I start college in the fall and a form asks me if I want my parents to be able to access my grades. I got all A's in high school and they never were the type to check the parent portal, they trusted my to handle it, so I doubt they'd be checking all the time. Although they can be a bit overbearing sometimes I think letting them see my grades could be helpful if I struggle in some way because I definitely have a tendency to hide my struggles. What did/do your kids do?
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Should I give my parents access to my college grades?
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Parents guilt
Do you feel guilty when your high achieving child admitted to elite schools cannot attend because you are a donut family and his/her friends will attend on FA?
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Online High Schools for ballet dancers
Hi - I am looking for any advice on online schooling - my daughter is training to be a ballet dancer ( at an elite level) and we can no longer do brick and mortar schooling. If she decides to go to college, I am concerned how colleges will perceive her online schooling. Any insight would be helpful, especiallly from sports or ballet/arts parents .
Thanks !
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Where did your 3.3-3.6 GPA child get in?
Calling all parents who have been through the cycle of the dreaded college application - help for those with less than perfect GPA kids.
Admission process takes months and the waiting is going to be rough, we don't even have a clean college list as yet! Hence my thought of starting this thread to give other parents in similar situation a hope and a clear trend to where other kids have gotten admissions.
If you do not mind sharing the GPA and SAT stats please state them.
I am a mom of rising senior son, hence this thread. He has 3.3 uw GPA and 2100 SAT. He is looking to major in Comp Sc (Software), a down to earth kid, would have loved the Stanford/Rice kind of environment with down to earth student body and pleasant weather. Thanks!
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Xanex IV line for parents of rising seniors?
Junior year has been a doozy! It has been hard, but my kid has almost survived it with her GPA intact. My morning mantra is, "Its her life, its her life," and we try to stay out of it, knowing we have no control. However, going into the application process with our first born, we can't help but be anxious. I probably need a College Confidential intervention. Any advice from the experienced parents out there?
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Guaranteed Sophomore Transfer Admission Offers
Reading through CC I have noticed that at least two schools: Boston University and, surprisingly, Cornell University offer some applicants who are denied admission as freshman guaranteed admission as sophomore transfers, The student must enroll at another college and maintain at least a 3.0 GPA and there may be other conditions.
This practice seems unfair both to the school the student attends freshman year and to the students themselves. For the freshman college it will lower their retention and graduation rates. But more importantly for the student it could make for a difficult freshman year. They will enter a college with one foot already out the door. They would be less likely to become involved in campus activities etc. And if they tell their dormmates/classmates that they will be transferring to a "better" school they may have difficulty making friends.
Also no one has posted about the financial aid aspect of such offers. Are they given a tentative financial aid package at the time they are given the guaranteed transfer option or do they have to apply for financial aid at the time they decide to take the school up on the transfer option? in the latter case transfer applicants tend to get less generous financial aid packages at many schools. Or maybe these guaranteed transfer options are only made to full or near full pay applicants?
Any thoughts/experiences?
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UMaine's Tuition Match Program a Big Success
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/05/03/tuition-cuts-make-umaine-hot-college/6sl14gpXX9X3eOikmosC4H/story.html
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College tour: Boston -> Buffalo
I've just arrived in Boston with my junior daughter for a Boston -> Buffalo trip. Have never really done a college tour before, so I'll see how it goes. She's interested in STEM, probably CS. She got a 1450 on the new PSAT, but her grades are "interesting". 3.1 freshman year, 3.6 sophomore year, currently 4.1 (weighted) junior year including APUSH, AP CS, honors physics, and honors pre-calc. She has struggled with ADHD, but has started to figure things out, and does better in her harder classes (where she can focus better).
Tomorrow we're doing Brandeis, Wellesley, and Olin. Over the weekend, we're staying near Amherst, so we might look at Amherst College and/or Smith. Monday, we're visiting UMass Amherst (and their CS department). Tuesday is RPI. Wednesday is U of Rochester and RIT. Thursday, if we still have energy, we'll check out SUNY Buffalo, before flying home.
I will possibly update this thread with details / impressions as we go.
Wish us luck! :-)
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Schools that won't take no for an answer?
We may not be looking in the right place, but both D and her friend (child of a college counselor) can't figure out how to decline Beloit's offer of acceptance. D, in particular, had a nice offer from them and feels bad about turning them down so is putting off contacting the admissions officer (because D feels like she needs to carefully compose an email to thank her and explain her choice.) Are there other schools that make it difficult to decline an acceptance? The process was pretty clear for D's other schools.
