I think generally NAU is well-considered within the state for all the reasons previously stated. I was surprised to open up Fiske et al and find it not listed, as I think it’s solid school, though without some of the bells and whistles ASU and UA offer. (In some respects, that’s to NAU’s advantage probably.)
Fair enough about NAU. When I was college age, the reputation of NAU was “for people who couldn’t get into U of A or ASU.” But I suppose times can change.
I just think that her college search so far seems to be “Flagstaff is cool, I want to live there” to the exclusion of anything else.
Also, complete aside, but NAU happens to have the best track team in the nation. Yes, better than the P5 schools you might think of having great athletic programs.
I honestly think that “CC mode” is almost (but not) always a Bad Thing. If someone wants to attend a particular college, and they can get into it, and they are likely to be happy there, then what really is to be gained by pushing them into something else?
@dfbdfb Exactly. Not everyone is driven by prestige. People choose schools for very personal reasons. It’s wrong for people to assume that the reason they made the choice is because they are ill informed and that others clearly know better than the person making the choice.
@gusmahler Why should her college search consist of anything more than “Flagstaff is cool. I want to live there” She is going into the second semester of her sophomore year . There is plenty of time for college search if she chooses to further her search.
But it’s not always about prestige. Maybe it’s not such a bad idea to let a friend know that they might have other options if they would like to investigate. Many people don’t even know that private school may be less expensive than a public school. One can surely ask politely if a friend or family member would like any tips.
My niece has good scores and grades and her parents have a budget that matches our state school. They told her that’s the best school for the money. She doesn’t want to go to a giant school. I carefully asked my sister in law if she would like any advice since I was pretty sure I could help her find a smaller school at the same price. She’s been accepted to five schools so far, three of which I suggested. And all are affordable. I didn’t push too much. I gave them a short list of schools that might work for them and I forwarded the financial aid pages to them and they did the work. I made it clear that it was, of course, up to them. It’s their child and their money. I was just offering information that they didn’t have at the beginning of their search.
I am a strong believer in giving advice when it’s asked for.
There is a difference between “Hey, there’s more options” and “Going where you want to would be a mistake”.
There’s also a difference between " I wish we had more choices" and offering advice and “With scores like that your should be looking at School A,B,C and D . You need to look at ROI , name recognition and rankings. In order to be successful, you need to go to school XYZ”
Now that it’s 2018, our kids are going to college ‘next year’!
@bjscheel OMG. 18 months until lift off…
I think we should not debate about college choices on this forum. This forum is more about support and celebration.
There are other forums for college choice debate. I am also member of class of 2009 and class of 2011 forums and enjoy the spirits of those forums.
I think we can have some debate if we are just thoughtful and sensitive about it. Each family is unique in their needs and circumstances. Also an option that you might never consider may be perfect for another. Or your information about that option may be incomplete or outdated. Over the course of this thread I’ve felt compelled to stick up for both ASU Barrett and later NAU, and I was just on the verge of sticking up for community college which is not necessarily a path to Taco Bell middle management.
I don’t mean to discourage people from giving their opinions – especially as they come back from college visits. But let’s be a little sensitive about how we do it.
D has one friend who I would love to help with college advice but I haven’t really said anything to her yet. She was over one day this summer when I was talking about visiting colleges and she told me her mom knows nothing about the college process and she is doing everything on her own. I told her she was welcome to come on any college visits that she wanted when we go, she sounded into that. She is incredibly smart and motivated and will have a lot of choices, it will come down to money and location for her I think. I haven’t seen her in a while so I don’t know if it will come up again. It is hard to balance advice and being pushy.
D starts school again Monday. Of course she has not done her homework so this last weekend will stink. I asked her if she had at least finished her book and she laughed and said oh no, I’ll never finish that, its too long and boring. I said she had to and she said she had too much other homework to focus on. We’ve had two weeks off, why does it always come down to Sunday for her?! :((
@momtogkc offering to take the friend on visits sounds like a good idea if her mom is okay with it. Once you have one scheduled your DD can just ask her if she wants to ride along. DD’17’s BFF didn’t go on any right away, her mom makes very little and doesn’t have a drivers license. DD took her to the Discovery Day at the school she had already chosen. BFF ended up somewhere else but that seemed to get the ball rolling. For a while, though, BFF was gung ho on going where DD was, and DD didn’t know if she actually wanted her there.
