@eh1234 we saw the audio engineering stuff on our engineering tour at U of Roch it was pretty cool. I think my d would love Rochester if the financials were to shake out, but I know she can’t count on that.
We visited Rochester and know two students there.
I know some kids at U Rochester. They like it, They were good students and smart. I don’t know their stats or anything. It’s a long 6 hour drive from Boston. That school has some good things going tor it, and some things that aren’t so great for us, including a lengthy drive from Boston area.
As was said above, naviance shows random levels of acceptance, but mostly pretty high stats/scores. Not sure how they really weed the kids out of there. Not sure of what a great applicant to that school is.
If I remember correctly applying there is a pain in the butt too, with weird levels to go thru. Or something like that. Or you get approved in stages. Need to read up on that.
We might take a visit there next summer, maybe. I would not say it is high on the list of things to do.
@eh1234 Don’t the have a audio engineering program at Berkeley in Boston? I think that is what my neighbor’s kid is studying there. I have another friend in town with a kid at UMass Lowell and I think that’s his major too.
@mom2twogirls please describe best/worst aspects of UR to us please. Thanks.
@rightcoaster Berklee does have an audio engineering program, but like a lot of these programs are offered by music schools who want: (1) a conservatory level musician plus (2) real experience in the field. My kid is a year or so behind the kids can qualify for top conservatories. His experience in the field is on his own computer and he’s just becoming interested in it (DAW software and midi keyboard for Christmas). Some of them want evidence that you’ve scored and mixed music for films by age 16. If S19 is interested, he’ll probably need to apply/audition widely. I wish he could just go to Berklee!
Rochester actually has their program in their engineering school and it looks a little more STEM focused (although still requires the student to be a musician). i’m just starting to look into these majors, though, so I’m kind of clueless. I might have him look at American U if he’s interested - they have audio technology and production in their arts and sciences school and it could be affordable with a scholarship and a commute from home.
Just in the interest of freaking everybody out, a few upcoming signposts: Iowa State’s (and, I think, Iowa’s) application cycle for fall 2019 freshman class opens in about five months, Kansas’s (and, I think, Kansas State’s) in just over six months, and Alabama’s in just over seven months.
Tempted to “Flag” that post @dfbdfb instead of “Like”… 
And Iowa State has been sending emails to S19 every single day. If he were interested in engineering, we would definitely visit. U of Iowa is a huge safety school for our high school. Something like 40 kids go there out of 700 grads each year. Our GCs tell almost everyone to apply there for their rolling admissions early in the fall.
Ok @eh1234, I did not know how hard it is to get into a program like that at Berkeley or other schools.
My neighbor’s kid is like a musical superstar, the kind of kid that picks up any instrument and masters it. The other kid going to Umass Lowell is a rock and roll whiz kid but also interested in other engineering aspects, so that’s why he probably went there. Also cheaper too!
I don’t know anything related to music or theatre majors, none of my kids were involved in those at the high school level, and not many friends either. So I like reading about kids who are going through that process, it seems interesting.
@homerdog my HS girlfriend went to Iowa State, her grandfather built the first super computer if I remember correctly and it was located there. I think she got a great deal to go out there from the east coast. I couldn’t;t believe she was actually going to go there
@RightCoaster Careful…you are showing your east (“right”) coast bias! :))
^^. At that time, mid 80’s I didn’t know one kid from our HS that was going to school in the midwest. Some of us went South, some out to Cali but mid-west, nope. It was still relatively inexpensive to go to college around here, and it was dirt cheap going South. So nobody really ventured that far away.
I asked my clearly wiser than me child which of the 12 colleges currently on the list was the favorite:
“The one I get into.”
We have a long weekend so we are off for two more visits with a third scheduled for president’s day. Hopefully that will be the last of the in person visits until accepted student days. This kid likes every school we visit so we are not narrowing the list down by visiting.
Similarly, my D19’s favorite is “The one that gives me the best financial deal.”
At some level, I’m thinking that this cycle is likely to be a lot simpler (and saner) than with my D17, despite D19’s lower stats.
@homerdog S19 has one safety that he visited and liked (GMU) out of the three we visited so far, so that is good. I’d like him to have at least one more that’s above “meh” level, though lol. As far as whether to visit before or after acceptances… well, for me it depends on how cumbersome the application is. If there are a lot of supplements, or they require additional SAT Subject tests, etc, then I want to be sure he visits before applying so he doesn’t waste all that time on a school he won’t even like. If it’s a simple app then no biggie, visit after acceptance if needed.
@dfbdfb - 7 months until apps open… sticking my fingers in my ears and la-la-la-l-can’t hear you lol
@RightCoaster hope you know that I was just teasing!
I’m taking S19 to visit West Chester and Millersville which are financial/academic safeties. If at all possible, I think it is best to visit the safeties. Treat 'em like every other viable prospect. Because we never know how it’s going to shake out. Better they learn to love a safety.
@dfbdfb Four of the schools on S19’s list are rolling admissions, including his top choice. Seven months is right. Yikes!!!
@dfbdfb. Our college search for D21 will be so much easier. She has a ton of friends who are juniors since she dances with them. They are excited (so she is getting excited) about schools like Miami of Ohio where she would probably get merit. And she told S19 yesterday that he’s crazy to cut off Wisconsin, that it looks like fun to her and that it’s a really good school. She’s just more easy going in general. That’s a good thing because S19’s search is going to wear me out.
The closest thing DS has to a safety is Trinity College Dublin. I thought Temple might do but he decided that going there would make him depressed so it’s off the list.
And Trinity Dublin isn’t necessarily a safety (international application, so many variables!). They don’t have to report the same amount of data as a US college, so the closest I could find on stats for admitted students was that they asked US applicants to have at least a 3.3 GPA and a 29 ACT or 1290 SAT. So that’s their floor, but I don’t know what their average applicant looks like.
But I do agree that it would be cool to go to school with the Book of Kells.
We have no safety because we have no list. All but one of the schools we have visited have been in the north and not easy to get to, the other one was in FL but is very small. D thinks she wants bigger than small (but not TOO big) and she is not sure now that she wants to be so far away. Of course she also says this might all change because she really isn’t sure yet. @-) If she decides any those school will stay in the running I am pretty sure they are all safeties. We haven’t looked at any reaches because of the whole full pay thing. If she got into a reach then she wouldn’t be getting merit and we are not planning on being full pay.
Had some good news and bad new this week. Bad news, D got a C for the semester in AICE Math (advanced pre calculus.) She was very upset because she didn’t want to take the class in the first place and this has really hurt her GPA more than I would expect. Except for one semester B in 8th grade Algebra 1 she has had all A’s. I told her not to worry since we aren’t looking at reaches right now hopefully this won’t hurt her too much. Plus it is already over, can’t change anything now. She seems better today, getting ready to go to he math tutor right now and she has a quiz tomorrow.
Good news (for me at least) is that we found out DH and I are going to the Super Bowl!! I am a huge Patriots fan so I am super excited. DH is not a football fan but we got to go last year and he had a blast because of all the excitement and parties and stuff surrounding the game.
Much more important good news is that D’s scoliosis is not as severe as it looked to me by looking at the x-rays. The results came back and she has a 23 degree angle curve which is actually on the lower side. We haven;t seen the orthopedic yet but from what I have read online that means no surgery - yay!! 