@ILMom13579 and everyone else: last night D19 and I attended a CTCL event. The CTCL reps have been doing a tour through the Southwest (TX, NM, AZ and CO), and this was the only one in our state (AZ). Fortunately it was held at an Embassy Suites about 8 miles from our house. We parked and walked toward the hotel buildings and plenty of CTCL reps had fanned out holding signs and directing everyone to the location of the conference center. The first thing that happened was that the students were given a CTCL brochure including a map showing the location of the various CTCL colleges, plus a registration form. The registration form was to be turned in at the end of the night, and had a checklist on the back with all the CTCL colleges so you could check off the ones that you wanted to hear more from.
We were then directed into a conference hall set up with a podium and seats for 500. There was coffee and water available. I would guess there were about 400 in attendance? Maria Furtado, the Executive Director of CTCL, spoke for about 25 minutes. She was energetic and entertaining, and her talk was aimed at reassuring the audience that despite the scary stories in the news about ultra difficult college admissions, most colleges have an acceptance rate more in the 65% plus range. She also talked about what liberal arts colleges are, and also what a liberal arts education means. At the end of her talk, we went into the adjoining hall, where the CTCL reps had set up their individual tables. As you can imagine, it got quite noisy in that room. Students and parents went around the room visiting the tables, asking questions, picking up brochures, etc. The reps tried to get 3-4 kids up at the front of the table at a time so that multiple people could hear. The reps themselves mostly ranged in age from looking like recent grads to maybe in their 30ās.
Some people seemed to check out a few tables and leave quickly. My D19 was one of the last to leave. The event had started at 7 pm and at about 9:15 they flashed the overhead lights off and on, and the reps were packing up their displays. My D19 had to be more or less dragged out. She checked off a bunch of colleges on her form. I made sure to take her to the Hope College table because we have lots of family members who went to Hope and I know it has a good pre-med program. Other ones that she seemed to really like included Kalamazoo, Ursinus, St. Olaf and Antioch.
This was definitely an educational experience for D19. When she was filling out her registration form she asked me her GPA, and I said it was about 3.6. She looked shocked and I reminded her she has gotten quite a few Bās in the last 2 years. But clearly this was the first time it sunk in that those Bās have affected her GPA. I pointed out that her 3.6 GPA is definitely in range for the CTCL colleges. But it was as if a light bulb finally went off. Sheās definitely been the sort of student who could get Aās in her classes if she would turn in all the assignments, but has had a pattern in the last two years of just not turning everything in.
I think most of the students there were seniors but it was definitely worthwhile for us to go in her junior year to get D19 thinking generally about out of state options.
I asked my D17 about APUSH, which she took junior year, and she said that the main issue with it was that it was incredibly, disproportionately time-consuming. The reading was all important, in that she couldnāt tell which paragraph or detail would be important to know for a quiz later, and there was a lot of it. While she did get an A, she said that it was a very, very annoying class. Sheād have preferred to have less late nights keeping up with the reading.
Fortunately she loved her teacher. My D19, scarily, has a brand new-to-the-school teacher for APUSH, soā¦fingers crossed. Hopefully the teacher will be chill.
Weāre in our second week of school. My D is taking regular US History. She already has 3 AP classes (AP Lang/Comp, AP Calc AB, and AP Studio Art) plus an honors science class (Anatomy & Physiology). Between ADHD and some dyslexia, she struggles with classes that are intensive on reading and writing and AP Lang/Comp will have enough of that. Also, we figured that AP Lang/Comp lends itself better to audiobooks than APUSH.
My son looks is not taking AP History or AP English. He is taking AP Stats and maybe AP Chem. Next year he wants AP Calc,AP Physics and maybe AP Computer Science. He said he doesnāt have the interest or time for history or English and will just stick with Honors level. His focus is clearly on STEM. This may or may not hurt him in admissions and he is aware of it. He said that with varsity and varsity track he just does not have the time to devote to subjects he is not thrilled about. I canāt argue with his logic.
