<p>We just returned from Trustees Weekend and my daughter absolutely loved the school. We had visited in the summer, and were worried about the weather in winter (we’re in VA) but that doesn’t seem like a factor anymore. What she (and we) especially liked were the other students and the academics/professors. The student body is very genuine (not preppy, which is important to her), and the professors seem very dedicated, knowledgeable, and accessible. </p>
<p>D decided she will definitely be a neuroscience major if she goes there. She is interested in pre-vet and/or animal behavior, and that major seems to marry her interests in bio, psych, and even chem. There are two tracks…cellular and behavioral, LG6 tell me if I got that wrong…and she would probably do behavioral. We were all very impressed with the program.</p>
<p>While we were there, they told us they had mailed financial packages late in the week, and like trellily, we had ours when we got home. Our EFC is such that we’ll have to pay pretty much everything above the Trustees Scholarship and perhaps some small loans; if that’s where D decides to go, that’s what we’ll do.</p>
<p>Allegheny is the furthest away of all of the colleges D applied to, and financially she’d do much better at one of VA’s fine state schools, but Allegheny is unique and clearly high on her list. She applied to a couple of top tier schools, which we are still waiting on optimistically since she has great stats; she will decide when all the financial info is in and we’ve done some “accepted student” visits.</p>
<p>I wish I had magic advice for Trellily in terms of convincing M and D about the smaller college experience vs. the prestigious, well known University. I expect my D will have several choices, but her Dad and I pretty much are going to leave it up to her within the bounds of what we can afford (definitely a factor since we have a high efc but are older so will retire soon). I have to confess that I’d be thrilled to brag that D’s at Carnegie Mellon or the like (she actually decided not to apply to UVA as “too preppy” but is waiting on W&M); on the other hand, it’s more important to me that D be content and productive for the next 4 important years. I suspect that, if you make a good case, it would come down to that for your folks too.</p>
<p>In terms of working rather than Grad School after graduation…keep in mind that gov’t agencies like NIH tend to be very generous in supporting graduate courses for employees. Some agencies even help with student loans. Having worked for the gov’t for many years, believe me that it’s worth thinking about and looking in to. The gov’t will have many retirees in the next few years ((like H and me, the earliest baby boomers), and will do much to attract young workers. The colleges in the DC/MD/VA area are excellent–I’ve taken classes at most of them for my agency, and know many people who have gotten advanced degrees at their agency’s expense. But the best thing about working for the gov’t is that so many of the jobs are unlike anything that you’ll find elsewhere…unique, interesting, challenging. And whichever party is controlling the administration , professional and
dedicated.</p>
<p>Best to all…gotta get some sleep after the trip!</p>