DS got a letter he was accepted into National Honor Society. I know they really vary by school, but there are a lot of hoops to jump through, very specific and involved application and requirements to meet at his school. And this year has been a challenge with sickness and absences and making up work, so am proud.
15 Likes
Our public school has college counselors. They aren’t super helpful, but they do have access to the data that they never seem to put in Naviance.
3 Likes
At our Northern New England public high school, DE classes are mostly taught by HS teachers with advanced degrees/experience. The individual teachers have to be certified by the college and the curriculum must be issue or approved (not sure which) by the college. My kids have/will take DE Ancient & Modern Western Civ, Italian, Spanish, Expository Writing but have not/will not take DE STEM classes (opting instead for honors/AP/College Prep level).
I believe there is also an opportunity to take classes off-site at community college in town or at our state flagship 15-20 minutes away. Public transportation is less than stellar, so I think attending off site is logistically challenging without a car.
Our public high school also has a dedicated college counselor. It’s a nice benefit, even if there is just one of her for the whole class (+/- 280).
1 Like
My kids school is smaller and some win these awards. I am pretty sure “school” doesn’t need to do anything on high, just 1 teacher to agree to fill something out. They potentially need admin’s permission in some cases, not sure about that..I suspect that is school by school but didn’t read fine print.
Not a big deal, but if you have a kid into art/writing it is a pretty recognizable award.
1 Like
The award sounds awesome. I wonder if the award just isn’t well known in the Midwest. I think I might mention it to our school so they can inform the kids of its existence. Even though it doesn’t need to go through the school, if the kids don’t know about it they can’t enter. 
We are most of the way through our multi-college spring break trip. I’m going to do a write up later for the “which colleges moved up or down after visiting” thread that’s a little more clinical, but I figured here would be a good place for my personal thoughts.
I’m a little sad, ok, maybe a LOT sad, that my son is bumping a school down his list because it’s “too gray”. I don’t mean the weather, I mean the buildings. It’s a perfect fit for him, in terms of everything he says he’s looking for, but he literally just doesn’t like how it looks. I get that that affects mood, and you need to live there for four years, and all of that. But gah! It’s like he’s gotten the “too gray” in his head and can’t see anything else like how awesome the programs are there, how good the price is, how much school spirit it has etc. He’s not going to take it off his list, but it’s dropped down a good bit, which makes me sad, as I really do think it would be the best fit for him. (FWIW, it’s Virginia Tech, which many people think is a really beautiful campus. But yes, it is very gray - they make all their buildings faced with the same gray stone.)
He’s knocked one school completely off his list - which I’m more than fine with. It was going to be a reach any way (NC State, and we are not NC residents - they must have an entering class of at least 82% NC residents). He really didn’t like how divided the campus was - and since his classes would be on the part of campus that is separate from where most of the life is, I don’t blame him.
He fell in love with a college that he has a decent likelihood of getting into, but that wasn’t really what I wanted for him. (Clemson) Of the majors there, there is only one that appeals to him. If that doesn’t work out, he doesn’t have a lot of choices. I also worry that this isn’t quite as well regarded as his other choices (this is the school I mentioned we were visiting to my uncle and his response was “I thought [son] was smart?”). I try not to let that influence me, but it’s in the back of my head. And he’ll need to get a job someday. His major there would be construction science and management - which he thinks he’d like, but what does he know? And if he does major in that, how is Clemson’s reach out of SC? Will he be able to get jobs elsewhere? Maybe because we live in VA, but I know the reach and power of the VA Tech alumni, and I’d really prefer he go there - more major options for him (geosciences, or geography are leading contenders there, but there are so many more that also appealed) and so much less expensive because in state.
He loved UNC Chapel Hill - WHO DOESN’T? Which is the problem. I swear they said that the out of state admit rate this year was 6.5%. He’s a smart kid and all, but those are pretty terrible odds. I’d be happy to pay this out of state tuition, but I just don’t see it as that likely.
He didn’t like UVA - got a strong vibe from the students that just wasn’t good. This could be because of what his friend said (one of his best friends is a current freshman, he gave DS a personal tour in addition to the formal group tour and info session). This kid, super friendly and outgoing, has really struggled to make friends and find his place amongst the students, finding them to be pretentions and overly competitive and not supportive and very fixated on status. And while I’d like to say “that’s just one person’s opinion” it’s also kind of my opinion, based on the kids we know who have gone there. And yet, DS is rating this school higher than VA Tech, because it’s got a strong reputation and “isn’t gray”. And I want to rip my hair out and say FORGET THE GRAY, go where the students are friendly and happy and you have good major options, and it’s affordable, and there’s good job placement. So I’m like shoving socks in my mouth to keep from voicing all of this. I want him to have his own experience and make his own choices, not based on what I think and feel. And that’s kind of killing me.