Currently DD’19’s favorite is one that one of her friends is planning to go to. They’ve talked about visiting together but I have a feeling that will sway DD more to go there and not consider some other possibly cheaper schools.
Sunday night seems to be a popular time for DD’s homework too. This morning I had hopes for DD to do her homework and an ACT study chapter. The homework got done after lunch, right before she had to leave for cheer. Maybe we can squeeze in ACT tomorrow, between church, speech practice, youth group, and work.
I’m not particularly sensitive about talking about schools in both positive and negative manners. In fact I often like to hear the negative points of view as it easy to miss certain aspects of schools when you take a tour,read a brochure, or browse the schools web site.
I won’t ever bad mouth someones choice to attend a particular school though. There’s lot of reasons kids choose certain schools. My son17 chose Northeastern in part because t"here weren’t a lot of trees", not super preppy and jocky, and it was close to home. Are those valid reasons?? I guess maybe they were for him. He had friends that elected not to go there because it was in a city, not a good frat and sorority scene, and you had to actually work ( the co-op program), lol.
So back at school after a 4 day weekend with the snowstorm. Went skiing on the coldest day ever.
Crazy times are upon us again as robotics build season kicked off this weekend, and track is ramping up. Also, the 2nd quarter ends next week and then mid term tests. Son was invited to join an SAT study/tutor session series that I guess is popular in our town. He’ll have 4 2 hour sessions, with some home study in between. He went last night and he said the guy teaching was excellent, and he already learned some tips that he hoped helps him on the English section. So that’s good, he has an actual plan and will take the next test in March.
He also got a note from the coach at the state Flagship in regards to running track there. They want to meet him at one of the upcoming events. So that’s good. Son19 doesn’t have pros or cons about attending there. I’m not sure if it will end up working out but at least it’s an option to consider.
We spent Saturday helping the high school audition 8th graders for next year’s magnet class. They all looked so young! There were some promising candidates, some the siblings of kids we already have in the magnet. All of those appear to be shoo-ins. Two kids auditioning for theater tech brought the same prop - the plant from Little Shop of Horrors. Both props were excellent, I hope they both get in.
Kiddo led tours through the school and helped with the improvisational assessments. He really enjoyed being an expert advisor.
The theater kids were mostly chatty and outgoing and somewhat hyper. The art magnet prospectives were hanging out in the same area, and were all terrified little lambs. They clutched fancy decorated portfolios and barely spoke above whispers. Their parents often stayed sitting outside the assessment rooms for the entire 2 hour process. I wanted to say, guys, relax, head out to the library or to the local diner for coffee. This is your first chance to let your kid succeed on their own.
But I understand, I hovered too when it was my kid. I’m still doing it, volunteering a frigid Saturday at the school when I could be snug in bed. I love the kids in the program so much, and I want the new ones to know how good the program is, and how much they will love it here if they decide to come.
We had 39 applicants for 16 spots. Some are applying multiple places, we could tell. Some just decided to apply on a whim and hadn’t prepared at all, we could also tell. It felt like being on the other side, on a college application committee.
I don’t get a vote, but I have an idea of which kids are getting in. The two younger sisters and the cousin. They’re known entities, we could see they had a decent amount of talent, and we know that their older sibs are reliable so it’s likely they’ll be reliable too. The three kids who had community theater background. One of them will probably get into a more prestigious magnet and turn us down, but if she doesn’t she’ll be a lead by her junior year.
One kid was covered in stress acne. She was so terrified of doing her monologue that she threw up in the bathroom before and after. But apparently she was brilliant at the improv games, and her monologue went well. I think they’ll pick her, and I look forward to seeing her next year. I hope they’ll pick her.
It’s a good thing I don’t have a vote on who they admit, because I want to take them all.
Finally my D registered for the March SAT last night. She printed the admission ticket in black and white instead of in color. She told me she printed in black and white before and had no problem with it.
We’ve always printed it in black and white and it was fine. Make sure she brings an ID as well. That’s obviously in color.
I print everything on my laser printer unless color is specified. I hate printing on that thing! Printed both ACT and SAT tickets on laser, it was a non-issue.