70s here in South Georgia but snow expected tomorrow at S18’s future school in Ohio.
For those considering schools in PA, it is 65 degrees in the central part of the state today. And we are supposed to now “only” get less than an inch of snow tomorrow. 8-|
It’s lovely right now, I have the windows open and a breeze blowing through the house. We were in the snow zone for tomorrow but it’s just going to be chilly rain. I am thinking about dragging my fat butt out for a walk around the neighborhood before it’s time for tonight’s variety show.
The kids run an open black box about once a quarter. You audition to get in, the quality is quite decent. They have concessions and charge a nominal fee. It funds scholarships to the ITS festival, the theatre honor society yearly convention. Kiddo is doing “I Like You” from How To Succeed In Business.
Our kids had a track meet yesterday and it was so frigid they all wore sweat pants, gloves, hats etc.
Not very conducive to record breaking times.
1o day forecast not looking so great either, doesn’t get above 50 or so. It’s been the same temp now for about 2 months, gloomy cold and and windy. I think we’ve had 2 nice days in 2 months, not exaggerating. Pretty miserable.
Oh well, sometimes here in the north east you win with the weather, some times you lose. At least we usually don’t have horrific floods, earthquakes, wild fires, tornadoes etc
Um, Sunday or Monday we’re expected to have overnight lows above freezing for the first time since October?
Because if we’re talking weather, that’s pretty much all I’ve got. :-S
@RightCoaster still snowing in Chicago too. 38 degrees as a high today with 22 mile an hour winds. I am so done. Track meet next week and weather doesn’t look much better unless you think rain and 40 is good.
I have been following that concordance thread. I think my D has a high enough SAT score now that her score will not be the reason for a rejection, but I would feel more confident in my decision to declare her done if I knew for sure that the concordance tables will be revised. How are you and your kids deciding when you are finished with standardized tests?
@shuttlebus I know I was reading that thread as well. My S19 only took the ACT once and we haven’t officially declared him done. I’m just hoping that his 34 concords with something that begins with 15 and not in the 1400s. I guess I’m in the opposite camp with an ACT score and not an SAT one.
Just finished up 2 college tours over spring break. One was RIT and my son really liked it (or should I say he really liked the all you can eat sushi place right near by). We went on the windiest day of the year. and boy was it also cold. Apparently my son doesnt mind. He wants to do CS (gaming) and they have a very good program there for that. Also our tour guide pointed out some unique classes that they offer (Cyborgs). We then drove down to pittsburgh with a stop in Niagara falls for about 5 minutes (cold wind). Less wind in pittsburgh, but saw snow! this April has been horrible. Anyway we went and saw CMU, where I went to school . It was neat to go back to my Alta Mater. We went to the CS presentation as well. The regular presentation i have to say was “boring”. The tour was pretty good. They talked about academics some but showed the other side of things (GA tech does the same thing, it shows some of the fun stuff, and not necessarily the academics, because everyone knows how hard these schools are). My son came out of there and then confessed to me that the CS they offer is very theory oriented and also he does not see himself working for Google. They are also very collaboratively based. Its not like he would even get in!!! one thing about CMU is that they want 50/50 male female. Also what I found out is that they care more about your ability and love of math, than if you have any programming experience. Next year they also getting rid of the interview. (guess admissions got overwhelmed). I am glad he took it off the table, due to such low admit rates and being super super reachy. it would involve more SAT II’s and retaking the SAT, and lots of pressure to get his grades up, of which based on current GPA he never stood a chance. BUT i loved going back 30 years later. RIT, RPI, and UAH are top contenders .
On a side note, when we do these college tours, I had my son wear pants (he hates jeans). His goto clothing option is sweats and I would not allow it. Yet I saw tons of boys in sweats. In the warmer weather I had him wear dressier shorts (non athletic). Same when we go to college fairs. I also had my Daughter dress semi decently as well. It probably doesnt matter, or does the Ad com’s at college fairs pay any attention to what the kids wear?
Home from our Spring Break college trip and figured I’d write it up while conquering Mount St Laundry!
After the tours of MIT, Harvard, and UAH, S19 has decided to apply to only 2 colleges. Completely opposite the standard CC situation, but his logic is solid. He’ll be applying dream/reach to MIT and match UAH. Since he qualifies for the 100% tuition already (and is going to try the ACT next, might bump that up to housing as well), UAH is an admssion safety as well. He bumped GMU from the list, said even if they gave him merit aid, he liked UAH better. So it seems he’ll be 10-12 hours away whichever way the ball bounces.
So, MIT - awesome, of course. It snowed on us, April 2, which was a good sampling for S19 of the weather situation in “spring” lol. He didn’t mind. Loved the Stata building (he calls it the Dr Suess building), the opportunities, the tour, etc. Boston is a great area (except for the weather lol - kiddo doesn’t mind it though).
Harvard - he had an immediate reaction of “no”, which did NOT get better as the tour went on. We had a tour guide - same name as S19, but his absolute opposite. Kept emphasizing the great parties and dances, constantly assured the group not to worry if they hate math - they can just take history of science to fulfill those credits, etc. When we asked about the Engineering classes, got a vague wave “there’s a building down that street for that” and that was it. Another student also was interested in Science/Engring and tried to ask questions without getting real answers, so we both gave up and just enjoyed the scenery. S19 prefers modern buildings, doesn’t appreciate the pretty historical stuff. So, was a no all around on that one lol.
