The cost of being in a sorority varies from chapter to chapter. During recruitment, you will receive the exact price per chapter and learn whether these costs are all inclusive or if they charge for each individual event that they put on (formals, pins, etc). The first quarter of joining a sorority is always the most expensive ($700-900), but consecutive quarters are drastically lowered ($300-500). However, each chapter offers payment plans and scholarships to help you afford the costs. You can also apply for outside scholarships and ones through Panhellenic to help pay your sorority fees.
I remember driving out of UCLA and seeing all the greek houses, they were really nice I am not surprised they cost a few grand specially if you are living in them. The entire area was posh. I was surprised how much nicer the houses there looked compared to the stanford greek houses.
S26 schedules senior year classes this week with pretty much no prior info. He says they are meeting with the counselor as a group where the counselor tells them what’s available and then schedule during that meeting. Ok…?
He needs one more English and one more Science class but doesn’t know yet what will be offered. He also needs a half Health credit. He would love to take Spanish 3 and 4 (block schedule, so possible to take in a year) but those are unlikely to happen. He would also like to take AP World History and AP Comparative Government (not sure that’s what it’s called) but we will be happy if one of those will actually happen. It’s an odd process and due to the fact that it is a brand new school with smaller than normal jr. and sr. classes, many courses available at the other district schools are not offered. While he is very happy in this school, the non availability of interesting to him classes bothers me.
On the topic of college selection S26 continues to be clear in what he doesn’t want. Looking at a brochure for Loyola New Orleans that came in the mail, he was quick to announce it wasn’t for him because of the featured clubs they listed in it: Anime club and K-pop club. If this is what they feature, he didn’t see himself fitting in
Our HS has offered AP Comparative Gov’t each yr for the last 2 yr, but it always ends up cancelled because not enough student sign up to take it. D26 has been frustrated by that.
Hope your son gets most of everything he wants for next year! Fingers crossed.
can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this here yet because a lot has been going on in recent days. 1 of the colleges we’ve been looking into and considering is UNLV & their cybersecurity major. It’s sufficiently technical, doesn’t have half of the classes being business courses, and does NOT require you to take Linear Algebra. AND since D26 is in a WUE state, with 1 of their WUE scholarships, it would approximate tuition, room & board being about equivalent to in-state for us in AZ. AND it’s not too far away (~ 5 1/2 hr drive or a 1 hr plane ride). Appears to also have good cybersecurity job placement post-graduation.
BUT…
D26 has nixed it off the list. Not going to apply and we’re not going to visit.
Why?
“I don’t like Las Vegas. I don’t want to have to live there for 4 years.”
Fair enough! That’ll save us $60 on the application fee.
So as of right now, we’ve got potentially 6 schools on the list to apply to:
U of A - double major in Cyber Operations and Intelligence & Information Operations
Univ of Tulsa - Cyber Security, probably history minor
UT San Antonio - either BS in Cyber Intelligence or BBA in Cyber Security
UAH - BSBA Information Systems, Cybersecurity concentration. No trip to Alabama is on the agenda right now.
Embry Riddle (Prescott) - Cyber Intelligence & Security (requires Linear Algebra…boo) or Global Security & Intelligence Studies. + minor in Diplomatic & US Military History
UT Dallas - BS Computer Info Systems & Technology + minor in Cybersecurity. I predict she’ll say no to this school, though, after we visit in October. All of their dorm rooms are singles, though!
Univ of North Texas’s BS in Cybersecurity:
We looked at this school, too. It would be affordable and it’s not far from where D24 is currently attending college. AND their Cybersecurity major isn’t mostly a business major with a couple of programming classes. BUT they require Linear Algebra. It’s a little smaller than U of A, but they hardly have any OOS students there. And I’m pretty sure that D26 would say, “Why would I go there when U of A is a better option and it’s in-state and you & Daddy could come visit and Aunt ___ said she’d take me out for brunch once a month” (my sister lives in Tucson).
