@motherofDragons It always breaks my heart to hear about kids committing suicide.
@paveyourpath I agree with @MotherOfDragons about the trust fund kids. That is another requirement of my DD’s. She feels like it would be easier to meet a wide variety of kids from all socioeconomic backs grounds at a large public university. Again she comes from a upper middle class area, but she is not your typical entitled kid and gets turned off by those kids. She knows how to work hard for everything that she has and finds she has more in common with those that have similar views.
Best Case- full tuition merit at Alabama! We are just lucky that she feel in love with the school and everything that it has to offer.
@MotherOfDragons So sorry about the sad news. Hugs to all!
QOTWeekend: Best case scenario
At this point… DS writes the essays!
and then DS submits applications, graduates high school and happily enrolls at a college!
@MotherOfDragons That is truly heartbreaking. Wishing the best for your daughter and all of you during this tragic time.
Whether or not someone else has money hasn’t been something D17 has talked about when it comes to colleges. Rich people can be kind and thoughtful too! 
We are around lots of trust fund (if that means wealthy) kids (though not as many as if D was one, I suspect). Some are jerks, some are genuine and thoughtful. D17 tends to hang around the latter.
My kids have lived in the area I grew up in, since S17 was 1. Two houses, same school district. They’ve been with the same kids since K. It is the same school district I grew up in and I have HS classmates with kids at our school, I’ve known those parents since middle school. My family is largely a 10 min drive from my house with nephews at our rival HS in the same district. I have a dinner group with my state flagship sorority friends that meets every 2 weeks.
That said. I left the area for a decade. We love to travel. Our kids want to leave, so they can come back which works for me! It is really a wildcard as to whether we stay in the area once S19 finishes undergrad (we plan to stay put till then). I could see a 50/50 split somewhere, moving away entirely, or not. We will likely downsize, we do want/need lakefront living at some point for H’s passion (seaplane parking lol) and it will really depend on costs, it’s not something we could pull off here financially.
Best case?
I truly have no idea! Somewhere he loves that makes him happy, has the depth of options needed and is affordable.
@flatkansas I’m certainly no expert but can share what an AO shared at a visit to my son’s school. They are looking for the class size, rank/gpa policy, grading scale, graduation requirements, % of college bound students, courses / programs offered (AP, IB, honors, etc.), SAT and ACT 50% range, names of all colleges students were accepted to for the previous two years. Any special programs that the school offers, such as study abroad or technology based, are also included. School Profiles are easily accessible so you can search for other schools in your area to view their profile.
@paveyourpath, @MotherOfDragons
I think this may be what S17 meant when he talked about not liking L&C and that it wasn’t ‘real’ enough. It’s a bit ironic since we do fit that demographic sort-of, no trust fund but we do have a plan for getting our kids through 4 years of undergraduate debt free. He much preferred the public schools. I think he is looking for more diversity than a small LAC offers.
@paveyourpath Caltech has the following prompt:
DS17 doesn’t yet know what to write for this one, since he is, as he says, “a straight, white guy” who likes science, math, and computers. Umm, he can cook?
@paveyourpath I disagree with you that “true diversity” is so much more than racial and ethnic diversity. Diversity is broader than just race and ethnicity, of course, but your statement, to me, minimizes the importance of racial and ethnic diversity. That’s like a school that cannot attract many URM’s saying, we may be 90% white, but our student body is still very diverse. I and many others would disagree with such a statement. I also think many overestimate kids’ exposure (beyond superficially) to others different than them, including of a different race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, sexual identify, religion, etc. That becomes more evident at some colleges, especially smaller schools.
Anyway, here are a couple of the prompts that we’ve seen:
How has the neighborhood you grew up in, the school(s) you attended, and/or your family background shaped your personal and/or educational experiences? How might these personal and/or educational experiences enable you to contribute something unique to The Ohio State University? Note: Don’t forget to provide examples.
Given your personal background, describe what you would bring to the diversity of our campus OR describe an encounter that demonstrated the importance of diversity to you.
QST weekend Mine is the same as @payn4ward Best case scenario
At this point… DS writes the essays!
and then DS submits applications, graduates high school and happily enrolls at a college! With the added clause of her actually being excited about her choice.
Still worried about her level of interest right now. I think she is really afraid of the social aspect of college.
Lehigh Engineering has IDEAS program which allows you to combine engineering with other arts, science major. Really worth looking into. Met with some faculty members, the career potential is really good.
