Thanks @homerdog. That is helpful. Davidson was one of our Spring Break cancelled tours. On paper, it looks pretty good for D. She’s totally not feeling the virtual tours, so she’s not been thrilled with much of anything. I was bummed to see her discount it based on a basic zoom call and 1 student’s perspective! We will definitely try other offerings and hopefully get there in person.
I’m 25 min from Richmond. It’s high on Ds list, though she’d like to go a bit further away. It’s stunningly beautiful, and the food is amazing. D did a track and field camp summers 6-8th grade and ran the campus, used the work out facilities, did water training in the pool and ate at the D Hall. The main T&F coach and student counselors were all fantastic. Loved everything. When we did the full day Admissions Preview program last year as a sophomore the food definitely was a highlight for me too! We only know a few kids there (most don’t want to stay local), but all are very happy and very involved. They had therapy dogs in training and experienced therapy dogs with their handlers all over campus one day we were there near exams. Students were hanging out with the dogs, such a fun vibe! A huge St. Bernard slobbered all over me, but that’s another story! We have liked the feel every time we have been on campus.
Funny, we toured Davidson during their first week of classes and got the exact opposite impression. We witnessed their famous Cake Race for first years, and my kid and I were quite amazed at the sheer amount of school spirit on display and how sporty and enthusiastic many of the students were (almost intimidatingly so). We were impressed by the town gown relations too as Davidson town residents baked dozens of elaborate cakes for the first years. Nerdy would be the last thing we’d call the majority of Davidson students if that day provided an accurate representation.
@Rue4 – My D is a rising junior at Davidson! I have noticed a well-rounded student body when visiting I see sporty (it has Div 1 athletics), artsy, preppy, you name it. The campus culture is warm and welcoming – they pride themselves on a strong community, and are one of the only colleges that requires a peer recommendation. The dean of admissions during parent orientation said they are looking for students who are ‘good friends’ which I found interesting and I think their rubric includes ‘character.’
Davidson has very tough academics, so I wonder if that’s what the student was trying to imply by saying nerdy?
My D couldn’t be any happier with her choice. Feel free to PM me with any questions.
@mammoth85 and @AlmostThere2018 Thank you for the intel! Very helpful. On paper Davidson looks like a real contender for D (in HS she fits into the well rounded/sporty/cool kid crowd). She really wants an academic campus with smart kids passionate about their work- but has been in a small gifted magnet track since 3rd grade with 1/2 kids like her and 1/2 really socially awkward “super nerds” she doesn’t vibe with and wants to make sure she finds a campus with a good mix.
@AlmostThere2018 I’m sure I’ll be messaging you in the future! I actually applied to Davidson back in the day (was waitlisted) because my mom said it would be a good fit, but we never visited. I’m 3rd generation W&M.
Appreciate the info on Davidson…it’s a big reach for my D21 but I want her to look at it. It doesn’t get much love here in CA. Can I PM you, almosthere2018?
My daughters have this thing with not wanting to go to school in the south if the student body is primarily from the south or feels too southern (don’t judge, they are entitled to their opinions having lived there for part of their lives). D19 is at Duke and if my kids are going to be that far away, I’d rather them be in the same state.
Funny, my D19 would probably disagree with comment re: lack of rigor at Duke and I’d put her HS level of rigor at a large competitive HS as about as tough as it gets. She loves it though, despite feeling it is rigorous academically.
Many of the schools mentioned here appeal to similar types of students. One thing my D was looking for was a collaborative vs competitive environment. Are your classmates in it with you, trying to support one another, work/study together, etc? or are many worrying more about the class curve, who is going to beat them out for the research position, etc.? D19 loved BC and has heard positive things about collaboration from her three friends currently attending. Full disclosure, D19 ruled out Vandy simply because they sent so much marketing material (we counted 45 pieces in less than 2 years). My d21 would not be an academic candidate for Vandy and even she has received marketing info, just this month. One of D19s two friends who chose Vandy last year is transferring out…he has not experienced the ‘we’re all in this together’ vibe whatsoever. These are just anecdotes but thought worth sharing.
