school where would you go? Cut yourself some slack and assume you have awesome stats and EC’s 
Apply up to 3 schools
- UVM- I love it here. I would have an awesome student experience. Would study Business, minor in marketing.I’d intern at Burton. I’d have a student ski pass. I’d skateboard at the new skatepark. I’d go sailing. Learn to brew cider.
- Brown- I kind of dig the vibe here. Kids are smart. Different from the other more traditional Ivy’s. I like the area. Not sure what I’d study there though lol.
- U Miami- I miss the beach. I’d study business. I’d go to the beach, watch college football, ride bikes, explore Miami, head down to the keys, try to find somewhere good to surf.
@Gator88NE at #12202 post, thanks for info on Vanderbilt. I am confused about the 2% of the admitted students get one of 3 scholarships offered. According to this page, http://www.vanderbilt.edu/scholarships/, there are 250 recipients of one of 3 scholarships. Unless this number is the total scholars across 4 years of undergraduates, wouldn’t the percentage of scholars be close to 15%? Most recent admitted class has 1607 students who enrolled, and if 250 scholarships were granted, the ratio would be closer to 15%.
@2muchquan at 12208 post, it is rather peculiar, 25% of admitted students must have a perfect ACT of 36, especially considering Vanderbilt does not superscore ACT (http://admissions.vanderbilt.edu/quickguide/). It is possible that actual number is lower since some students may have submitted SAT scores only.
Regarding question " what schools are you looking at/"
What I find the most frustrating is when these people ask. Well how about X, Y or Z school. I know they are often well meaning but often (particularly if they are the grandparent generation) they entirely miss the mark. Often they really have no clue how selective schools have gotten. And when you mention this they don’t understand.
My DS has very specific wants & limitations for a school. Stanford is NOT an option even as a reach, it doesn’t even fit his criteria. There is really no reason to bother with an application. I don’t really like to have to explain why. DS showed a lot of promise as a young kid that didn’t translate to H.S. grades and he’s not in the running for elite schools. He’s sensitive about this & I’ve been trying hard to find good schools that will probably accept him.
As to guidance counselors. We have one counselor for every 400-500 kids, but this translates to about 100-125 seniors. And as many as 50% only apply to state or community college schools needing little help. Crossing my fingers his counselor won’t change (there is a reason it would be a possibility) our school tries to keep seniors with the same counselor when they have staff changes. His counselor does know him quite well, but unfortunately it wasn’t quite for the reasons you want.
@RightCoaster Love that QOTD! Unfortunately, I haven’t talked S into visiting many of the schools I’d like to see, so I don’t have as detailed an answer. Strictly based on the tour reports here, I think I’d pick Western Washington. I majored in communications the first time around, but I don’t have a clue what I’d study there – maybe I’d create my own at Fairhaven.
Wouldn’t 25% of the Vandy kids have a 35+ on the ACT? 35 is upper cutoff for middle 50% so there still could be kids with 35s who are in top 25% in terms of sorting the ACTs of the incoming classes and drawing lines at 25% and 75%.
Does look like 25% of the kids have 800 SAT scores on the math portion.
@2muchquan @OHToCollege If the 75%ile ACT score is 35, that doesn’t tell you at what percentile the 36s start. The top 25% could mostly be 35s (or mostly 36s). Likewise, it doesn’t tell you at what percentile the 35s start–it could be at 74th percentile or 60th percentile. All it says is that at least 25% have a 35 or 36.
QOTD: I think I’d go to UC Santa Cruz. Love the redwood trees, and it would nice to see rain again.
@2muchquan I’d swear that question (what other schools are you looking at asked in a college interview) was discussed on this thread a few months ago, but I’m terrible at searching for specific things. In my opinion,it’s best to be honest. Depending on the tone of the interview thus far and how comfortable S felt with the interviewer, I’d leave it up to the kid to decide whether to be vague or specific, but either way, I’d probably say to limit the response to a few similar schools.
@Ynotgo, see page here, http://admissions.vanderbilt.edu/vandybloggers/2010/12/understanding-the-mid-50/, where the blogger explains how they consider the middle 50%. So if this last year the middle 50% was an ACT range of 32-35 composite, according to explanation below, 400 students has a perfect ACT. And nationally there are what 1600 perfect ACT’s?
“Vanderbilt example: our Class of 2014 ACT mid-50% is 30-34. Of our 1600 freshmen, 800 of those students have scores that fall at or between a 30 and 34; 400 students scored either a 35 or 36 on the exam and 400 scored 29 or below.”
**QOTD: Where do YOU want to go to school? **
That’s hard. I’m assuming that along with those stats. We would do awesome when we got there. 
Reed: My H.S. BFF went there and I spent years wishing I could go. Didn’t even look at it with S17 when we went to look at Oregon universities because it didn’t look like a good fit for him. We almost just dropped by, but I realized it was only on the visit list because it was my dream school back in the day.
MIT: A few years back, S17, D12 & I got an really fun inside tour of MIT by a professor that works there. I can see why math/science students want to attend. It’s just a really cool school if you are into engineering, science. (We are dreaming so we will forget how hard you have to study. )
Swarthmore: This again is a school several H.S friends attended & I visited. I’m sure it’s a different place now, but I always wished I could have attended. This just felt like a dream school, and the other students felt like they were “my” type of people.
@OHToCollege The 2% number I got from the AO. I’m sure that 250 number is the number of current students with the scholarship. He made it a point to downplay how low the number was, by pointing out that many students do not apply for those scholarships. In other words, it’s 2% of the admitted students, but some % higher of those that actually apply for the scholarships.
Looking at the CDS for Vandy:
Percent submitting SAT scores 41% Number submitting SAT scores 666
Percent submitting ACT scores 63% Number submitting ACT scores 1014
25th Percentile 75th Percentile
SAT Critical Reading 710 790
SAT Math 720 800
SAT Writing 690 770
SAT Essay 8 10
ACT Composite 32 35
ACT Math 31 35
ACT English 33 35
ACT Writing 8 10
What I did find a bit surprising (based on those test scores) was the average GPA, it was 3.80. About 31% had a GPA less than 3.75. About 3.5% had a GPA of 3.24 or less (Hello SEC scholarship Athletes!).