D had a blast at the camp. $15 spend on credit card for 4 weeks and had leftover snacks for DS20 on the way. Said she missed my cooking!!
Related to the best and worst, I have always told D… To hope for the best and prepare for the worst…
@Ynotgo, D came back from the camp, wanting to apply Cal Tech. I think her scores might not be high enough for the school. I think they are all about the numbers.
@paveyourpath thank you for that info about profiles!
@Mom2aphysicsgeek Exactly! Perfect example of where diversity has nothing to do with demographics.
@jeepgirll I just find it interesting that working hard for everything one has and being around others with similar views seems to be something you don’t think happens in trustfundian families. I respect that this is your position, and that of some others, I just don’t understand (completely my problem I realize) how that line is drawn to exclude any group of people. As @2muchquan stated, some are jerks and some are genuine and thoughtful. That philosophy holds true across every socio-economic group.
Sorry if I am confusing you with someone else but didn’t you post that your daughter is applying to UNC-CH? Whether she is or not, UNC-CH is a good example. It is a public university that does have trust fund babies. Even has trustfundians that are there on full merit scholarships. Point being trustfundians do attend public schools and I don’t know how anyone can weed them out based on any metrics or otherwise until they show their character. The jerks will always be jerks. Nothing can be done about that.
@paveyourpath When we visited UKy, our AO said his sister wrote about the experience of being a twin for a diversity essay.
Deep breath of relief … and finally caught up reading!
Thanks to everyone for the college visit reports. I just love reading them!
And my condolences to @MotherOfDragons and your daughter … what sad news at the beginning of the school year. It doesn’t matter that the kids weren’t close anymore. It’s just tragic!
And on to the QOTDs:
DEMOGRAPHICS
55 % White
35 % African American
5 % Hispanic
3 % Asian
2 % Other
The school has about 2,100 students and 48 % qualify for free and reduced school lunch which often lands in the trash because the new health guidelines since a year or two ago make the food even more tasteless and nasty. Underclassmen sneak off campus and buy chips and soda at the gas station. But that’s a topic for another day 
WORST CASE SCENARIO
My biggest fear is that something (illness, accident) prevents HS graduation or a timely start of college. Other than that I am pretty sure that my DC gets into half of the schools, hopefully with some merit aid and later (after my husband retires soon) some need-based Financial Aid.
BEST CASE SCENARIO
My kid makes NMSF, gets into two or three of the top choices and is affordable, too.
GEOGRAPHIC AREA
I grew up in the same geographic area in Europe but moved as a teenager from one village to another. Never became a part of that second village and felt horrible and alienated. Luckily, I kept going to the same middle school in the large town, so I had my school friends since Kindergarten until graduation. That affected me a lot and I did not want to move after my child started school. We moved to our current area from Arizona 14 years ago and plan to move/downsize once college is well “under way.” I just see too many kids leave for college and bounce back after a year, either due to illness or because the university was not a good fit. Want to make sure that we have not pulled out the rug under our child if that happens.
Other than that, this week was pretty good for my Senior: Pictures done and approved. Reserved parking spot secured ($20). Common App started with all colleges on our list.
School starts in ten days … Happy weekend everyone!
@itsgettingreal17 It was not my intent to convey that ethnic and racial diversity is not important or in any way minimize its importance. My intent was to state that I did not understand how a school’s demographics (which is based on racial and ethnic statistics) was being used to determine a school’s diversity. If, in your example, the school were not 90% white but were 50% white and 50% african american that would not, in my opinion, be a truly diverse school because it only factors in race.
I don’t know what the tOSU prompt hopes to discover about the candidates and would be interested in knowing what the AO hopes to learn about the students from this prompt. I think they are coming to my son’s school next month and I’m going to ask. I might learn something new.
I do like Caltech’s prompt.
Diversity; When we visited Georgia State they told us it was one of the MOST diverse universities in the US.
Here is their current breakdown.
Hispanic/Latino 9.68%
Black or African American 41.97%
White or Caucasian 26.34%
American Indian or Alaska Native. .16%
Asian 12.35%
Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander. .04%
Two or more races 5.01%
Unknown 2.61%
I’m afraid that I’ll never catch up. We just took one college trip and are off again tomorrow. Purdue tour was awesome.
You guys are letting me down! This is the first time I’ve checked in and no posts.
Everyone, enjoy this perfect Summer, Saturday evening! 