Yeah, I also saw that mentioned quite a bit online. I saw some guys in blazers and khakis but I don’t remember seeing any girls in dresses. Itt seemed pretty normal. ( they do have a gown program - if you hit a certain gpa you get to wear a gown - again like hogwarts Our guide told us the benchmark is high the first year and steadily goes down so that by graduation everyone qualifies for the gown, which is then worn to graduation.
I’m glad to be reading along with you guys. I think DD is someone who will take SAT or ACT several times. She’s going to do Khan academy this summer with her math tutor. (Finally broke down and hired a wonderful local lady)
Does anyone have opinions on Gap Years? It’s very common in England where DH is from - but no one here seems to have heard of “such things”.
Sounds like an amazing visit to Sewanee, @Gatormama! We’ll have to compare notes on theatre – D19 visited ODU’s theatre program yesterday with a tour of all the facilities, a meeting with current students (including an alum of a next-to-us high school), and meetings with the professor chairing the tech design and production concentration as well as the costuming professor. She received some great advice not only about evaluating theatre programs but what-to-put-in-the-portfolio advice. To cap it off, we saw a performance of their current show Alice.
ODU’s campus is nothing like Sewanee’s, of course. 
I think the most interesting part of the visit was listening to D19 as she thought-out-loud about what she was seeing on the campus, her thoughts after meeting with students, seeing facilities, etc. I get the sense she is starting to sort out things in her mind of what makes a good theatre program. But – she is not set on theatre just yet. She is definitely still interested in political science (probably more along the advocacy track) and said she could not see herself at ODU for poli sci. She is also very hands on. Comparing schools based on rows in a spreadsheet is definitely not for her. She has to be there, walk the campus, walk the neighborhood around the campus (for more urban locations), see the people.
On our way down to ODU we also drove by Randolph-Macon College (very pretty and quaint campus! It was admitted students day so lots of yellow ribbon for the R-M Yellow Jackets!) and Christopher Newport University (also admitted students day so we weren’t able to take a peek inside at the amazing-from-the-outside Ferguson Center for the Arts). D19 has no interest in Randolph-Macon but “may” want to visit CNU for an open house event this fall. She’s not very interested, but the campus is pretty so it’s on the list.
Tomorrow is tech day for D19’s theater production so we’re heading out on Tuesday morning for the southwestern part of our state, to see Virginia Tech and Radford. Might do some stopovers at smaller colleges on our return trip home, too.
Gap years are becoming more common in the US. I imagine my D19 might find one useful…he wants a college degree but isn’t that interested in actually attending school. :))
@firstwavemom - a couple of those schools are going to have to make it on our list just for options. We live about 30 minutes from St. Mary’s and she would never go there. None of the kids I know that live around here will apply there because it is in the middle of absolutely nowhere. It’s beautiful and we have been there a thousand times for events (she could probably give a tour of the school) so she won’t even consider it.
@Gatormama - Sewanee sounds gorgeous. I don’t think my D19 would like the dress up thing. I see her as a throw on a pair of shorts/sweats and a hoodie and go to class type of person. Chris Newport is on the outskirts of our list (it’s over our COA budget) and I am tempted to visit. If you go, please write up a review. A couple kids I know are headed to Randolph Macon in the fall. They seem to really love it when they visited/applied. I had never even heard of it before so…just shows how many options are out there.
@Gatormama - those guys in blazers and khakis were most likely fraternity pledges. All the pledges have to wear coat and tie during pledgeship. Sadly the class dress thing is slowly dying. My son said he sees people in shorts and t-shirts now in class - although most still dress at a level that shows respect for the professor (almost all of which wear robes in class). In the very old days at Sewanee you would be sent back to your dorm if you showed up without a tie. Now it looks pretty much like every college campus to me.
@maroon79 - I’m sure you are right about the pledges - I’m just now remembering that they rush in the spring, so everyone has plenty of time to exhaustively check out the various options.
OK! Last college tour review for a while, I hope: University of Florida. This was really just because I went there: I don’t think it’ll be within budget, and, unlike FSU, they don’t have any OOS tuition waiver program. That said, OOS COA isn’t much different than in-state PSU, which is pretty pathetic.
She ended up really loving this one too, which surprised me no end. It was a regular day on campus, phenomenal weather, about 100 kids and parents split up in about five groups led by really enthusiastic students. A half-hour video that was masterfully done to elicit emotion and swelling pride (you know the type) …followed by 90 minutes of walking.
It’s a big campus, needless to say, and this tour didn’t cover a fraction of it. We visited the student union, where there’s a big food court; a library, the carillon; a gym/rec building; and one of the College of Liberal Arts buildings. We finished in Florida Field, aka The Swamp, where I spent many a frustrating Saturday (the Gators sucked when I was attending), and that was neat.
The tour is worth doing if you’ve no relationship with the school, but I’d skip it if you know anything at all about UF or have been before (that video, though, nicely done!)
What ended up being great was that I emailed the School of Theater and Dance on a whim just yesterday after discovering that they do their own tours, and instantly was connected to the academic adviser for the college, and despite being mired in registration he found an hour (!) to tour us around early this morning before the regular generic tour and give us all kinds of insider info. He was pushing the BFA, where you choose either acting or three production specialties - lighting, costuming or design(no stage management) - and where, if they like you and want you, they will go to bat in admissions for you. That is a very small program - 8-10 in each of the production tracks - which was amazing to me, and he commented that it instantly makes UF become a really small school. It seems that professors or grad students do most of the directing, though there are AD opportunities, and chances to ASM. If you do the straight BA theater track, because you want to double major, or minor in something else, you don’t have the school going to bat for you with admissions. He did note that UF’s program is not as well known as FSU’s. He pointed to all the other in-town theater opportunities - including some collaborations between the college and those companies – it seemed like close to a half-dozen theater companies scattered around; some in town, some run entirely by students. No shortage of work! (free labor for them, obviously.) The facilities were new and very nice and D was happy to see a conventional theater where King Lear was at the early point of being staged, in addition to her despised black box theater.
