Dorms: My daughter wasn’t even turned off by the one they showed us at Macalester (pretty shiny buildings everywhere, and the dorm they showed us was a hole—crazy), so I figure anything goes for her. Interestingly, she prefers traditional-style to suites, and seemed annoyed when tours would talk about suites and apartments but ignore other options.
School policy on touring: No excused absences for college tours (aside from the annual field trip for the juniors to see the local university). Of course, given our location, nearly any college visit would involve missing multiple days of school, so that’s an understandable approach, really. My daughter has been told that if she has to miss days for competitive scholarship things or such, though, they’ll work that out on a case-by-case basis.
QOTD3ish - How many days are allowed to be missed for college visits?
Wow you all, there are some strict schools out there. S’s school probably has a policy but allows as many days as needed as long as the kids is doing well in classes and makes up missed work. Not many kids miss more than 4 or 5, but the school is eclectic and there are a decent number of kids who go for scholarship competitions and accepted student days. We are planning S’s visits to his accepted school for our spring break, which (thankfully) doesn’t overlap with his prospective schools spring breaks. We have to fly to get to them.
Differences in when I was applying: I was a first generation, my parents were supportive, but it was up to me to choose a college. At the time, my slightly older cousins attended UF and Georgia Tech. I also had a best friend that was transferring to UF. I knew I wanted to do engineering, so I applied to UF and FSU. I would have applied to GT, but no way I was going to pay those outrages OOS cost (over $900 a quarter! That’s crazy money 8-} ).
Luckily I got into UF. It would have been awkward, if I had been denied at UF and then enrolled at FSU, since I never check to see if FSU had an engineering program, which it did not (a couple of years later they would start a combined program with FAMU).
QQTD Policies about College Visits? IDK. I thought they got excused from class, and I’ve never heard of a limit. But I could be wrong. They do try and put these visits over snack/lunch & office hour times when they can.
I’m anxious to see the list of who is coming when. It’s not up yet, and IDK when it will be posted. School starts in less than a week.
Dropped my D16 off at UF and it was the hardest day and of my life. Not looking forward to next year with both kids gone. We talked last night for an hour and she started rushing and so far she’s happy and exhausted. She’s in the honors dorm and it has been eerily quiet. Not many honors kids rush I guess. Everyone should be moved in by tomorrow so I guess things will be different.
Welcome @dcolosi D17 has toured 7 schools over two years due to her sister being just one year older. She only has 3 schools on her list, one safety one match and one selective (so with no hook I can already assume she won’t get in). She hasn’t thought about where else she wants to apply, but time is ticking!
QOTD reactions: having just gone through this last year and esp. because D16 had the stellar grades, scores, etc but no hook and didn’t get into the 4 ivies she applied to and has decided to go to UF for free due to NM, the comments from family were horrendous. I am taking a different approach with D17. She as well has the stellar grades, scores ec’s, no hook and unfortunately didn’t make NM due to pure laziness (ugh), I am not telling anyone where she is applying, I am being as vague as possible.
dorms: D17 hasn’t thought about dorms, it is assumed she will live on campus in a double and just deal with it. That’s part of the whole college experience.
Good news here! D finally finished her toughest essay, which she’s been struggling with for over a week (after putting it off). And it’s quite good. It just needs some minor polishing. She should finish it up after work tonight. She’s also finished with her essay for MSU (btw, their app is really sleek!). We’re heading into the home stretch. I think the ones remaining will be much easier for her.
Dorms If all other factors were the same, dorms would be a huge deciding factor. DS has lived in several different types of dorms and has a preference.
Missing school for college visits Our school has a two day policy but I’m sure he will miss more for accepted students visits in the spring. It is ridiculous for the schools to expect the kids to fit those into days they already have off for vacation.
This is my S17 as well. He’s mostly looking at big state schools where he will only end up in dorms for the first year. The LAC tour we went on where the focus was the dorms, food & social life he decided wasn’t ‘in the real world’ enough for him. They were nice dorms but he wanted the tour to focus on the educational side of things.
Missing school for college visits No official policy, but absences are excused as long as the student gets a slip signed by teachers and makes up the work before the absence. (Interestingly, college visits are not mentioned in the handbook and the example for an excused absence is a family vacation. Hmm.) Fortunately, short illnesses are an excused absence without a doctor’s note, although a traffic accident or car problems are not.
