@homerdog Swat, Haverford, and Bryn Mawr are part of a quick spring break trip D19 and my wife are making next month, so no need to swing down there in fall. She’s interviewing at Haverford. I forget whether demonstrated interest is important, but that die is cast.
Smith and Mount Holyoke: Yeah, they’re maybe 20-30 minutes apart, driving-wise? If we were doing drive-bys (tour, maybe one other thing), two a day is doable, but given the 8 or so hours of travel time the day before, maybe we should take it a little easy…
Everything I’ve read suggests that Smith and Mount Holyoke value “fit” highly. So even though Smith does not consider level of applicant’s interest and MHC only just “considers” it (as opposed to a higher ranking) according to the CDS, I think visiting and spending time there is important. Plus, she has not really considered women’s colleges, and as she’s interested in STEM areas given their reputation in developing its students for graduate-level study in those fields, I think it’s important she consider them more than the 10 minutes we spent wandering around Scripps’ campus while waiting for our Harvey Mudd session.
@BorgityBorg Hear you about the fit thing. S19 has some schools like that and our GCs insist that the AOs know fit when they see it so interviewing is important (and then hoping you fit I guess!)
@liska21 Thanks for that link; that helps fill in some gaps/reinforce some previous impressions. We visited St. Olaf last fall (along with Carleton and Mac). We really liked it, though some of that could just be residual familiarity with the area (I’ve lived in MN at various points in my life – I have memories of attending at least one of their Christmas concerts when I was young – and have visited at other points). Its music focus, strength in science, and study abroad offerings are definitely strong points in my view relative to my daughter. I think it’s a really good fit, and I think her profile (scores, ECs) would make it a high safety/low match for D19 – I hope she decides to apply there.
@BorgityBorg another interesting list, with a bunch of different types of schools! Interesting.
I admire you folks with an actual list. We don’t really have a list or any sort of plan at this point in time. Just “someplace with good engineering and has what I want to study”. Ok then, that could be 1,000 schools. So our fall back ( but it’s not really a safety) is WPI, it’s good enough and it’s easy to drive to :). Oh, yeah, and it can’t be in the middle of the country, but it could be Canada, and California maybe ( but no clue on any schools in those zones).
Then he has to figure out his actual test scores. If he wants to get into some of the low acceptance rate schools for engineering he is probably going to have to get his English?CR section. up. His math is fine. His EC’s are pretty good and his GPA is fine.
But he is now lucky enough that he probably qualifies as a legit D1 level track recruit, which is crazy, but that opens up a whole new can of worms. I don’t how much help that would be at some schools, but at some schools it’s now much easier. It’s kind of crazy how it’s changed for him so fast.
So, we are back at square one. It’s frustrating but kind of exciting. I’d like some sort of list.
@RightCoaster Well, that’s me creating a list out of… Fiske things I’ve circled, places we’ve visited/will visit, her general interests (physics), and my own (and wife’s biases). I’ve not asked D19 to come up with her own list. I didn’t list things she’s rejected, but also didn’t list places that are on the bigger list that we’ve not really discussed (e.g., Pomona or Rice), places I’m starting to think might be a good fit (Lawrence), places I just don’t think are a good fit for a variety of reasons (she just mentioned Harvard the other day), and places that are just too rural for my wife (Grinnell, though there is a difference of opinion there in our family. ). I’m also trying not to just list more colleges that would be a low-chance lottery ticket (see Pomona, Amherst, Williams).
Compared to your situation, I think we have an easier road. She’s got some particular interests and skills, but they’re easily quantifiable and evaluate-able. I have no doubt we’ll find 8-10 good “first choices” and done correctly, she’ll get into at least 4 or 5 of them. Trying to decide how important track is to your son would throw a major wrench into planning. There’s a really interesting thread here on CC about a bright football recruit (junior) who may need to decide between Florida and an Ivy League school, and how that interest is affecting the overall decision-making process.
@homerdog I have done the research. My son is the kind of kid that can handle a full plate, I think he actually does better like that vs too much free time. If he had too much free time he’d want to goof off, play video games, party etc. He’s one of the most competitive people I’ve ever met. He’s not in your face with it, but when he is challenged in anything he just grinds thru it without relenting. His mom is like that, she was a dual sport D1 athlete in college, crazy and she still works like a maniac.
