Parents of the HS Class of 2025 (Part 1)

Yes, it’s a factor my daughter and I have discussed, as she specifically wants to go into research. UBC is on her list of schools she applied to — it was middle of the pack, but had moved to the top bc of worries about research funding being cut in the US.

Interestingly, France is openly trying to recruit US researchers.

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It seems they had our address wrong (had 23402 Street Name, rather than 23408 Street Name), as a couple of other mailings have noted and gotten to us. At which point C25 corrected the mailing address in the portal (or checked and made sure it was right already, and they just typo’d on the mailing label, I’m not sure). And the tiger & socks arrived today. So, don’t give up hope, I guess, but have your kid check the portal to make sure the mailing address is right. :slight_smile:

And, yeah, I’m a bit leery of all the funding cut possibilities in the air right now, but there’s nothing I can do about it with a kid who wants to major in Chemistry, so I’m just gonna hope that things settle down soon, and we still have government funding of basic research.

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That is so cute!! I love when colleges think outside the box like this.

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I am deeply worried about STEM futures and my kid is STEM through and through and loves research. It’s truly sad to be honest. The US will set itself back in the science arena due to this and the rest of the world is going to catch up, or even pass them.

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I thought about this option too. S25 is really eager about studying abroad, and I’m wondering if a masters abroad might by him some time/experience after undergrad.

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This is a really interesting distinction between the two programs and I hadn’t understood that difference in your earlier discussions between the two programs.

Yeah, it’s been interesting to see where this program falls. It’s sort of a consistent odd one out. If it’s a construction management type major (because it has a different name at all three schools to which S25 applied) that isn’t an engineering degree (because there’s a fair number of construction management and engineering, which is more math-y, less business or fieldwork-y) then it doesn’t seem to have a natural home. Like at UTK, it’s nested in the College of Agriculture. Which made NO sense to me (I could understand the Clemson approach of marry it with architecture, or the VT approach of marry it with engineering). Until I learned that at UTK it’s nested under the Department of Biosystems and Soil Science. Ok, soil science, earth, construction, bit of an engineering tie, I can see that.

It’s just an odd program that seems sort of shoehorned in wherever it is. At Clemson it’s front and center and an equal partner. At UTK it’s definitely not an equal partner in the Ag School, which is why I so much appreciated their approach when we visited - he got a ton of individualized attention from the construction management program, and it was clear that the program wasn’t an afterthought and it had faculty and students who were engaged and excited. That’s what led to my worries about the program at VT. No one was answering S25’s questions and it played directly into my worries about a smaller, out of the norm program just getting totally subsumed by the much larger flagship Engineering programs. Add that to the fact that the thing S25 generally liked more about Clemson - even without considering anything related to major - was that it felt like a more welcoming and family like community, and the biggest con of VT for him was that it just felt like people were not coming together and kind of cold (which I don’t think is true, but the gray stone really might’ve been part of it, the architecture, while beautiful, isn’t warm). And it just wasn’t looking good for VT, comparatively.

I’m really glad that the person he reached out to most recently wrote back so promptly and he shared that, although schedules aren’t yet set, they do plan to have some activities during Hokie Focus and he was just so approachable. It made me feel much better about the program.

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My C23 (definitely) and C25 (probably, didn’t end up taking the test) both had a level of German fluency coming out of high school that would have let them study at any university program in Germany (and Austria and Switzerland, for C23). C23 had no interest in that, and still doesn’t. C25 had been very resistant to the idea, and still plans to get a US baccalaureate, but in the wake of gestures vaguely all around has been now and again talking about the utility of moving to German-speaking Europe for grad school.

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I though this might be of interest, given recent discussions on this thread—so: This comes from the emailed “daily briefing” Chronicle of Higher Education subscribers can opt in to. They always have a “human interest” section at the end, and here’s today’s.

As colleges send acceptance letters this year, beware bed parties.

