QOTD
My impression, didn’t ask d 17, is that Boston College was the “preppiest”, even more than Vanderbilt and Wash U. This surprised me. D isn’t preppy at all. Pitt and SLU seemed closest to her normal look.
All of the others were typical college eclectic.
@IABooks, there’s also the Southern stereotype that seemed to be in abundance, which is that you’d better have done your hair and makeup perfectly if you’re running out to the grocery store.
@MotherOfDragons As a family that loves Disney World, we felt like the Alabama campus was the Disney of college campuses. Clean, new, and lots of entertainment. My S really liked it and felt like he could be a big fish in his major (which is not CS) and it would be a nice change from his stressful high school experience. When all of his decisions are in, we will go back for another look. Thanks for posting your impressions. It is good to hear about other tours.
@Ynotogo Sounds like a fun trip. Computer History Museum in Mountain View is great fun. And the only problem with the Exploratorium is it’s just too busy, otherwise it’s one of my favorite places.
Going back to a subject you all were discussing the other day - how can you tell whether a school waits until all apps are in before reading or starts reading them as they arrive? Is that information they generally make known?
QOTD (old): D17 is done with testing. She was originally going to take the Math 2 subject test coming up, then she got stressed and we moved it to the November date, then she dropped Georgetown from her app list and she’s decided she’s not applying to any direct-admit engineering programs, so I advised her to just bag it and spend her time on better things (she’s already taken Chem and US History.)
@Momtoro About safety at Tuffs. My D12 went to school in Cambridge (very near tufts but not Harvard nor MIT) She lived on campus for all 4 years, walked around everywhere, took the T. Never had any problems with safety. I did recommend fairly normal precautions, always locking her door etc. But except for when the Boston bomber was being rounded up. (Which is an exception not the rule) It really is quite safe.
@carachel2 Hi! Thank you! This forum thing is all new to me. I just found this today. My daughter (is that written D17?) is going through QuestBridge. Do you know what QB is? Our EFC should be less than 1,000 if not 0. We’ll know Saturday! Just facts: Nat’l Merit Semi Finalist so far, rank 4 of 400, 3.98 gpa, 1480 sat, IB, I think that’s it. Her #1 right now is Tufts. Looking at Emory, U Penn, Washington & Lee, Vandy, Notre Dame. Looking for Bio and Biomedical Sci. wants a pre-vet track. An hour away from us is Texas A&M, her back up. They’ll give her about 40% of the 4 yrs. She hoping for a Match through QB to Tufts. She’s also looking at Stanford and USC. Our town is about 60k people, I’m looking for any info. about safe campuses. Our son went to A&M as did I. Very safe place. We can’t visit any of these schools so I have no knowledge other than what I find on line. I haven’t found the Tufts forum. Thank you for your kindness!
@curiositycat333 Thank you! I’m finding ‘crime statistics’ in various places and they’re all different. I grew up in Houston so I understand big cities, she does not.
@MotherOfDragons Fortran and punch cards? Are you sure it was CS department not Physics department? :))
Here is the link to the Tufts’ forum. http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/tufts-university/
You can search any topic by using the little magnifying glass next to the # of pages in the upper right.
I typed in Questbridge and found these references:http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/search?cat=414&adv=1&search=questbridge
You will need to read through to see if there is any info of value.
Here is the Questbridge page:http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/questbridge-programs/
@MotherOfDragons Oh my, your Fortran/punch card conversation takes me back. I took Fortran in 1979 at IU because my well-meaning father told me back then that computers were the way of the future and I should learn programming. (I was a music major.) I had to get up at 5 am to get time in the computer lab to test out my stacks of punch cards. At least it was next door to the music school. That’s all I remember about it.
Welcome @Momtaro !
If you go to the top left of the page, you’ll see “top forums” and below that “colleges and universities.” Click on that and you can search alphabetically by school.
I also have found it really helpful to use the search button and type “target school vs” and you might find schools similar to those already identified by your child.
@longwood I’m with you. I took a programming course in the early 80’s at UMich (that’s UofM officially. The heck with you Minnesota folk) where we learned Fortran and used punch cards. I believe we were the last class to do so, after which everyone learned ‘C’ and used terminals.