The bigger question is whether he’d rather be a big fish in small pond, or be competing with the best of the best.
Or if he wants to do that all. His favorite sport is soccer! He still dreams of playing that in college. It’s crazy right now.
@BorgityBorg I read that thread yesterday. Interesting choice. I don’t know what I would pick if I were him, but I’m leaning towards FL, taking the extra $$, and enjoying the warm weather.
D19 entered a writing contest on a whim, she thought it would be fun…and won! She is a very good writer, but even she admitted she created the “masterpiece” in less than 30 minutes of sitting down and putting hands to keyboard. At any rate, given this and some other things that have happened in the past few weeks, we have decided that she wants a college that will allow her to stretch her creative wings in writing, theater and music in addition to her 2 majors of Math and SecEd. She doesn’t want to just be at the books all the time. Although most of her initial list remains intact, we have removed her 2 reaches which we believe would have been too “intense”. She was on the border of admittance grade/test-wise, and based on the last 5 years of her school’s graduating classes, each only admit 1-2 students/year. Not worth the gamble in our book.
Thinking about how to fit in some college visits. DD has 2 excused days for college visits so we may want to do 2 this school year in case we need to do 2 more senior year. We are planning one on 3/16. Soccer starts 3/19 so that works out.
There is another school she’s hot on that is affordable but we would fly there to visit. She wants to go while students are there, so it would have to be before May. There is a week’s gap between soccer games on 4/12 and 4/19. Here’s my thought: Fly out Sunday April 15, arrive 1:10 pm, check out the town. Visit in the morning of Monday April 16, back to the airport for 5:40 pm flight. Using Sunday to travel will allow us to only miss one day of work/school (and all the other Monday’s have soccer games). The kicker is I do taxes and am in charge of e-filing tax returns at the office. The deadline this year is actually 4/17, so I would be back at work on the actual deadline. We tend to have almost everything wrapped up prior to the deadline, maybe just a couple stragglers for the last day. Eeek! Decisions! Have not proposed this to DH yet either.
@RightCoaster, I think all the Ivies have their strengths and weaknesses–just like all colleges do. I have a favorite, but I won’t say just in case it’s not S19’s favorite. You’re right about Providence–I have a sister who went to RISD and it was great visiting her there. Congrats on your S’s track results. I bet he’ll have a lot of great options.
@BorgityBorg, I love your D’s list. It is so diverse. I am interested in why Scripps is not on your list after you wandered around there–since you are looking at both Harvey Mudd and some eastern women’s colleges, it seems like it fits. This is not at all helpful with your Massachusetts tour, however! For that, I might recommend spending half a day not touring colleges and instead visiting Salem, or looking at Boston from the Top of the Hub at the Prudential Center (no better place from which to get your bearings, at least on a clear day) and eating at the North End.
@liska21 we have a good friend who is a soccer playing senior at Colgate and I am almost positive she is not a STEM major. She’s been really happy there.
What about Cal Poly? Our D is playing club soccer there now and their boys team is quite good! It’s less than the UC’s although there is a scary proposition out there that would bump things up. It would still be less, I think, than any UC’s. I don’t know what the club scene is like at Western but we know happy soccer and XC kids there. One of our top seniors last year chose it over UW so he could have a shot at making the XC team.
As you may know, I have a very happy freshman at UVM as does @klinska so if you have any questions, let us know! For my S, I can’t say enough about the flagship feel, but small program and overall “smaller” but not “too” small size. It’s been perfect for him and worth the extra $$.
Wyoming has a nordic ski team and fits his weather criteria lol. It would be a safety and super reasonable, he’d be at or better than in state there. Colorado State doesn’t have Nordic Skiing? That’s a bit surprising.
I hear you on the 2x cost factor, for us we decided S had to have some skin in the game if we were going to spend that much more. It also let us see how badly he really wanted it, or not.
My daughter applied and waa accepted to the Economics for leaders program. We received financial assistance to go to Oberlin for the program in July. It seems like a somewhat selective program, offers networking opportunities in the future, and since the financial aid makes it very affordable d19 is going. Any other parents have kids attending EFL at a college/university this summer?
