Kid is still totally undecided on campus type she is interested in. Solid B student not looking for hard core competitive academics. She identifies as Christian so she is much more open to religion classes than I would be. Diversity is important to her but haven’t decided what percentage that is yet. Thinking criminal justice/social work kinda majors with options to dance (but not a dance team). Continue to adjust the list.
Thoughts on campus vibe?
Rider
Dean
Shenandoah
Lindenwood
Moravian
Sacred Heart
Hendrix
Catholic University of America
Could she apply to all of them and once she has acceptances in hand visit the ones with the better financial results? My D just visited a total of 3 LAC over the last month and she clearly liked one best and we left one early during the group tour because she hated it so much. I can see how it could get tricky financially having to visit in a relatively short period a bunch of schools.
This is what we basically did for S23 and likely the plan for D25. I’m trying not to let my thoughts about certain colleges (and states they are in) cut them out as my daughter is allowed her own opinions.
My kid’s came out today. Didn’t get the single test score they wanted, but did get there on superscore. I hope we can call it a day and stick with the SAT score (and that my ‘25 doesn’t want to keep trying to catch my ‘20’s single test score).
We had a severe winnowing of the list yesterday. C25 has decided to limit consideration to colleges in blue states (legitimately, given the child’s specific case; intriguingly, Arizona and North Carolina don’t count but Pennsylvania does), and that offer linguistics (not TESOL or a language major with a couple linguistics courses, but rather linguistics) as a major. Coupled with parental insistence—which C25 has totally bought into—that lower net cost of attendance is better and therefore no or minimal merit aid colleges are out, this actually shrinks the field intensely.
So now the next step is trying to figure out if we can wrap campus tours around planned summer family trips to places that are nowhere near any of the colleges remaining in contention—the kid has had no interest in college tours (including last summer, when we could easily have worked them in), but now suddenly is totally into touring every possibility in existence.
The only one on that list we’ve planted feet on their campus is Sacred Heart. My kid’s opinion was there wasn’t enough diversity, there was only one kind of person ther. But I have good friends whose son is totally in love with Sacred Heart and even applied ED there this year. So take my kid’s opinion with a grain of salt.
We toured a college yesterday too and came away disappointed in that my kid just isn’t “feeling it” at any of the schools we’ve visited. I think they have caviar taste on a beer budget. They’re trying very hard to focus on what’s practical (price point & programs) but those schools haven’t felt right.
D25 is only looking at colleges in blue states. We did Minnesota last August. We’re doing Maine over spring break and Oregon this summer. We’re not going to make it to California, but she doesn’t love hot weather.
That’s what my 25 was gunning for, but I have to say I’m not feeling too bad for them considering they refused to study or take a practice test! Their superscore is 36, but wanted a 36 on a single test.
She is currently at a high school which is 90% white so she isn’t sure that the 75% of Sacred H will be “enough” either. It’s hard because she visited Le Moyne (also on her list) and she said it was fine (also 75% white) but her brother is at Cuse so that sways her decision a bit. I think she may be most comfortable under 70% but who knows.
We went to a LeMoyne virtual info session and my kid ruled that one out too
Our high school is 60% white and that doesn’t feel particularly diverse to us. Perhaps that’s why colleges that are 75%+ white don’t feel right to my kid.
We visited 2 colleges recently. Elizabethtown and Muhlenberg. During the tour of Etown D asked about diversity and the guide was honest about it really not being diverse at all but hopefully they make the school welcoming to everyone. She said it reflects the demographics of central PA. It’s not a good fit for D, the music program isn’t robust enough and it felt too small. She is considering applying anyway because it’s a free application and would audition. She said she wouldn’t choose it over Rowan most likely though.
Muhlenberg doesn’t have music Ed but has a lot of performing arts and is very recommended here. We went to the open house. It’s a beautiful campus, well appointed. They gave us lunch vouchers and we headed over. It was really packed and that was the first ding to D. I tried to reassure her it’s a lot of people only here for the open house. Food was good and big selection. We finished and went for the tour/admission talk. They put us in a big group and headed out. Walking around I could see D talking to the guide and asking her questions. At some point she fell back in the crowd, found me and whispered I’m never going here how long do we need to stay. I asked if she wanted to leave now. The tour headed towards where I was parked so we just ducked out and left.
Once on the road D said she felt so out of place there. The people felt too cool and preppy while she’s nerdy. I agree to some extent. The parents felt cool and put together. The kids looked like 17 year olds do everywhere mostly shy and embarrassed. I did try and say that nearly everyone there isn’t going to actually enroll there but she was done and has other options she likes better. To be fair the actual students she talked to like the guide and a girl who sat at our lunch table she said were really nice and are people she could see herself going to school with. No more open houses for her. It’s too overwhelming and not reflective of the school.
Kind of interesting, since my nerdy C17 very much enjoyed her time at Muhlenberg.
But: She did get annoyed sometimes at the overly rich kid vibe that was there. (Just assuming that of course you’re spending spring break skiing in Vail, but only because St Moritz makes you deal with too much jetlag for a single week.) She reported that it lessened palpably during the time that she was there, which she attributed to concerted efforts by admissions to broaden the applicant pool, but probably was also because she found a group that wasn’t part of that.
My D, who is a good skier, went on a school sponsored ski trip over break. When I asked if she met anyone new/who she skied with, she said surprisingly no one could really ski. After a minute she said “oh yeah! Everyone who can ski is in Europe!”
For the record, that’s not the dominant vibe at her school. But the lightbulb moment was funny.
Has she considered Lasallian universities? I think she’d find them fairly diverse due to the charism of the Christian Brothers - and I believe most are on the small side, with programs in social work/criminal justice and maybe some dance? + Likely decent merit for strong grades.
I just have to say how glad I am that the class of 25 is not the guinea pig for the new FAFSA. That looks like a nightmare. I’ll take being the guinea pig for the DSAT over the FAFSA any day!
I honestly think D25 would have liked Muhlenberg better if it was a 1:1 tour without hundreds of extra people there. I am glad that she realized that music ed is a must have after visiting a school that doesn’t have it. She’s been wavering about it because of the lower income potential and strongly considering business management. The Dean at Elizabethtown said the demand for all teachers is far higher than what they graduate each year including music ed.
I’m glad your C really had a great experience, @dfbdfb I think your comments on the school contributed to making our way out to see it.
