<p>Wait. I have 6. I have to drop Columbia.</p>
<p>You got it.</p>
<p>Did he rate any more schools? Did he ever teach at Chicago?</p>
<p>So—It’s HYPSM. Why am I not surprised?</p>
<p>His specialty is linguistic, and I don’t think he is qualified to evaluate any other students besides those in linguistic. Did he ever go to Caltech?</p>
<p>Actually, his daughter attended U Chicago, but I don’t know if he taught there. And I agree, Tega, that his experience is limited to his own field, altho I don’t know if he has found a consensus among his collegues in other fields. And yes, Marite, …perhaps that acronym developed for a reason that actually has some legitamacy.</p>
<p>But you know, Donemom, that the Harvard linguistics department either was or nearly was put into receivership? and that UMass-Amherst has a larger linguistics department with some very distinguished faculty? I don’t think that the linguistics department is the crown jewel of Harvard University.</p>
<p>But the issue he was assessing was not the quality of a department, but the caliber of the students that comes across to a teacher in class discussions, test performance and the like.</p>
<p>cur, this is personal so don’t answer it if it’s too too, but do you think your D will stay in the South long term–or does she imagine herself somewhere else for med/grad/research?</p>
<p>Just curious.</p>
<p>You started a barn fire and then left the room, then came back in with a mini-screen? That’s a bit naughty of your hard drive.</p>
<p>marite, I sooo appreciate your insights into the strengths of all the different academic departments of your neighborhood schools. Thanks for sharing. I can’t imagine you handicapping the best of the Ivies. I know a ton of university professors and I cannot imagine many of them handicapping this or that school–other than to talk about job prospects. For one thing, the scientists are too busy writing grants.</p>
<p>cheers, concerns over personal left the building a long time ago. Her intention is to live in Texas. On a ranch to be exact but she better own a helicopter to get to that teaching hospital in Dallas or Houston or SA. But that may not happen as we all know. She still has time to marry a marine and not finish college…</p>
<p>Donemom:</p>
<p>Linguistics is a very specialized field and attracts very specific kinds of students. I’d be more comfortable having an English prof or a history prof assess students in other universities.</p>
<p>Marite, I do see what you mean…and as I indicated earlier, just one person’s opinion based on one person’s experience. Just food for thought…</p>
<p>Yup. Her choice makes more and more sense the more you know about her. Marry a marine. Fat chance. She’ll need a feminist, though, that’s for sure.</p>
<p>I nearly married a banker’s son from Memphis. He’s still there and I’m…where the hell am I? Oh yeah, in the far corner of the globe.</p>
<p>So many ways to have fun, aren’t there?</p>
<p>
What question?</p>
<p>That’s my question. What kind of environment is Barnard? Competitive? Cooperative? Something else?</p>
<p>I read about your daughter and a friend of mine’s daughter has some similarites. She is going to be a very strong writer. She has some unique experiences that I think schools will want. Her math scores aren’t going to be so high. She is not going to want a real competitive place.</p>
<p>And when they aren’t writing grants they are evaluating other people’s grants! That said scientists give seminars all over the place so they are in a decent position to have some opinions about the caliber of the questions they get asked.</p>
<p>We are blessed in Texas to have two Top Twenty Med Schools that are affordable for Texans. Baylor Med and UT-Southwestern. Both are a good bit less than comparable schools anywhere. It will again be a difficult call but if she can get a degree from either she can write her ticket many places. </p>
<p>If we have a little luck she can graduate med school nearly debt free. At that point , and after her chosen residency if she doesn’t go MD/Phd., she has talked about Doctors without Borders and some other opps she couldn’t have done with a lot of debt. But I don’t see her ever practicing myself, at least not in the sense of a private practice. I think she is a born researcher/academic. It’ll be a fun time just watching. She hasn’t ruled out any med school.</p>
<p>To DStark, re Barnard: From what I can tell, Barnard is very intense academically, high reading load, high expectations - but very manageable as long as the students keep up with the reading. Barnard’s grading appears to be tougher, but I’m going on one semester only. My daughter took 2 classes at Columbia her first semester, 2 at Barnard – she had A’s in the Columbia courses, B’s at Barnard. But my d. is taking more courses at Barnard this semester, and she called earlier this week very happy because she had received A+ grades on papers or midterms in her 3 Barnard classes, plus she was happy about being able to work more hours at her work-study job … so maybe last semester was more of matter of getting used to college expectations. Her advisors and all profs at Barnard are very accessible. (I met and chatted briefly with two of her Barnard profs when I went to visit). </p>
