@3SailAway Sounds like a great show for your girls. I know how you feel about being so thankful for their experience and also anticipating the end for your D19. My D17 had four great and challenging years in her high school drama program and I’m still sad about seeing it end. Fortunately her last show and role were the perfect way to go out. I’m having the same feelings about my S19 and his sports. His water polo team was such a great community of kids and families and it’s so hard to have it come to an end. At least I still have his spring sport ahead.
@3SailAway that’s funny, my S was in Radium Girls last spring 
@Kona2012 I visited UMDCP with S14 and we really liked it, but he ultimately found it just too huge for him.
@carolinamom2boys I love Towson but they don’t have Neuroscience. I checked again yesterday. Many of my friends and neighbors kids go there. If they had my son’s major we would have definitely checked them out.
@mathmomvt That’s what initially turned us off the size. Plus it’s not really the atmosphere he wants and it’s literally 30 minutes west on Route 50 from our house. He really wants go away.
Congrats to all the fabulous drama kids! Glad to read the shows are going well!!
Son volunteers for SERC - Smithsonian Environmental Research Center and last night was his shift (5:30-12:15) for Project Owlnet and he actually got a Northern Saw-whet owl! I wish I could upload a pic. They bring them in and check them and then band them and release. They are tracking migratory patterns. He was over the moon that he actually got to help with this research. Beats the summer project of sitting on the docks sorting mud crabs!
@Kona2012 I completely understand. I’m an occupational therapist which is why I chose Towson. I was fortunate to have an instate option for my major.
Rough weekend for D’s friends who were deferred at UGA. Lots of freaking out happening. D has a friend from another school class of '18 who was accepted with good merit and/or aid everywhere he applied, but deferred at UGA. Turned down a great offer at Tufts to stick with UGA when accepted RD. I wonder if these GC’s instate are fully preparing these kids.
Still in scholarship and honors essay misery in this house. But, I think the friends’ disappointments have been a bit of a motivation. Whatever works.
Saw that UGA posted their EA stats for this year.
16,921 applications (14% increase)
7,556 accepted
Admitted 50% GPA: 4.07-4.33
Admitted 50% SAT: 13690-1490
Admitted 50% ACT: 31-34
We moved from Maryland to VA when D16 was starting K and I remember thinking that she would just go to UVA or W&M - lol!! Yeah, she just needed an entire extra point to her GPA and she would have been good to go. She ended up applying to all OOS schools since only VA Tech had her major and that was out of reach too.
S19 is applying to two in-state schools. I can’t really say that he likes any school right now but his choices are limited by a lot of factors. It’s probably good that he hasn’t fallen in love with a school since he may only get in to one or two. - there’s no way to predict how the talent pool at the auditions will be.
Relatives on both sides of the family just kind of make a stink face at us when we mention where he’s applying so that’s fun.
My husband was raised in NoVa and I ended up in DC for college/work. We married and settled in NoVA. Even before any of my friends had children they talked about UVA and W&M. Shortly after D16 was born, we moved to the NYC area for job/family. D16 is now almost 21 years old and my husband is STILL talking about how she could have gone to W&M or UVA if we were still there and we would be saving so much $$! Um…Ok. 8-| (None of my friends had children that ended up at either school anyway-they realized it’s not that easy!)
I’ve heard many people mention that UMDCP feels huge. We’ve never been but S19 has applied. You don’t hear people say the same thing about Ohio State or Penn State as often even though they are the same size or bigger. On paper and internet the place looks amazing. I would be thrilled if S19 were offered an opportunity.
Can someone please explain the ‘huge’ factor of UMDCP? Crowded classrooms? Take buses from class to class? Overburdened administration?
BTW, we are NYC folks so the urban thing doesn’t concern us (should it?).
@STEM2017 – I think huge can be in the eye of the beholder. 
D19 visited VA Tech and the moment we drove on to campus to head to the visitors center parking lot she said it was not the school for her. (We hadn’t even got out of the car yet.) We still got our parking pass, parked in the garage, walked the campus, etc., but she had already made her decision.
Incidentally, WVU is high on her list. (Go figure.)
There’s a nice YouTube video of a bird’s eye view of McKeldin Mall from a few years ago, in case you haven’t seen that yet. Gives a sense of the size of UMD’s campus.
@OrangeFish Wow, looks HUGE from that vantage point.
You are right, though. Somehow Auburn felt smaller than UGA in D’s mind. It’s not. I think it was the organization of the visit and tours, and overall layout of the key departments. Both schools fit her ideal image of what a college should look like. The final list is all over the place, so we’ll see.
@peachActuary73 – I hear you on the “all over the place” final list. I gave up months ago trying to predict how D would react to a school/campus.
@OrangeFish Great video! Makes me like it even more! Thx.
The main thing D19 did not like about the campus was all the traffic on campus (cars, buses, etc). A lot roads cut through campus to the various parking lots scattered about campus. You had to have your head on a swivel when crossing streets. I didn’t think it was that bad but you can only have one first impression. Since we are only 20 minutes away I have tried to get her back for another look but no such luck.
@STEM2017 - I am an alumni of UMD and I had classes all over campus but never felt the need to use the campus bus once. Very easy to get around. S19 only wants huge campuses although for some reason Delaware made the cut. S19 spent a week at a UMD engineering camp this summer. They stayed in a fraternity house and walked wherever they needed to go - no issues even in the summer heat.
FWIW - S19 had two tours scheduled at Virginia Tech. We did an afternoon general tour and then had an engineering tour scheduled for the next day. As soon as general tour was done, S19 said that it wasn’t for him and he canceled his next tour and we left early.
My point in the above is that every kid will have different reactions to a school. At the end of the day our primary goal for S19 is that he feels like he fits at a campus and can find his tribe. The rest works itself out.
@DCNatFan I live 20 minutes from UMCP, too. I attended grad school at UMD and found it pretty easy to get around. Many kids from our local HS go there and LOVE it. It is about the same size (enrollment) as UGA but the CP campus seems smaller to me for whatever reason. Maryland is the largest school on my S19’s list and I know he will be happy if he is accepted and chooses to attend (but he would prefer to be further than 20 minutes from home). Putting aside thesports/admin controversies of late, Terps are very spirited and there is a great alumni network!
@peachActuary73 - Yes, it’s so rough to hear about S’s friends who were deferred or rejected at UGA. Many of them have it as their first choice. It’s gotten so crazy competitive- like a lot of schools.
I’m a UMCP alum. I only once had two back-to-back classes where I felt like I had any trouble making it to the second in time, and that was mainly because the professor in the first one didn’t like to end on time.
That said, a student who isn’t careful about scheduling, year, I can see some potential problems. But that’s a side effect of one of the positives of the campus, in my mind—there are some quite nice medium-sized expanses of green space in the middle of everything.
Also: One of my work colleagues graduated from UMBC. Good school, and they’re doing some quite interesting undergraduate-focused stuff there. When she was there it was working on becoming less commuter- and more residential-focused; it still has a pretty high proportion of commuters, but then again, so does UMCP (heck, I was one of their commuter students, since I lived a few minutes off campus!), and people don’t think of it as a “commuter school”. UMBC got the commuter school reputation many years back, though, and it hasn’t been able to shake it, even though it isn’t nearly as deserved as it once was.
@carolinamom2boys My daughter is looking into graduation programs for occupational therapy. Towson is on her list to apply to. Can you tell me what you liked/disliked about Townson and any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated. ty
@KMV2016 I graduated from Towson 33 years ago. I can say that students that I supervise from Towson have always been well prepared for their internships. The Medical University of SC has an excellent program , as does the University of St Augustine.