Heading to Grinnell tomorrow. Tour, dinner with students, dessert hosted by the president, and movie night/trivia night for S19 with prospective and current student students. He’s a little nervous about that. I hope he will want to go.
On Monday, there are classes for S19 to go to as well as an activities fair. There are separate meetings for parents on financial aid, career services, a few other things I don’t remember. I think the kids can interview but I think it’s best to wait until senior year to do that if he decides to apply.
A neighborhood friend just told me that she went to Grinnell for a year but felt it was too small and transfered somewhere else. She said everyone knew everyone’s business. Hm. I suppose it’s like that at all small schools. I don’t know how S19 will decide if that’s ok with him. I guess that’s why we visit schools to see what he thinks. This will be the first school we see with kids back to school. Should be interesting!
Have a great time, @homerdog - can’t wait for your report!
I’m feeling really good right now about D going to West Chester University. So good, in fact, that I’m looking at my spreadsheet with more confidence and wondering where else we should concentrate our efforts, since, why not? She’ll be happy with her safety and they look like they’ll be happy to have her, so maybe we need to make sure we aren’t selling her short, if that makes sense?
And I am not sure I’ve seeded the spreadsheet correctly. I have four financial and academic safeties on there - all PASSHE schools. I have a WVU and OU, a couple of big state unis that offer some aid to OOS kids they like, and she’s an academic safety for them, and possibly they become financial safeties too, or at least matches, if my aid research has been accurate.
As far as anything above that level, though, I’ve not done as well. I have ridiculous reaches like Colorado College and Vassar/Wesleyan, where she has really no chance. I have a bunch of small private LACs like Ursinus and Muhlenberg and Allegheny and the more schools we look at with D, the less I’m thinking she is a fit for those types of schools. She seems to really feed off the energy of the bigger schools. Granted, she has liked Sewanee and Otterbein, but I didn’t get the same gushing afterward. And as I’ve mentioned, she’s still flitting from one career possibility to another, and more options is better than fewer in that kind of a kid.
So does anyone have suggestions for maybe some bigger schools that might be only minimal reaches? We are looking for theater, lax, and a decent environmental program that is maybe not heavily science/math-oriented. Chinese is a bonus. And I don’t think we want to go to the West Coast, or probably not even beyond the Midwest. I’m just not feeling that level of distance, monetarily or parentally.
edit: I’m gonna crosspost this in the 3.0 thread, since that’s where we’re living. Just excuse the double post, those who haunt both threads!
@Gatormama It’s kind of fun getting to know the kids and what they like! I feel like you, though. I think it will be a few short months before half of the schools on our list will fall off and maybe I’ll be searching for different options.
What about Miami U in Ohio? I’m pretty sure they have theatre and environmental studies. I think there’s about 20,000 kids there. I think they are good with financial aid too, both needs based and merit based.
Good one, @homerdog and you’re right - it’s been hovering around my consciousness for a while and I really need to investigate further. I think I just see Miami and instinctively turn away, me being a Gator and all
@Gatormama having one safety, that is a safety on every level (admissions, financial AND they’d be happy to attend) is a very very good feeling.
Be careful with ones you know you can’t afford. A wild card or two are nice but it’s heartbreaking to see kids get into dream schools and have to walk away because of the financials.
@Gatormama I saw on the other thread that @eandesmom suggested SUNY schools.
University at Buffalo would be the biggest and have the most majors. It might be the atmosphere your daughter is looking for.
Some of the others are smaller so if she really likes the bigger schools they might not be as ideal but might be worth checking out just in case they are stronger in either environmental or theater type areas. I’m specifically thinking of Fredonia and Oswego on those.
But again, Buffalo seems like it would best fit the energy she is looking for. I like that it has so many majors.
Keep in mind Buffalo has 2 SUNY colleges. One is Buffalo State and the other is University at Buffalo. I don’t know as much about Buff State because it doesn’t have the major we are looking for. UB is the one I was referencing.
@gatormama - Have you considered Pitt? 3/4 of mine have found happiness there but admittedly, none were interested in theatre or lacrosse but we do like that there were so many options for activities, majors that each one (very different) kids found their tribe.
Okay so I have a new question: the common app. Is there a way to view the entire thing without actually enrolling on the site? I don’t know if I’m just the world’s worst googler, but I’m not finding a way to see the entire thing. DS2019 was involved in an “academic integrity violation” in 9th grade (her paper was cheated off of in English class, and her school has a zero tolerance policy of punishing both students; they did allow her to write an explanation but that violation is there on her record) and I want to see how they word questions about cheating and dishonesty on the common app. Thank you!
You sure your school will report it, @JDCaliMom? My school doesn’t report things up to a certain level in ninth grade (ask me how I know… actually, don’t ask
The school told me they won’t report it, but I have heard that it’s a question on the common app. So I want to see the application to know how they phrase it.
Does your student have something like that too? DD2019 school told us it wouldn’t be affirmatively reported anywhere but if directly asked they would confirm that it happened. They let her put her own explanation in the file. I need to talk to the school to confirm exactly what they called it.
So I searched CC and found this post, someone worried about her cheating. The poster says this is the question:
Now this is the question on the common app "Have you ever been found responsible for a disciplinary violation at an educational institution you have attended from the 9th grade forward (or the international equivalent), whether related to academic misconduct or behavioral misconduct, that resulted in your probation, suspension, removal, dismissal, or expulsion from the institution?”
My kid is safe in answering no to that question (she got a TON of detentions for being a sidekick in a video prank that resulted in the main kid getting expelled.)
I don’t know, however, if that’s the only relevant question on the common app. And I need to triple-check with the school about its reporting policy. They assured me back then (SECOND WEEK OF NINTH GRADE, OMG I ALMOST KILLED HER) that it would not go on her record.
@JDCaliMom I was able to find this on a May 2017 blog posting about the Common App. Seems to be the actual question from the application:
"If you have one or more school-related disciplinary violations: “Have you ever been found responsible for a disciplinary violation at any educational institution you have attended from the ninth grade (or the international equivalent) forward, whether related to academic misconduct or behavioral misconduct that resulted in a disciplinary action? These actions could include, but are not limited to: probation, suspension, removal, dismissal, or expulsion from the institution.”
To me, it sounds like if it didn’t result in anything other than a note in your D19’s record, maybe it doesn’t have to be reported because there was no “disciplinary action.” Of course, her GC will know. It doesn’t sound serious anyway so don’t stress!
(I reluctantly learned a lot about this when my D16 was going through the application process!)
