That makes sense. In that scenario, they would be all in her business. New cheer squad may be too, but it feels totally different if it’s totally new people rather than the kids from home.
1 Like
that’s what S26 is seeing as well and I know he would like the experience his sister has in college. But, unfortunately, he won’t get it, as he is leaning towards a regional public where a bunch of his HS friends will attend and that is as homogenous as his HS. We have discussed this and he is aware.
I also think his academic interest might be changing and if it does, the best school would actually be our local public, which would be the opposite of his sister’s experience.
I have a feeling the kid will end up transferring at some point.
4 Likes
Interesting perspectives here on the Flagships and concerns over high school students from one’s own class being there.
I went to one of the larger very highly regarded High Schools In Illinois, and it continues to be one of the largest feeders to UIUC - HS class size around 675, average 75-85 UIUC freshman every year (This past year they sent 93). Around 14-15% of the HS class goes to Illinois each year, every year.
UIUC starts around 9,000 new freshman a year. So at 90 from my HS, that would equate to 1% of UIUCs freshman class currently.
This feels on par with what it was like 35 years ago. Sure I would see kids I knew from my High School class on campus, and in the really large freshman required courses (English, Bio etc) with 100+ per class, I would occasionally have someone I went to high school in my class. I lived in what was considered an dorm ‘experiment’ for diversity and inclusion when it first started it’s program back in the late 80s. Now it would be consider ‘normal’ as a Living Learning Community or whatever the nomenclature of your school is now. 700 students, 85% freshman. I did not have a single kid I went to high school with in that dorm with me (that I know of).
But even so its 1% of the freshman class, or by ratio, 1% of the entire student body across 4.5 years. On a large public flagship campus, it’s not that difficult to just -not- see or avoid hanging out with folks you just don’t want to see. I think what I’m hearing is about the ‘perception’ rather than the reality on the ground.
Now, if we want to say that the public flagship is going to be filled with students who are ‘just like you went to high school with’ - well that’s probably true. It’s a state public university, and likely going to be reflective of your state, and if it’s academic reputation is similar to your high schools academic reputation and performance… it’s probably going to have a lot of common attributes in their student body. Our school district and the North West suburbs of Chicago sent a ton of freshman to UIUC every year. But that’s far from saying I knew everybody who was in my freshman class from High School.
If you are looking for racial or ethnic diversity at public flagships - well, those are probably going to be found in the states which have the most diversity among their populous, as they are drawing from that states population - depending on the relative distribution of the HS academic performances and the alignment with the Universities academic performance.
Otherwise, going to an out of state flagship, your student is likely just being immersed in what is the predominant culture for that state or region. So while the school and it’s students are new for your student, your student is also going to be the ‘novelty’ to the majority of students there - whether thats a good or bad thing, depends on a lot of things I suppose.
2 Likes
These are all good points and made me think a little differently. D26 is likely going to our state flagship or it’s “back up” (I’m not sure what to call it). I had always hoped for her to go out of state, mainly because high school has not been the greatest socially for her. I am worried about her seeing kids from HS and possibly even having any negative stigma from HS carry over by way of gossip (I don’t even know that she has any, but my mind plays scenarios for me). But our flagships are about 40k students and we have several other pretty popular schools that the majority of our HS wind up at. Based on what you said above, I think most of my worry is just my own perception. I don’t think that many will actually be at her school and if they are, she may or may not even run into them. She wants big and rah rah so it’s hard to turn down the state school with free tuition that also has everything she wants, all because of my own worries. If she decides she really wants to go out of state, it’s not off the table and she knows that. We found some good options for her, within a budget. It’s exciting to see where she ends up.
8 Likes
On the subject of names, when my kids were younger and were involved in a sport, there was a kid on another team whose parents named her Pickle. Not a nickname. Like that was the kid’s legitimate name on the roster.
Definitely one of the more unusual choices I’ve ever come across!