In other news, son19 went to a good soccer prospect night at a college he is interested. Most of the kids were rising seniors and even a few 2017 walk on hopefully. Son19 played well I thought and has a decent chance of being a recruitable player for 2019. He liked the coach, the program, the facility. etc. So it was a good visit. Maybe a bit premature, but I think it helped him solidify things in his mind and he was excited when he left. So all good!
Busy last couple of weeks before school starts, He just got his driving permit, he heads of to a soccer camp with his friends for a few days, and then tryouts are next week. Heās still finishing summer reading, summer coding class, and some PSAT prep. Busy summer!
S19 is taking AP Calc AB, AP physics, , AP comp sci, and APUSH. We only can either take Apush or on level us history. Last year he took on level World history and he was too bored. I wish they had an honors version. He is taking an on level LIT class and will take AP LANG next year with AP ES, AP Stats, and AP econ. At least this is the plan. So far most of his homework has been in AP Calc. he started school over a week ago.
Thank you @Corinthian for the very descriptive write-up of your experience, very helpful! We do have a few colleges we would like to visit in the CTCL arena so we attend our local event and see what comes of it. D is starting to engage a little in the whole college process so this should be an interesting.
We are back home after our stopovers for college visits. We did an impromptu and informal tour of Muhlenberg (specifically to see the theatre facilities) and D19 is just āwowā about the school (even with lots of construction underway). We had not planned on a real tour ā we just showed up without an appointment, and the admissions folks were fabulous and found a theatre student to take us around. D does have a friend at Muhlenberg now who has offered an overnight visit, and D definitely wants to do so.
So weāre at 13 schools to apply to, and 5 schools she might apply to. Any other decisions on whoās in or out will wait until next summer when she starts on college essays.
I am an infrequent poster but love the information I get here, so I would like to add a campus review.
My D19 is interested in several CTCL schools, and plans to swim for a school. Last spring we went to:
CLARK UNIVERSITY
For such a small school, I really liked that it is a research university and students seem to have great access to professors with internships and research projects. In fact most of the students on the panel never even went home after freshman year because they were involved with something interesting. Also, they stressed that as the 2nd or 3rd largest metro area in New England, Worcester had lots of good summer jobs that Clarkies can get without competing with the 100,000 students in nearby Boston. It has a lovely new(ish) science center with bright, well-equipped labs. Library is central with one designated quiet floor. Campus is pretty compact.
The student body seems quirky and inclusive and our tour guide talked a lot about how many different and varied activities the kids do - almost like students join whichever club/sport/activity interests them at any time.
The neighborhood gets a bad rap, but if you are familiar with aging New England towns, itās really not that bad. Typical urban caution is recommended. Looked like there was a good stretch of shops/restaurants etc in close walking distance, but we didnāt check that out.
While my husband and I went to āBig State Uā, we really liked the offerings and individual attention available at Clark. That said, D19 ruled it out because the athletic scene was not strong enough, but it was definitely a worthwhile look.
@OrangeFish - you shoulda PMād me! Iām sitting at Muhlenberg every night for three hours while D does her SAT class! (Except tonight Iām stealing Mickey Dās wifiā¦)
Weāre back from moving D16 into her first apartment 1500 miles away. I think S19 managed to not even step foot on her campus during the visit.
I saw the earlier APUSH discussion - D16 lasted about 3 weeks in that class because the teacher was assigning 3 to 4 hours of busywork per class. S19 is receiving some pressure from friends to add it (heās already taking AP Physics and AP Psych), but I will discourage him unless there is a chance he could have a different teacher. Heās fortunate to have honors classes offered in English and history throughout high school, so I think he should just stick with what he has.
He still has to wait two more days for his schedule. So far, he knows that all of his friends are in one AP Physics class and he is in the other one with a bunch of obnoxious kids, so Iām sure heāll mastermind some schedule changes when he gets the complete picture.
