What are our students doing now (besides application stuff):
D26 participates in CyberPatriots every year and that season has just gotten started. So that is what she is currently concentrating on.
This year, S20 volunteered as a mentor for her team. So that has been fun. Because of their age difference they never really got much of a chance to participate in the same activities, so it is cool to see them do this together even if just for this one year!
On the empty nest:
Yep- both kids are moving out at around the same time- so I will probably be taking that harder than I would like to admit
S20 moved back in about 18 months ago after a major health scare and he needed help with day-to-day stuff for a few months- so coming back was the easiest. But he is now ready to leave once again!!!
We are not an 18 and you’re out family- so who knows if/when either of them will return in the future. I assume that D26 will at least be back for Summers and long breaks for the next 2 years or so. So that helps.
All this talk of cheer makes me miss it! D26 got fed up with the “girl drama” and stopped after sophomore year. Some days she regrets it.
At our school the powderpuff football game is played the day before Thanksgiving and it’s anyone that wants to participate. No practice, just playing. The football players do “coach” them but it’s more just a lot of yelling.
D26’s volleyball team will probably go to the state playoffs so she has a couple more weeks to go, but they will most likely be eliminated in the first round because the competition from the other districts is ridiculous. After that, she is undecided. The school musical choice is definitely NOT inspiring her so she might just skip it. She may take the winter off from organized activity and work on sports coverage for her media production class and her portfolio. Her other option is Unified Bocce, which she has never done but has always been very interested in.
She is still stuck on her essay; I am trying to leave her alone but it is driving me batty.
My kid is doing all her normal school stuff -but nothing different to report! Honestly, the applications are - for us - still the really big focus.
Minor gripe here — a few of the ‘complete’ EA applicants have a ‘surprise’ (!) when you open the portal. For example Union has another optional essay – I just wish they would have put it in the common app. Because I don’t really feel that most of the optional essays are really optional.
Thanks. I think she’s narrowed her list down. It’s not a lot but for her, less is more. Id rather have her only apply to 5-7 schools than 15. She’s a major procrastinator.
She’s got one sure fire safety - UConn (she qualifies as an auto admit).
And everything else is a semi- reach/reach school. I put Case and Northeastern in the semi-reach schools since it’s so competitive but I think she would get in unless they’re concerned about yield protect.
I have a love/hate relationship with this. Yes, it makes it easier to apply, but then they get inundated with apps, there’s no way for a student to really express interest, and I think it overall makes the college app process worse because students have to apply to more colleges since the odds keep going down. I actually liked that Georgetown has a fully separate app because I think it reduces app volume. BUT, my D26 did manage to get a couple of apps in easily because there was no extra essay. Whether she gets accepted or not remains to be seen, but I think it just overall lowers odds and the ability to predict.
I have a HATE/HATE relationship with this! D26 has one that had a required supplemental in Common App and THEN another 4 optional essays in the portal!
I can’t speak on all of the no essay schools, but Oberlin does allow you to do an optional interview. At least for D26, she felt that was a good way for her to still be able to both show interest and give them some information on why she particularly likes the school in 25-30 minutes without the drudgery of drafting, crafting, and editing yet another essay. So, while that does not tamp down the number of apps, it still lets the student tell them why they are a good fit and excited about the school.
If she wants to go to an $80k/year school, we’ll pay for it just like D24.
If she wants to go to UConn (which would be free tuition), we’ll create an irrevocable trust and put the difference in college costs that she will have for the rest of her life.
She’s a very practical kid (even at 17) so she is very intrgued by that option although she’s still applying ED to Brown.
We are in state, and the essays (or PIQs as they are called) still made D26 drop them. All of the UCs are certainly worth the in state tuition in my opinion. Some are probably worth the out of state too in my opinion, but since D26 is both in state and uninterested I didn’t have to think about it. But, at least a couple UCs are among the best universities in the country if not the world, and in pretty great locations in my opinion.
IMO, I dont think schools with 35k kids could give the type of individual support that I would consider worth paying $80k. We spoke to some kids at UCLA and they said they have to do a lot on their own - which is fine but for that price, Id like to have a smaller school environment with more dedicated resources.
That’s just my opinion but if she had really wanted to go, we wouldve supported it.
D26 definitely applied to schools that had no essay just for that reason. One is the local university that she has literally NO plans to attend, but her father asked her to apply to AT LEAST one school within a 30 minute drive. The other is in Chicago and while it intrigues her, it is probably too far away (for us, not for her LOL).
I know this has been said many times, but Ive worked for some large companies and many senior leaders never went to a “prestigious school” so Im definitely in the camp that it doesnt matter where you go, especially since she has no interest in consulting or investment banking which have feeder schools.
But kids seem to still care about prestige and that’s also fine. Most of the top kids in her school are applying to T20 schools which I think is very typical.
I will not argue with you about this. To the contrary, I think you are right on the facts. However, some folks I know who went to UCs highly value the lessons and skills they feel they learned from the scrappiness and self advocacy required to get the best from those schools. They feel very strongly that those skills would not have developed to the same extent at a school that does more hand holding. I am very familiar with the UCs, and I do not think they are wrong about that. And, if one has that kind of moxie, the rewards one can get from the opportunities available and the professors and students and industry around are top notch. So, that is the case for the worth it I alluded to.
That said, if comparing to Brown. You will get all of the top notch place benefits without the need for that moxie at Brown.
And, to be clear, while I think it is worth it to me, it is totally reasonable to think it absolutely is not. And, for anybody who has seen my posts here, they know that D26 is only applying to small liberal arts schools at least in part for the reasons you identify. I am also of the view that smaller schools actually do undergraduate education best. The institutions prioritize and reward faculty for undergraduate teaching and mentoring. Large R1 research institutions prioritize faculty research and graduate student education. Undergrad education is often second fiddle. The UCs would fall into this category. But for the right kid, I still think it would be worth the money.