Our counselor recommended he include Appalachian State as a safety school. We were going to tour it, and DS said “look, I just can’t picture myself telling someone I went to App State, I don’t want to go there, I don’t want to tour, find me a different safety”. So we added on a tour of JMU. He doesn’t want JMU because so many other students from his HS go there. We had an objectively awful tour. The tour either East Campus or West Campus. By the time I signed him up, only tours of the new ugly side (can’t remember if it was E or W) were available. It was dead quiet. No student life, no activities, no nothing. And the buildings looked like prisons. Our tour guide acknowledged that it was her first ever tour, and English was not her first language. Not only was it actively hard to understand her (strong accent, spoke quickly) but she added no personalization to her tour - it was like she was reciting facts she needed to impart. It lent no color to the presentation, and gave no insights about what it was like to be a student. I can’t blame DS for hating the tour and college, I did too after that. So we took some time to drive through the rest of the (pretty) part of school on the other side of the interstate. That helped, but what he really needed to hear was something about why it’s a good place to go to school, and whether people are happy and engaged, and he got none of that. He’ll keep it on the list because he needs a safety, but he’s not remotely happy about it.
So based on that, and based on how much he loved NC as we drove through, I’m thinking about adding UNC Charlotte to his list as a safety. I know next to nothing about it, but he likes the town of Charlotte, and this school offers majors that would be interesting to him. He’d really love to be in Asheville, and add UNC Asheville as a fall back (he was seriously in love with Western NC) but they don’t offer any majors that would be a fit for him.
Today we are driving to Pittsburgh, to tour Pitt tomorrow. We’ll see how taht goes, but I’m thinking downtown city location is really not right for him.
Right now I’m nervous that he doesn’t have enough options on his list, so I’m going to try to think of other schools that would be good for him.
He’s got:
UNC Chapel Hill - reach, would love it
Clemson - should be a match, he’d love it, I’m nervous about this choice
UVA - less of a reach, may not like it as much
Va Tech - should be a match, he’s not loving it
JMU - safety - really didn’t like
Pitt - yet to be seen, should be an easy match or safety
UCONN - we’ll visit in the fall, should be an easy match or safety
UNC Charlotte - maybe add? would be a safety
I’d really like more matches that he’s excited about for his list. Any suggestions? He really wants college sports, he wants a sense of community and collegiality where people are friendly and feel supportive, apparently he doesn’t want a campus that is too gray 
, he doesn’t want to be crazy far away from Northern VA where we live, it needs to have either: geography, geology, geoscience, urban planning or construction management as a major, and I’d like it to stay in the vicinity of $50k (ok if expected merit aid brings it down to that).
7 Likes
How about University of South Carolina? I’m completely uneducated about their majors, but along with Clemson, both are becoming much more competitive and reputable schools. USC has an excellent honors program, one of the best.
Perhaps less of a match but UGA is also an excellent school that I’m sure has a major that would fit.
And yes, I think Clemson is very much respected outside of SC.
1 Like
Thank you for this! I’ll check them out. I am really really trying to get past the decades old “Clemson is a football school only” mentality. It doesn’t help that literally the first person I mentioned the list too was such a snobby jerk about it. Sigh. Retrain my brain…
1 Like
I completely get it. When I first heard that a friend’s daughter was going there over YALE about 10 years ago, I thought “the orange school out in the sticks?” But she had a stellar experience and is actually teaching at VT
Go look through the Clemson, UGA, and USC (South Carolina not California) threads on here, tons of super qualified kids from all over the country.
As @Izzy74 noted, Clemson has a solid reach outside of South Carolina, but even if it didn’t: Why would he need it to? Unless he just can’t see himself living in South Carolina (in which case going to college there would be a little weird anyway), why would it be a problem for his first job or two out of college—or heck, maybe his whole life—to mean he’s living in South Carolina?
Those are rhetorical questions, but hopefully clear ones. In thinking about possibilities and such, you need to foreground his needs, rather than projecting your own stresses and insecurities onto him.
(And the appearance of a college’s physical plant is totally a valid criterion. There is a lot of evidence that people do better work if they’re working in buildings that they find attractive. If he doesn’t like the way a campus looks, and your family has the means for that to be a factor, letting him choose a place he likes the look of is seriously helping set him up for success.)
1 Like
D22 thought Middlebury was too white 
my approach was “if this is what we get stuck with you’ll be just fine.” Meaning, when that is the only reason, it should still make the application list. It didn’t mean she’d have to go, but if it came down to it, it was a great option in every other way and better to have the choice.
For sure! I mean it was recognizable by admissions, mainly. Truly I hadn’t heard about it until my kid entered HS and the school bragged about the winners.
I think if one were to be proactive and google “art awards” though, you would find it.
1 Like
Looking at all the spring break college visits and such, I am realizing D25s list doesn’t really consist of any that are truly close together.
1 Like
And every year there is an angsty excited thread on CC.
1 Like
I don’t know what consists of “not together” for you, but goseecampus.com is great for plotting your optimal college road trip.
1 Like
yup haha! the thread is super active right now because RAL awards are coming out on the 29th- and congrats to your daughter on the silver keys! I encourage any high school kids to apply; scholastic is very prestigious and it’s just exciting to know that people see something original in your work.
Thank you. I am just proud of putting herself out there. It’s hard to have your art judged.
6 Likes
Yeah we’ll be in Michigan beginning of next week and then rural Iowa Thurs/Fri. Sort of regretting our plans. Wishing we were going somewhere warm and fun. Oh well.
1 Like
Chiming in with others to say try South Carolina. Really lovely campus, friendly students, happy vibe, lots to do. And the Honors College is really special.
1 Like
So far 1.5 hrs between campuses is the closest. So we can likely do Lindenwood and Maryville in 1 trip and then another with Rider and Stockton.