S already has a solid college list and didn’t want to visit any colleges over spring break, so he had some much-needed downtime as we visited family in the northeast. We’ve lived in Texas for a while now and hadn’t seen snow for several years so it was fun to experience a big snowstorm. Does anyone else feel as if junior year is both never-ending AND flying by too fast? When I think about long term things (national merit, college applications) it seems as if they will never arrive but then I feel as if I blinked and suddenly a whole month has gone by. AP exams right around the corner, how did that happen?
S seems pretty settled with his school list, which has been stable at five schools (UT Dallas, WPI, U Tulsa, UT Austin, and MIT) for the last four months. Currently UT Dallas is his top choice so he’s going to stay on campus for several weeks this summer while attending coding camps. If the experience confirms his interest in the school we may have a very low key application season in our house since he will be auto admit at UTD. He’s still planning to take the SAT subject tests in June in case he wants to apply to MIT, but it’s such a huge reach and not even his top choice; if he loves his time at UTD it would not surprise me if he decides not to bother applying to MIT. I’ve told him as long as he has a solid safety on his list he can apply to one school or fifteen, or anything in between. Depending on his summer experience he might decide to take me up on the “one”.
I hit Costco today to get drinks and snacks for our road trip. We don’t leave until a week from Thursday, but I’m out of town for five days between now and then and I wanted the shopping done.
We’re driving, and it’s about 3500 miles, round trip. We’re calling it the Black Widow College Tour because the driving route makes a near-perfect black widow hourglass in the map software, criss-crossing through Wichita Falls.
Each school could only accommodate us on certain days, so the order is ABQ, Dallas, Lubbock, Norman, OK, in case anyone wants to see the widow mark. Yes, there’s a much shorter and more logical route, but the schools couldn’t see us on the right days to make it work.
Re: snacks - Trader Joe’s stopped making my favorite macadamia & candied ginger trail mix, so I got the big Kirkland bag with raisins, peanuts and M&Ms. Chocolate gives S migraines, so I’ll be dividing the bag in half and putting all of the M&Ms in my half. The sacrifices we parents make, right???
Re: APs right around the corner. I know, right? How did that happen? It will be April next month, barely two months of school to go and then S is a senior. Ack!!
@traveler98 our sons may end up being classmates:-) My S is sold on UTD we visited last year. I think we are ahead of the game because he was dragged along on all the planning for DD16. Since we learned UTD does not require essays on the SAT he’s done testing except for AP’s. He concentrating on keeping his grades up and starting to think about scholarships applications for the fall. He got the NSLI-Y scholarship to go to China this summer so he might have a shot at the McDermott scholarship. In the meantime I’m hoping the TX cutoff for National Merit doesn’t go up by more than one point because the McDermott will be a high reach for him.
I’m looking forward to all of these trip reports as well!
@vistajay Kudos to you for keeping quiet and letting S take the lead on the college visits. That is very hard to do! I’m recovering from a major leg injury and can’t walk long distances, so on my recent college trip with D, she did everything on her own (with her brother, actually, but no parent there to influence her perception), while I hung back at the hotel. I love that it went that way, as she was able to form her own opinions and make some significant cuts on those stubborn apron strings. A wise CC poster recently said that transitioning your child from home to college should not be a cliff, but rather a slow, gentle slope. Something to that effect, anyway. I’ve really taken that to heart.
@DiotimaDM and @suzy100 , road trips are great! And I’ll bet that down time in the car between school visits will be good for processing and reflection.
All of you about to travel with your kids, enjoy your time together! :x
OHH speaking of road trips, I completely forgot to mention that D18 and S20 and I are popping up to WashU in St. Louis this weekend for a quick visit. D went to a presentation with a WashU admissions counselor at her school a few months ago. She said it was surprisingly disorganized and not very informative. D’s classmate went to visit WashU a couple of weeks ago over spring break and she said the presentation was “horrible.” Hmmm. I’m not sure what’s going on, as this is a Top 20 USNWR school and I have heard wonderful things about it. Hopefully it’s just been a couple of flukes. I will report back on our experience.
I hope sure hope TX won’t go up higher than 221 but it is a possibility. I honestly do think it will go up to 221, but still could possibly go higher, if that’s the case I’m going to have one disappointed kid, but on the brighter side his rank went up so he’s very competitive for the top level of AES award, which still keeps UTD as a financial as well as academic safety.
The only new wrinkle is that the girlfriend has been wait-listed everywhere she applied except UT Austin where she was admitted into the Comp Sci program. The plan had been that she would go out of state and they were good with that, I just hope DS doesn’t change his mind if she ends up at UT Austin. I asked again last night and he assured me that they had planned all along to go to different colleges and that this won’t change anything only making it easier to get together on breaks and long weekends.