Then we drove from MA to Huntsville, AL. The area is very nice, similar to where we live actually, very familiar-feeling suburbia (with a small downtown). When they say kids can literally walk across the street to their internship/uture job, they aren’t kidding! The Cummings Research park and a couple of newer UAH buildings are right there, Lockheed Martin along the road, hundreds of other tech, business, aerospace companies there. Across the interstate to the south of campus is the US Space and Rocket Ctr, Redstone Arsenal, aka big employers and research donators lol.
The campus itself is nicely set up - a long rectangle with the “greenway” in the center, very pretty, with modern buildings that apparently “speak” to S19’s aesthetic lol. Everyone was VERY nice. We got there a bit early and wandered some on our own, checked out the student center where S19 found the game rooms, which were free including a multi-game arcade machine with Ms Pacman. He can play that for hours… he saw that and announced he was “sold” on UAH lol.
They really do roll out the red carpet! I don’t know if it’s the same for everyone or we just lucked out (or they do this for OOS kids), but we ended up on an individual tour of the campus with a golf cart to take us place to place. With three blisters from our NYC weekend, then Boston touring, I could’ve hugged that kid lol! The dorms are the BEST I’ve ever seen - suite style, individual bedrooms, share a bathroom with one other kid and the living/kitchenette with three others.
They also scheduled individual time for us with an Honors College rep (student, so S19 was more comfortable asking him Q’s), Admissions Officer, and an electrical engineering professor. All were great, very informative. Made the drive worthwhile!
Sorry for the detail, I know some people were asking since they can’t make the trek and the automatic merit scholarships are a great draw. But once we visited, S19 said he’d take it over GMU even at full cost (his previous favorite “regular” school), so there you go :).
ANY questions, please ask!
@sdl0625 S19 likes jeans, so I let him wear those but make him wear a “plain” shirt. If I left it to him he’d wear one of his superhero t-shirts lol
@parent2one . We also got red carpet treatment. We did have a few others on our tour, but still very small. Also met with someone from the CS department and Admissions. The dorms are the nicest i have seen. My S loves the campus. We are only applying now to 4 schools ourselves with UAH being a very strong “safety”. We had 2 negatives, one being that the department person we talked to did not really impress my S, and the other being lack of a religious organization. There is a great eat/shot/play type place right on the other side of the research park.
@parent2one, thank you so much. We want to see UAH too. I think D would really like it.
@sdl0625 The EE department rep was awesome, she spent more time with us than I expected and gave us really good information. There are a lot of great places to eat… we ended up trying out an Asian buffet on University Dr (near our hotel) the first night then Pieology in the Bridge St Town Center the next night (I think that’s the eatshopplay place you’re talking about). They were both great, and helped seal the deal with kiddo that he could live there lol. If he goes there, I have a list of other places to try out as well lol. My father used to go on business trips there all the time (Redstone Arsenal - he was a govt IT contractor) and gave us some places to try. Based on likelihood of MIT admission. I think we have a 97% chance of him being a UAH student :).
The buffet/meal plan place at the school was good, too - I was surprised they gave us all free tickets to eat, usually it’s just the student (if that).
@BingeWatcher I bet she would! I was very impressed, even above my expectations. The students were very friendly as well - after all the tours and meetings, S19 wanted to go visit the arcade machine again and a student was using it. He saw S19 there and switched his game to a two-player type and asked S19 if he wanted to play. His friend then came up and they had a couple of Street Fighter rounds while we asked them how they liked campus, etc. Just very welcoming!
Thank you for the MIT/UAH review, @parent2one I have heard so many nice things about UAH, it makes me a little sad that my kid refuses to think about any schools south of the Mason-Dixon Line.
We have 7 schools at the moment - 2 likelies, 2 probablies, 2 possiblies, 1 long shot. The list has been pretty steady for a long while. I keep expecting the many personality changes of age 18 to take place and blow The List to kingdom come, but maybe he is saving it up for closer to deadline.
@ninakatarina We’re already below the Mason/Dixon, so we were good on that aspect lol. But with all the options out there, it’s not a bad thing to knock some off the list even if it’s for an arbitrary reason (like S19 won’t go where there are beautiful historic buildings or schools with a lot of city streets running through them - like VCU). Prospective engineering major helped us knock a ton off the list right away… I don’t know where we’d start if he wanted to do a liberal arts major, there are so many great places!
@RightCoaster Our track my was running against 10-15 mph winds. No records in that either!
Thanks @parent2one—I’m going to show your report to my D19. (It’s already fairly high on her list, not least because my sister-in-law and her family live pretty nearby, so she’d even have a place to go for Thanksgiving!)
@dfbdfb That would be awesome to have family nearby! We have a lot of friends that do govt contract work that go to Huntsville fairly often, and they’ve all offered to keep an eye on him, but no family like you’ve got. Sounds like it might be a good option for your D19 in that respect!
I have to say I’m a bit intrigued with UAH but my S19 is interested in civil and that doesn’t seem to be a focus there?? I also would never envision him in the south (or far for that matter) but it seems so nice from what’s been described here so it has me rethinking my initial thoughts on it. Someone sell me!