I hear you on the heavy backpacks and no one using lockers. Freshman year for the first three weeks of school D19 was carrying around 2 trombones (one for marching and one for concert), her backpack and her lunch. On the school bus and to and from every class. Furthermore her class schedule was such that she had to go practically from one end of the ginormous campus to the other for each class change. I have no idea how she managed. Each day I would ask her to ask the band teacher for a band locker. She said the assistant band teacher said he would get to it āsoonā. I told her to just leave the trombones (or at least the cheaper school owned marching one) in a corner of the band room but she was afraid she would get in trouble. Finally I had had it. I sent an email to the head band teacher about the situation and she finally got a band locker.
Our summer ends in one week when band camp starts up. Some days I fantasize about how much simpler life would be without band.
Son19ās schedule gets busy again starting tomorrow. He got invited to 2 soccer ID camps for 2 schools he is interested in, and he is going to attend one at a school he is sort of interested in. All in the next 2 weeks. Then we have a little break before he heads out to a soccer camp with his HS team for a few days before their official pre-season starts.
He needs to get some summer reading done, finish his coding class, and hopefully squeeze in some SAT prep. And he needs to go try to get his drivers permit somewhere in there too.
Our school goes back late August. Not really quite ready for it. Junior year is a busy year for the kids and Iād like time to slow down a little before son19 has to head off to college.
We start back up on Aug 7th, Some schools in our area start up next monday, but get a week off in Sept and Feb. We all get out around Memorial Day. S19 still has APUSH and APCalc work to finish. Meanwhile playing games with friends on the computer all day. I have threatened that if the Calc is not finished by 5pm tomorrow, I will pull the ethernet from his computer .
Regarding college visits, I agree that they arenāt as useful as some would think. Itās like a test drive of a car. You may know immediately if you hate it. But some aspects you will never truly know until youāve lived with it for a while. (When I was looking at houses, I could feel that the Realtor didnāt like me, because I would reject a house after being in it for less than a minute).
And circumstances are different for everyone. I know people who attended 30,000 student schools who hated the anonymity. Others who loved it. And others who formed many close relationships with fellow students and with professors. Some who hated small schools because they were constantly exposed to the same people.
The tours are often given by students, so itās in their best interest to be positive about the school (the school wonāt keep them as tour guides if they say bad things about the school).
Weāre going on vacation soon and taking D19 to one or two schools that she has no desire to attendājust so she knows what a formal college tour is like. It canāt hurt. And if one of those schools does catch her eye and makes a good financial aid offer, you never know.
DS16 returns to college on Aug 19th and then DS19 returns on the 22 after the eclipse. My home is in prime viewing area and my sonās College is having a huge viewing party with NASA broadcasting live.
S19 goes back in late Aug. My D16 heads moves back into her dorm on Aug 19 because she is working freshman orientation.
We visited St Augustine this summer and I read @carolinamom2boys post about Flagler with interest because I think that could be a match school for my son, even though itās farther from home than I think he wants to be. The problem is that private schools in New England are so expensive and Iām not sure heād qualify for merit anywhere. The price tag for Flagler is very nice. So we are going around on the hop-on hop-off trolley and as we pass Flagler I casually mention to S that this looks like a nice school and I think itās in your range. He shrugs his shoulders and goes hmph.
I take that as a sign to stop talking about it. H on the other hand starts jumping in about how this looks like a great school and maybe we can take a tour. S then declares that we have ruined vacation by talking about colleges. Sigh.
Later I talked to him about it and he said he just isnāt ready to talk about colleges yet. He says he will be ready in the spring. I need to bite my tongue until then.
As far as testing goes he will do SAT prep in the winter, maybe over February vacation, then take the test for the first time in the spring. We donāt have any prep classes at our school so you have to sign up with independent companies.
@me29034 We actually took the historical Flagler tour to look at the history and architecture . We did not actually tour the entire college because we were only there for the weekend. We did pick up a packet and plan to take a true tour in the fall or winter. Everyone was super friendly and accommodating . They appear to be pretty generous with merit which places it close to instate college cost of attendance in SC.
@me29034 Iām glad Iām not alone. II think S19ās current preference would be to submit one application to one safety school and then see the campus for the first time when he arrives for orientation. I guess thatās one way to do it but it is really no fun for anyone involved! He really canāt wrap his mind around the idea that he might actually prefer one college over another.
Iām hoping heāll come around, but definitely no tours for us this summer. We move D16 into her off-campus apartment in Colorado in mid-August - maybe Iāll see if I can get D to at least show her brother around the campus a little while weāre there.
My D19 doesnāt want to talk super much about it yet either and doesnāt seem interested in tours. Sheās doing her own P/SAT prep though so thatās ok. Our school does have prep classes but the reading/grammar is run by her English teacher from last year and no way do we want to force her into that. The math she probably would like but wouldnāt really need anyway. So far, in her self prep, she says she can see that there is some stuff from Algebra 2 about mortgages and interests etc that she needs to review.
Question for those of you who have been through the college list-making process before ā how do you handle (wildly) different majors on your spreadsheet? Do you just keep making more columns?
