@RightCoaster and others in the sports game. I agree, it’s not for the faint of heart. We went through it for soccer for SD14 and watched a lot of her friends go through it at the same time. Quite the variety of results (boys and girls).
Track seems especially brutal, several kids in S17’s class has offers hinging on spring times. Of senior year, past May 1! Soccer locked up a LOT earlier with the tops kids getting verbals as early as now and most of it done by spring of junior year.
@homerdog That’s what I looked at - S19 scored at last year’s “minimum” SAT score, but this year’s admissions are rolling in. So far the only new admittees being told that they will be considered for merit aid are people who scored in the 1500s. I don’t want or need full tuition, but $5,000 or $6,000 would be nice! I know PA schools are struggling with funding, though.
S19 will likely need to look at lower ranked schools if he wants to go out OOS or consider taking the SAT again to see if another miracle happens and he can raise his RW score by 20 points.
I do want to see the campus and we’ll probably still go. Delaware is another possibility and wouldn’t have us in the car all day. Maybe I’m just looking for reasons not to go from DC to Pittsburgh and back in one day!
I am so impatient right now. When do schools open up visit registration for the new year?
My son’s school does not offer a full “spring break.” He has a couple of days off around Easter (Catholic school) and that’s it. And stage crew keeps him busy most Saturdays. I just want to get things scheduled. Like I said, impatient. LOL!
Well there is something beautiful about it having no pay-off (besides whatever value it has as an EC). There is also this intense team camaraderie. That part is a cool thing to be a part of, but also bittersweet as every year the seniors scatter to the winds.
On other news, S19 went to the Claremont-McKenna meeting at school. His report; mind you it doesn’t make much sense nonetheless this is what S reported. Rep was up-front ‘This school is not for everyone.’ The students who come here are very focused on their future, preparing for the future. They have houses devoted to entrepreneurship and forward-thinking. That’s what we are about—forward thinking and the future. End of report. As I said, it doesn’t make much sense, but anyhow he ruled out Claremont-McKenna based on that meeting. If he goes to a liberal arts college, he wants a more ‘traditional’ LAC.
I’m with you, @InfiniteWaves – we have so few days free for college visits due to theatre obligations. D19 has given me three available dates between January 2 and the start of June. (!!!)
Put me on the theatre martyr bandwagon, too. We are involved in two shows at once, one at the school and the other at a local professional company. The pro show debuted last weekend and will run through December. Now that opening weekend is in the past, that part is becoming somewhat routine. It’s the school play that’s going to reach panic mode soon. Kiddo is on the costume team and they’re wa-a-a-a-a-ay behind schedule for a play opening November 15th. I don’t think they have one whole outfit complete, and they need 18. I showed two girls how to operate a sewing machine and together we pieced together a vest last night, so there’s progress…
OK, that’s a bit more dire-sounding than the situation actually stands. 8 of the costumes just need skirts and skirts are dead easy to sew. It’s the doublets and poofy pants and fluffy shirts and half capes and neck ruffs that have me worried.
@InfiniteWaves @OrangeFish You can call the schools and see if they are planning a Junior Day. Some of them are in February and some in March. I called a few schools last month that didn’t have the info up on their websites yet but were able to tell me the dates.
Thanks for the suggestion, @homerdog – unfortunately the schools we are trying to look at (!) end up with conflicts with theatre events. D19 is in two one-act competitions, a black box show, a musical, and two Shakespeare competitions, all in the span of four months.
Yikes, @ninakatarina ! I would be stressed out and dreaming about pirate shirts!
@ninakatarina Both S19 and we LOVED the “Why I Love Yale” video. I walked away thinking that this is a school with smart kids that don’t take themselves too seriously! It would be a great fit for S; now he just has to get in, lol!
@mjrube94 funny enough, after I saw that video I thought, “This is so good, there have to be parodies” and I went googling for them. I found a Harvard-produced parody called “Why did I choose Yale” which detailed all the bad (from a Harvard kid’s perspective) things about going to Yale.
It solidified my (and my kid’s) determination not to apply to Harvard. It struck me as really mean-spirited humor, and there wasn’t anyone in the video I would want to spend any time with in real life. Kid watched it and said, “what a bunch of dudebros” And some other less printable commentary.