Heās managed to read half a book this summer (needs to read a single book for his English class. Any book at all!) and hasnāt touched his SAT prep materials in over a week.
Iām jealous of you who get to go to a CTCL meeting -there are none near us. Our school has a college fair in the fall but there will only be about 4 schools there that D would be interested in I think. The local private school has one that almost all of the schools she would be interested in will be there but you can not go unless you are a student at that school - oh well.
We are supposed to be gearing up for the SAT next weekend but Iām still not even sure that D will take it. She says she is fine just taking it as a base, but Iām not sure she should even try when she has not done any of the practice. Was supposed to do a test today but slept late and is now doing her regular homework.
I just finished booking a trip up north to look at colleges. Took me a long time to narrow it down and figure out which schools to see. I started out with us looking at 6 schools but we are now only seeing 3-4. I cut out two (Hamilton and Colgate) who don;t give scholarships and are very expensive. We already saw two like that in Maine and I didnāt want to keep showing her too many places that may be unattainable. I figure if as we get closer we decide that we are willing to pay that much money we can always go check them out next summer. So - our final list is Hobart, St. Lawrence (SO excited as this is our alma mater!), UVM & maybe Middlebury. Midd is another no scholarship, super hard to get into, super expensive place, but we will be so close I figure if we have time we will check it out.
Booking the trip opened my eyes to just how hard it is to get to some of these spots from FL. I grew up in MA so just drove the 6 1/2 hours to upstate NY, I never realized what a pain it was for my husband. We have to fly to NYC, connect to Syracuse then drive another 3 hours to SLU! I thought getting home from Burlington might be easier but itās about the same. Either was I am excited to see some foliage for the first time in years and just can not wait to finally show our college to D!! Wish my other two kids could come but it is expensive and they would be bored as we have very little down time.
@momtogkc good luck on your trip. That will be quite the journey.
We live outside of Boston and my older son was accepted to Clarkson and recruited to play lacrosse there, but he just could not get over the brutal commute. From where we live there is just no easy way to get there, and it ends up being a 6 hour car ride. He could fly to some other schools in shorter time! We have a neighbor who plays field hockey at SLU and she has had a good time, but she says misses the ease of getting home to see her family and have access to city life. She graduates this year and will be moving back to the Boston area.
With son19, unless he plans on traveling all the way across to CA for school, he will be focusing mainly on schools around Boston or within an hour or 2 drive. We are fortunate there are a lot of good schools that meet this criteria.
Have you though about flying into Burlington, touring UVM and Midd and then heading over to SLU. That might be easier, certainly less traffic woes than going thru NYC, but probably less flight options.
@dfbdfb On the flip side, I bet schools that consider demonstrated interest give kids in Alaska a little break! If a school comes to Chicago and demonstrated interest is important to them, I feel like we had better show up!
@dfbdfb Yes - that is hard! We have a college fair coming to our school and one coming to a city near us, but neither one has more that 3-4 schools we are interested in so far. The fair that has all of the schools we would like to see is at the local private school and only their students are allowed to go. My friendās kids go there and she said she would try to sneak me in.
@RightCoaster I am originally from outside Boston. It was a 6 1/2 hour drive to SLU. My other top choice was Denison which was a 12 hour drive so SLU didnāt seem so bad in comparison! We would laugh that after 4 years of driving back and forth to Canton a 6 hour drive felt like nothing to us. We would even come home just for the weekend once in a while - like for Head of the Charles. I didnāt mind the remoteness although I did go to a boarding school in the middle of nowhere so I was used to it, not sure my daughter will like that part.
I did look into starting in Burlington but the flight times and prices were much better going the other way. We arenāt even flying home from Burlington, we are driving the 3 hours to Albany to get a direct flight. The Burlington flight times just didnāt work out with our plans and it turned out to be faster to do the long drive and direct flight.
I am completely annoyed. S19 was 100% in for summer running for XC. Hardly missed a practice. And he went to BOTH XC camps that were highly suggested by the coaches. Not many kids showed up like he did this summer.
