@coolweather DS19 just got his license on Mon.
@Cheeringsection the school is close to Raleigh but not in the heart. The campus is beautiful and doesnāt have an urban feel to it at all. Lots of green spaces and itās HUGE. We had the info session at the E Carroll Joyner Visitor Center then had to get in our cars and drive to meet the guides at Central Campus. The Centennial Campus is home to the engineering department and last is North Campus. Walking between North and Central is doable. Centennial is not within walking distance of anything but there are campus buses to take you back and forth. Let me know if you have any other questions.
@parent2one Thanks for the UAH heads up. We were literally waiting to enter the room for our info session when I read your post yesterday. Having recently compared their chart to Auburnās, Iām sure I would have had a reaction that embarrassed the kid otherwise. You are right that it is still an awesome deal.
Enjoying the mini vacation, missed the news of the SAT essay requirements becoming optional at the last holdouts.
Thanks @cinn124. It sounds bigger than what she wants since āno bussesā is part of the criteria.
@peachActuary73 - How did you like UAH?
@elena13 I liked that it was not downtown. It was close, but I liked that the short distance away made the campus feel more enclosed. We had a 10am -12noon info session and tour, and there were only 6 families in that session. Next week they are putting on big all day Open House, but weāll be traveling. The folder had the normal good information, included meal passes and everyone had custom PM schedules (Fin Aid or Admissions or faculty mtg for example). We only spent about 15 minutes with a PowerPoint and video before starting on the tour. They stressed that even though they have a very late deadline in 2019, we should apply early to guarantee maximum $$.
I thought the campus was pretty, despite our bias towards āolderā campuses and architecture. It was laid out well, with plenty of green space. Not enough trees by the paths, though. Even at 10:30am CDT, it was 90 degrees under that sun. At one point, our backward walking tour guide asked if weād like to stop in the library before or after going to the dorms, pointing out it would provide an A/C opportunity. Those kids wanted to go straight to the dorms, of course. Pure torture, no matter how smartly one had dressed. The freshman dorms were nice. All singles. Four rooms to a common living area and kitchenette and two people to each bathroom. Very nice gym, and I liked that the pool was being utilized by the community during the summer for kiddie lessons.
Nice perks - free bike usage, movies, etc. They were like our other schools, stressing Study Abroad and Spring Break trips and community service. Dining was at the schoolās hotel during the summers, so it was not necessarily representative. There were a good amount of people there, and we liked the vibe we got from the students. Overall, everyone was so friendly. After lunch, we needed directions to the Copy Center for personal business weād forgotten to take care of, and then the copy center refused to charge us for just scanning.
We spent 45 minutes with a female CS professor, which was so awesome, both from the perspective of UAH, but CS in general. Multiple times during the day, the tech advantages of Huntsville was stressed. Too funny, the Huntsville opportunities were mentioned as a plus at Vandy the next day. We went downtown, stopped in a sewing shop and chatted with the folks to get some perspectives of the area before driving to Nashville. Overall, it was a win. From a sports perspective, though, Ice Hockey is the game.
We are back from ACT testing. It was a fairly long drive away so I stayed throughout. DS came out at the halfway point certain that he had bombed the math portion, since they called time when he still had two questions he hadnāt even looked at. After talking to some kids in the room he feels a bit better.
S drove himself to the ACT - would much rather do it all alone. He never gives me a straight answer, always says he aced whatever test he took, or in this case, he āateā. Whatever.
@peachActuary73 - Sounds like a great visit at UAH - merit money is so nice too. How was Vanderbilt? I havenāt yet been able to convince S to go visit.
@elena13 D signed up for a visit in January. We cancelled because I didnāt feel like driving. She was so sore at me. So, now that we were driving to Huntsville, it made sense to swing by Nashville, right? Well, a few days before, sheās no longer interested. No reason, just not feeling it. We went anyway, since Iād already spent the hotel points.
Program was only for rising seniors. They had an activities fair set up during the registration time. Large Greek %. They keep students in campus housing. Only a few hundred lottery slots for specific off-campus options. They have faculty apartments in the residence halls, interesting. Then they split us up into schools. The dean of engineering gave a pretty objective comparison of the different types of engineering schools a student could attend. Hyped the research, free tutoring, job placement, caliber of the entering students, and the flexibility of switching schools within the university. They accept about 330 slots per class, and graduate classes of about 350 due to transfers in. Claimed retention of the initial class hovered in the high 80s.
Then they split up the families from the seniors. Gave similar presentations to the groups. Described app process, stressed their generosity, diversity. Fill 1/2 the class from ED. Took a swipe at UChicago et. al, I think. Admissions director had described a student from Manhattan, Kansas learning from a student from Manhattan, NY (I know really NY,NY). Then when the Fin Aid Director spoke he dismissed lines in the sand like $75K income, given that the number means something different in Manhattan, KS versus Manhattan, NY. I also donāt really
Tour was shorter than UAH. 1 hour. Lots of trees and cold H2O to help with the heat. Pretty campus. They love their Residential House competition. Standard doubles and communal bathrooms. The tour guide gave insight into all 4 schools, and the Arts & Science core actually sounded cool. Oh well. Ate in a real cafeteria, and we happened to sit with the Fin Aid director. He was a wealth of college admissions info and trends, and coincidentally had a kid applying to GT this year. Ended with a student panel, which I thought was too long, and too many of them effused about the AXLE Arts and Science core, an acronym that was never defined to the rest of us. I looked it up later.
