@WhereIsMyKindle - Last year was his first year teaching AP CS but he has been a teacher for a long time. I think maybe he got stuck with it. DS does have friends who had it last year but he is hoping he doesn’t need their assistance.
@IABooks I just don’t understand why OSU doesn’t cater to these kids like OU. They have a similar package and a beautiful school. It is now been completely marked off here.
I have to say, the other kid that was in our honors college meeting at OSU was the polar opposite of any HC kid I have ever seen. I even said to my DD “could you ever see yourself in a class with that kid?” While the one in our OU session was exactly what you would expect and was so friendly. But OU goes after those students…
@disshar…@ IABooks…Question. Were the dorms nicer than at OU? We did not get to visit the honors dorms at OU and I wish we had. I don’t know if I can talk my S into even visiting OkSU because he had such a visit at OU. We are also looking at Alabama. Has anyone visited Alabama yet? Pretty sure Texas A&M and Texas Tech have fallen way down if not off the list even though we are in Texas.
Interesting how different every state is towards drivers Ed. I moved to CA when I had just turned 16 and it was one of the first things I did was get my license. A generation ago the H.S. offered drivers ed. Don’t know a H.S. in CA that has the money to cover the driving part of drivers ed anymore, and most don’t even cover the in-class portion. Somewhere in the past 30 years the money for drivers ed in the schools dried up. Most kids do the class part online, and take the behind the wheel with a private company.
In CA officially your permit isn’t valid until you have STARTED your behind the wheel with your private drivers ed company. (Even even a parking lot, a friend’s daughter got a warning from a cop for this.) Driver’s Ed teacher must sign the permit. (A lot of parents ignore this for good reason.) I found this crazy because the roads around here are go from 25 mile an hour side streets, to 3 lanes wide at 50 miles an hour. And the private companies take the kids onto the later from the very beginning. My daughter needed to start in a parking lot.
It’s becoming very common to just wait till you are 18 to get your license simply for cost reasons. I think it’s crazy that once you turn 18, getting a license becomes a lot easier and cheeper. (You can get a permit at 17 1/2 without driver’s ed if you don’t plan on getting the license till you are 18.) I don’t think it’s bad we have all these new graduated licensing requirements, but I think they should be applicable to ALL new drivers regardless of age.
So I’ve been helping local parents with college stuff if they ask. I’ve run across an interesting scenario–2 Texas schools with overall lower/mid tier acceptance stats BUY they don’t give out a lot of merit as would be expected.
One student-- top 5% and ACT 32 offered maybe $2k at one of these schools. Her stats were WELL above the top tier accepted students. The mom met with the FA office and basically they shrugged and said they had a “niche.” They offered a few majors not offered at other schools AND their relative non-selective admissions brought in kids whose parents were just happy they got accepted somewhere and the parents were willing to “do whatever it takes” in order for little Johnny to attend.
Has anyone run across this yet?
@disshar It is a bit of a mystery. When we scheduled our visits, I informed both campuses that S was a possible NMSF and we were interested in their specific NM scholarship and program, as well as the honors college and specific academic area (engineering). We got very similar visit agendas from both schools, but a lot of the OSU experience just seemed flatter, if that makes sense. The other HS students visiting the honors college didn’t ask questions but kind of looked bored, and that led to the honors dean kind of trailing off hopefully.
While the OSU student representative who took us to lunch was personable and enthusiastic, S just didn’t connect with him like he did with the OU student who was NM and an engineering student.At the time, I just kind of wrote it off as a consequence of visiting over spring break when there were fewer student reps available for a busy visit time. But then, when we met with the OSU AO, she almost acted like she wasn’t sure why she was on our schedule for the day. Even after we specifically asked about the NM program (twice), she shared almost nothing about it and focused on the fact that S would be an OOS student. We expected a little different visit than we had at OU’s dedicated NM office, but it was still odd and awkward.
OkSU had much better swag though, so there’s that. :))
All - I started a new thread with our list if anyone is interested in commenting: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1912884-schools-that-meet-full-need-30act-realistic-list-p1.html?new=1
@Tgirlfriend I think the dorms at OkSU were a little better, but we didn’t see the honors dorm at OkU either. There seemed to be a lot of dorm buildings at OkSU and we saw two different types, suite style and community style, but were both newer. We walked by some that looked 1980s-era from the outside. S isn’t too concerned about dorm rooms, and it didn’t offset the long trek to get to them or the rest of the visit. IIRC, the room and board fees worked out differently because of the OkSU dining system too and I think S would prefer more of a dining hall experience. Maybe @disshar can weigh in on that since her visit is fresher in her mind.