@ILMom13579 congrats to your D for winning that contest. It’s great for Juniors to win some awards, get some honors, be named a captain etc. during this year so they can list it on their applications in the Fall. Those are very important.
congrats to @Kjskies228 for your D getting into the summer program. That’s exciting, good thing to list on apps and get exposure to college life.
@EastGrad I think the list’s diversity is in part me trying to make sure she at least has some different options to consider (though there is also some sameness in its primarily LAC nature). We shall see where she gravitates to, application-wise, as the simple cost of applying means that we’d probably limit the number of applications to 8 or so.
As for why no Scripps when Smith and Mount Holyoke is on the list… I know that when we visited Harvey Mudd, I had wanted to at least squeeze in a tour or an info session. [I’d have been open to a Pomona tour/info session as well, but had already attended a brief offsite Pomona session.] But D19 was ambivalent, and I didn’t want to push it. As it turns out, we used that time wandering around the Claremont campus generally, and I think that was definitely a net positive, as it’s a lovely campus (except for, er, the Harvey Mudd end). It emphasized the possibilities for cross-campus pollination, for sure.
Visiting Smith and Mount Holyoke would be us as parents saying, “these are good colleges that for a variety of reasons – smaller, very STEM-focused, some arts, some research – we think are a good fit for you in particular.” If she comes back from those visits (or at some other point) deciding that women’s colleges are something she’s interested in, then I definitely hope she’d be willing to consider Scripps (and Agnes Scott, as more of a safety) as possibilities as well.
Generally at this point, I think D19 has a lot of random interests – physics (but maybe data?), research, choirs, orchestras, study abroad, German – but not a lot of limitations. She’s fine with any weather (despite us being in a very warm state), or school size (though I think she would do well in a smaller setting, because even ASU’s Honors College is twice as large as any of the other schools except MIT), or gender mix (though she’s expressed no specific preference for women’s colleges). So I feel like we need to keep the list broad until she starts to figure out which of those random interests are the most important, and which of those limitations she actually wants to set. Add to that a little uncertainty given that her scores/extracurriculars are pretty good, but not necessarily at the level where MIT says “you had me at hello,” and… it means we have a broad list at the moment.
Thank you @RightCoaster - she has been on the moon since she was notified and hasn’t come back down. We were both in shock since things like this never happen in our family. And congrats to RightCoaster son on his track accomplishment! Junior year certainly does like to have its surprises, doesn’t it?
Is anyone familiar with Hope College in Michigan? Looking to gain some additional insight before we tour, D19 was very impressed with them when we met them at a CTCL event.
Although she is SecEd, we are trying to focus on the Math programs at schools since that, I believe, is the more relevant part of teaching rather than the Ed programs. Any suggestions in the IL, WI, MI, IN areas? We’ve toured NU, Marquette and Beloit already, and will be doing a DePaul tour during spring break and UIUC in the fall. I think UChicago is out so that is not being considered. Money is def. an issue, along with staying within 3-4 hours of the Chicago area, (unless there is good train/bus transpo) making this search very interesting to say the least.
@EastGrad Oh! I completely forgot the touring suggestions! Thanks! Part of why we want to go (and why we can justify going is that it would be partially a trip just to see some fall colors and see just a bit of Boston. (Us parents have been to Boston, many years ago, but the kids have not.)
@BorgityBorg - since you are looking at some women’s schools and will be in Boston, have you thought about visiting Wellesley? It will be so pretty in the fall.
@ILMom13579 I have lots of relatives who have gone to Hope. We also went to a CTCL event and I have tried to gently promote it to my D19. We will be in Saugatuck, MI in August for an extended family get together and I hope to drive over to Hope and visit while we’re there. She is interested in being pre-med and I’ve heard good things about Hope’s pre-med program. Have you looked at Kalamazoo College?
@elena13 Wellesley hasn’t necessarily been on our radar, if only because as a women’s college, our D hasn’t been interested in it. Combined with a score profile that’s higher than Smith, Bryn Mawr, and MHC and, as best we can suss out, not quite as science-focused in terms of reputation, it’s just a less likely landing place. (I realize that Haverford has a similar score profile and other score profiles are higher, so… I’m being somewhat inconsistent.) But maybe in the next 6 months she’ll change her mind about schools and we’ll decide it’s worth stopping by.