<p>I went to a review session for one of her classes, so I got a good overview of what they were covering this semester. They definitely had a comprehensive reading list and high expectations; on the other hand, the prof was very clear and thorough about going over what was going to be on the test. (That’s one difference: I don’t remember a prof ever conducting a review session when I was a UC undergrad – maybe TA’s, but I can’t imagine a prof ever coming in for a separate session to go over material that had previously been covered… we were pretty much expected to figure that part out for ourselves). So I got the impression that the education was very thorough, but a lot of support was also available. </p>
<p>I don’t get the sense that the kids are unduly competitive with each other, but my d. says that in general Barnard women are very ambitious (maybe the type that will push themselves to excel). According to d, the pre-meds are really concerned about grades and study all the time, so maybe they have a different perception. </p>
<p>It is important to keep in mind that in terms of general academics, Barnard is Columbia – that is, for most majors the Barnard student will be taking many courses at Columbia, and in some cases the courses are interchangeable (for example, one course with several sections may have some at Barnard, some at Columbia, and the student may select simply based on what fits their schedule). Barnard classes in general are somewhat smaller, but my d. has a class at Barnard this semester with 300 students so that doesn’t mean all the courses are small. (I suspect it has as much to do with classroom size than anything else – I’ll bet that Columbia has many more large lecture halls available). She also has a seminar with 15 students and 2 profs co-teaching … so there is a big range of types of courses.</p>
<p>For those who have been around CC for a while this will be redundant so I will apologize in advance.</p>
<p>I know it can almost be heresy on CC to advocate turning down an elite school for a scholarship but in our case we saw the two options to be on equal footing as far as prestige and the cache that is recognized by grad and professional schools as well as employers.</p>
<p>In 2004 our S was admitted SCEA to Yale which had been his dream since eighth grade. His school is also a Morehead nominating school and he was their selection that year. At the time of his Yale acceptance he already knew that he was a finalist for the Morehead. His first reaction after hearing from Yale was “…oh ****, what happens if I win the Morehead?..” to which we replied we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it and having Yale “in your back pocket” is not a bad place to be.</p>
<p>He consulted with several of his trusted mentors at his school and to a person he was told that it was a “no brainer” that the Morehead was truly a life changing opportunity. He was told that at Yale he would be one of 1300, albeit a very elite 1300, but still one of 1300, but as a Morehead, he would be one of forty (that year) with experiences through the summer programs that he couldn’t/wouldn’t have at Yale.</p>
<p>In March 2004 he was fortunate enough to be named a Morehead Scholar and the following month was interesting to say the least. I think one of the hardest things I had to do personally was to tell him to put aside the huge financial difference and weigh the options for what they were. He eventually decided that with med school as a goal, graduating debt free was a nice option and opted for the Morehead.</p>
<p>Now a junior, he has never regretted his decision and says he honestly couldn?t see himself at Yale now. His freshman year was capped with UNC winning the NCAA basketball championship and the celebratory frenzy that came with it. Interestingly, this was a kid who prior to heading to his Morehead finalist interviews placed no value in big-time athletics as part of an undergrad experience and did not know who Dean Smith was!</p>
<p>He has had three amazing summers; one spent learning to sail, another spent doing eight weeks of service in French West Africa and this past summer, nine weeks immersing himself in life as a Parisian, living in Montmartre. This coming summer he will do his Enterprise Summer or Internship and will be doing medical research under the head of the MD/PhD program at a major medical school and teaching hospital with the promise of being part of two papers that will be published.</p>
<p>He has gotten a tremendous education (at UNC he was given credit for his 43 AP credit hours and was in upper division classes his freshman year) and has had a remarkable undergraduate experience. From day one he has described his friends as ?amazing? and ?brilliant? who challenge and push each other in a way that is sharing and caring rather than cut throat and self-serving.</p>
<p>I think that the biggest hurdle that had to be overcome was by EAmom and I in putting OUR egos aside and getting over the fact that we wouldn?t be putting a Yale sticker in the back windows of our cars. He has never been happier and is honestly lamenting the fact that his days at UNC are getting numbered. </p>
<p>This June he will begin applying to Med Schools, and as curmudgeon has already stated we are blessed to have two top 20 schools here in Texas. He would love to remain at UNC but it would also be nice to have him “home” again for med school.</p>
<p>Outstanding results. I know some kids did not have an experience like that after taking the big $ but it appears that the Morehead was well researched as was the UNC itself. Y’all did your homework and it came through for him.</p>