@disshar @Tgirlfriend I started reading OSU above and got confused. You guys are talking about Ohio State U right? Not Oregon State U? Both go by OSU. I’m trying tor read between the lines and couldn’t quite figure it out? One of S17’s top schools is Oregon State, so ever time I see OSU I get confused.
@curiositycat333 We’ve actually been talking about Oklahoma State U. Sorry for the confusion.
@curiositycat333 Oklahoma 
the other other other other other OSU
@VickiSoCal, your younger D sounds like my S17. Gifted and disorganized. The GC finally worked with him to create an organizational system that helped him stay organized enough to turn in his homework. 8-|
QOTD - My family is CC clueless. They already think I am crazy when it comes to college stuff, but are riding along with me. S17 is my youngest, so I will likely be done with CC after this school year. He’s on his own after that! 
@TimEnchanter, I second the Drivers Edge program. It’s a free defensive driving program. The kids get to learn to do controlled skids, evasive manuvering, panic braking, and get told horror storyies by local highway patrol. D15 did that one. S17 did a similar program. Drivers Edge used to travel around to various parts of the country and hold programs. Last I checked for S (so he could refresh) they only had classes in Las Vegas and Reno NV.
@WhereIsMyKindle, ASU’s Tempe campus is ~ a one mile x one mile block. It was not super spread out because it is sandwiched in the city of Tempe. There is definitely green space within the campus, but it is not a sprwling, green oasis within a city center. It is relatively compact for a school with a large student body.
@curiositycat333 - (to confuse matters more) I believe thay are tabling about Oklahoma State U vs University of Oklahoma.
Ohio State would be tOSU.
Son submitted Rose-Hulman application last night. No fee and no required essay (but he did post a brief personal statement). Not sure how generous they are with Big MAC but he really had nothing to lose by applying to the number 1 ranked undergraduate engineering school that happens to have a 58% acceptance rate.
Anyone here have personal experience with Rose-Hulman or with Terre Haute? It would be a big day-to-day adjustment for my NYC boy, but I think it would be a great four year experience if we could afford it.
So we need our own short hand?
Oklahoma state is so outside my radar, I only really know about Ohio State because it shared abbreviations with Oregon State and it’s in the same state as Case. I don’t follow college sports in any way so some of these schools are really unknown to me.
@MichiganGeorgia Your S’s teacher doesn’t sound very good. The very beginning of a first CS class a combo of making sure it’s setup and and getting groundwork on new concepts of how to program. Not something to hurry over and assume the students just get unless you are assuming the teens can already program. My experience is everyone’s fist experience program it’s a bit tedious at first.
S17 has no Comp Sci summer homework. In comparison S17 does have AP Physics homework, but it’s mostly the first chapter of the book that is largely about measurement & making sure you remember your math terms. Basically it’s the review part of the class, so they can hit the ground running next week.
S17 got his books on Monday. (Starts school in a week) Just took a look at S17’s AP Java book. Looks good. Starts slow, and is clearly and introduction into programming as well as an into into Java. I might borrow it as it does have a few topics at the end that I never really covered. I’ve took a college level Java class as a retraining about 10 years ago, and am currently programming in it professionally. Off to get off this board, and my head back in my code.
My husband (who is pretty much completely out of the know when it comes to college stuff) refers to colleges only by their mascots - If the school don’t have a prominent sports team then they don’t exist 
@stem2017 unfortunately my only experience is with a good friend whose son is now at home for a year going to c.c. after not doing well his freshman year at RH. Typical story, gifted boy, never challenged in highschool, went away to school, gamed away with his buddies and got hit by the freight train of first quarter HARD classes and never dug himself out of his hole. 
@disshar and @IABooks Sorry to hear your kids didn’t like OSU. D and I both really liked it and they’ve made her feel very special from our visit on campus til now. D feels bad about not applying.
@VickiSoCal Wow, that story hits close to home. That could easily be my son. We better think carefully about the strategy.
Thanks for sharing!