Parents of the HS Class of 2018 (Part 1)

Parents of HS Class of 20xx
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My D has been seriously mulling over her college options as well. In fact, this week she announced a clear favorite: UBC in Vancouver. It’s a low match–maybe even safety–and it’s definitely affordable with her Canadian citizenship. Her stated reasons for choosing UBC (if I can use the word “choose” when she hasn’t even applied yet) are sound. She’s obviously put a lot of thought into this. H and I feel really good about it. At this point, after multiple visits to several schools, I don’t really see her changing her mind.

Famous last words, right?? =))

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Hey, all! The Wi-Fi in our hotel is really bad so I can only get on with my phone, which is not conducive to writing long posts. The short version is that we now have three very viable options and it will be a difficult decision. Also if I came to OU myself, I would gain my entire Freshman 15 just from the peanut butter chocolate cheesecake!

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Yay @DiotimaDM! Can’t wait for the full report!

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Just returned from visiting Kenyon and Oberlin with D’18. D loved the Oberlin campus and fabulous museum on campus. She liked the fact that music is a huge part of the experience at Oberlin even for those not studying in the conservatory. She also liked the size, around 3000. Kenyon is about 1/2 the size, and felt small. All dining was in one building at Kenyon. There was one cool Harry Potter like dining room. But D liked the more spread out and variety of dining options at Oberlin. H and I thought Kenyon felt more focused on studies. Oberlin felt incredibly laid back. Info session presenter 4th year at O said she works really hard- she was well spoken and passionate. Our tour guide at O was a freshman which was disappointing as he had limited knowledge. K tour guide and student and admissions dept. employee who ran the information session were very knowledgeable, friendly and fairly impressive. Grateful this trip seemed to give our D an idea of the size of school she wants. Also, D is Liberal and while Kenyon guides say they are a tiny blue dot in a sea of red, we all felt uncomfortable with how isolated and remote it feels. In info session they said at least once a year local conservatives protest on campus but that the students support their peers with rainbow flags and other signs of support. Did not feel this would be as much of a problem at Oberlin, and when asked, our guide said he was unaware of any similar conflict. - of course he hasn’t been there long and is drawing on limited knowledge.

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@Booajo I am relieved to hear that someone besides us isn’t close to a list. By this time of junior year with my D15 we not only had the final list, but she had visited all but two schools on the list. With D18, we’re still trying to come up with a list and have visited only two local schools, one of which will be her safety and the other of which she won’t apply to. D18 doesn’t know what she wants to study and doesn’t want any of the small LACs we toured with D15 but also isn’t excited about really big schools. She likes the medium-sized schools, which are harder to find, especially in California, which would be her dream location.

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@aynrandfan my D15 loved Oberlin too, although she ended up going elsewhere. I don’t think your D needs to worry–'s liberal–it’s very liberal!

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I think we are starting to put together the skeleton of a list here. It’s interesting how D18’s list is informed by D15’s list. They have almost identical stats, but different interests. But we know from D15’s experience which schools that were a reach for FA should come off of D18’s list. For example, D15 was admitted OOS to UNC Chapel Hill, but the FA was not enough to make it feasible, so it’s not on D18’s list. There are others like this too.

I think there will be different safety schools - or maybe I should say fewer - on D18’s list as well. She is casually dating a senior who has really stellar stats (starting with a 36 ACT) who got into some very good schools but was shut out at a lot as well. This has been sobering for her. He is going to attend our state flagship on a great scholarship, and this school will be her safety with or without a ton of scholarship money. With an early admit in hand there (it has EA, so she’d know by Christmas I think), she won’t feel like she’s “settling” since she knows so many kids with great stats go there. Then she can play the reach game for merit and FA.

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I finally got in! I’m too brain dead to do the full report today, but here are some rankings based on our visits. These are S’s opinions unless noted otherwise.

