Where would I want to go to school?
I am thinking perhaps Rollins in FL (I’ve mentioned it before) or maybe College of Charleston (which I’m trying to getr D17 to visit). When I went to USCal back in the day, I really liked UCSB and another one for which I forget the name, where co-eds suntanned topless. Those were the days.
Re: Vanderbilt, I don’t think the cutoff is right at 35, meaning 25% scored 36. There could have been 1 person that scored a 35 in the middle 50% I assume. That’s why I said “ACT-taking” population…but even this isn’t entirely accurate. It still means the top 25% scored 35-36 which seems unlikely, but whatever.
@IABooks You’re probably right, the “where else are you looking?” question was probably discussed. I am getting old and can’t remember everything. @curiositycat333, the question I was asking referred to Admissions staff asking your DC what other schools they are looking at.
Driving: DS got his license last December around his 17th birthday, so somewhat late. He’s driven a lot less since getting the license, and he doesn’t really like to drive even though traffic here is not a problem. He can’t drive siblings or friends under 18 or after 11pm for a year after getting the license or until he turns 18, which are both essentially the same date for him.
I don’t expect he will want to take a car to college, even if it turns out to be in SoCal. Public transportation is not good there by East Coast standards, but there are train lines that connect to Amtrak that would get him home easily. We don’t have a spare car for him. If he is >100 miles away, our auto insurance will go back down from the 250% of our regular rate we are paying since he got his license.
Parking: Parking is free at DS’ high school and all the high schools near here. Expensive at our community college and the local UC.
@IABooks At our school all the bands are sorta-kinda separate, so we’re listing them separately as best it fits (ex: last year S’s 4 EC bands would be marching, pep, jazz (one of two), and pit orchestra, then he would have symphonic and the other jazz as classes).
Ugh S got some email from RPI thats one of those ‘you’re super special invited to apply specially’ and I think he actually believes its a real thing. I didn’t want to burst his bubble so early in the morning so I just told him he can apply if he wants. (This is another school one of his teachers was pushing on him)
Maybe it will motivate him to finish his college list.
RPI is a very strong engineering school – it is only 3 hrs away from us too so a big plus. A bit wondering about the gender difference - think only 27% girls there. My DS will most likely apply - has a coupe of high school friends who are going. Plan to see it when classes restart.
@ca1543 Oh I know RPI is a wonderful school. We could never afford it though, and luckily I doubt he’d get in. The email leads him to believe he’s got some special “in” for admissions and merit. Not sure what S would think about the gender difference. He’s looked at Missouri S&T which has a similar M/F ratio. He seems to reject my H’s idea that college is for drinking beer and ogling women.
Male/female ratio at RPI was the main reason my son crossed it off his list.
My daughter’s school has different levels of concert bands so I would expect the kids to list that as well as marching band. Not all kids are in each. Different opportunities for leadership in each as well.
I try not to add up all the fees we pay (public school). Participation fees (for pretty much everything), lab fees, parking fees, etc. Get collected over the year. For two kids I will have paid close to $3k for AP tests.
Maybe candidates choice would just be a simple app that looks at scores and grades and gets rid of all the extra bull. Refreshing! Good luck to the kids applying. I have 2 friends that graduated from RPI and both are doing great.
Hi all – just wonder - DS filled in some info on common app but has much more to do of course. Are you all sending in ACT or SAT (or SAT subject test) scores to any schools before you submit your apps? Someone told me if you order the score to be sent then when received the college will start an account for the student. Not sure there is any advantage but wonder if anyone with experience or great insight (crystal ball perhaps), has thoughts about whether this might be helpful (or not). DS has a good ACT score and a couple of strong SAT subject tests - but so do 100000s of others! Thanks much.
It is so helpful & fun to be on this journey with you all - I particularly look forward to next year at his time - shopping for dorm stuff & talking about the transition as we get ready to send our DC’s to their new schools! But alas - a long way to go till then!!
Interview question on other colleges: I’m thinking that DS should plan to mention peer schools.
His normal answer for relatives and friends is “a bunch of schools mostly in California” or “a bunch of UCs” to keep the pressure off. But for schools like MIT and CMU, they probably want to see that you are committed to STEM and aren’t also interested in non-STEM places. No interviews for UCs, Caltech, or for Calif students applying to Stanford, I believe. Not sure what other schools he should mention for Mudd; probably they think of Caltech as a peer.
More Vandy junk mail today. Here’s my question for them. My wonderful, brilliant, beautiful, talented, friendly, athletic son will probably score a 29 (maaaybee a 30) on the ACT. Still interested? I didn’t think so.
@CA1543 Yes, we sent my my Daughter’s SAT scores to 5 of the schools she is going to apply to in July. I don’t anticipate any problems since they are tied to your child’s SSN so when the application arrives in theory they should be part of the total package. Without understanding the way the schools have the data broken up I suspect they SAT scores when received are inputed as a new record with Student name and SSN, scores. Then when the application comes in they can detect an existing record based on SSN. Or at least that is what I would have done.
Thanks much.