I wonder if there is a niche job market for Fortran programmers because of legacy apps and all the old Fortran programmers have retired.
who you callin’ crazy? @-)
@MotherOfDragons Maybe you wrote this long ago but is GA Tech your D’s first choice and if not, why not?
@STEM2017 Georgetown email is classic!
@Dolemite GA Tech isn’t even on her list. Too hard to maintain GPA required to keep the scholarship, too grindy for grindy sake, and younger D was robbed on campus there during summer camp.
There’s been a lot of discussion recently about changing majors, planning ahead, and advising.
QOTD: Do you plan on working out a 4-6 year plan with your student before they go off to college? An absolute yes for me. We did the same for high school. D made a few changes along the way, but she’s ended up exactly where she needed to be in terms of credits and coursework, so it worked well.
Does anyone know if there is a way to turn off notifications for a thread? There are a couple of threads where I have commented and that have over 50 posts/day. I visit those threads when I have time to sit down and read through things but if I am just logging on for a quick check, I am looking for notifications from smaller threads that get lost in the 150+ notifications from threads like this one. Any advice would be appreciated.
QOTD: Yes and no. We are helping '17 choose a major that will provide a foundation to go into a variety of directions. We have set a timeline in that we will pay a certain amount of money for four years. If it takes longer than that then it is '17’s responsibility. In reality, we may pay for a 5th year but we don’t want '17 to know it at this time. We also have a caveat that, if '17 maintains “good student” status, we will pay for car insurance. If grades slip, then the car insurance is out if '17’s pocket.
All this talk about computer programming classes takes me back to freshman year, 1988. I had scurried around the activity center trying to get my name on the clipboards for each class I wanted to sign up for (very high tech). I needed a beginning computers class (which at the time was blue screens, turn the computer on, off, etc). Someone convinced me that Math 10 was the same class just in the math department. Naively, I fell for it. I spent the semester programming in Pascal and Fortran. Begin, end and a lot of ; That, and the C- I “earned”, is all I remember. I was the only non-math/physics/engineer in the class. UGH!
@lkg4answers A tech-type question I can answer! Go to your profile page by clicking on your user name in the upper right part of the screen (you have to be logged in). Then you should see an orange buttony thing for Preferences. You can change your notification preferences there.
ETA: This is on a regular computer. I haven’t tried to do it from my phone.
QOTD: I didn’t really think about coming up with a four- or five-year plan once S knows where he’s going, but it’s a good idea. I’m adding it to my calendar. It would have been completely impractical with D14 since she entered as undeclared, has changed her major twice and sometimes can’t get into classes (she passed up the opportunity to join the honors program for priority scheduling), but S is pretty sure he’ll stay with his major and would likely be in an honors program.
QoTD: The uni I attend has a spreadsheet that is unique to my major. It has everything I need for plugging in classes and semesters in order to fulfill my major. I’ve color coded it, and I live and die by that sucker.
It was given to me by my adviser when I first went in and they had to figure out where all my transferred classes would go. The dean of my college has to sign off on it, then the registrar at the main part of the uni does, as well.
If the D’s aren’t given something like that wherever they go, I’ll pirate mine and create one for them. It is insanely helpful at figuring out direction and what will work and what won’t.
QOTD: Re: 4-year plan. Not really. We have found schools that offer the major that my daughter is currently interested in. Could that change? Sure. I’m pretty confident she is self-aware enough to have made a choice that is good for her, and she should be close. If her major changes, she should still be OK. I anticipate her being able to graduate in 3 years, so she will probably add another major. We are going after that big MAC so that we can help fund graduate school if necessary (hopefully it will be a fully-funded PhD program).
So, I don’t think we have a very detailed ‘plan’, but more of an outline.
We really put zero thought into D17’s high school years. That is changing a little bit with D2. Not much, but a little. She will be easier and already seems to have a good idea what she wants, so one thing I will do better on is finding summer programs (free) for her to apply to. I like what I’ve heard here, of others’ kids getting experience on campuses over summer. I think that’s a great benefit to the kid and to the college search (not that it helps with admittance), whether they paid for it or not.
@Dolemite If there is a niche for Fortran programmers, it must be an extremely small one. Remember 25-30 years ago when Ada was the next big thing for the government? Who has even heard of it since then. The government systems I’ve been around (of course a limited set) have all been modernized several times since the days of Fortran and Ada. But you’re probably right, there probably are some really old programs somewhere and likely in some surprisingly important, mission-critical systems.
Does anyone know anything about University of Kentucky OOS scholarship if you are a NMF? I am trying to figure it out and not for sure what all it pays for.
Patterson Scholarship for National Merit or Hispanic Finalists
National Merit® or Hispanic® Finalists who designate UK as their college choice with the National Merit Scholarship Corporation by mid-April are eligible for the Patterson Scholarship. The Patterson Scholarship is in addition to the UK National Merit College-Sponsored Scholarship of $2,000, which is awarded though the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. **The Patterson Scholarship is a renewable scholarship, which provides the cost of tuition and an allowance for room and board. No scholarship application is required for the UK National Merit® or Hispanic® Finalist Patterson Scholarship. **If a student is awarded a Singletary Scholarship, that award will replace the Patterson Scholarship. Students may receive only one scholarship through the Academic Scholarship Program.
@Tgirlfriend PM @Midwest67 for info on UKY NMF scholarship.
There is an online chat screen that pops up on the UK scholarship page. That may be an easy way to contact them for specifics re OOS and the housing allowance.
@MotherOfDragons If S17 saw a campus and thought it looked like the Disneyworld of campuses, that would be a negative comment. Too groomed isn’t something that is what is appealing. S is looking for something that would be closer to nature.
As to UC’s you are correct they don’t give much merit aid to OOS student. Honestly UC’s give very little merit aid even to in-state students. And in many cases those scholarships give very little money, instead focusing on perks that don’t cost anything like priority registration, special library privileges, and special housing,
Anyone here planing on a university might cost less because their student could graduate in less than 4 years. S17 just announced he will be applying to CS programs so I took a good look at his schools. While many of them he’d still be on a 4 year plan. At least one it seems he could (given he gets 4 or 5 on this years AP’s & gets into the school) theoretically graduate in 3 years.
** QQTD ** Yesterday question about SAT. S17 is a one & done kid, took the SAT last May. Did well enough with his GPA that there’s no point in taking it again. Only took one SAT Subject test in Math and it seems to be the only one he will need. (One or two of the CS departments want it.) I’ll be submitting his SAT’s to his schools this week.
I should add that at least 50% of the kids in my classes aren’t aware that this spreadsheet exists for them. I always have a printed version in one of my notebooks, and I pull it out and show it to them and they are amazed by it. These kids are going on 5 years and more because they “didn’t take the right classes”. I really don’t think they realized when they were getting advised that this is a really powerful tool.
The original form isn’t color-coded (I did that because it helps me), and when I showed them the original form they were like, oh yeah, I remember that. They didn’t know those boxes were drop down with options for applicable classes only (to keep you from putting classes in there that won’t work).
I ended up doing a mini-advisement session during one of my mixed media classes. I’d pulled out some paperwork to have the professor sign (because he’s in my concentration and I can’t do the senior review without his signature), and two other kids were like, where did you get that? So I showed them the email the dean had sent (which they’d ignored), where to have the professor sign it, and what the deadlines were. I know they are artists and artists tend to be flaky, but c’mon, people, this is money!!!