But I felt a bit better for doing due diligence and looking for the negative about a college the kid is falling for. Even if the ‘feel’ is perfect, every place has its drawbacks and you have to go in knowing the negatives are something you’re willing to live with.
Curious if any else is in the same boat- not able to visit schools OOS until she’s been accepted and seriously considering going (meaning we could also actually afford the school). Seeing all of the college visit threads makes me feel badly about this. D has 5 or 6 OOS she’s very interested in as of now- all reach. If not accepted she’ll stay in state and we will be able to visit those schools in the up coming year. It would be great to be able to visit others but they are all a plane ride away and we just can’t afford to do that 
@sunnyflorida You can check each school’s common data set and see if “demonstrated interest” is important. If the schools deem it important you can still show interest in lots of other ways (getting your D on their mailing list, following them on social media, visiting with regional reps if they are out your way).
S19 has reaches out of state and we aren’t visiting them. We have done some longer drives to see some matches, but are only making one plane trip. That trip is to see some schools that are matches and have potential merit so we want him to see them to gauge how much he likes them. For the reaches, visits will happen if and only if he’s accepted!
I would not sweat it @SunnyFlorida22 - can’t speak for anyone else, but the few colleges we have visited have been less than a 3 hour car ride away so they have been doable day-trips. Like you, if my D were looking at high reach, OOS schools, we could not afford to visit either. Visits to those schools might happen IF she was accepted AND it was affordable AND it looked like it would be a good fit. Until then, we just let our fingers do the walking (on the keyboard) and making do with online views and requesting info.
If there are any colleges nearby that you could visit by car, those might be good starts just to have her get a feel for size, environment, attitude, etc. Even if they are not ones she is truly interested in, it will at least guide you and her into ones that might be later down the road when it truly matters.
@SunnyFlorida22 – we are in a similar boat. If the school is not within a day-trip drive, the only OOS schools we are visiting are those with interview/portfolio review requirements as part of the application process. D19 is still deciding between BA and BFA options so not all the schools on her list have portfolio review requirements.
@SunnyFlorida22 It’s tough when everything requires a flight. We haven’t visited any schools yet and will probably focus on visiting OOS schools within a 4-6 hour drive where S19 is a likely admit and which are likely affordable. We have good in-state options, but only one or two are appealing for this particular kid. My D16 only applied to OOS schools and never saw most of them because it was too expensive to visit.
I don’t think S will have any reaches unless he actually starts doing his own research (I’m not going to steer him towards unaffordable schools!). If he picks a reach that’s close to home, I guess he’ll visit. Otherwise, no way.
We are only doing one overnight college visit trip, up to New England. The school list that we’re visiting is still fluid.
We’re lucky enough to live in the part of the country where there are a lot of outstanding schools within a reasonable day trip’s distance, so we’ve seen a lot. Also, the kid visited my sister in California last summer and sister took her on a few campus visits, Stanford and UC Santa Cruz, as well as a Google headquarters tour.
We are only visiting likely 3 schools all within 2 hours drive. Any others will be visited after acceptances and financial aid packages show they are worth it.
son19 has visited RPI,WPI, Tufts, Umass, UVM, Northeastern, and we walked around Brown once when he was playing a sport there once. He liked most of them. He loved UVM because it was in a cool little city and he heard it was a bit of a party school, lol. Downside was not sure if engineering was strong there.
He went to camp at RPI and he liked it, but when we visited WPI recently he said that he liked WPI more. He thought Tufts was cool except maybe not enough engineering kids there. He liked Northeastern, but his brother goes there and so that might not fly. He wasn’t sold on living right in the city either, he likes a campus. He thought MIT had a weird campus, and he sort of liked it and sort of didn’t. He liked the vibe there though.
I’d like to take him to CA next summer if he plans on applying to any schools out there. Maybe we’ll check out a few more schools next summer around here if he wants.
@SunnyFlorida22 My son wants to stay within two hours of home. And we live in an area that is within two hours from Philly, Baltimore, and DC. We are visiting because there are many schools within the radius that only require day trips. We are doing two schools in one day for some visits. Some we will just drive through. No flights required. If he was interested in schools that are further away, we would not be visiting all of them.