5 Likes
re: state flagship universities being perceived as High School v2.0 -
At our high school in AZ, ASU is perceived by many to be High School v2.0, but that’s because after HS graduation, a lot of our HS’s grads will choose to mostly just hang out with their friends from high school & they tend to not branch out as much. Like 1 of D24’s BFFs primarily hangs out w/2 classmates from high school who are all attending ASU.
And ASU has over 60,000 undergrads.
At the college I attended, it was in-state but there were about 11-12k students. in my graduating year, there were about 4-5 of us in total who attended the college. I hardly saw them at all. However, try convincing your 17-18 yr old kid of this…that’s a tall order. 
5 Likes
It’s kind of funny to me that both huge state flagships and tiny private LACs have people saying they don’t want to go there because they don’t want high school 2.0. If you do it right, neither really has to be like high school 2.0 at all.
10 Likes
My son goes to one of our two big state schools. According to the stats -about half the students from his high school go there each year. He says he rarely EVER sees anyone from his high school. He ran into one kid at a party who he kind of knew from high school (from a different year!) -but that’s it. The school has maybe 20K students. I think besides the occassional ‘see people walking across campus’ -those schools are the size of a good sized town so it’s easy enough to form a new social group. At least that has been his experience.
6 Likes
Also - I just checked my daughter’s college list and notification dates. It looks like NOTHING really happens in early March - and it looks like a few even release in April! I don’t know why I thought all the decisions were out by late March.
3 Likes
APRIL!!! 
That is crazy that some schools have decisions that late! Good luck with the wait- we are here for you as you and your student push thru this long wait!!
I was just thinking about this today. Most of D26s decisions are out sometime in mid-March and that’s almost 2 full months away. After all the help (ahem, cajoling) on applications, recommendations, etc. what are we supposed to do now, just WAIT?! 
Yup, it is a classic hurry up and wait situation!
1 Like
Post here and then as it gets closer to March a bunch of us UC parents spend a good bit of time in figuring out portal astrology. 
6 Likes
I worked with this woman whose last name was Feheely (pronounced Feely) She got married to someone named Payne
Her last name was then Feheely-Payne.
4 Likes
It would be really ironic if she was an MD. Dr Feheely-Payne. 
4 Likes
She wasn’t but I think one of her kids was looking at dental school.
2 Likes
11 Likes
Difference between first kid and last kid…
In 2021 –
D22: “I think there’s a senior skip day the Tuesday after Columbus Day.”
Me: “Are you sure? Who all is skipping? Are people just talking about it, or is it definite? Can you take a discretionary day so it’s an excused absence? Do you have to state the reason you’re absent? How far in advance do you have to turn in a planned absence form? Would you still be allowed to go to rehearsal after school?”
Today –
D26: “Word on the street is that Tuesday is senior skip day. Can I skip?”
Me: “Fine. Try not to get in trouble.”
18 Likes
Speaking of senior ditch day, D26’s class is doing senior ditch day this Friday. Somebody sent out an online poll with choices to pick from for what the organized ‘activity’ would be for everyone to participate in.
And they all cost money. Some of them are stupid. Like drive to the Grand Canyon. Yeah right, in January.
Or drive to Sedona to go hiking. D26 said, “I’m not doing that. I’m allergic to hiking. Forget it.”
The option that apparently got the most votes involves going to one place that costs $32/person to get in and then going to Top Golf after that for something like $68 for every group of, I think, 4 people.
D26’s BFF’s family is low income. D26 said, “That’s pretty messed up that the idiots in my class organizing this just assume that everybody has this kind of money to throw around. I’m not doing that. BFF & I will just hang out together and go have lunch somewhere cheap.” D24 said, “That is so dumb. My class just went to the park near school and had a big potluck and hung out together for a couple of hours. I only spent $10 on the food I brought for that.”
5 Likes
Portal Astrology has started, and in some threads it’s going hard…
Logged off last night at about 6:00P. Opened up CC this morning around 6:00A… Purdue EA had 250+ new posts overnight… all astrology. It releases this afternoon/evening I can’;t imagine how many will happen by then.
5 Likes