http://pix11.com/2016/05/03/suny-albany-students-accused-of-fabricating-racially-motivated-attack-indicted-on-charges/
Makes you wonder about others.
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Interesting Story on SUNY Albany Incident
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Need Advice.. Experience with Admissions Prep !?!?!?
Hi Everyone,
I'm a fairly new member on here but long time lurker. My son is going to be applying to combined BA+BS/MD programs this cycle and I'm facing a dilemma. As some background, we've always paid for private tutoring so please don't use this thread to dissuade me from just doing things on my own. My background is not medicine and I'd rather not muck around with his application given that it is such a competitive process.
He's most interested in the UMKC, Brown and Northwestern programs and from what I've read, those are some of the toughest programs to gain acceptance into. His grades are excellent and put him around the top 5% of his class.
I am looking into signing him up for Admissions prep. There are so many options out there but based on my own research, I've narrowed it down to the following.
1. APE Advisor Prep
2. College Admissions Partners
3. Med Edits
4. MD Admit
I am mostly leaning towards 1 (or 2) but open to hearing thoughts and advice from other parents on any other options I may have missed.
I'm leaning towards APE because it seems they have the most experience with the three programs my son is most interested in and the reviews I've found so far for them have been only positive. They claim to have worked with 40% of the most recent UMKC BA/MD out of state applicants and over 20% of Brown PLME applicants successfully. I understand that these claims are almost impossible to validate but assuming they are true, I think this is very significant. Alexa analytics data also suggests that APE is significantly more reputable than any of the other companies on my list (<50,000 in the US for APE vs >500,000 for the others).
The downside to APE is that you have to pay a $1,000 application fee (no chump change) in order to even apply for their Director program and they claim to reject more than 50% of the people who apply. Overall, they are significantly more expensive than the other 3 companies @ ~$7,000 for 1 program !!! However, having gone through many tutors to find a good one for my kids, I understand this is an area where you often get what you pay for.
Have any parents on CC personally used any of these companies for their kids? Is there another company you'd recommend instead of these 4?
Feel free to PM me if you're not comfortable sharing on here. Thanks a bunch!
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Isolated or Over-Reacting? Liberal schools.
My D sent my this article today: http://skidmorenews.com/new-blog/2016/5/1/our-campus-culture-self-righteousness
This discussion is not meant to be political please. D, just a freshman, really hasn't picked a position, although she def leans right on many issues right now. We talked a bit about conservative vs. liberal schools when she was making her list but I assured her that, while most of the schools on her list were liberal, she might learn alot by engaging in debates and joining the Republican Club. I just urged her even more strongly to join up with this young lady, make a new friend, and help start the debates. I can be very assertive and have no problem debating politics or any other subject if I feel compelled (and able to hold my own lol) but I'm an adult with lots of life experience. While she isn't all about friends per se, she isn't really about making waves either. I think she really wants to make a difference and at least get the dialogue going but is unsure in a "I'm young, college is supposed to fun, not confrontational" way.
Do you feel the student body in liberal schools truly isolate conservative students so much that they feel at fear of losing friends and being stigmatized? Or is this much ado about nothing?
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1st year of school and son not doing well
I am really beside myself. Son is ending is 1st year as a freshman and at a school that most kids would love it be at. First semester he got 2 Cs, 3 B-. This semester his grades are getting worse. He decided he wasn't doing good in language so he stopped going and now he has two failing grades in math. Which means these 2 classes will not have a good outcome. As a parent I want to scream at him that he is blowing away a really good opportunity!
He is full pay so we are paying for this as well. He did that out the $5,500 but the rest we are paying for. I was thinking of threatening him that we would not pay for next year and make him take out a student loan and we would cosign so he doesn't waste our money anymore.
Does anyone have suggestions or advice for me before I go crazy :)
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Son is a talented artist but wants to study physics/ math in college
My high school DS is struggling with trying to find a college major that merges his love for art (AP Art, may awards, etc.)
with a realistic college major that is practical and not liberal arts focus--son loves physics and math but has to work harder at the physics and math but does well--truly looking for something to merge art with math/physics to continue the passion in both in college. Any feedback.
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Moved: Is it possible to get an "exact AP report"???
This discussion has been moved.
