Mine wrote off Dickinson --cause you know -the name. But honestly, we already had enough on the list -so I figure a random toss out for silly reasons was fine. We did keep Skidmore. 
Our state school has rolling admit --so that one will be submitted soon. We donât have a transcript yet though â it was posted for my son (graduated last year) in June.
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My kid wrote off a school because the buildings look like theyâre from the 70s! 
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Mine wrote off Dickinson for the same reason and didnât like the name Wooster t:roll_eyes:
I was trying to get my kid to consider Skidmore but he didnât like the buildingsâ architecture! ugh!
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Who knew that NOT being able to visit a campus might be an advantage! We have not seen the âuglyâ Skidmore buildings 
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Mine refused to consider Skidmore cuz she couldnât get over the name even though they tried to recruit her.
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Looks like colleges are starting ramp things up in preparation for the Class of 2026 application season. The Univ of Tulsa rep sent D26 a text message today inviting her to schedule a 1-on-1 informational interview between now and end of Aug. So she scheduled one for later this month. Parents were invited to be included, too. D26 said she does want a parent to participate, so Iâll be joining her for that 30 min session. Counselor at school reached out to this schoolâs rep at the end of last school year to give them a heads up that D26 is interested.
Emails from other random schools have ramped up, too. Thanks to unsubscribe links in them, D26 has removed herself from the email lists from a lot of them in order to reduce the quantity of junk email.
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C26 is unfortunately not interested in Oregon. Itâs a pretty popular likely/safety at our school. That said, we do know a couple of people whoâve left after a year mainly because they hated Eugene, and i think thatâs affected C26âs view.
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My D24 rejected schools that were too âbrickyâ or ârectangularâ. Dark bricks were bad. Not enough trees was bad. The feel of the environment was really important to her!
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Iâm going to some searching here â but I see many âreach out with questionsâ to your regional rep on many of the colleges sites. But then I read conflicting information on whether to reach out to admissionâs officers. Whatâs the thought here?
My daughter has a bit of an usual high school experience (by choice) and Iâm not sure how colleges will be receptive to that -or how she should explain it on her common app. Is that a good enough reason for her to reach out? (I know to avoid questions you can find on the website).
My D26 reached out to a couple of admissions counselors (one at a target and one at a reach, both measure demonstrated interest) to get their thoughts on whether they preferred (or really it was âHow do they considerâ) an online AP or dual enrollment for a course she was thinking about taking. They both responded and it did give her more confidence for her decision. I also think it demonstrated some interest, which was nice too.
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Kids are so funny â I thought RIT was kind of ugly, but D26 loved everything about it, orange brick and all. But she was critical of the brick color at WPI. Go figure. And oh, school colors are huge. She kind of hates orange and red, but unfortunately the schools sheâs serious about have orange and red as their colors, LOL.
Add us to the list of Pitt being our rolling admissions school â we legit donât have time to visit before school starts, so she wonât have seen it. She didnât mind the Cathedral of Learning on the video tour, and she really likes the idea of being in Pittsburgh. One of the freshman dorm buildings has all single rooms, which is appealing. It doesnât check every box, though â the marching band is perhaps too big, and she wouldnât find out about a spot before committing to the school â but she can worry about that down the line if it becomes a real option.
Yes, College Essay Guyâs list of action verbs to use in the activities list is really good! All of his free resources are excellent â D26 used his advice to craft her essay.
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Donât leave us hanging â what did they say? 
LOL, thatâs the funniest part - they both said it didnât matter to them! I thought the AP might be preferred since itâs easy to measure, but they both said that whatever fit her schedule best was fine and they didnât consider them that differently.
And D26 is likely doing the online AP because the listed professor for the DE course isnât supposed to be that good. BUT, thereâs another section that doesnât have an assigned professor yet, so maybe thatâll change her choice.
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Itâs definitely appropriate to reach out if you have a question that is not answered anywhere.
For example, my D is applying to CWRU and she wants to submit a music supplement, but she is a composition student. They have instructions about how to submit music supplements for instrumentalists, but no instructions for composition. So I suggested to D that she write to the AO to get help with this. (She hasnât done it yet though. My D often gets email anxiety. 
)
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Is it something that needs to be explained â like if you donât mention it, will her application raise eyebrows or just seem weird? If so, I would use the additional information section to briefly explain the thing. (Be wary of making excuses or sounding defensive â I would just say something like, âI chose to do XYZ in high school because of ABC reason.â)
Iâm not sure itâs worth reaching out to an AO just for that reason.
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I read this quickly and thought you meant schools where the bricks were too rectangular â and then I was trying to figure out if Iâd seen bricks that were NOT rectangular.
ETA â I have a good friend who is a UNC alum (and rabid fan), and when D26 and I toured NC State, my friend kept mentioning how âbrickyâ it was. I didnât even know that could be a negative thing, nor did I notice the school being more bricky than usual. 
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My kid is quirky, so that would probably be a selling point for her! 
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Yeah the brickiness was not something I thought we were looking for at first! Who knew? But I do appreciate that she is living there for 4 years and wants it to feel comfortable and if that goes to how the buildings look and feel to her, then so be it.
S25 family and occasional lurker as I canât seem to let goâŠ. Had to come in to add to the âmy child rejected it becauseâ discussion.
S25 rejected Virginia Tech because it was âtoo grayâ. Many people consider it to be one of the most beautiful large school campuses. But nope, too gray.
S22 rejected a school because after touring the campus and an uninspiring dorm his assessment was âthis is what depression looks likeâ ⊠meaning the entire campus. (It wasnât gorgeous, but not that bad!)
Meanwhile, unlike a previous poster, S25 kept Pitt in the running - even though it didnât have his first choice major - BECAUSE of the Cathedral of Learning, which he totally loved.
He got rid of one school because it was âtoo crowded in the main paths during class changeover timeâ and two schools because they were âtoo spread out, the campus is too big and divided feeling.â (Why yes, he IS a little bit of a Goldilocks childâŠ)
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1 of many reasons why D24 rejected ASU was because there âwerenât enough trees on campusâ and ânot enough places to sit outside that wasnât the surface of the sun hot.â
NMSU got rejected because of the quality of the pizza in the dining hall.
Meanwhile, NAU (in state for us, since weâre AZ residents) didnât even go on the âIâm gonna apply!â list because there were âtoo many trees.â
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