What I did differently 25+ years ago I was a first generation student whose school counselor suggested pilot training even though my vision is horrendous and I’m scared of heights, but I did manage to apply to three schools, two in-state and one out-of-state. I remember filling out the OOS application by handwriting my essay in ink (and scribbling out my mistakes!). They accepted me with substantial merit anyway, but I chose the in-state school I really wanted to go to with a smaller scholarship.
Dorms - No clue what S would want. He never saw D’s decrepit fossil of a dorm room. I half expect he would give up the privacy of a suite in exchange for staff cleaning the bathrooms of a traditional style.
@MotherOfDragons Needing a doctors note to call in sick. What a WASTE of $$. And time for the doctors. Most of the time you have a bad cold or fever, stomach bug or food poisoning there is no need to see a doctor. And you defiantly shouldn’t be in school with a fever or vomiting. I’m not sure a public school should be able to denying a student an excused absence if they can’t afford to go to the doctor.
This is one of the things like curriculum changes that seems to go in cycles. When I was in H.S. (back in the 80’s) my school instituted a new policy. You got 7 missed days, per class per semester or you failed. No need for anyone to call in or make excuses. Teachers had to always treat them as excused days. You could ONLY get around the 7 day thing with a complicated review & a doctors note. (I had Mono one of the first semesters they instituted this and they excused me of everything.) The idea was to make the kids in charge, and cut down on parents excusing kids for just not getting enough sleep.
Of course students skipped a few classes and then got themselves in trouble when they legitimately got sick. The rumor I’d heard was the first semester one top students who got into good university, failed their second semester classes because of this policy. Didn’t get a H.S. degree but the university didn’t rescind their acceptance. Clearly this plan had to be revised for not working. But I didn’t stay there all 4 years, so I’m not sure what happened.
@STEM2017 I think it’s been more my nagging that has gotten them done. :)) It also helps that D has a very clear understanding of self, so she can quickly focus on how she wants to answer each prompt and churn most of them out. All her apps scream: I only really care (and care deeply) about X, Y, Z. :))
@flatKansas & @curiositycat333 … thanks for the input on AP Music Theory … yikes! S17 is going to talk to the band teacher today about time commitments for the AP course & other concerns. He was S17’s teacher last year for symphonic band, jazz band, and marching band, so hopefully he has an idea of his skill set & can gauge how he thinks S17 may do in the course. I’m sure others have had last minute schedule changes, but this is our 1st experience having to scramble 2 weeks before school starts to pick a course.
California Education Code section 48200 defines excused absences as:
Due to Illness
Attendance at a medical doctor’s appointment
Attendance at a funeral of an immediate family member
Quarantine by the county or city health officer
Jury duty
Justifiable personal reasons including (but not limited to):
a. religious holidays or celebrations
b. appearance in court
c. attendance at a funeral
d. illness of a child where the student is the child’s parent
e. attendance at an employment conference (requires previous
approval by the school principal)
f. working at an election precinct
I’m really glad that my school didn’t require doctor’s notes for absences. So many times when you are sick it doesn’t require seeing a doctor (stomach bug, really bad cold, other examples listed above). And for people with chronic pain/illness or those who are recovering from surgery(this has been me), you sometimes feel so awful you can’t make it to school yet there is no point in going to the doctor because they won’t be able to do anything for you. I can only imagine how much doctors despise such policies.
OK I was confused. I was thinking about when the colleges visit our school & the kids miss a class. That is considered school business.
For missing a whole day or two while traveling for college visits. it’s recorded as an “unexcused” absence. (vs. a Cut/Truant which will get you Saturday school.) Unexcused still require a parent to call in. The difference is teachers are not required to allow a student to make-up work. A student must go to each individual teacher and make arrangements ahead of time. As long as you don’t have too many & your teachers are OK with it the school doesn’t hassle you about it. IDK if there is an official number I think it’s a case by case thing. S17 took a few last year to attend his sisters graduation and no one gave us grief. It’s more how many the individual teachers are willing to tolerate. If you get too many, I think you have to explain yourself someone in the administration.