Best town

  1. Albuquerque (UNM)
  2. Norman (OU)
  3. Lubbock (Texas Tech)

Best Academics

  1. Texas Tech
  2. OU
  3. UNM

Best dorms / Campus housing

  1. UNM
  2. Texas Tech
  3. OU (the mom would have reversed OU and Tech)

Best dining hall & meal plan (different from best food)

  1. UNM (S loved the layout of the dining hall and the 24/7 access)
  2. OU
  3. Texas Tech

Best food (variety, taste & quality - this is Mom’s opinion. S says it was all edible / didn’t care)

  1. OU
  2. Texas Tech (UCEN options were pretty cool, they didn’t take us into a dining hall??)
  3. UNM (great coffee bar, needed more food options/variety)

Best opportunities aside from theatre (research, internships, study abroad, etc.)

  1. Texas Tech
  2. OU
  3. UNM

Best theatre opportunities (film extra, paid tech positions on or off campus)

  1. UNM
  2. Texas Tech
  3. OU

Best campus (beauty, architecture, layout, vibe)

  1. UNM
  2. OU
  3. Texas Tech

Best NMF financial package

  1. Texas Tech
  2. UNM
  3. OU
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@KAMmom The majority of medium sized colleges in CA are Catholic privates plus Stanford. If you aggregate the Claremont colleges, they would fit, too. There’s also Chapman which is somewhat popular with kids we know. I’m sure you’re doing your homework, but you can pm me with any questions. The smallest CSU is Humboldt State, but that’s probably not the type of California environment she’s looking for.

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Had a good talk with S re: the new cutoff predictions on a certain blog. S has a 223, which is predicted to be at or above the cutoff for CA. The blog even goes so far as to say that 223 might be the highest cutoff we’ll ever see due to compression in the scale and the limited number of score combinations that produce the higher numbers.

Having finished our campus visits for now, S says that if CA hits 224 and he doesn’t make NMF, he’ll be just fine going to UNM on their Regents scholarship instead of their NMF scholarship. The only difference is that Regents don’t get the IPad given to NMFs, and Regents have to live in the Hokona Scholars’ wing freshman year, while NMFs can pick any dorm. (Mom thinks Hokona is nicer than his first choice anyway. :wink: )

If he makes NMF, he’s leaning ever so slightly toward Texas Tech. Officially, he says it’s a tie between Tech and UNM, with OU slightly behind. It might change as we seek more info from each school, and there’s even talk of a repeat visit a year from now to be sure. All of these schools would be great places for him, though, so we’ll see how his thoughts evolve over the 12 months.

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We have started our tours, and are happy to share updates as we move along if others find them helpful. Visited St. Mary’s College on Monday - beautiful campus on the river that is near Chesapeake Bay. It’s a small LAC, and D18 felt it might be too small for her (~ 1,700 students). Next on the list are Towson and UMBC. She’s already toured UMD College Park with S16, but wants to visit again now that she’s considering schools more seriously.

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@suzy100 we have a similar situation. The schools that would give need based aid, would give more in S18’s first year, because D15 would be a senior and 2 in college.

But in his other years he would get much less in aid, so they might turn out unaffordable.

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@DiotimaDM --love your rating list of the three schools. What program is your S interested in? My D is likely NM and she is interested in studying film production. Her options for schools that offer close to full ride and have some kind of Creative Media program are pretty slim. We hadn’t even thought about UNM as an option. Maybe we should. Though I’m not sure she would like the Pueblo architecture. Some of the Southwestern decor at OU was a little bit of a turn off for her. It’s been very hard to get my D interested in researching schools. She has the burden of her peers thinking she is so smart and that she should be looking at more elite schools. She has even had grown ups make this comment to her. Of course they don’t know our financial situation and a NM scholarship will really be such a blessing for us! Especially when she wants to study film production. I have to admit I’m a little nervous about her prospects after graduation.

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I would definitely check out UNM for film. The NM program is a true full ride - tuition & fees, room & board, books and a few hundred left over after that.