Now, because heās taking the SAT on Saturday, they are telling him they are pulling him from the next meet because heās missing Saturdayās practice! Apparently, SATs and college visits are āprovisionalā absences and six of those and youāre off the team. The only excused absences are a death in the family, being so sick you didnāt go to school that day AND you have a note from the doctor, or are injured. What a joke.
We just had a big family discussion about how these coaches are not interested in the āwholeā child and their rules keep kids from really being able to join any other club at school or be involved in almost anything outside xc and track. The season now runs the whole year, with practice six days a week, and you canāt miss. So, you canāt volunteer your time somewhere during practice time, canāt visit a college, canāt go to a yearbook/mock trial/name any club meeting ever without consequences. And, now, they tell us that the kids should only be taking standardized tests during the year when they arenāt competing. Give me a break.
I just emailed the coaches about spring break and they said they will hold practice for the distance runners on Thurs, Fri, and Sat of that week. I told them we will be in North Carolina seeing schools and they said S19 can use three provisional absences for those three days and canāt run in whatever meet follows spring break. Yet, the kid will have been training for the entire school year and certainly could run on our trip if he needed to.
I have to wonder if all high schools treat athletes like this. I get that they want the kids committed but come on. S19 isnāt even in the top seven kids who make a difference on the team!
And Iāll put a little nudge in for his Peer Leadership group too - itās a group of upperclassmen who are each given a small group of freshman to guide through the school year. They meet them every other week during their gym period. Most of the training happened this summer. Itās one of the things he CAN fit in with XC. But get this - Peer Leadership has a mandatory all-day retreat this Friday so S19 has to miss school and his first BC Calc quiz. What is it with the sports and clubs that donāt seem to give a hoot about academics?
@homerdog I agree with your frustration. On my kidsā campus, it isnāt just sports where this occurs. My kids are involved with band, orchestra, fall & winter colorguard, orchestra in addition to their sports. Sometimes it is a tug of war between which coach/director/club sponsor wants priority that week. But, they all have attendance and tardy rules. My kids knew of these rules prior to participating. I told them that they either adhere to the rules or choose not to participate. They have chosen to participate which has required us to schedule college visits, vacations, appointments around their various events. If for some reason we cannot, the kids understand that it may count against them (i.e mainly absence notations or loss of playing time.). This is rare because as I said we work around their various school related schedules as much as possible. Now, I did have a slight issue where I scheduled S19 to take the Oct SAT. Unbeknownst to me, as the football coach did not notify parents of the game scheduleā¦that SAT is the same day as a game. Luckily the game is at night, but my son will be missing any team building/tape watching events that occur in the morning. I sent an email to the head coach letting him know. Havenāt heard anything back, not that it would have mattered as my sonās previously scheduled SAT comes first. It is what it is if he doesnāt get any playing time that evening. Btw, it is well known that our kids will have practices/games/tournaments during Thansksgiving, Christmas and Spring Breakā¦that is also not unusual.
@homerdog ā good for you for standing up to it all! I also agree with your frustration. D19 has similar requirements for theatre. When they sign up for a show, the theatre director requires students to outline each conflict day/time for every rehearsal. We complete the requested information, and then ā voila ā he changes the schedule 6 or 7 weeks out (!) and we have a conflict. D19 is pretty good about outlining how HE CHANGED THE SCHEDULE and it is not our fault the changed schedule resulted in a new conflict. But Iām ready to pounce in case he starts whining.
On a separate note ā high school schedules are now posted (maybe your DSā is too, @eh1234 ? ) and she got all the classes she wanted. Sheās in AP Env Sci, AP Human Geo, AP Art 2D, Prob & Stats, English 11, US VA History Honors, and Theatre Arts 3.
I didnāt mind the remoteness although I did go to a boarding school in the middle of nowhere so I was used to it, not sure my daughter will like that part.