San Diego State and Cal Poly had impressive rock walls 
DD’s question when she saw the Cal Poly pool was how many student lifeguards there are and do any youth competitive teams practice at their pool. She wants a school with a pool so she can get a job!
UCSB has a nice climbing wall with lots of non-credit classes. The local hills aren’t too shabby for climbing if you are into that stuff. There is a climbing team and climbing trips.
So many new folks on the thread! Hop in and fasten your seat-belt. Glad to have you along for the ride!
** Naviance/LOR/Transcript update **…all schools in the Applying section of Naviance show Transcripts as “Sent.” Individual school portals are showing that LORs are starting to arrive as well.
#:-S
That sounds like a good plan @VickiSoCal !!! My son could have died and gone to heaven in the gym at San Diego State. Unfortunately they no longer have a men’s track team there, bumping it off his list. My kids have been very impressed with great gym facilities, that’s a bigger deal to both of them than I would have imagined.
My D15 is in a triple this year with bathrooms down the hall, but she considers this to be an upgrade from her first year when her roommate didn’t attend at the last minute (and her double became a lonely single). Surviving yucky dorms is something I sort of consider to be a necessary life lesson. Whenever we facetime there are friends wandering in and out of the room. She seems happy.
Oh geeze, my daughter would be soooo happy in a lonely single!
This morning DS’s GC fixed the Naviance issue that his physics teacher had complained about over the weekend where she was going to have to submit her LoR separately for each college. He had selected her for only schools that accept recommendations (that is, not the UC system). The workaround was to select his recommenders for “all colleges.” Nice to have such a quick fix from his wonderful GC for both of his recommenders!
@mardeebo Regarding career opportunities for Bio majors that aren’t medical or teaching a big one is sales especially Pharmaceutical and Medical Equipment/Technology.
Re: USCar. I may have misunderstood the rep. He was talking about the rec center, a lazy river, and the actual rivers. I couldn’t see a lazy river at the rec center on the site (which is what I was talking about).
Son17 has all apps in now. He decided to send one more this weekend, way ahead of the Dec 31st deadline.
So, now I guess we just twiddle our thumbs for 2 months and wait to see what happens. At this point in time I really have no way of guesstimating where he will choose. I don’t think he will add any other schools RD. I really kind of wish he just picks something early on and enjoy the rest of senior year. I was hoping not to be one of those stressed out parents come end of April.
Good luck to all of your kids still working on apps. Welcome new folks!
Just want to welcome all of the new members to this thread. We are here for helping parents with kids of all stats, and many members have fantastic advice. So don’t be afraid to ask. And @mardeebo, if your D likes a college for any reason and it’s affordable, definitely have her apply! Also, I would call the admissions office at the school that you are 5 miles or so from the commuter cutoff and see if they can waive that requirement if that alone make the school a financial no-go. It never hurts to ask!
Welcome!
You are welcome to join a subset of this group over here but everyone is super welcoming here too! It’s just a smaller group in that stat range.
I agree googling jobs with a Biology degree. I’d also look at the curriculums of the schools on her list to see how they might differ in their math requirements. Our D14 is a Biology major. Her program does require some calculus, stats, and a fair amount of Physics and Chemistry.
And yes, honestly I think that’s enough for most kids to go ahead and apply. I know for me at that age, I really wasn’t focused on all that much more than that. It was my flagship, I liked it, I could afford it with work and that was that. Some kids delve really deep to find a fit and others are far more adaptable and could be happy almost anywhere. In many ways, that’s a blessing if you ask me!
@carachel2, I know—the University of Alabama tour guide made a big deal about how Auburn had had the largest freestanding rock climbing wall in Alabama, and so that meant UA had to respond, which meant that we were now standing in front of the largest freestanding rock climbing wall in Alabama, and my first thought was “Huh, must not be a lot of rock climbing done in this state, is there?”
But my daughters were always much, much more impressed by saline (rather than chlorinated) pools being available for general student use than they were by climbing walls, anyway.
@RightCoaster – I think I have found the bright side of my procrastinating applicant. Since he has another deadline to meet every month (or two weeks), there is no time to sit around and wonder about acceptances when instead I am railing about each looming deadline. And as soon as he submits the Dec 1st apps, he really should be working on whatever that MIT app asks for. (I have not looked, but have read others’ comments here, and it sounds like it will take some time. Difficult to imagine anything taking more time than he has already dedicated to essays…)
@VickiSoCal I wouldn’t be surprised if there are youth teams at the pool in the summer but doubt it during the school year. It’s free for students while enrolled so it’s a pretty busy place during the school year. Ok, not “free” but it does come with all the enrollment fees lol. We were surprised D didn’t want to buy a summer pass to be honest.
There are definitely jobs available in the rec center, D had looked at one.
@CT1417 that is a good way to look at it
I was lucky that most of my son’s school choices did not seem to require tons of supplemental stuff. Pretty straightforward. A couple of “why this school essays” and that was it. No financial aid stuff filled out. Really just submit the Common App and be done.
My younger son Son19 wants to apply to some more selective schools and he wants to go into engineering, so I am going to have to learn more about that whole process. I will be more stressed out with him. Son17 has been fairly easy so far.
On the subject of climbing walls…I recall reading this in a Cornell newsletter, and being surprised that Cornell would have the largest climbing wall. They added on to the 26 year old climbing wall.
“…expand the climbing area from 4,800 to approximately 6,000 square feet, and increase the height to 50 feet.”
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/2016/03/upgrades-will-make-lindseth-pinnacle-indoor-climbing
I have never even been inside the building that houses the wall. There are so many more athletic buildings than existed back in my day.
@mardeebo Welcome. Would your daughter be at all interested in an allied health career? PHysical therapist assistant, occupational therapy assistant, dental assistant, etc? Those programs are affordable and lead to decent careers. Our oldest daughter is an OTA. She had to live in an apt bc there is only one OTA program in our state, but she roomed with another OTA student. The program was through a CC. It required 30 hrs of pre-reqs which could be competed at a university or another CC and then was a solid 12 month program which included clinicals (or whatever they are called.)
For the 50% of you that are applying to Alabama, it also has a somewhat dinky lazy river:
https://urec.sa.ua.edu/aquatics/aquatics-faciities/