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Any schools to add to list?
I'm new here so forgive me if I'm in the wrong forum. My daughter is a rising junior and we've been advised to start looking at schools this summer. I've put together a preliminary list (we won't get to them all this summer) and was looking to see if anyone has any other I should consider. We'd like her to see a wide range within her narrow vision of what she's looking for.
Looking for:
Small to medium sized school - no (or minimal) greek life and party scene
Liberal arts focused
Friendly, down to earth, accepting, diverse student body. Sweeping generalization but she has an aversion to preppy (she doesn't know any true preppy's, just preppy "wanna-be"s)
From NJ but geographically open minded
A scholarship would be great, but won't qualify for need based aid
Community service/involvement is important
Background:
Mid sized NJ upper middle class public high
GPA: through 3rd semester 94 in core courses
AP/Honors: History AP, Honors English, next year AP History and English, moving up to honors science
Clubs: Involved in language, theater, volunteer work (through school and outside of school)
Not a great standardized test taker
Born with mild physical disability that impacts walking and writing
Not outgoing at all, but enjoys being around people (once they reach out to her) and having fun. Not a social butterfly at all but also not a loner or comfortable with the quirky crowd.
Based on my research, list so far (with full understanding that some may be impossible for her to get into):
Dickinson
Clark
Macalaster
St. Olaf
Skidmore
Denison
Kenyon
American
William & Mary
Colorado College
Haverford
Thanks for any feedback!
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Moved: New grad working new job: should son have roommate or live alone?
This discussion has been moved.
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Moved: University of Alabama Civil Engineering
This discussion has been moved.
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NCSU Engineering vs University of Alabama
Does anyone know how the NCSU Engineering program compares to University of Alabama. DD is comparing two colleges. One will give her free tuition but after factoring other costs, it isn't more than $5k difference a year. She can afford either but is completely confused about how to compare programs.
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Matches at techie smart schools for higher stats low EC’s D?
We are planning our last trip(s) to visit colleges. Can anyone suggest schools I may have missed in our search? Long post, but I was trying to anticipate questions that may come up.
Home state is TX; no geographic preference by D so far, have looked in Pacific NW and across South so far, and are familiar with NE schools somewhat due to older D’s search 4 years ago. We are looking for merit at private, or lower priced OOS public. We will not qualify for any need based aid. Our budget is $30,000/yr, but can probably stretch to $40,000 for the right school. She’s our last kid, and kid’s 1 and 2 came in under budget, so we have a bit of give.
In state, D will hopefully be auto admit for UT Austin, but thinks it may be too big for her. Not overly fond of Trinity or Southwestern, and probably won’t get any $$ at Rice even if accepted. UTD or UH will be her safety.
Stats: SAT 750/750/760 (old SAT, did not take new) ACT 33 comp, but retaking in June to try for a 34. UW GPA 3.7 ish, W 4.2 (we use a 100-point scale). Top 10%, possibly top 5% once ranks come out. Most rigorous courses, 11 AP’s total, expecting all 4’s and 5’s when done. Unhooked.
EC’s are slim – TSA/Engineering club state recognition, Global affairs club, Math UIL, County delegate on Foreign exchange visit to China, Summer Spanish immersion program in Spain, band 1 year, choir 1 year, some volunteering. But honestly, D is a philosopher at heart and prefers reading, studying languages, and other more solitary pursuits. She flat out refused to join NHS at our school because she didn’t like their busy work (in her opinion) requirements.
D will be graduating HS in 3 years next month so that she can go abroad as a HS exchange student next year in what would have been her senior year. She will start apps before she goes and should have good access to internet for completing apps from abroad. She will not, however, be able to make any after acceptance visits, so she will need to have a good idea of fit before applying.
D is looking for a medium size – likes the feel of LAC’s once they hit @3000, to maybe 3000-15000. A larger school with a smaller honors college experience may also be a good fit for her. She likes to be around techie people, but may choose to pursue a humanities major herself (she is really undecided at this point, has many different interests including languages, comp sci, history, economics, physics, government). She will likely attend graduate school. She wants to study abroad, and to be around students who are equally interested in exploring the world. She is shy, but not introverted, and would like nothing better than to be part of a smart group of kids, up to all hours off the night discussing everything. Dream job at the moment would be in academia, but she knows that can be a difficult path.