I really like this girl and her family I know it’s unlikely to last from high school to college especially with her being a year ahead (she skipped a grade in elementary school) but I still hope it does.
The girlfriend thing can be tricky! S and his GF have decided to prep for the SAT together - her for her PSAT and SAT early next year, him for a retake in August. They’re not at all ready to go to the same college, but they figure high scores never hurt anybody. If they’re still together in a year, they’ll have some good options to stay near each other. and if they’re not still together, both will have good enough scores to send them wherever they want to go.
The only school she’s mentioned so far is UC Berkeley, and they’re also not close enough yet for me to ask if she knows that Cal is basically a lottery school. I don’t plan on saying anything unless I’m asked or the topic comes up naturally.
Home Sweet Home! go2boy and I had an awesome adventure touring the midwest and three schools: Marquette, Loyola Chicago and Xavier. First stop was Marquette in the heart of Milwaukie and is integrated into the downtown. We saw the school the day they were x’d out of March Madness so there were some glum faces. It was hard getting a read as to what kind of kid is a Marquette student. There is a large greenspace on campus which is a nice respite to the busy street traffic. Go2boy had a great interview but I’m not sure he was feeling it. Next up was Loyola Chicago–great location on the lake, beautiful campus, and despite frigid weather, there was an “energy” on the campus. Go2boy loved it. Even though it was the largest of the 3 we saw (and he attends an itsy-bitsy high school), he felt very comfortable. We also toured the Water Tower Campus in downtown Chicago, just off Michigan Avenue. Talk about a sweet location! Truly, you are in the thick of it. Go2boy is a diehard ubanite and he could see himself attending classes there. I liked the fact that even though it is a Catholic school with a Jesuit mission, there was also a Jewish center and mosque on campus. They really seem to walk the diversity talk. Last stop: Cincinnati and Xavier. So we both totally loved Cincinnati. It’s a city exploding with creative energy. The Over the Rhine neighborhood was teeming with awesome restaurants that rivaled our Portland own. So much street art and positivity. The Xavier campus is about ten minutest by car outside of town and is in its own little bubble. Very new and manicured campus. They were on a high from getting into the Elite 8 the night before. Go2boy was a bit turned off by all the rah-rah sports atmosphere–he’s a bit of a renaissance man and loves a good intellectual debate. He didn’t think he would necessarily find his people there. It’s too bad because we were both really feeling Cin-City. So Loyola moves to the head of the pack and I’m feeling the pressure that we should really look at more schools because he is very clear about what he likes and what he doesn’t like. BTW, we totally became fans of Cincinnati chili!
@ShrimpBurrito, I’d love to hear your thoughts on WashU. That was going to be one of our spring break visits but D decided she’d like to go south instead, so we’re visiting USC (Carolina) and Duke.
@3scoutsmom, that’s fantastic news about China! Even without that your S has a really impressive resume for McDermott if he decides to apply. Fingers crossed for NM cutoff to be 221 or less!
@ShrimpBurrito and @suzy100 – I toured Wash U with my daughter several years ago. I almost started crying after the presentation because it is every parent’s dream for their kid – they want to find the “nice” kids to inhabit their stunning campus. I will always remember it. In fact, it was a top contender for go2girl but they didn’t come through with the merit aid. But I felt like they had their game down. Advisers for the student and advisers for your major. A lot of intersectionality between majors. The NICEST dorms with reputed Tempurpedic mattresses. And did I mention the campus is gorgeous? Wash U looks for demonstrated interest so if you have a kid who is interested, make sure they go to every school visit, campus visit, road show–they keep track. And make sure your kids email the adcoms. You would be surprised how many kids don’t.
Thanks so much, @go2mom! We would need the big merit aid for it to work, as well. My D knows a girl from her high school who is currently at WashU on one of the big named full tuition scholarships, so we know it’s not impossible. My D is only mildly interested at this point. She’s more excited about going to the City Museum! :-bd I really am curious how she will react to WashU, though. We are going with some good friends who are much more serious about it. If nothing else, it will be good for D to tour an elite school with a like-minded peer so they can discuss and process together.
@ShrimpBurrito Who wouldn’t be excited about the City Museum! I took my Girl Scout troop on a trip there one year and they had so much fun they insisted on going back the next year!
Hi @krishnamg, no college planner here. I’ve been through this once, and all of the information I needed on college planning I’ve found right here. I’m not saying it hasn’t been time-consuming, because it has, but for me that was not worth the money when I could pretty much figure it out for myself by combing this website. But it’s a big time investment for sure.
Yes, there’s a much shorter and more logical route, but the schools couldn’t see us on the right days to make it work.