My DD’18’s grandmother bought a used 4WD vehicle back in the 90’s. When she passed away about 7 years ago, she left the vehicle to me. It is now so old that the teenagers think its cool, so DD’18 loves driving it around.
@mom2cats - Thank you for your concern! I actually feel much better about my research now that I’ve stepped back from it a bit. The problem I ran into the other day was a few schools I thought would be great prospects for her really don’t fall into the intersection of good/ affordable/ close as well as I wanted them to. Oh well. But to answer your question, the kid is a writer and we’re looking for good programs in English and/or possibly communications. On the bright side I did find a few that look very promising.
I have heard of Colleges that Change Lives @magnetnh, but I don’t know a great deal about it. I will take a hard look.
My DD’s search is self-limiting because of what she’s choosing to study - not every school has a BSN program for nursing that is direct admit and within a few hours’ radius from home. We both know what the top pick is, and it’s definitely a match both financially and scholastically. Still, you have to spread the risk so I think she will probably apply to about 10 schools. We are going to discuss the options over Thanksgiving so at least we do have a list that is worth investigating further.
And I say “we” because, to be honest, I’m probably doing more research than she is. With her blessing.
@oldbrookie, have you checked out the “majors” section of CC? For D17 I’ve found the engineering forum to be invaluable. That may be a good place to identify targets. I feel like I’ve been lucky that all three of my kids have wanted pretty specific programs which makes it a lot easier to do research and narrow the search. I did find out with my D11 that target schools were not what I thought they were (especially when merit is needed). I guess I’ll know by March if I’ve really learned my lesson with D17.
On another note I’m wondering if you, @CT1417, @MotherOfDragons and other joint 2017/2018 parents are having a hard time pulling back from the 2017 process to focus on 2018. I know I am. I have a list of potential schools that offer S18’s preferred programs, we went to a college fair, and he took the PSAT and ACT, but that’s about it. I haven’t done a bit of research on the schools (aside from knowing they offer his programs), so I’m really only familiar with the few that overlap D17’s list. I need to climb out of the 2017 pit I’ve fallen into!
@snoozn How can I find the “majors” section? I’ve been looking around on CC and can’t find it.
@homerdog There is a college majors forum on the forum homepage with various subforums.
@homerdog here’s the forum for majors: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-majors/
My D has no clue what she wants to do with her life, but she has very specific requirements for any schools she will consider, most having to do with size and location (though there is also the requirement that trees be present on campus, not too many, not too few… she’s the ultimate goldilocks for trees ;
) Meanwhile, H and I have a different set of requirements which relate primarily to cost, but also career services and support for undecideds trying to find their way. It will be interesting to see how the list shakes out. I’m the researcher in chief around here as well, and I think Thanksgiving week is going to be an excellent time to chat with her about some of the schools on the list so we can make spring break visit plans…
@snoozn yeah, a little bit. Some of it is because I have no idea how D18 is going to do this year-she tends to be really really amazing or really really terrible with regards to grades and test taking. If she wants to do well, she knocks it out of the park. If she doesn’t, the results are pretty bad. So until I have her PSAT scores and her first semester grades in hand, I don’t even know where to start looking for her.
Plus, unlike D17 (and more like normal kids) she doesn’t know what she wants to major in in college.
AND, unlike D17, she is a lot more difficult and combative about taking my advice and letting me help her with college stuff.
It’s like trying to give a porcupine a pedicure.
Count D18 among the undecided for college majors.
Does anyone know if applying to College X as an undecided major affects her admission chances?
@snoozn I have not checked out the majors section! Didn’t even know it existed. Thought I had read just about every single word on cc… Thank you for that tip!
As far as stepping back from my '17 kid’s experience, I’m different. I was hardly ever in it to begin with, so pretty easy here. He was a recruited athlete and he owned the whole process. Junior year he was dating a senior girl, another athlete, smart kid with older siblings and well informed about the ins and outs of it. Best thing that ever happened to him. My only, but worthwhile (at least in my mind) contribution, was 2 schools I initially targeted for fit made the final 4.
I don’t think you should worry too much about shirking '18 due to '17 focus. All those deep amphibian parts of our brains are percolating unconsciously all the time. And the '17ers are in such a warm, happy, fuzzy place right now… I’m enjoying it!
@LMHS73 It depends on the school. Larger universities, being undecided can make admissions more difficult. Smaller LACs it might make less of a difference. USNWR article: http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/college-admissions-playbook/articles/2016-03-07/pros-cons-of-applying-to-college-as-an-undecided-major
@odannyboySF - thanks for posting the undecided-major article - very informative!
@1822mom - thanks for posting the link to the majors forum - I didn’t know that existed either!
Lots of good info making its way to our forum this evening!
