Gus Malzahn the Auburn University Football coach is walking on a beach in Alabama when he finds an old lamp. He picks it up and rubs it and a Genie pops out. The Genie tells him he’ll grant any one wish that he wants. Gus is very excited and says, “Oh great Genie, I wish you could end all this suffering in the world, with terrorist attacking, despotic leaders enacting ethnic genocide, disease and famine in third world countries. If all that could just go away.” The Genie is like, “Woah, woah, woah there. I’m pretty powerful but you’re talking about making fundamental changes on a political, social, economic, philosophical and anthropological level. I’m not sure I can do that. Do you have any other wish?” Gus thinks for a moment and then says, 'Well could you at least make my Auburn Football program better than Nick Saban’s at Alabama with us winning multiple national championships?" The Genie thinks for a second and then says, 'Wait what was that first wish you had?"
The cost of attendance compared to what we paid 20 or 30 years ago is astronomical though, and direct loans are capped at fairly low amounts, which wasn’t the case when I went to college either. The percentage of the overall cost being covered by subsidized loans is fairly low, I suppose costs will keep going up as long as we parents are willing to brunt the cost.
Well, I sent an email to cb about the sat scores awaiting fulfillment, coincidence, or not, checked and the scores were just sent. Now waiting for an acceptance from Rutgers. Hopefully…
Looks like our school completed and sent our NMSF paperwork yesterday. Yay!
And, SAT and ACT scores have arrived at the one school where we have a portal. But, I sent those several weeks ago, so no indication of how long it took. The only date they show is the test taken date.
I don’t think that portal will show the status of the dual-enrollment transcripts I had sent, but I got email from Parchment that their part of sending was complete for the UC transcript. The community college transcripts go by paper, so will take longer. I had one paper one sent here, so at least I’ll know when I get it.
Sorry about the car @itsgettingreal17 – I also hate buying cars, but I’ve gotten a Prius for that past two cars, so now I guess I’ll just have “my regular order” next time. I don’t put much mileage on my car, since I work from home. DS put 20 miles on his bike yesterday commuting (decided to bike home and back between UC classes).
Thanks for all the college visit reviews! We didn’t take the tour when we visited UCSC (it was Easter), but loved the look of the campus and the community. We wandered the halls of an Engineering building that was open, and looked at the senior project posters. Those convinced DS that it was find for him as a backup and that he’d be happy there.
We’ve never done the tour at SLO (or UCSB for that matter). But then, I’ve never been inside our local California mission, either.
@socalmom007 I guess there are more folks who go car-less here up on the “Central Coast,” which is what we up here and in SLO prefer to be called instead of SoCal.
Regarding Cal Poly freshman dorms, our D was in a four person apartment style suite. However, she was able to do ED which they no longer offer and that did give her priority housing choices. That said, she has said she would pick a different dorm in retrospect. Not so much because of the four person layout but because of the suite style bathroom versus hallway bathroom. She really felt like a lot of her friends were able to make many more connections in the shared hallway bathroom scenarios…
Typically most kids move off campus after freshman year. But there is a ton of housing available in walking distance of the school.
@STEM2017 The Cal Poly forum at this site is pretty active and informative. There is info about how the MCA score is calculated. One active poster there, eyemgh, has an OOS son attending there and I think he got some sort of scholarship help. The difficulty of admittance can vary greatly by major.
Re triples: our son requested a double last year and got a triple. It worked out fine and we saved about $3k. Yay! Most of the CA public schools we’ve looked at have resorted to triples to accommodate increasing student numbers with little increase in new dorms. Out of curiosity I looked up an old dorm room of mine at UCSD and it is now a triple too.
@Run4life99 Welcome and good luck for your child at Rutgers! I am a Rutgers alum and I had a great experience there. The Honors Program was terrific. New Brunswick is MUCH nicer than in was in the 80s, although I recall fondly NB’s somewhat gritty, grungy charm back in the day.
The CA school I’ve seen with the best dorms was Sonoma State.
@eandesmom I choose apartment style living at UCSC as a freshman and regretted it for the same reason. Apartments are still an available option at UCSC if you get into the right college. For those that don’t know UCSC has 10 residential colleges. And once accepted you apply and get into one of them and your housing choices are limited by your college. You college mostly affect which required freshman core course you take and where you live.
@Ynotgo – congrats to your son & the hacking team. My DS was the only one participating so I finally convinced him to stop and focus on his science research project with the big, important deadline looming!! They’ll have a great time in NY - sorry you can join them.
@STEM2017 As for getting to Caly Poly. It’s clearly possible to take public transport , although I would keep in mind that flying to the east coast from CA is limited in timing. (I sent a kid back & forth to Boston for 4 years.) So timing a 3 hours train ride, connecting to a flight out of San Jose, LAX, or Oakland to fly to the east coast might require a lot of waiting and possibly a red-eye flight. I believe the other direction is easier to co-ordinate. Flying directly into SLO even if it requires two stop overs is probably easier. But this can probably get researched and part of a decision after he is admitted.
It’s a great school for Engineering if you can get in. Our point is it is possible to get into & out of without a car. And get around the city once you get there. S17’s safety is in a much more remote location (north coast) the only options to get a student in & out of the area are expensive plane flights, charter buses the school hires at breaks, or a car. This is one of the reasons I hope it doesn’t end up his only choice.
I went to UCSC (Uncle Charlie’s Summer Camp) and lived in the dorms my freshman and sophomore years. I think it was more common to live in the dorms for more than one year back then, partly because the student population at UCSC was half of what it is now and the housing in Santa Cruz proper was very thin (vacancy rate of 0.1%) and expensive. I picked my college (Crown) and was stuck with the dorm type. Cars were very discouraged. I didn’t have one until sophomore year, and then parked in the cow field, also known as the East Remote lot. Our student fees paid for an unlimited use bus pass, and the city bus went through campus, so super easy. It is an absolutely beautiful place to live and go to school and I loved the whole experience.
Thanks @mamaedefamilia . Have heard good things about Rutgers, but a lot of the Jersey kids want to leave state. They are rated pretty high in humanities. S wants to do evolutionary anthropology and not be too far from home. Far enough to live on campus. Close enough to bring his laundry home.
^ @Run4life99 My major was anthropology too! It was a very good program.
Nationally, Rutgers ranks very high. It’s a shame that it’s not appreciated as such within NJ. I also really loved the ease of getting into NY or Philadelphia for a change of scenery.
It’s now 1:37pm, and the high school still has not submitted the NMF application.
D had an appointment with the principal to get this done this morning. At the meeting, principal said, “Let’s go see GC.” GC says “You (principal) haven’t given me any of the information to complete this.” ARRRRGGGH! They are now planning to meet again, after school.
I have left voice mails and emails for both GC and Principal to convince them of the urgency.
I don’t drink, but I’d make an exception today.
EDIT - And now an email from the principal, saying that the GC had to go home with her sick child. But will get it done from home. About that drink? Make it double!
@whataboutcollege , Thanks! I was hoping it would still be rolling, but I saw posts from last years applicants, and they were waiting a long time to hear. I’ll post if we get an early decision. Won’t hold my breath.