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Love @DiotimaDM trip reports. Our D18 is still completely obsessed with USC (Southern Cal). We had a trip to the Northeast planned for Spring Break so she could tour colleges up there. I wanted her to see some Ivys and LACs but it was a no-go. Zero interest. It’s frustrating. I also like how my words get twisted. For example, I say, “you should get into USC but there’s no guarantee”. That gets twisted into, “Dad doesn’t think I can get into USC”, conveniently leaving off the “you should get into USC” part. I know the uncertainty of college admissions is stressful … but you deal with that by casting a wider net.

On a positive note, we’ve seen a ton of growth in D18 in the past year. She’s still a procrastinator but is getting much better. Getting more involved in school stuff forced her to get better organized. That’s probably my main failing as a parent – I assumed that dropping some ECs after middle school would allow D18 to focus on schoolwork and friends. The actual result was that she retreated inwards and went through a terrible phase.

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A lot of good news received this week! S got official letter yesterday that he was chosen as a KY Governor’s Scholar. It is a five week residential experience on an in-state college campus this coming summer between junior and senior year of HS (no cost), studying a chosen topic of interest. The in-state schools all give generous merit to the GSP kids, with most of the in-state publics giving full tuition with high enough ACT.

Also learned he bumped up his ACT score another point (34 to 35) with his March attempt (all juniors in KY have to take each year). Also got his SAT score, a 1480 with 223 SI, so this gives him a confirming score for NMF purposes. Done with both!

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Lifeguarding, I’ll be interested in your thoughts on those schools. My DD has toyed UM-CP and UMBC. She probably wants to stay within an hour or two of Frederick, MD. Are you going to look at Loyola of Maryland? I want her to look at Towson but they don’t have engineering majors, which she wants to have as an option. She really liked the two big MD schools, but we’ve just started touring.

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Thanks @1518mom! Just send you a PM.

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@crazy4info have her check into Temple too if she has high stats. Merit is competitive but maybe she will get a good amount, and the film program is supposed to be good.

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@Astro77, sure thing, will be happy to post some updates as we visit schools. Our DD plans to double-major in political science and psychology, but I’m not sure how strongly she feels about those majors. Fortunately, most schools have them, and schools near DC, Annapolis, and Baltimore offer good opportunities for internships in govt.

St. Mary’s College of MD feedback: One concern I had about St. Mary’s is the small number of majors because the enrollment is so small. If DD changes her mind, like many do when they get to college, I’d hate for her to have to transfer just because a school she loved didn’t have the new major available. I think St. Mary’s is strong for political science, and their location seems ideal for env sci majors, but I don’t know if they offer engineering. DD’s impression both through an early campus visit the night before with a HS friend who attends, and then our tour, was that students there are probably very bright and could hold some thought-provoking discussions that would be engaging for her, but everyone seemed very laid back and proud of their slogan “Keep St. Mary’s weird”. She’s the type who likes to plan, organize, and get places on-time, and gets frustrated when other people don’t operate that way. So for her, she felt like St. Mary’s might be a bit different than her style. That said, the campus is beautiful, with so many water activities and group events, and the rooms are about the size of all the others in the public MD colleges we toured before with S16. The campus only has 1 dining hall, but the food was excellent and lots of options for those with dietary restrictions. St. Mary’s is in a very rural location, though, and when DH and I tried to find dinner nearby while DD met with her friend we ended up driving for 1/2 hour to the only place that looked okay to eat in. I think we went the wrong direction from the campus, but in general, there are no businesses within a few miles of the small campus. Students didn’t seem to mind, but I think I would have had a tough time not being able to walk off campus to get a bite to eat, or a hair cut, or to make a trip to a pharmacy/convenience store.

Will post after our Towson and UMBC tours. Probably won’t get back to UMD CP until fall, but I went to undergrad and grad school there so DD has already been a few times.

We haven’t checked out any of the private schools in MD. Since DD will probably go to grad school, she seems to be okay with going the in-state public route for undergrad since there are several good options, then taking on a grad assistantship to help pay for a more selective grad school program later.