When it’s all said and done in a little over a year, I still think it’ll end up coming down to U of A, UT San Antonio, and Tulsa. Can’t wait to find out where everybody’s kids end up going. There’s so many great options out there.
Its hard for us to figure out our college list, because you never know how S26 is going to do with regards to grades for any subject - it can be a B or even a D! For example, we have started this semester math with bombing the first test and then forgetting there was a quiz till we entered the classroom, so obviously we got a F there too! Math makes him nervous. Test anxiety is always through the roof. I think he isn’t that bad in Math but he ends up performing below average because he thinks he is dumb. It is very frustrating! This teacher just giving 5 questions for each test and quizzes doesn’t help his case either, because my kid is one of those who has to make a couple of silly mistakes in every test And no retakes or extra credit allowed at out school, and so for this teacher, the entire grade is based on tests and quizzes. So we will see how we end this semester- it can be a C or D, which would mean summer school.
That’s why we’ll make our final college list in the summer only.
But I enjoy so much seeing the different approaches to the college list making, things that are a priority is so different for everyone.
S26 had an event last night that was about making a college list. He came home and said he’s more confused than ever. We talked a bit about budget and the college experience. I was impressed that he took a lot of notes and he’s been doing better with time management.
Interesting enough the event was held by someone not employed by the school, it’s a counselor who does this for free for HS students. She also holds free essay writing workshops. I am glad the school communicated about the event but wished the school had more resources for kids.
My D had a meeting with her counselor as part of the registration process for senior year classes, and they discussed her college list. Not sure how helpful it was, but I am happy they met! My D said there was a lot of focus on finding the least expensive college options – which is overall a good thing, obviously. However, because affordability means different things to different families, my D felt she was dismissive of several options that actually ARE affordable to our family. To be fair, it’s a tough conversation for a counselor to have without knowing the family – especially in our school. Also, while she had some knowledge regarding my D’s top choice major (nursing), she did not have accurate admissions info. For example, she told my D that University of Iowa was definitely a “safety” school for her. While the general admission rate at Iowa is high, the nursing admission rate is around 18% (nursing program is small and ranked #4 in the country). Definitely not a safety.
It’s not fair to ask these counselors to be experts in all schools, majors, etc. Mostly, I am just very happy they had a chance to meet one-on-one. Those opportunities are not frequent.
I totally thought of your D26- AP announced they are offering new classes in Cyber Security and Cyber Networking- they are piloting them in schools fall 2025.
My D26 intends to major in either psychology or neuroscience. She and I have come up with an solid initial list of 17 schools which we hope to cull dramatically over the summer. I think the reach, target, safety spread is pretty good, but much will depend on how she does on the SAT next month. She had a solid PSAT score in the fall, but recent practice tests have not gone as well as she had hoped.
Wow, that’s quite well thought out. Our list is evolving but so far Boulder is still top choice. We are a little constrained by wanting mostly 4-year arch programs that are within certain geographies and not crazy competitive. Ends up being mostly publics. List so far (any degrees not specifically named are 4-year BS Arch or similar )
Boulder - B environmental design - likes the idea of this because it has a core covering arch, landscape arch, urban planning and product design. Visiting in April
ASU and UoA as potential safeties. UoA has secondary admission to major and the 5 year program not ideal but will consider (would probably prefer Tucson to Tempe between these two)
Cal Poly SLO - impacted, and definite reach because they look at 9th grade (when C26 had worst grade effects from adhd) with no essays or letters of rec, and it’s a 5 year program, but they want to try. Will get exposure to the department in summer.
Cal Poly Pomona. Arch is impacted and a 5 year, but may apply. Was considering landscape arch (not impacted) as safety but may drop that idea
UIUC -obviously a reach, but arch perhaps (??) less so than some other majors and they emphasize math for arch applicants, which is C26’s strong point. (Should actually be in range for the design college stats but hard to know how those break down between arch and the “proper” design majors, all the rest of which require portfolios)
UIC - considering as target but worried about commuter school + not great area of Chicago. +, weather. Hoping to visit both UIs in early summer.