Some of the majors D is considering are handled differently for admissions, and it is school dependent. For example, a liberal arts major has more weight on GPA/test scores, as compared to a fine arts major where there is more weight on portfolio than GPA. Sometimes these differences can be at the same university.
@OrangeFish although I just went thru the process with son17 it was probably easier for us because son17 knew what he was looking for. He wanted to study business, he seems interested in getting involved in business tech consulting.
He didnāt have a large number of schools, less than 10. He only applied where he had a shot of getting in and had his major. We knew he was probably not going to get any financial aid of any type. So really, the need for a spreadsheet was non existent.
With Son19 he doesnāt have a huge list either, and really only wants to pursue engineering so I donāt think we will utilize a spreadsheet for him either.
@RightCoaster No spreadsheets for us either . DS16 had a manageable list of 5 schools where he would be accepted at all. DS19 will also have a small list, so no spreadsheet needed for him either .
No spreadsheet. I toyed with the idea but it doesnāt seem necessary for us. D19 is thinking chemical engineering. Once we have SAT scores, I think that and the budget are going to knock it down pretty far. She also doesnāt see a reason to go much further away to a school when our biggest public has her program, works financially, is a nice distance for coming home when needed, and there is family in the area. Basically, itās our yardstick and anywhere she looks she just asks is she would really rather go there than to public. So far there arenāt too many possibilities.
@OrangeFish I would just add a column. Iām having kind of the same problem in that I have information for the schools that is important but donāt make sense to put in the spreadsheet. So, in addition to a spreadsheet with info that easy to enter in a few characters, Iām writing up one sheet for each school with any other information that I think is relevant. Dates, scores, etc. will be in the spreadsheet. More detailed info about programs on a sheet. Then, I have a binder with the spreadsheet in front and tabs for each school with the additional info. It sounds obnoxious but itās really not that bad.
We are not fortunate as D19 will certainly not be accepted at all schools, including our in-state flagship, and we are very much limited by budget with a high (what are they smokinā?!?) EFC. Plus the different majors have a whole separate approach/timeline for the admissions process.
What I might do is make a separate row for the different schools within the university, only when needed.
D already has a Google doc for notes for each school as we visit, so maybe the programs details can go in there.
@OrangeFish - we have several ātabsā going on our spreadsheet file. The main one is a listing of colleges D is looking at along with location, drive distance, grad rates, whether the school has her major/minor and other general data points about each school. Just an overview, really. The other tabs start getting more detailed about specific things, i.e. one for finances, visit notes and one for application deadlines/requirements for each school to which she will eventually apply. That kind of spreadsheet might be a good place to list some of the more specific school requirements for each major since app time is really when those will come into play. Obviously this system does not work for everyone, but it has helped keep my sanity through 3 and now my fourth/final college journey. It sounds like your D has a great start on things with her Google doc though, so I would just build on that. Good luck!
My āspreadsheetā only exists in my head and might never materialize on paper. For now, we need to see test scores in October and first semester grades (I donāt want to assume they will be the same as last year or guess how much improvement heāll see on the PSAT).
Then, I need S19 to figure out what he might want to major in. I doubt that will happen before next summer. Heās likely to apply to the types of schools that want applicants to apply to a specific college or major so he wonāt be able to put it off until sophomore year or whatever like I did in the dark ages.
Assuming he can eventually articulate a possible major or two, weāll probably just steer him towards 5 to 7 affordable schools that have the major(s) and where he is likely to be accepted. So far the only preference he has expressed is the ability to play his instrument in an ensemble and maybe continue private lessons.
@orangefish Our EFC is about $25K more than what is actually budgeted! If none of the in-state options work, then weāll need to find OOS publics that offer merit scholarships to āslightly above averageā students.
Thanks for sharing your ātabā idea, @ILMom13579! I think your approach is worth a try as it makes viewing the overall list easier.
@eh1234 ā sounds like we may have similar EFCs ā or more accurately, distance away from EFCs. (!) We have identified some OOS publics as well as some not-so-well-known privates where D is in the 75% percentile and weāre aiming for merit aid. Some of the options (examples: U Wyoming, U New Mexico) D has no interest in, so weāre trying to find other schools that may work. Like you, weāre trying to get to 5 to 7 affordable schools that D can get accepted to and have her major(s), knowing sheāll need flexibility to change her mind.
Hi all! Iāve been lurking in this thread often and have learned so much from the posts here! I have 3 kids: D14 (graduates this year from college!) , S19, and D20. I created a spreadsheet at the beginning of the summer. Since then we have visited ( informally/formally) 6 schools within 4 hours of our home. The purpose for the college visits was to help S19 get a better idea of the type of college that interested him. He definitely leans towards private Christian schools with major sports scenes and that also have traditions/history. Interestingly, D20 seems more interested in going away to college since going on these visits. Anywhoo, I havenāt looked at the spreadsheet in awhile as we are entirely focused on SAT prep, which S19 will take Oct. 7th. While S19 has above average grades, he truly needs to work on being successful on the SAT! Iām currently taking a break from analyzing his latest practice test data and writing his lesson plan for the next two weeks then heāll take another practice test before beginning his small group sat prep class. I look forward to following this thread and seeing how all of our beautiful children do!