@2ndthreekids – I’m happy to also answer any questions you have about Davidson.
Also, maybe this is splitting hairs, but I think Duke can be rigorous but still have grade inflation. It’s clearly a student body of exceptionally bright students and great professors so I imagine all classes have rigor.
I probably used poor word choice when I said UNC was more ‘academically difficult.’ What I meant to convey is that, based on the what my D hears from her friends from UNC and Duke, it is easier to get an A at Duke, generally speaking. I believe I’ve read that nationally there’s research indicating more grade inflation in private schools compared to publics, so this would fall in line with that.
Davidson is known for grade deflation, on the other hand, but my D and her friends take it in stride. They say that grad schools are aware and take that into account when reviewing apps.
Seems like Davidson is addressing the notion of grade deflation…it does not seem one can claim that anymore, based on rapidly increasing median graduating class GPAs:
@Mwfan1921 – That is a big shift in a relatively short period of time! We know some alumni who said faculty in the past had to grade using a distribution with caps on As but that was removed a while back (not sure when). I think there’s still a culture around profs grading tough, the data is showing a shift, as you pointed out.
I wonder if grade inflation everywhere has anything to do with colleges’ focusing more on student mental health and concerns about too much stress? Anyway, I know grade inflation is a topic that’s been on CC over the years on its own threads!
That’s an interesting thought! Also the info on removing the cap on A’s is helpful, would be good to know when that was.
There were probably a number of considerations to the school addressing the grade deflation perception/reality, I wouldn’t be surprised if they found they were losing kids because of that. I am just speculating, of course.
Somewhere over time I learned about that data here on CC, I’m sorry I can’t credit the person who first posted it…but it is eye opening. Makes Davidson more attractive IMO.
Hi all. I introduced myself here dozens of pages ago but have been consumed by projects and by gnawing my fingernails to the quick watching D21 drag herself across the junior year finish line. She ended up with her usual grades, but I lost a few years off my life and gained several more gray hairs (that I can’t cover since hair salons here are still closed :-)) in the process. Giving her a couple of weeks off before taking up the college gauntlet. I’m watching in dismay as her colleges list is growing, rather than shrinking. She’d been focused on LACs, but now is looking at mid-size schools with strong public health programs in addition to LACs. She knows that grad school is likely in her future with PH as her intended career focus, but still would like to be at an undergrad school where PH or some type of health, medicine and society major/minor/concentration is available. She hates everything about online tours and info sessions and panels and is miserable at the thought of spending much of her summer in that fashion. Fortunately her job just reopened again last week, so she’s working part-time. All other summer plans have been torpedoed by covid-19.
Question: Do any of your kids’ schools use Maia Learning rather than Naviance? D got notice last month that her school was switching from Naviance to Maia. Sort of annoying after becoming familiar with Naviance. Her school is small enough that Naviance stats weren’t super useful, but at least it was a known quantity.
@goldenstatecat Welcome! We also just wrapped up the school year and I was very proud of my kid - she maintained her grades and even improved in a class or two.
My D has a fairly long list of schools to work through. We had one meeting with her guidance counselor before COVID hit. That resulted in a long list of “maybes”. We are lucky that her school’s college counseling office is pretty good at tracking where graduates end up so it’s possible to connect with alumni at colleges of interest to get that student perspective.
Her summer job was a casualty of COVID-19 but TBH, having some down time looks pretty good right now and I’m sure that college research (maybe even some essays?) will fill that time? A mom can only dream…
@goldenstatecat we’re with @Momof3B - nothing used in our school district either (my S21 wouldn’t have access anyway, since he homeschools, but my D23s are in the public schools).