She loved GA Tech when we visited – liked that all the students were studying, liked the academics and the offerings at the liberal arts college within GA Tech. She’s a legacy. She may get in, but I have slim hopes of merit there, but she may try anyway. She liked U Puget Sound, but doesn’t feel their majors line up with what she’s looking for. Did not like Willamette or L&C. Liked St. Olaf and U of Minn, but not Macalester. Like U of SC honors college, and U of Alabama Honors. Was so-so on Case Western.
So, we are looking to find a few more schools that would be good fits for her so we can visit this summer (I know, not optimal but it’s all we have left). I’m thinking about heading to WPI and RIT. Any other’s come to mind?
TIA
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University of Washington Cheer Requirements
There Are 29 Hair, Makeup, and Body Requirements for University of Washington’s Cheerleading Tryouts
The University of Washington's cheerleading squad was forced to take down a poster that illustrated 29 hair, makeup, and body-shaming requirements for trying out for the squad. Not sure how a "natural tan/spray tan" helps someone do a backflip, but here we are.
After a social-media frenzy erupted over the poster, the athletics department realized that it could be seen as offensive and asked the squad to remove it. Detractors of the poster argued that it prioritizes physical appearance over athletic ability. In fact, ability comes (vaguely) into play only twice — "physically fit" and "athletic physique" are body dos. The other 27 points focus on clothes, skin tone, makeup, and hair.
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Question about learning Arabic as EC
My rising 8th grader took a Arabic online course last summer via the Johns Hopkins CTY and really liked the language. She would like to continue learning Arabic again this summer. Caveat--her school does not offer Arabic as a FL option in high school so she would be taking Spanish all through. She is rather good with picking up languages (is already in the Advanced Spanish section at school) but I want her to think a bit more before committing out of school time to learning another language. She is not athletic so she feels this could be a valuable EC for her. Do you good folks have any advice? I know this is the age for exploration but given how heavy the study schedule can become it might be tough to do something halfway. Any ideas for her as she thinks about this? Thank you so much!
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help with classifying safeties, matches and reaches for my D
we still have three more colleges to visit but we're getting close with my D's list of schools. From what I can see, the challenge is around finding matches that are not really reaches and safeties that are not really matches. Would love feedback if we've classified the schools correctly. She won't apply to all these schools, right now just looking for feedback.
thanks for the help!
basic stats:
caucasian female
4.0 unw, 8aps, two languages
act - 33, 34 superscore
ecs - ok
no hooks
safety mcgill
university of vermont
tulane
case western
rochester
match u mich
colby
emory
reach middlebury
wash U
far reach duke
dartmouth
williams
amherst
vanderbilt
Rice
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Fall dorm move-in vs. Spring move-out
Our daughter's semester will be over at the end of this week and we are driving to her campus this weekend to get her moved out. She's our first to go away and I know now that we overpacked last Spetember and have already brought home a few things that she didn't need (a microwave, extra comforter) I have to say, though, that we found move-in to be relatively straghtforward and easy.
We've mentioned our upcoming move-out to a few people and the responses seem uniformly negative: not fun, a lot of hard work, stressful, bring lots of garbage bags, just rushing to throw out stuff at the end of the day.
For those of you who have been through this, what has your experience been? Any good survival tips?
Thanks in advance!
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Moved: Housing at BU - tips on finding an apartment or room at BU
This discussion has been moved.
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If a major at a college are filled to capacity, what is preferable for the college to do?
If a major at a college are filled to capacity, with more students wanting to get into the major, what is preferable for the college to do?
Common examples of such majors are nursing, engineering (usually at popular state flagships), computer science, and business, but could also include other majors (including some popular liberal arts majors).
A. Have frosh/transfer applicants apply specifically to the major, with higher admission standards than the school overall. What space that becomes available due to subsequent attrition can be offered to major-changers through a competitive secondary admission process. (Some schools offer applicants rejected from the major admission in a second choice major or undeclared, while others reject entirely if not admitted from the major.)
B. Have frosh/transfer applicants apply to general admission or pre-major status, admitting more interested students than the major can hold, but weed some of them out of the major by requiring a high college GPA or competitive secondary admission process later.
C. Combination of A and B, where some space in the major are filled by admission to the major, but other space (beyond the space that becomes available by attrition) are available for students admitted to general admission or pre-major status to compete for.
(Some schools may use different methods for frosh versus transfer applicants.)
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