The party rep is a big deal to D. She took Tulane off the list, mainly because of the way students at her school talk about the party atmosphere.
Yes, ASU historically has a party rep, but by all accounts, Barrett is very quiet and tame.
At first blush it seems the Canadian schools would not be good for a non-partier, with the lower drinking age, but we have found the opposite to be true. Drinking is all out in the open. The mystique is gone. No “jungle juice” in lined trash cans in frat house basements. The bars in Montreal all have a big chalkboard listing the alcohol content of everything on tap, so you know exactly what you’re getting. And if you want to avoid the bars altogether at McGill, UToronto, or UBC, there are billions of other things to see and do close by.
I know one very bright kid who dropped out of TAMU after first semester, his problem was video game addicition! The three that I know that dropped out of Texas State all got involved with drugs. Two were former homeschoolers.
@labegg My DD applied to three schools via the Common App - two out of the three have received everything long ago. I went ahead and sent all three the transcript through Parchment separately around September 10 or 11 (can’t remember exactly), even thought allegedly the GC would upload it once into the CA for all CA schools. Thank goodness I did.
It was only this school - the only one that required ACT scores directly from the testing agency - that didn’t upload it. Maybe they have a different way of doing things. Or they just didn’t do it yet - I can’t believe a state school is that busy with apps in October. I can’t prove it, but I wonder if it was held up by the GC not doing her part.
@trish02 the mom of the kid with the video addiction was very ticked off. She felt she was very mislead. He join the corp and she was told they would help monitor his behavior, make sure he’d go to class and make sure he didn’t just sit in his room all day and night playing games. It didn’t work out that way at all, this was a 19 year old that had taken a gap year so he should have been old enough to keep it together but sadly it wasn’t the case.
Oh, and I fondly remember one lost weekend in Isla Vista (IV). On Del Playa (DP). And we stayed at Francisco Torres dorms (FT). I remember my friends and I visiting, getting lost and trying to to tell someone “we’re in FT, near DP and IV.” Or some combination of letters. =))
@3scoutsmom That is so sad. It really sounds like an addiction, not just a hobby or interest. I hope he is getting some help for it. Actually, as I type this, I wonder if someone can get help for that type of addiction. I would think so, but I’m not sure. My son just has an interest in gaming, like a hobby, and school comes first (so far). I hope he keeps it up.
DD’18 just got a letter informing her that she is awarded merit aid amounting to just under 80% of tuition to study Engineering at Arizona State! First thing she said was “all I hear about from my friends who go there is how much partying there is.” We asked her how many of those friends are studying Engineering . . .“umm, zero.”
We are sure the Engineering students party too, but we know several students at ASU that are very serious students.
@trish02@3scoutsmom I agree. The today’s games are designed to be addictive and require many hours and consistent/steady play throughout the day (e.g. clash of clans) unless one pays money. With kids taking the path that requires little money, they’ll be playing more hours that kids have in the past. It’s pretty heartless what these designers are doing… to the kids and their families.
@labegg I’ve actually done the opposite: if any school is too intense and has little/no party scene to speak of, I’ve discouraged it. I know my D could get caught in the grind if the atmosphere didn’t allow for much fun.
S’s home setup is a desktop computer with two monitors (all hand me downs). For portability, he uses a Kindle Fire, which is fine for web surfing, reading books / textbooks, some email, etc.
Our plan is to watch this year’s Black Friday ads to see if we should buy now or wait. At the moment, the top contenders are a Microsoft Surface Pro / Surface Book or a 13 inch HP Spectre x360.
I love my Surface Pro, but I’m not sure it’s enough machine for S’s needs. If not, the Spectre x360 is less expensive than the Surface Book.
In answer to the question about eliminating a school because of partying, my DD has that concern about Penn State. (I think she also has the impression that the football players run amok). It’s too bad because PS has a great Engineering program. I’m not sure if she’ll apply. We are in Maryland.
She also has “partying” reservations about schools that have low admission stats.
She is not being snobby, just afraid of how people might act when they drink too much (she’s never been around that) and that the other students might not be serious about their studies. Also, I think she’s afraid that they might think they’re cool and she’s not (I’m afraid she feels that way about high school, which is sad). She is a sweet, fun girl but shy and studious.
We’ve been using macs, so we’re leaning towards a macbook. But I’ve also been trying to push a second chromebook or such for taking to class and taking notes (cheap to replace if lost/broken/stolen). I’m very curious how well the Surface Pros work within a classroom environment though… sounds awesome if it can really combine typing notes with occasional diagrams or notations thrown in with the pen.
Re: notes / diagrams - I have a Rocketbook Everlast Smart Notebook, which is a spiral notebook, not a computer. The pages feel almost like real paper, just a little slicker, and they’re kind of like a whiteboard in that you can wipe the writing off with a damp cloth. We all refer to it as my “magic notebook.”
There’s a free companion smartphone app that lets you scan or snap a pic of anything you write and upload it to your choice of web / cloud service such as that web storage solution where you Drop things in a **Box/b, your email, a group study website, etc. With everything saved to a cloud app, you can erase the pages daily / weekly and not go through a bajillion paper notebooks / legal pads like we all did back in the day, plus the scanned content is easier (for me, anyway) to sort through and organize than paper notes.
I’m a big fan of taking notes by hand because studies say it’s much more effective than typing notes on a computer.
The notebook is expensive at about $30, and you have to use Pilot FriXion pens, but it cuts down on SO much paper clutter that I love the thing, and S wants one (or two!) to take to college. The pens are gel pens, and they’ll write just fine on regular paper. In addition to being wash-off, the special ink disappears if it’s exposed to high temps, such as being left in a hot car. If that happens, just put the notebook / pens in the fridge / freezer for a little while and the ink will come back.
Amazon has them in two sizes, but I’m not sure if I’m allowed to post a link or not. If you’re interested, don’t get the microwaveable one; get the wipe-off one. Don’t get the single-use on either because it’s regular paper, not wipe-off.
Here’s the product ID number: B06ZXWVZ3X Paste that into the search box at Amazon if you want to have a look.