UMN twin cities - target - but secondary admission to major and weather are question marks
USD - likes the idea of San Diego. They are test blind which won’t help C26 and probably makes it a reach. Will try visit at some stage.
Counselor has suggested some others which we may debate but none of them jumped out at us.
D26 has gone through so many iterations of her college list, I can’t keep track anymore.
She wants to major in Biochem or Neuroscience, pre health track. So, can get that pretty much anywhere. Trying to get recruited so that makes things a bit more complicated. State flagship school is considered a reach. Met with her school counselor to pick senior year classes and discuss college selection. Counselor seemed to have a different idea of “reach” based on Naviance scatterplots.
D26’s school has started the college process with juniors in earnest now. Weekly meetings with the college counselor as a group, and monthly 1-1 meetings with the counselor.
She had her first 1-1 last week and now has access to SCOIR so she can search for info on schools there.
She’s decided that she doesn’t want to be “in” a big city, but the outskirts of a big city is good.
So despite visiting and really being excited about USC, she’s now taking that off her list because she doesn’t like the city vibe. But Tufts is ok because it is more outskirts of Boston so not right in the thick of things. I’m glad to have that info from her because her list has been getting unwieldy.
Still trying to nail down more target schools. We are gonna try to visit Lehigh in March, hoping she’ll like that one. She tends to lean more towards bigger schools though, so we’ll see!
Just as I’m reading these last few posts about kids meeting with counselors and thinking our school is behind the ball, an email comes in from our school counseling team saying they are “preparing” for the process. Sounds like they are moving away from Naviance and transitioning to a new (as yet, unnamed) platform, so I’m guessing that’s part of the delay. I didn’t find Naviance to be super helpful with my daughter (small school, so there was such limited data that several of the schools she was targeting didn’t even have scattergrams to consult), so I’m hoping the new platform is better for us.
I also find it interesting to see how differently schools approach this. Our school offers very little in the way of college counseling, so that’s definitely an area for growth!
Our High School transitioned from Naviance to Maia on June 30, 2024. It does seem much easier to navigate and is ‘better organized’ (though this is opinion). Our D26 noticed the improvement instantly and was immediately happy for the new system.
Our D26 had her 3rd one-on-one with her counselor last week to review/discuss college plans for her.
In her building, she’s ahead of the overall pact only because of the outside work that we have done with her. That said, the counselor has been very, very helpful in answering any and all questions that have come up over the last 1.5 year since we jumped into the college process.
The most applicable takeaway was that she will supposedly have her ducks in a row in order to allow her to apply ‘early action’ in August to her list of schools with help from the counseling office.
She is very happy with this as her goal is to have the immediate application process off her list once Senior year starts. However, she knows it’ll transition from an application process to a 2-3x/day email and various portal monitoring process so nothing slips through the cracks.
She still has it to 3 schools for sure but may add 1 more. This goes back and forth based on the way the wind blows.
They are all SUNY schools and one is clearly an ‘anyone’s ballgame’ on how the acceptance decision will turn out. Going to make one more visit to at least 2 of them in early May.
Hard to believe but all of us here are going to neck deep into this in about 6 months!
I do feel lucky that my daughter’s school is so engaged with them, and so early in the process. It helps that her school is extremely small. Her graduating class will have 12 students.
They had a parent meeting 2 weeks ago and laid out the calendar for the process. Each student is expected to complete a draft of their common app essay before the end of their junior year. They should have a list of 10-12 schools when they return to school in August.
Representatives from several college admissions offices are coming in to meet with the students in April to do mock readings of applications with them, which seems really cool. The admissions teams will share completed mock applications, then the students break into groups to review and decide admit, reject or waitlist. Then the admissions officers will sit with the groups to talk about what they would’ve done in reality and why. Probably will get some great insights through that process!
And no retakes or extra credit allowed at out school, and so for this teacher, the entire grade is based on tests and quizzes. So we will see how we end this semester- it can be a C or D, which would mean summer school.