<p>“my D did find the first school she went to to be “too easy”. It wasn’t that the material or the teaching itself were easy, but that there was no challenge or curiosity from her classmates”</p>
<p>This sounds pretty familiar to me based on my first school.</p>
<p>When I read your complaints about insurance, I couldn’t believe I forgot to mention the crummy health services I experienced at Harvard. Maybe I blocked it out. I had some very good caregivers, but I and friends have also experienced some shocking lapses that would make your head spin…since they have themselves a halfway decent med school there, I was pretty stunned to find that this was an area of weakness.</p>
<p>Back to the topic…My D is at Emory and very happy. She did have some trouble navigating her courses which forced her to be proactive. She could not get into her language course but was able to get in to her #1 freshman seminar choice and two other top choice courses. She had much help to navigate this process but I think you have to go through it first to figure it out. I also think it requires some good planning that is more obvious to students once they have a semester under their belts. Class sizes are fine with two classes about 20 or under and two large intro lectures (80-100)with break out smaller sessions one day a week with a TA. </p>
<p>She is fine with the food. I would like to see more healthier choices. That said the executive chef was wandering around while we were eating there this past family weekend and D and the chef chatted about improvements he would like to see so I suspect it would be easy enough to address if it bothered her. </p>
<p>Finally, D is learning to navigate Atlanta on the public transportation system and budgeting/planning for taxis. I think she thought all cities were as easy to navigate as NYC so that was an eye opener but valuable lesson. Actually, between her studies and her sport she really has only had time to go to clubs twice so far and to the mall once. Mostly she is content with the social options on campus. Feels there is plenty to do for non drinkers but also that non or light drinkers are comfortable at frat parties.</p>
<p>I read the first post to get the gist of the thread “I think it’s important to talk about what is wrong with our kid’s schools as much as what is right about them. If we don’t some kids and parents will be prone to make mistakes based on the omissions from our reports.” My point is that I believed the zero tolerance talk we got at orientation day. What I feel to be wrong with my DD’s school – and possibly many others – is that both the students and the school seem to be conspiring to make the line they tell parents a sham. Drinking isn’t a right of passage – it is a dangerous and often illegal behaviro in colleges. There are many things that are right about UMW but this is not one of them. That seems to be the subject of this thread.</p>
<p>Northeastern - disappointed that all of D’s classes (she’s a freshman) are large lecture-style courses. Her intro to anthropology class is taught by a foreigner with an imperfect command of English - he’s clearly an adjunct since he’s also working on his law degree. This wouldn’t bother me in a public school, but here we’re paying twice the tuition…</p>
<p>katliamom–re class sizes at Northeastern, it is of course a relatively large university, and I wouldn’t be surprised if similarly priced large private universities also have large lecture classes for many first-year intro courses. However, there are huge differences within the school based on what program you are in. For the college of engineering, class size is much smaller for all the core classes during freshman year (math, sciences, engineering classes which all typically have only 29 students) and students take only 1 elective each semester, a history/social/cultural elective (S took a history course that has less than 50 students) and college writing in the spring (which I understand is less than 20 students). The downside, as I mentioned earlier, is that the school plans out everyone’s schedules, for COE freshmen at least (although minor in my book).</p>
<p>calmom said “some of us do not believe that the killing of an additional human being brings “closure” to anything.”</p>
<p>Perhaps some would be offended by your obvious political statement. Since prior post by doubleplay was removed, this should be also.
