My D26 is definitely not an outdoorsy kid, so that part of the school wasn’t a big hit with her. Our tour guide said that there’s regular off-campus day trips organized to nearby state parks for hiking activities.
The school does, in general, feel a little more conservative than your average college campus, so just be aware of that if that is a deciding factor.
There is no shopping area that’s easy walking distance from campus. You need a car to get anywhere. Climate is different than in Phoenix and Tucson. When we went in April, we got caught in a freak snowstorm driving home (was raining earlier in the day and then turned to snow on the drive out of Prescott).
NOT a school that one would like if you’re into big college athletics like football and basketball games. Not a school you’d want to attend if you’re really into Greek life.
REALLY good engineering programs. Really great school if you also want to get your pilot’s license. REALLY great school if you want to be in an air traffic control job after graduation. There’s a campus shuttle that goes all day from campus to the small local airport (it’s not a commercial airport, no regular airlines fly in or out of there) for student training purposes in aviation.
Their engineering lab spaces are really cool. Lots of good opportunities to do cool research as an undergrad.
Lots of US gov’t agencies & gov’t subcontractor companies hire Embry-Riddle graduates.
The campus is in the midst of a bunch of building projects. Revamping their student union and stuff like that. Students seemed pretty happy there, very down to earth, nerdy. There’s auto merit scholarships awarded and they also have scholarship $$ available just for female students (no separate app required to be considered).
Downtown Prescott has this amazing Italian restaurant with the best pizza. If you end up visiting in person, go eat at Limoncello.
D26 finally met with her new guidance counselor. She said the meeting went well and she praised D26 for being “so on top of her stuff”. She explained that she was a fall athlete and did not want anything hanging over her other than her classes and sport so she made sure to get everything done as early as possible and was now depending on the school to get everything in on time- hint hint They only just opened the transcript request portal today and say to allow 4 weeks for transcripts and recommendations to be sent. She has some 10/15 deadlines so she mentioned that to the counselor who reassured her she did not need to worry. Anyway, let’s keep fingers crossed all goes smoothly.
This is what we do too. I usually answer something along the lines of she is still figuring out her list or we’re not sure yet.
Regarding college/guidance counselor feedback, well, that can’t be avoided. Ours are definitely not pushing Ivies. We have the opposite problem. They are hyper focused on finding the least expensive option and limiting the number of submitted apps to no more than 9 — 3 safeties, 3 matches, and 3 reaches. The focus on cost makes sense because D attends a huge urban public school system with approximately 80% low income. But my D feels embarrassed or judged because her list has a few pricey reaches (e.g., Michigan) and nursing programs are unpredictable (leading to lots of extra apps).
On the application front, she was admitted to Iowa generally and invited to apply to their direct admit nursing. It’s a separate app with multiple essays + an interview. Decision in January or February, I think.
And still waiting on pins and needles for Pitt (a top choice). Hurry up already!!
Kiddo got a direct admit through Niche to UNH today. This was in her list as a likely, but she hasn’t submitted any applications yet. Nice to have one in her pocket!
Whether you are right on this or not, I was just realizing that the first test optional kids just graduated in May/June of this year. It would be odd if that were the reason the c-suiters in the survey downgraded the Ivys given that such kids weren’t really even in the job market yet. I also doubt that it was anywhere close to half the class that wasn’t up to snuff (again assuming that is the real reason the schools made the change back to tests). I’d think it would be a much smaller portion than that.
And lastly, in my opinion, there were a fair number of dumb dumbs in the bottom of the class when I went to an Ivy back in the 90s. Legacies, donor kids and celebrity kids getting in and all. The bottom of the class being less impressive is nothing new. Maybe just new news to the c-suiters who romanticized the Ivys in the past and hired anybody with the name on their diploma.
All that said, I very much appreciate your thoughtful response to my prior post!
Went to an application info session for parents tonight. Interestingly, the counselors said that if a student applies ED and they find out they haven’t withdrawn apps to other schools after being accepted, they will notify each of those schools that the student already has a binding ED acceptance elsewhere.