All in all, she loved the vibe, the hustle and bustle, the diversity (something that was visibly lacking at both Drew and Sewanee), and said, unbidden, that she had not expected to feel as comfortable as she did; that she’d expected to be unnerved by the size, but found that she wasn’t.
We did point out to her, though, that it is all too easy to get lost there in a matter of days, and that because of its size, there was the risk that nobody would miss her. I guess we were trying to impress upon her that anonymity is not always a great thing.
We are still exploring the southwestern part of Virginia. We did a drive through of Shenandoah University on our way down – very pretty campus and D19 liked the size as it was not too small and not overly large. So it is on the list.
Drove through JMU to pick up lunch in Harrisonburg. It is still high on D19’s list. She toured the campus before so we did not spend much time here.
Spent a few hours touring Virginia Tech. It is admitted students week thanks to high school spring break so the as admissions staff were quite busy. We opted for the self-guided tour. The campus is BIG. Very BIG. We selected priority stops to visit, including a visit to the theatre department. The students we met with in theatre were very nice – they are in tech for their show Glengarry Glen Ross to be performed next week. The theatre space is nice, but nothing like the facilities at some of the other schools we have visited.
D19 has not shared how she is feeling about VT. My thought is that it is not a match for her. The drill field is just not her thing. The weather is beautiful, though!
Continuing the tour today and I think we are going to look at some of the other smaller colleges in the area.
I’m excited to go watch son19 compete in his first Varsity track meet today. He was injured last year and had to rest and rehab most of last season. He enjoys track because he is solely responsible for the results for the most part. There’s very little politics in track, you are either good at it or not. There is some coaching involved, but it’s mostly numbers driven- the fastest times win out.
Next week is April break for our school. The kids are looking forward to a break. But they still have sports throughout the week.
@RightCoaster Enjoy!!! It’s wonderful to see them in their element!
@Gatormama and @OrangeFish impressive college visits so far! And impressed your kids are up for it and engaged… I did offer spring break local visits to S19 but he’s not interested, says he can visit over the summer or when he starts to get a list going. Which is fine by me for now.
Loving all the theater virtual tours, thank you! I am really going to miss it after S17 graduates, last musical is coming up and then nothing. BOO! At least S19 has music, I am not sure I could handle losing both at once. It’s funny, something takes up so much of your life and time that at first it’s a relief but then all of a sudden you find you actually miss it. I’d love a weekend eating soccer tournament right now and am quite sure I’ll feel the same about the tech schedule next year.
S19 will have a practice SAT this saturday and a practice ACT the week after to determine which we do a prep class for. We decided to skip subject tests. I truly don’t think he will need them and while his “cold” practice test on Math 2 indicated we could get him into the 700’s without a ton of work, it’s work he isn’t terribly motivated to do and I can’t say I see the point. If we need to, we will revisit. Hopefully I don’t regret that choice but since none of the other 3 needed them, I don’t really expect he will either.
Spring break is next week, hopefully some signficant AP World studying will get done but beyond that he has nothing going on. Which he is kind of bummed about but we do have a big summer trip to look forward to and a June MB trip.
@eandsmom that’s a good idea to take a cold SAT II test and see how it goes. I have a Math 2 prep book here. Maybe I’ll just see if S19 will take one of the tests (only an hour I think!) and go from there. I really need to get our act together just a tiny bit more to be convinced he won’t need them. If he skips Math 2 this spring, it will be a bear for him to take it next June with all of his APs.
@2019hope My D19 wants to spend a gap year in New Zealand, bungee jumping and zip lining and helicopter-riding her way across the South Island.
@JenJenJenJen That sounds like heaven!!!
@JenJenJenJen S19 will meet her there…right after he does his RV trip with his friends across the whole US. LOL. Part of me thinks that the trip they are planning is a brilliant idea. Another part of me (most of me, tbh) says NO WAY. I doubt it will really happen.
He really likes the idea of a break. And he’s young for his grade. I just don’t know enough about gap years and all of that travel scares me as a parent!
re: Gap Year I’ve been looking into AmeriCorps. There are a huge range of opportunities.
@homerdog My kid is young for her grade too! Only two kids younger than her in her grade, and one of those two is younger by three days. She really likes the idea of a break (she’d also be into Airsteaming her way up California to see all the national parks here, we will try to do something similar soon) and a Historic Rt 66 road trip.
However, my fear is, she doesn’t like school all that much as it is, and she’ll never go back if she takes a year to explore. We’re not European!
Maybe your kid could do a summer RV road trip after high school but before college?
@2019hope Thanks for the Americorp idea. I really should start looking around. I looked at Where There Be Dragons but that’s as far as I got.
@JenJenJenJen Yes, he may be just as happy with a summer RV trip before college in the fall.
I can’t imagine it at this point, though, since he doesn’t even have a drivers license yet and I can’t picture him driving a giant RV! I’d rather fly him somewhere else and have him be in a program. He can RV himself around with his college friends before he starts a job!
What sort of things does he enjoy doing, @homerdog? My kid enjoys being adventurous and not having to sit still. 
My S19 is young for his grade too. Currently, my instincts tell me to keep him on the hamster wheel and send him off to college a month shy of his 18th birthday. He doesn’t get too stressed about school and I can’t see him being burned out at the end of HS.
I also can’t see this particular kid doing a year of AmeriCorps type service and I don’t have money to pay for the fancy gap year programs.