We have another admitted students day this coming weekend. That is the last one we have planned.
5 Likes
In the land known as “buying stuff for my kid’s dorm room,” this arrived today from Amazon. I bought one for older daughter when she started college, too. It’s come in handy many many times and lots of things people in older daughter’s dorm have asked to borrow her tool set. So D26 gets one, too.
It’s about $20. Compact, not heavy, comes in lots of different colors.
14 Likes
We are down to three each for my two boys.
Son has an admitted student day at St Olaf this week. Then we fly to New Orleans next week to see Tulane. (If anyone remembers previous post, they’ve significantly adjusted the previous package which was in error. Still too much, but if we really stretch…) Then off to Kenyon the week after that. We’re cutting it close, and we’re all running out of days off.
Friend who lives with us more or less has it down to W&L, Harvey Mudd or Berea. He’s seen the first and last and is flying to visit Mudd next week. It’ll be his first solo trip by plane, first taxi, first solo hotel check in…
15 Likes
You guys, the Woozoo fan went on sale at Costco today! This is the one to get for dorm rooms – both of our college kids have them and swear by them. What’s funny is DH got an email saying it was $26.99 after $10 off, but if you click through, it says $36.99 after $10 off. Must be a typo in the email. Maybe they’ll honor it, lol. This will be among our first official purchases for D26, which is exciting.
@sbinaz We got something very similar for D22. Then S25 got one as a gift at his YMSL graduation luncheon – and then an aunt/uncle sent him an even nicer tool set as part of a grad gift, so D26 will be taking the YMSL-branded one, lol.
@LACadvocate You probably know this, but double check with the hotel where the friend will be staying – many/most hotels in the U.S. will not let someone under age 21 check in. My oldest flew back to college after winter break a little early a couple years ago for a shadowing opportunity, and they wouldn’t let her get back into the dorm early, so she had to stay in a hotel for a couple nights. I called all over Houston to find one that would let her check in at age 20. (Marriott in the med center for the win.) Meanwhile she studied abroad after freshman year and stayed all over Italy at age 19 with no issues.
5 Likes
D26 has had 2 and has 2 to go. But the last for us is Monday, April 20!
Went to our second one today at Wesleyan. It was… interesting. Not really the vibe she was expecting. D26 isn’t ready to remove it from the list, but my guess is that it’s off. We shall see!
4 Likes
Or choose a hotel with digital key, add child’s name to room and send them the digital key. They can bypass the desk, but if they do need to go, as long as their name is on the room, they will give them a key.
4 Likes
Interesting about Wesleyan! What is the vibe like there? My S26 got waitlisted at Wesleyan. He didn’t accept a place on the waiting list because he realized he didn’t want to be too far from home!
Whoa, April 20?!!! I think you’ve got the latest accepted students’ day so far!
1 Like
This is a good way to do it! But I’ve had trouble with getting digital keys in the past (although it usually works fine), so I think I’d be nervous relying on it for a kid new to traveling alone.
1 Like
Is RPI still on her list? Because that really seems like an outlier (in terms of vibe) compared to some of the other schools you’ve mentioned! 
She was really excited about it when I talked to her on the drive home. Syracuse has the nicest studio spaces of any of the places she’s considering, plus she likes the living learning community.
She wants to think about it for a couple of days, but I think she’s getting close to a decision. I think the snow is a bit of a turn off, but we’re from New England so it’s not like she isn’t used to winter.
5 Likes
Older daughter has a Woozoo fan. It’s awesome. It’s great at increasing general air flow in the room especially with its 360 degree swivel. So glad we got one of those!
1 Like
We are going for a special visit to American U on 4/18 (not an admitted students day because we are going next week for comp civics nationals) but I think decisions will only be made around 4/25. It may be that she decides, we pay a deposit and then she gets off the WL at one her top choice UCs in May so she changes her mind. Though my deadline is June 5th. We leave for Greece on 10th morning and I don’t want this hanging over us. She has pretty good choices currently and she has narrowed it to UW, UBC & AU. Plus she has been WL for the first year honors program at UW which if she got in, would become a no-brainer unfortunately they will not inform her of whether she gets off the WL till June apparently.
5 Likes
I have an AU student if you have any questions or want recommendations for your visit.
4 Likes
I think it wasn’t as academically connected as what D26 is looking for. One of the student panels she went to, the students didn’t talk about their academics, but just complained about the dorms. This isn’t to say that the students don’t care about academics, but I think she wants a school where they talk about what they’re doing in class. Wesleyan seemed much more about the extracurriculars, especially in the arts, that students did. D26 is a singer/writer and likes that engagement in the arts, but I think just wants to see both sides of people. Anyway, no tour is perfect, so it’s just a vibe and probably doesn’t represent reality. That’s why it’s still on the list. More research to be done!
RPI is officially off the list. If she gets to the end of this week after our next admitted students day without some clarity/comfort that she’s got good options, then I think it could present itself again. But no planned visits, so most likely off.
And the vibe at RPI was more academically-focused, I think. I think of all her schools, Wesleyan is probably the biggest outlier. The combo of STEM and the arts is a big draw for her, but I think she’s realizing that she cares most about the interest students have in their academics first.
And all this to say, hey, I might have gotten this all wrong about what’s going through her 17-year old mind! 
3 Likes
Oh, interesting! I think I tend to lump tech schools together in one category – mine looked at RIT, WPI, Georgia Tech, RPI, Stevens (although she didn’t apply to the last two because the majors weren’t quite aligned with what she wanted) – more because of the types of students who go to these schools, and less because of an academic vs. extracurricular focus. My kid very much wanted to be among a nerdy crowd who plays Minecraft and loves anime, and those kids are everywhere, but I thought their numbers might be proportionally higher at a tech school.
But there are lots of ways to categorize schools, of course. And this is just what lives inside my own head – who knows how my D26 sees it! 
2 Likes
Mid semester grade reports are out, and D26 is doing the opposite of senior slumping so far. On pace for her highest grades yet. I do think part of her success in admissions (beyond picking schools that were reasonable for her with only one true reach), is that her grade trajectory was strongly upward with each semester from fall junior year being better than the last. Proud of her.
18 Likes
We have three accepted decision days left- the last one is Friday April 17 - we are right there with you! We also have 4 that she is considering. We visit 3 in one week -so you know -that’s going to be fun.
I have a guess as to which one she will pick - but I could be wrong. 
9 Likes
Based on overhearing D26 talk to her friends, there is a real possibility that dining hall/campus food becomes a major factor in which of the final four schools my D26 chooses. I would have been strongly opposed to this as she was building her list. But, I’m more unsure how I feel about it as a factor at this point.
I will say though, the food situation was quite impressive at one of the schools we visited. But, we didn’t really get to truly see the regular food at the others as they had catered meals for us.
Occidental and the Claremonts are reputed to have great food. Haverford and Agnes Scott? I’m not sure.
If anyone has food insights on these schools, would love to hear.
5 Likes
Thank you for this! My daughter was just talking about this fan on Sunday!
1 Like
Interesting. When I was there a million years ago, so take it with a grain of salt, it had a really great combination of academics/arts/extracurriculars. People were very academically focused. Complaining about the dorms I could see because when I was there for my last reunion, it did not appear that the dorms had been refreshed in the last 25 years, at least not in Foss.
1 Like