I feel like our area is an interesting mixture of “reach college frenzy” vs. laid back practicality.
One of D26’s friends has only toured super reach schools (<10%ish admit rate), and I asked the mom if they would like to go along with us to visit some more likely schools, but she said she doesn’t think the kid will “fit in” at a lower ranked school because they have a 4.0 GPA. (It is their first kid. I really hope this family is not in for a rude awakening, and that the kid ends up somewhere affordable where they will be happy…)
On the other hand, D has another friend who is a current senior and very strong student, but chose not to apply to any colleges, because she simply plans to go to the local community college for two years and then put in a transfer app to the UCs that have her major. The friend seems completely happy with that plan, it’s affordable and practical and she feels she’ll be happy with wherever she ends up.
I have friends that are on the staff of UCB and their plans are for their kids to do 2 years of community college than transfer to a UC for that exact reason.
Sorry! I was one who suggested a cold weather place. I guess I figure it’s not always possible to find 100% of what you want, so knowing more info can be helpful. My daughter really doesn’t want to be hot. She was not going to go anywhere hot for that reason. But, it turned out the vibe and the dorms were a bigger priority, so she’s happy at UAH, even when it was miserably hot in September. So my suggestion was given with that in mind.
Us too. The school runs the gamut from ivies to CCs. And a certain number of recruited athletes each year too. Certain cliques are there of course so it also depends who you hang out with (probably parents more than children being competitive).
I totally agree that it is normal not to know!! And I’m relaxed about him not knowing.
Oh, he knows what he doesn’t want: math, science or engineering. I guess that already limits it a lot
Almost all of your points in fact, have happened to us at some point with family members and some of the chatter she hears at school among a handful of people (thankfully not her own friend group).
That said, overall her school is very diverse in terms of goals, etc… A senior she knows was just accepted to Cornell. Many have goals of various trades and/or military. Some of her friends are heading to our local CC and are totally lost in terms of what they would study. A handful she knows are targeting highly selective privates. Most (including her) are heading to one of the SUNY schools.
Ours has been brought up in a culture of no pressure. She always does her best so we work with the results of that. Her SAT scores are nothing to brag about which is fine by all of us, especially since all of her choices are test optional.
The competitiveness in our area is nuts. I once had another parent tell me they wouldn’t let their 10 year old attend a summer camp that rented space at a local university, one you have all heard of with a ranking in the top 100, because they didn’t want their kid to think “those kinds of places” were “options”.
In our area, the majority of kids are not really reaching for much beyond high school. There is a big push for the trades which I would love if my kid was into but she is definitely not. A lot of the kids who do go to college will attend community college or UMaine. A few will attend out of state schools, and even fewer if any will attend selective schools. Although we are in a town that does have quite a bit of money on paper, most of that money is out of state people with vacation homes here. Most of the people who are year round residents are middle class and with limited funds. Us included. Yay.
In a crazy twist to our summer plans, our D26 was asked if she’d like to join our local sister cities exchange program to France this summer! She actually applied and participated last summer and it turned out that they had an uneven number of French and American families and needed an extra kid to go So her plans went from lifeguarding all summer to doing a 6 week exchange program!
I think our area is similar. Most kids wind up going to either the state flagship or other state schools. A minority will shoot for the T20s. D26 will be applying to our state flagship university (my spouse and I are alum), and will see how the rest of her athletic recruitment plays out in the coming months.
I’m excited. D26 had been throwing around the idea of doing a summer nursing program for high school students. We found a few and she wasn’t loving the locations of a couple of them - too far and too hot for July. I ended up finding one here in MA at Emmanuel College in Boston. It is a new program as of last summer and looks like it will be great so she registered. It is a M-F, residential. I am excited for her to have this opportunity to get a taste of nursing
The only downside is I was looking at their residence hall info and none of them have AC VERY typical for the Northeast schools, unfortunately. If for some reason there is some crazy awful heat wave where it would make sleeping in the dorms pure misery, we can commute daily if absolutely necessary, though I would rather have her on campus overnights for the full experience.