Also, we looked into Grinnell for D17 fairly closely after a recommendation from a friend. Daughter even interviewed with them a little while ago, and applied for their fly-in. I’m pretty sure they are not as generous with merit (although their top scholarship is $50K) as they were a few years ago. I believe they have focused more on financial aid rather than merit as of late. Not for-positive, but I seem to recall reading something about this.
@pan4ward @longwood I’m young enough that my 2 year old brother leaned Fortran & punchcards in H.S. I did NOT… I got brand new Apple computers to write basic on. And unix & C to write code in once i got to college.
And yes Physics program would be a normal one to learn Fortran. Once upon a time schools didn’t even have CS departments. My husband doesn’t have a undergraduate degree in CS for just that reason.
@thermom ** Georgetown and SAT II tests:** I received a marketing email from Georgetown on my son’s behalf saying “It’s no too late to apply, etc, etc.”
Georgetown is beyond reach for my son and he wont be applying.
So I responded. Something like…“Due to the prohibitive costs of taking and sending multiple SAT II tests, my son will not be taking them and therefore will not be applying to Georgetown, thank you.”
Amazingly someone responded, “Please unsubscribe from our mailing list. To be clear, Georgetown strongly recommends three SAT II tests, but does not require them.”
Georgetown: Happily arrogant.
LOL
Thank you @CT1417 ! I managed to find Tufts and great info. I will use your links to learn my way around. Greatly appreciated.
Thank you @mamaedefamilia ! I love that idea of your target school vs, thank you so very much.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek wrote
That is really good to hear-I know the lunch meeting with the girl was just one data point, but she was worried.
If I understand the CBH correctly (and I probably don’t, lol) if she applies to it they have them back out there for the weekend to see if there is good fit in both directions, and she can ask all the questions she wants. Our plan right now is to apply to it.
@youcee we haven’t put UC’s on our list because there’s no way we would pay full freight for them, and from what I’ve been reading out of state students do not get any merit aid for the public california universities. Plus from what some of the parents are dealing with on here trying to get the right classes, send the right info, ugh, it’s just way too complex and far away for us to put it on the list. It sounds cool, though.
@IABooks wrote
Big t-shirt, nike shorts (“norts”), running shoes. About 90% of the girls, black, white, brown, etc. had this outfit on. The guys I paid some attention to-I saw a surprising amount (to me) of button down shirts and khakis, but the other outfit for guys was just a t shirt and short and running shoes. I counted three girls with crazy colored hair, but they had “the uniform” of big t-shirt and norts on, as well. D wasn’t bothered by it in the sense that it felt foreign to her, because her high school also has the “norts” outfit as a majority. @itsgettingreal17 nailed it.
@Mommertons for some reason I thought the Honors college people and the CBH people were the same, and the tour would cover both. Since I honestly didn’t expect D to like it so much, I wasn’t super invested in making sure I got it all right. Now I’m kicking myself. Luckily D said she’d be fine going back for the CBH stuff if they invite her.
@VickiSoCal wrote
I would say this is D17’s “default” look when she’s not going for something more dramatic. She was surprised more girls didn’t wear camis, and I said maybe the sun’s too hot and they needed their shoulders covered, or maybe it’s just easier to have a thousand big t-shirts that you can toss in the wash.
@jedwards70 wrote
Yes, that is so the impression I had, as well. We’ve been to WDW so many times, and I hesitate to say “it’s like Disney World” because the parts of WDW that UA reminds me of aren’t necessarily the plastic, commercial aspects of WDW, but more the fierce attention to aesthetics and maintenance. There were many old buildings on campus, and not once did I see rotted wood or peeling paint-they restored them so well it was mind-boggling. The new buildings felt a bit sterile, but I could see after a decade or so once the trees have had a chance to grow (like they are around more established parts of campus-trees everywhere!), it will blend perfectly.
I bought the book “the students’ guide to colleges” from 2007 and have been reading through it. So far the impressions are pretty bang-on to what I’ve seen at some places. It only has 100 “top” colleges in it (and I would disagree with some of those rankings), so if you’re interested in it for a particular school, ask me and I’ll tell you if it’s in there. It was $4 on amazon. I’m currently paging through it looking for colleges that have intense students who don’t like to grind just for the sake of grinding, and occasionally wear crazy clothing, lol. Because I might have missed one…
@MotherOfDragons Yes, if she applies and makes it to finalist round, they bring 50 or so students to campus for interviews.
I’d be curious how many of those 50 kids invited to CBHP interviews have crazy parents on CC.