Per your daughter’s interests, my H is in public health, with the CDC. In undergrad he actually majored in political science but mixed it with a lot of bio/pre-med types of classes but then got both masters and Ph.D. in the public health field. What schools/programs are on your daughter’s list ? My S21 isn’t interested in public health so we haven’t been focusing on it in our search, but the other day when we were looking through the majors at one of the schools on S21’s list, H couldn’t help himself when he stumbled across a Public Health major - he dug into the course list and was commenting on the selection which then led him to go back and look at the availability of public health courses at his own undergrad institution (some of which I think he took, but he didn’t major in it) and then on to seeing what other SLACs offered anything of the sort, so I’d love to hear which schools your daughter is excited about (or as excited as she can be through websites and virtual tours, which…I get it…we’re struggling a bit with that here as well).
@goldenstatecat Welcome! Our school doesn’t use Naviance or anything like it. We only know where kids are going via word of mouth. S is not really enjoying virtual info sessions/tours.
Wow – lots to catch up on. I wish I could comment on the schools you all are talking about but I have no recent insight. Sounds like there’s lots of cross over interest in this group!
My daughter and I went away this weekend on some summer/corona college visits. We had such a great time! We went to visit Tulane (running tours), LSU and Alabama.
Tulane’s tour was kind of a tour “lite” because it was all outside. They said that some buildings would be open when we booked, but they weren’t, which was a little disappointing, but I have lots of experience there and could fill in the blanks. I really wanted her to get on campus to see the size mostly. There are plenty of pictures of the inside of the buildings, but you can’t get a feel for size of a campus or surrounding neighborhood on a computer screen. She liked it a lot and liked the Uptown neighborhood as well. It’s definitely staying on the list. I thought it was important to visit before application season because I want her to at least apply for the full tuition scholarships they offer and that involves a lot of work. It would be such a waste if she didn’t like the school or couldn’t see herself there.
Next day was LSU. I had never been there and thought it was a beautiful campus, but my daughter didn’t love it. She said she just couldn’t picture herself there at all. We walked all over and then drove around Baton Rouge as well. I thought she would really like it as it is similar to UofSC in that it’s a large state school adjacent to the capital city. But she wasn’t feeling it, and it was the only college that would have (for the honors college) required her to do more standardized testing (they need a writing section and she hasn’t taken one) – so that’s one less administrative hurdle to jump through.
Final stop was the University of Alabama. This was a bonus visit. We were supposed to leave Sunday morning from New Orleans and head home, but Cristobal caused us to change our flight. We instead left out of Birmingham, AL and were able to stop and see University Alabama on the way. I have a niece who just graduated and is still living in her apartment there. Luckily, she was free to meet us for lunch and took us on a tour of campus. Wow! I was so impressed with both the campus and the town of Tuscaloosa. You know the phrase “come for the (fill in the blank), stay for the (fill in the blank)”. That’s UA. Come for the out of state scholarships, stay for the quintessential college experience. I would happily send my daughter there and she LOVED it. It really helped that my niece was able to give us some real life advice about everything as well. Two very enthusiastic thumbs up. I can see why so many Illinois kids go there and love it.
All in all, a great trip. New Orleans is slightly more open than Illinois, so we enjoyed a couple of indoor restaurant meals (who would think that would make me excited), but most things are still closed and between Critobal’s imminent arrival and a Friday evening French quarter BLM protest (that was well attended and very peaceful, but rumored to potentially not be so peaceful), many Jackson Square and other stores/restaurants boarded up and closed for the weekend. So, it was eerily quiet, but still just as beautiful. They opened the zoo, and my daughter loves zoos, so we spent Saturday morning there (no inside exhibits open) before we headed to LSU.
I had never heard of Naviance before CC and was so excited for DS to get to HS so we could get access to the info. Unfortunately, our state changed the grading scale so the info within Naviance for his current HS is not really comparable and is effectively useless. The best info we have is to try and look at the graduating seniors and guesstimate the ones you feel you will be similar to and ish gauge where they had success/failures.
From what we have seen and I know we do not get to see the recs or essays but it sure seems quite random…it will be an interesting year…