@stlarenas Great news! Rhodes is a great school. I’ve heard nothing but great things from graduates. Hopefully this gets your D excited.
@stlarenas Great review! Do you have a feeling for the importance of visiting? It was moving up the list until D17 loosened her stipulation on not wanting to wear pants at her school.
@payn4ward Wow. That’s Wonderbread white!
@flatKansas That is good to know about TAMU. I wish UT would do away with the ACT essay. The reason people suggest to get the app in early is because they will let your kiddo know if are accepted early and you will want to get that housing deposit in as soon as possible for better housing. There are some really nice dorms but there are also some really old dorms on campus.
@2muchquan they definitely said demonstrated interest matters some. However they said that they also consider emails, college fair visits, and rep or alumni visits. They offered the Skype or phone interview as an option too.
Along the lines of “not wearing pants”… I really got the feel that the vibe of the school was much more collaborative and much less competitive than some of the schools we saw. And while our guide was wearing slacks and a belt, the Hawaiian style button down looked like it had just been dug of the bottom of a drawer and the pants had stains on them 
while that may have bothered some people it comforted us that my D would be ok in her no name tees and flip flops (and I gave him an A for effort…he could have been wearing cut offs and a tee shirt)
Oh and it was about 104degrees during the tour…bikinis may have been more comfortable…for sure Flip Flops 
@stlarenas – the Rhodes tour success is great news!! so happy for you. I had a similar experience somewhere & have a sense of how you might feel - it’s great!!
I am sensing our stress is building for some bc school is starting soon - hard to get everything done and have to prioritize. We are jumping in the same boat. Swimming together with you all – except the very organized, over achievers!
For those with Naviance, there’s no ability to drill down into the graphs is there? For some schools we are looking at there is just a crapload of colored dots on top of each other. I can’t tell anything from them. Am I missing a nifty ‘zoom’ feature?
@2muchquan – if there is a way to zoom in on Naviance scattergrams, I have not discovered it. I spent a great deal of time drilling down on Naviance data with my first but haven’t really looked at it much with the current applicant, other than on the first page for each school where application history is provided.
My favorite feature is Compare Me.
@payn4ward not sure if this will work.
https://tamuoar.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/745/kw/do%20i%20need%20act%20with%20writing
I like the Compare feature on Naviance too @CT1417 ! But then again, I like everything about Naviance. So much data, all in one place.
One thing I wish was also reported was the actual price paid for tuition. But that’s just crazy thinking.
@flatKansas That WORKED! :D/
Thank you so much! :x
My magic 8 ball did not work 8-}
That is a great news!
Demographics at D’17’s school:
White: 66.2 %
Black: 1.8%
Hispanic: 7.1%
Asian: 21,9%
American Indian: 0.2%
Two or more races: 2.7%
Pacific Islander: 0.1%
@flatKansas …thanks!
D HAS to apply to our two state schools.
She does NOT want to apply to them. I know they are not true safeties i.e. where she would happily attend. But it’s all we’ve got!
@Atyraulove – I wish my boys’ school’s Naviance differentiated between ED & RD data points. I have seen that at another school, but that other school lacked some feature our school has. AFAIK, each HS decides which Naviance features they wish to use.
We have more than our share of recruited athletes and their stats distort one’s chances, when attempting to interpret Naviance data. I think it is a more useful tool when not applying to top schools.
I tried reading these posts on the phone while traveling this week. I do not know how all of you manage to respond on your phones as I had trouble reading all of this on my phone.
The question about demographic composition of the class caused me to stumble down a rabbit hole looking at 60 years of historical enrollment data. Never found enrollment by race, but if I were to guess, I would say 95% white with the balance being Asian. The district opted out of the Federal school lunch program several years ago, I believe because complying was too problematic/expensive. They still provide free lunch to anyone who qualifies, but IIRC, do not seek reimbursement from the government. I may have the details wrong there.
The historical enrollment info was fascinating. Total enrollment was higher from 1962 to 1974, and has been back at 1960s levels for most of this decade. There’s no build able land in town so if retirees move away and younger families move in, I do not not know where the students will fit.
I saw mention of Rhodes and F&M. A friend’s son had a wonderful experience at Rhodes. I thought they were decent with aid, but do not know specifics and cannot inquire. I thought F&M was very impressive, so I will be interested to hear the feedback.
Will comment about this week’s visits tomorrow when my head is clear. Too many planes, taxis, Ubers, mass transit, rental cars and parking meters/garages. SOOOO tired.
Oh, no essay writing at all. I told him that some parents impose weekly assignments. I got a raised eyebrow for that effort. I will now move to nagging about writing thank you notes to the interviewers. Apparently he did not realize that would be on his to-do list.
Demographics:
43% Hispanic
40% White
10% Asian
1-2% African American
5% multiracial and other
36% socio-economically disadvantaged
Our school is celebrating it’s 50th birthday this year, so no 60 years of demographics.
@CT1417 Does http://www.greatschools.org/ or https://nces.ed.gov/ccd/schoolsearch/ not list racial demographics for your school in the Details tab? I see data from 2012 for a sample CT school I looked at.
Essay writing:
None yet, but he just returned recently. He also needs to make some decisions about classes and schedules for next year. He knows he needs to make a schedule for getting essays and applications done. His first 2-3 are due Nov. 1 and I don’t know of any on his list where there is an advantage to getting them done early.
I told him about MoD’s swear jar. He said he didn’t think that would be necessary, though if I put a dollar in each time, we’d have a pretty good contribution to his college fund.
Scores, etc in Naviance:
@fun1234 Go into his Naviance account (not your account if you have a parent account). If you choose the “About Me” tab and then the “test scores” link, does the Test Scores page have an “edit” link near the top? That is what we use to enter scores. Some schools give students the ability to enter their own scores, and some do not.
We can’t change the GPA on the “profile” page. Those seem to be from after 10th grade summer for us, so I will ask his GC when they get updated.
@2muchquan I don’t know any way to filter or zoom in on the graphs. I wish there were. For schools with ED or EA, there are orange triangles all over the place that obscure whether the student was accepted or denied. Wish I could turn those off to just see the green squares and red Xs. All we can change in the graphs is SAT 2400, SAT 1600 (old CR+M), or ACT.
@itsgettingreal17 - I strongly believe 219 is good enough for TX. I also think 220 is good enough for CA.
I guess this group is averages 100+ posts per day. Going to be tough to catch up from India
Totally irrelevant, pure curiosity QOTD: Have your kids grown up in same general area for most of their lives?
Mine haven’t. They have no idea what it is like to have roots planted and to live in one place for more than 4 yrs. Where we live now it seems like everyone has generations of family from this area. Other places we have lived it has seemed like everyone is mobile. It definitely creates a different local culture. (Dd was talking to a friend who is leaving for college next week. She is the 4th generation leaving for the same in-state flagship. It is a deep family pride thing. Totally foreign concept for me.)
@Mom2aphysicsgeek Good QOTD! What’s it been like moving around with such a large family?
Growing up - D moved around a bit from birth to K (4 states). We then spent 2 years in another area and have been in our current neighborhood since then. I’ll make one more move after D goes off to college. I don’t like moving around much (hate the packing and settling in aspects).
QOTD: As you can imagine, D17 has not grown up in the same place her whole life; we are on move #8 since she was born. Besides the group of military in this area, most folks have lived here most of their lives and go to the state flagship.
Essays: I had the opportunity to have lunch with a group of Air Force Academy cadets this week. We chatted about the college application process and they all recall their mothers nagging them incessantly about their essays. It made me feel better about whats to come at our house. :-@