Now, back to topic at hand.</p>
<p>Since my “name” is still being mentioned, I want to go on record that I never, have never, advocated the death penalty on this forum or anywhere. Maybe all threads regarding this can be removed so that there won’t be anymore assumptions about my intentions.</p>
<p>scansmom, thanks for the comment. I also think that the classes will get smaller as D progresses, and yes, she was ‘given’ her classes, even though she’s in college of arts & sciences. BTW, do you know how easy it is to change majors at Northeastern - either within the college or even between colleges?</p>
<p>katliamom, I’m not sure about switching majors but as anywhere else it is very common to do this, esp within arts and sciences. It might be more difficult to switch into some programs like engineering from another college, but more because of major or program requirements. I seem to recall seeing that retention rates for engineering freshmen are around 80% or so, but at least half of those who left the College of Engineering were students who had just switched to a different major. Also, I understant that they are working on smaller classes as part of their current strategic plan…</p>
<p>warning - off topic for just a minute… Cathymee, When I was visiting my son at Roanoke for parents weekend I had a sweet tea encounter. His friends mother (from South Carolina) ordered sweet tea “half and half” that is, half sweet tea and half unsweetened. It was much better!</p>
<p>Cathymee - lifelong Southerner here who learned sweet tea making “at her mother’s knee” - I often can’t stand the sweet tea in restaurants, and often will get half and half. Doubleplay is right, you can get away with less sugar if you make it properly. Basically you are making a watery simple syrup, using water just hot enough to dissolve the sugar or (the way I do it) a small aliquot of the hot steeped tea, then add the rest, mix and dilute.</p>
<p>Huh, I always thought that the tea is sweetened when it is hot because that way you can use MORE sugar. A hotter liquid will dissolve more than a cold one – basic chemistry.</p>
<p>The sweet tea I’ve had has always contained more sugar than you could get into it had you tried when the liquid was cold.</p>
<p>I’m not a southerner, but I’m married to one and have lots of relatives there. I remember the first time I ordered iced tea, my future husband warned me what to expect.</p>
<p>Of course, nothing forces you to put as much sugar as possible into the liquid, whatever the temperature :)</p>
<p>worrywart: don’t know if your S and my D have met since she seems to spend every free moment with her a capella group…(have him go see the Amalgamates and check out the cute little freshman soprano). So you and lollabelle think the off campus housing is pretty horrific? I have a feeling we will be dealing with that for sophomore year…I am already hearing about “moving off campus.” </p>
<p>As for TheGFG’s question…my D is finding college to be challenging but not daunting. She is working hard but has time to be in a capella and chamber groups for pleasure. It is definitely not too easy. Even though she took the most rigorous hs program available at her big public hs, and took 8 AP classes and an honors track, the competition was not nearly what it is now. She graduated #5 out of 900. (The only reason she was #5 and not # 1 or 2 was taking 4 years of mulitple choir classes that were unweighted and lowered her overall gpa) Now she finds herself in the middle of the pack, which is what she expected and prefers. She would rather be in challenging courses and surrounded by top students. Fortunately, she has a pretty good attitude about it, in fact much better than in hs when she just had to have all-A’s.</p>
<p>re: The difficulty question, my DD is at Cal (Berkeley) and is it plenty tough, a moments inattention over the term gets you a B+ instead of an A-, she is, though, well-prepared. She was one of the top kids in her class and we are all pleased that she is both challenged and successful there.</p>
<p>I agree with the points on Brown and Colgate-</p>
<p>Brown: Blah dorms- I stayed in Pembroke Quad for seven weeks. It WAS liveble but not something I’d want to live there for all four years. Even the food was awful- no vegetarian option!</p>
<p>Colgate: Well, it does cost around $8 on average for a sandwich/salad and a drink at Parkside’s… I definitely don’t like their meal plans and am very happy to be off this year and on my sorority’s meal plan twice a week. Like the topic regarding Barnard’s meal plan, I did my own calculations and found out that the 10-meal/week plan would cost me $10 per meal whereas the 19 unlimited would be $8. And the student union doesn’t even let you “spend” that much for breakfast- only up to $4.15 worth of food/drink. Definitely profiting here. Oh, also the sushi here is twice the regular price that you’d find anywhere.</p>
<p>Sorry but I have to put this on there-</p>
<p>Smith- I disagree with mini about “too much” advising, I felt that my experience was fair. But I did not like how the administration re-organize its priorities for financing the college and I did not feel like I was getting my parents’ money’s worth since I did not get financial aid and was shortchanged in dining and academics (not in science, where the money was going). Even so today, two years later, I still don’t feel that the administration has done that much that would benefit me if I was still there.</p>
<p>blucroo, I’ve passed your message along to my son (who has just left his house to attend 8:00, 9:00 and 10:00 meetings tonight). Maybe his extracurricular commitments are why he’s finding Tufts so challenging after virtually coasting through AP classes in high school?!</p>