Interesting. At D26’s school they told us of high schools they know of (without naming names) where kids backed out of their ED acceptance school for non financial aid reasons, and the next year or two nobody got into that school ED from the high school. Wonder if this is what your kids counselors are trying to protect against.
I know they’ve always been serious about it - when D19 applied they made sure I as parent understood what I was signing - but didn’t realize they went to this extent.
Our HS’s counselors have warned both the students and parents that if you apply ED, get accepted, and then back out of the binding agreement to attend, that you are pretty much screwing future years’ seniors from ever getting into that college/university. Counselors also said that if you tell them that you don’t intend to abide by the binding agreement that you, your parents, and the counselor has to sign, that they will not sign the agreement and will not support your ED application to that college. Period.
Am I remembering correctly that the school counselor also has to sign the binding ED agreement along with the student – so it’s the school’s reputation on the line as well if the student backs out?
D26 is very tempted to ED at her current favorite school because they give a pretty sizable priority in housing selection for ED. But she really likes different aspects of ALL the schools on her list, so I just don’t think it’s a good decision for her. And none of her schools are so reach that it warrants it just for the boost in admission chances.
Although, RIT advertises “friendly” ED – we think this means that you get all the scholarship and financial aid information before they ask for a deposit, so you could potentially back out if they don’t give you enough merit aid. Still, the level of commitment gives me angst – especially with my wishy-washy kid!
They’re trying not to let the kids get that far, as I understand. They’ll warn the other colleges concerned if the students haven’t pulled their applications after an ED admit. I’m not sure if they can figure this out from Maia, or some other way.
I doubt it’s the primary driver for the C-Suite survey (though it may be a contributor and re-affirming in their current thinking of declining reputation (confirmation bias)), however there are still multiple ways they come in contact with these students before they graduate so it can potentially influence their opinions. For example, Undergraduate B-Schools are much more likely to have 2nd, 3rd and 4th year students interacting in this manner than say a second year Bio or history major.
There are on-campus recruitment events and interviews for upcoming graduates as well as for summer internships for rising Seniors and Rising Juniors, then there are the internships themselves, and on-campus speakers and presenters etc. And in the age of the internet, where everyone under the age of 30 aspires to be an ‘influencer’ and everything gets recorded on cam - there’s a lot of stuff being posted by students online and aired by the media that may not be all that flattering to -many- academic institutions depending who is seeing it.
I agree those interactions exist, but it would be amazingly hair-trigger and knee jerk for c-suite execs to arrive at new opinions of whole universities based on such limited information. Frankly, I wouldn’t want to work for anyone who made such broad opinions about a whole group of people based on such limited information. Maybe it’s partly because I’m black and acutely aware of the danger that large stereotypes based on small sample size experience of others with something in common have had on me. I frankly want to work at places where leaders are more nuanced and complex in their thinking than what they learned from a few kids who they interviews or hired for the summer because of the brand on their resume. For me this rationale would lower the reputation of the c-suite execs more than that of the schools or the students given the sample size.
And as a side note, I don’t believe most of the Ivy League have undergrad business schools. I think only Cornell and Penn. That is not a main point, just noting it because the orientation of the undergrad education at most Ivys really is not of that b-school model mold.
But as you say, it likely isn’t the c-suite execs actual reason. And most of them who say it is are likely using it as cover for whatever their real reasons are.
Random question- I keep hearing things that say for test optional schools, generally kids should submit test scores if they hit the middle number for test scores reported the prior year. I know there are exceptions for folks who did exceptionally well compared to their school and such. But generally, if everyone, or even most people, followed that advice wouldn’t that mean the middle range would tick up every year?
They only just opened the transcript request portal today and say to allow 4 weeks for transcripts and recommendations to be sent. She has some 10/15 deadlines so she mentioned that to the counselor who reassured her she did not need to worry. Anyway, let’s keep fingers crossed all goes smoothly.