D26’s school had an open house last night that she volunteered at. I went for the heck of it since I was the chauffeur and D26 doesn’t have her driver’s license yet. They do this for new families whose kids will be attending next school year + it’s geared towards younger grades already at this school so they can see what’s available in the middle & high school grades.
It tugged at my heart strings a little bit. Had me going down memory lane when we started our kids in this school network ages ago back when D26 was in kindergarten. And then boom, you wake up one day, and this time next year, your kid is soon going to be making decisions on where to attend college.
We had open house last night too! I also went as I was chauffeur, the chamber singers always perform at open house so watched them in it. Was remembering our first open house there when D19 was in 8th grade heading to high school that fall, and we had literally been in the US a few weeks at that stage - the two things I remember was how the high school gym looked exactly like all the movies … and how good the choir was. So it was kind of awesome to see C26 kind of closing that loop, though I assume they’ll be singing at next year’s too. We didn’t stay for anything else as course selection is locked in - they hand the signed forms in on Monday officially but I believe it’s already in the computer system.
D26 & I spent some time today taking a look at major requirements between some different programs. Think we’re going to add a UT-Dallas in-person visit in October during Fall Break when we go to visit UTulsa & go to visit D24 at Austin College. UT-Dallas is only an hour away from where D24 is.
Anyway, D26 said no to U of A’s Information Science major. Also a big no to U of A’s MIS program…too difficult to get a coveted spot there. Also crossed off the list is the BBA major in Cyber Security at UT-San Antonio. UTulsa’s Business Information Systems major also got a “no,” as did Univ of Colorado-Colorado Springs (“too cold”).
Majors that are in D26’s “That sounds really cool” category currently:
U of A: Cyber Operations w/emphasis in Defense & Forensics
U of A: Intelligence & Information Operations w/emphasis in Operational Intelligence
U of A: Intelligence & Information Operations w/emphasis in Information Warfare
Embry-Riddle Prescott: Global Security & Intelligence Studies
Embry-Riddle Prescott: minor in Diplomatic & US Military History
UT San Antonio: BS in Cyber Intelligence + history minor
UTulsa: BS in Cyber Security + history minor
Colleges & programs still being considered & researched:
UT-Dallas: BS in Computer Info Systems & Technology + minor in Cybersecurity
UNLV: Cybersecurity (she’d be eligible for a WUE scholarship here)
UA-Huntsville: BSBA Information Security w/Cybersecurity concentration (if she can bring up her SAT score a little bit, this ends up cheaper than in state options)
Univ of Incarnate Word in San Antonio: BS Cybersecurity Systems
Univ of St Thomas (Houston)
She got a piece of mail today from Loyola University New Orleans, so we also took a look at their website. Kid said, “It’s definitely not cold there, but I didn’t like New Orleans when we visited on that road trip a couple of years ago. I’d rather live somewhere else for 4 yr. Plus, it’s a Catholic school, so no to that.”
Hope everybody’s families are mostly staying healthy. There’s a lot of ‘winter creeping crud’ floating around everywhere right now!
I am impressed with how guys have done a deep dive into different programs at different colleges. I am inspired to the same with my kid and, but he always seems inundated with schoolwork! Maybe in the spring break.
Ugh. Applications for the summer camp position C26 wants to do opened today, and they’ve changed it from prefer to require at least 4 consecutive weeks. This will be impossible if they do any of the summer architecture programs we’ve looked at, even the least desirable one week one because of when it is. I think they should apply anyway, not least because the apps for the preferred program are not yet open and see if they can wiggle around the “consecutive” requirement. But it will be such a disappointment if they don’t get it.
Had thought your C26 was applying to Arch programs for the Fall (?). If so, why spend the money and time on a summer program? If goal is just to stay engaged and hone skills, all good - but if the thought is to get credits to transfer into University check with wherever ultimately C26 elects to go because many seem to have provisions of not accepting credit of summer programs after Senior year of HS.
VERY typical for the Northeast schools, unfortunately. If for some reason there is some crazy awful heat wave where it would make sleeping in the dorms pure misery, we can commute daily if absolutely necessary, though I would rather have her on campus overnights for the full experience.