My DD’18 also belongs to undecided group, however, she knows what she definitely not interested. She is interested in art/design/math and hope to be to travel with her future career and not constrained in the office. Originally we suggest her taking graphic design but relatives have major concern on future employment. She is open for engineering now although that won’t be something she is excited about. I just learned another major as industrial design and environmental science. Will need to looking into more in those majors. Right now my DD’18 just want to go to an UC.
@MotherOfDragons , I can relate. My DD in question is the one who will react when I say the sky is a pretty blue today. Most of our biggest disagreements have been about her big time-sucking extra curricular, which she is finally starting to see my way. I realized that we have to talk “adult to adult” about things - I literally use that phrase because she told me she felt I was treating her like a child when we would talk about stuff. Um … But that was a breakthrough - she seems much more receptive if I preface it with “adult to adult…”
At least she is looking to me for help with the big stuff, like college. But yeah, she is still a kid - I think she’d be just as content to have me make the decision for her, but she will guilt me with enough stuff. I don’t need that added to the pile if I’m wrong, lol.
@odannyboySF thank you for that link! D18 wavers between mechanical engineering, law (several attorneys in the family), forensics, and theme park management (that last one is a real thing with her and I have two colleges on her list that could work for her if she went that way).
@jjkmom wrote
As an artist (who is back in school getting her bachelor’s in studio art) I would also have concerns if my kid took graphic design-there are a lot of kids entering that field, and the barriers for entry are really low, keeping the wages low and competition really high. I deliberately veered away from the computer side of my art degree, mostly because the classes are crammed full.
Industrial design was my original major at Carnegie Mellon U back in the day. My first professor was the guy who designed the Dust Buster. It was the coolest class ever. That’s a good university for that major, as well.
@bearcatfan wrote
Oh my god yes! I spent five hours being Mom Taxi for her on Saturday for robotics and improv, and once had to pull the car over to the side of the road and sit there until she stopped picking fights with me over the stupidest stuff. She’s giving me a lot of gray hair. :-t
I’ll definitely try the “adult to adult” phrase if I initiate conversations with her, though, that sounds like it might be worth a try. Typically, though, she just starts verbally hammering me when she wants something… 8-X (like I said, would make a great lawyer)
@MotherOfDragons LOL - verbal hammering. Yep, that’s it!
Don’t get me wrong … I love her dearly and she is a great human being. But when she gets going you can almost see a little thermometer behind her with the mercury rising, just like a Warner Brothers cartoon. At that point I step in and tell her to watch her tone of voice. Before we got to where we are now, I’d literally have to leave the room and just not talk to her for a while. She knew then that she’d gone too far, but by then I was really pissed off. I’ve always told her, in her dealings with me, it’s not really what she says but how she says it. It’s only with me, but then I’m the one who is questioning and trying to give advice.
The “adult to adult” came after a very long, soul searching conversation about that time-sucking extra curricular - ballet, in case anyone is familiar with the 5,295 hours required weekly. I accepted that she knew a bit about how to plan her life, but she also had to accept that I’ve been around more blocks than she knew existed and she needed to hear me, too. We agreed that we needed to have adult conversations with mutual respect. So far it helps.
Her little sister has been watching all this, and is the easiest-going teen you’d ever want to find. When she was a toddler she was a hothead who would put herself in timeout. I never would have guessed, back then, that SHE would be my easy one. 
There’s no such thing as a pre-law “major” (just like there is no pre-med major) so she could major in anything and still go to law school. I was an economics major and my law school classmates undergraduate majors ranged from the typical political science, to Latin American studies, to classics, to engineers, to English and everything in between. We even had a physician to had practiced for more than 20 years who quit medicine and decided to go to law school just for fun.
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D18 wavers between mechanical engineering, law (several attorneys in the family), forensics, and theme park management (that last one is a real thing with her and I have two colleges on her list that could work for her if she went that way).
Wow - lots of you here with C17’s and C18’s - myself included. @snoozn , sometimes I feel a little guilty about S18 when I see how most kids in his grade have already been visiting colleges, etc, but in truth the reason we haven’t taken him yet is because of his sports schedules, not because of D17. As luck will have it, his free season is spring, when everything having to do with D17’s college search will be over and out of our hands.
For now, I have told him that the best things he can do for himself is keep his grades up, start thinking about who he will ask for recommendations since they will likely be teachers he has right now, and think about what he might want to study in college.
Personality-wise, S18 is a million times less prickly than D17, so I am anticipating a far more pleasant journey with him into the rabbit-hole of applications.
@2014novamom Someone from my college graduating class had an undergraduate degree in opera performance, and then got a law degree. My husband has an undergrad in chemical engineering and a law degree - ended up working for Big Oil in their environmental compliance division. Lots of money but lots of stress, too.
Re: undergraduate law- yeah my sil majored in poetry and then got her jd.
We are not rich enough to pay for an undergrad degree in poetry, at nyu, no less. Lol.
I think d18 will end up doing some sort of marketing or management degree at a state school like uga, ua, or ucf.