The celebrations involve lavishing high-school seniors’ beds with the types of items pushed by the dormitory-industrial complex. That includes clothing branded with the name of the college a student will be attending and, more usefully, snacks. Bed parties gained traction during the pandemic, but unlike Tiger King, they’ve retained popularity.

As with seemingly everything these days, the trend is tied to social media. And as with everything these days, it’s split observers. Is it harmless fun? Or yet another sign of late-stage capitalism and conspicuous overconsumption? Some parents reportedly spend thousands on bed parties.

“I was hoping mine would look like what I’d seen on TikTok, or even look bigger,” one 18-year-old told The New York Times.

Perhaps the bed party can be seen as a useful form of college prep for residential students. Sharing the place you sleep with strangers online might get you ready for sharing the place you sleep with strangers in the dormitory.

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Very timely! :grin:.

Reminder that for those that don’t have German fluency- the sciences and engineering are taught in English. As a STEM major and researcher, my DD is having to eye overseas opportunities as all of the research funding is curtailed in US. She is at UW Seattle and so happy that it is one of the 20 US Universities that Great Britain gives an automatic 3 year green card to graduates. She was doing major cancer research and they have had to cut back and stop so much research due to lack of funding.

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I had someone try to tell me today that they “weren’t cutting cancer funding” and I’m like well given I know people who work for NCI you are wrong

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Now that’s a list I’d be interested in seeing.

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From ChatGPT (which I am just using All The Time this week…) :

The United Kingdom’s High Potential Individual (HPI) visa allows graduates from top global universities to work in the UK without the need for employer sponsorship. The list of eligible universities is updated annually and includes institutions ranked in the top 50 of at least two of the following global rankings: Times Higher Education World University Rankings, Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings, and the Academic Ranking of World Universities.

GOV.UK

For the period from November 1, 2024, to October 31, 2025, the following U.S. universities are on the list of eligible institutions:

  • California Institute of Technology
  • Columbia University
  • Cornell University
  • Duke University
  • Harvard University
  • Johns Hopkins University
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • New York University
  • Northwestern University
  • Princeton University
  • Stanford University
  • University of California, Berkeley
  • University of California, Los Angeles
  • University of California, San Diego
  • University of Chicago
  • University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
  • University of Pennsylvania
  • University of Texas at Austin
  • University of Washington
  • Yale University

Graduates from these universities who have been awarded their qualifications in the five years preceding their HPI visa application are eligible to apply. The visa grants a stay of two years for most graduates and three years for those with doctoral qualifications.

GOV.UK

For the most current and detailed information, including the complete list of eligible universities and application requirements, please refer to the official UK government guidance.

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The new “LMGTFY” I guess. :wink:

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What about Fred Hutch? Or Pfizer that just bought Seattle Genetics? They have a very large presence over here in the Bothell area.
Very sad to see no LACs on that list.

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That is a very interesting piece of information to know.

UCSC and UC Davis released at least some decisions today. S25 was accepted at SC (for physics) and rejected by Davis (for MechE). This is probably what I would have predicted, although I think I was hoping he might at least get waitlisted at Davis. But you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. We knew the UCs were a tough match for his profile, especially given his desire to study engineering. First rejection probably stings. I wish we didn’t have to wait all month for the rest of them. That whole Ivy Day concept is making a perverse kind of sense to me right now.

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Interesting: S25’s friend who has straight As, slightly harder classes, and tons of engineering camps and robotics leadership (and has gotten into Georgia Tech and Purdue) was waitlisted at UC Davis for MechE. Yikes.

I am feeling super validated in my choice to have S25 do all those EA applications and visit the schools-in-cold-places. Obviously for a Californian, Troy might seem like a let-down compared to Davis or La Jolla. But maybe he’ll like Golden?

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The UCs are tough for engineering. We went through that with S23 who is now thriving out of state. D25 was accepted to Davis this afternoon, but as a molecular and cell biology major.

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