Survey asked on a scale of 1 to 10, what did you think of Vandy before and after the program. Kid put down 1 and 4.
Cool thanks! Nice reviews. Now I donāt have to go to these places! 
I do think S will be applying to Vandy and he would be in the liberal arts and science school, so Iām glad that sounded good. Super long shot though especially with RD.
I should have had more children (now that itās far too late to do anything about it). Kiddo has ruled out anything in the south or midwest, but I keep learning about schools that I would love to visit with him and learn about. Sigh.
Maybe I can adopt once kiddo is safely matriculated somewhere.
I returned yesterday from a college tours trip with D19. We visited four schools in four days, in addition to two additional days of visiting family and friends on both ends of the trip, and that was definitely our max. It was very informative and enjoyable. There were some surprises. We had a pleasant surprise upon return when checking D19ās June SAT score, which rose 50 points: 10 in EBRW, 40 in math. Yay!
D19 looked at a mix of schools, in her two categories of LACs and Catholic schools. I was glad we looked at schools in different categories like this. I was also grateful that we planned to visit one safety, one high reach, and two low reaches/matches. She also had two official interviews and one informal personal meeting with two AOs. The experience really helped her focus her thoughts and understand what she does and doesnāt want out of college.
D19 was making zero progress on her CA essay before the trip. During our trip she did begin some brainstorming although her ideas arenāt quite well-formed yet, but at least it was something. Iāve discovered that sheās finding it easier to get writing started by working on more specific prompts for supplemental essays. Sheās got two such drafts nearly done now. Now to keep that momentum going. Now that weāve been back at home all day today, I can see her slipping back into old habits of watching You Tube, filling out dumb online surveys, etc.
The List is smaller now than before the trip. Based on the fact that she really liked the safety school we visited, D19 now wants to eliminate some redundancy in her safeties category because she doesnāt really see the point. Iām very grateful to now have the comfortable, positive safety where she could see herself happy and challenged, and where she would have some family nearby for support and companionship (and music lessons ā my cousin teaches piano). So this may have been the best outcome of the trip of all, because we didnāt quite feel like we had that comfy cozy happy safety school yet. She also is now saying she wants to take off one of her match schools, since itās comparable in several ways to the safety school and she prefers the safety school.
Interviews: one was with a young AO, one was with a student intern, and one ended up being a Q&A with two AOs and I was invited to sit in as well. All were about 30 minutes in length. She connected well with the young AO. These are definitely all pretty informal and as long as a kid can communicate their goals, interests, and reason for focusing on that campus, they will be fine.
Summer is now half over. Thatās a little scary to be honest, but it was a really enriching first half for D19 with her week in DC and this midwest trip, capped off by the pleasant surprise of the SAT improvement. One month down, one to goā¦
@SDCounty3Mom Glad you had a good trip and great news about the SAT scores. But bummer, I was hoping for some college reviews/descriptions. I have to live vicariously through you all since S wonāt go on any more visits (and we only did a few). Hope you had a nice visit with your aunt.
Only three weeks left of summer for S! :((
@SDCounty3Mom Good for her on the SAT increase, and hope your visit with your aunt went well.
So, outside of a few very selective programs that are probably unreachable, my daughter has narrowed her list with the following conditions:
- must be about a 2 hour driving distance from home or less (family situation makes this quite important)
- Must offer in-state tuition or significant merit
- Must have good access to research opportunities
- Does not want hundreds of students in intro lecture classes
- Not a big fan of Greek life
- Not a requirement, but highly desired: NO foreign language requirement. (sign language is acceptable)
This has cut our list down to a surprisingly small number.
Iām not looking for suggestions ā just wanted to share!
Congratulations, @gallentjill , on narrowing the list like that! Itās so nice when you start to get clarity on the choices. Donāt discount that last minute dark horse though.
Sounds great gallentjill!
Always good to whittle the list down @gallentjill .
But like @ninakatarina always watch out for the dark house. I would advise everyone to keep one school on the list that is outside the norm of your parameters, because kids taste can change quickly and itās good to have options.
The school where my older son attends was outside all of our norms, hard to get into, big city, expensive, hustle and bustle, out of the ordinary education path, etc. I wouldāve guessed he had about a 5 percent chance of going there, and we added the school to our list just because it matches some requirements. So far he has been very happy with his choice and I canāt actually think heād be happier at a different place.
Im trying to find a school or tow like that for son19, just in case
So true! This is why I am insisting that UMass Amherst stay on the list. She loved it when we toured and only decided that she wanted smaller later. I want her to have one larger choice just in case.
@SDCounty3Mom Congrats on the SAT scores- sounds like that one was scored so harshly that it was hard to het scores up!
@gallentjill That is great that she has her requirement list narrow down. We are still all over the place, hopefully we can get to that point very soon!