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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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McGill Economics or Ivey Business School HBA
Hi there,
My son has got offers from couple of Canadian Universities for undergraduate studies. UFT , UBC, McGill, and Rihcard Ivey are some of them. We live in London Ontario where Ivey Business school is located. He is interested in both Economics at McGill and HBA at Ivey. I am trying to educate myself and have my opinion on it as to which one is better but it is hard for me to say anythin because both looks good. He wants to do Graduate studies in Economics if he picks McGill but i think employment rate at Ivey is very good and he would probably start working after HBA. Please give your thoughts. Much appreciate it.
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Life after college
Most parents here in CC are college graduates. I am not. I had some college units but not able to finish it.
I just would like to ask what happened after college. Did you find a job related to your degree? Are you happy with the choice of your degree and your career? Does the 'name' and 'prestige' of the university mattered in your career i.e. you got higher pay, promotion, etc. compared to co-workers with the same degree but who are from less known university, or vice-versa?
What are the things/decisions that you would done differently in choosing a career that now you are working or have your own career or business? Are you still paying student loans?
I cannot contribute much but I wish I finished my bachelors and my life would have been different. Answers to these questions will help my family decide for my children's future choice of career, and also for my self because I am still considering to go back to school.
Thank you in advance.
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Moved: I know I should mind my own business but
This discussion has been moved.
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UMASS Amherst or Virginia Tech or Penn State or Univ of Pittsburgh for Computer Science
We are now deciding between these schools for Computer Science. At UMASS Amherst, my son was placed in the exploratory track. Any experiences at UMASS and feedback will be helpful.
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Adjustment in out of state elite schools
As we all know, at most only one or two kids from a school get into each top school. How do kids adjust to live in new city, new school, competitive environment and new living quarters without a single familiar face?
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Colleges for the Jewish "B" student
I have been debating for a time about starting a thread such as this. On one hand, I want to make sure I have considered every college this should be on my son's list. On the other hand, every time this topic comes up there a lot of posters who criticize the need for such a thread. So, I make this request - if you are interested in this topic - have good ideas - please contribute. If you feel this type of thread is not necessary - then I guess there is no reason for you to post on it, right? (Said gently!)
So, for my "B" student - considering Elon, College of Charleston, James Madison and Muhlenberg. All have a reasonable number of Jewish students and an active Hillel.
Ithaca has been suggested - not sure that he wants to head that far north - but it is a maybe. Drew is another possibility - but it might be too small.
I also like things I have heard about Gettysburg and Susquehanna in general - but not as sure about the Jewish piece. These schools have Hillels, but their reported Jewish populations are under 100 students.
Considering Salisbury as our in-state super safety school - but have no data on number of Jewish students.
So, I'd love feedback from parents and students who are familiar with Jewish life and the Hillels at these schools. If I have overlooked some - please fill me in. We are trying to stay in the mid-Atlantic region and trying to aim for colleges larger than 2000 students and below 15,000. He might be a business/management/marketing major - but that is certainly not definite.
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Differing College Search Approaches
Hi all,
I just started my second semester of junior year, and I've done a lot of college searching for the past few months or so. After running a couple NPCs, my parents and I have established that there's a significant gap between their EFC (full pay) and what they are willing to pay (~25k/yr, instate flagship costs).
However, they want me to give equal consideration to schools that don't offer merit (or where my stats would make merit a big reach) and to schools that do. I understand why one would visit schools regardless of merit offerings, just to get an idea of her likes and dislikes, but what's the point of spending time and money researching and applying to schools that almost certainly would be unaffordable? They're also encouraging me to look at schools where merit is more likely, but I'm afraid their current strategy is too optimistic, and that come April of 2017 I'll have a few acceptances to unaffordable schools and my state flagship.
I think I have a fairly balanced list in terms of admissions, but it would probably change when looking at it financially (eg. a high match school becomes a reach because I need enough merit money to be able to attend.) I have good but not stellar stats, and maybe they don't realize how competitive the applicant pool actually is.
When I brought this up to them, they said that I'm going about the process wrongly, and that I should apply to schools based only on fit and assume that some will not be affordable. We live in a fairly affluent area, so some more experienced parents can quite literally afford to prioritize fit over finances, and that's what they've told my parents to do. I don't know if I want to put myself through that, but maybe they're right.
Should I try to convince them to only focus on schools where merit aid is more likely to come through, or am I being too cynical about it? I'd really appreciate advice from parents who have gone through/are going through the process themselves.
Hope you're all doing well!
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Moved: Parents of kids suffering from Anxiety and Depression in HS - Success stories welcome!
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Just for fun: where does your son/daughter go to school?
If you are a parent of someone in college or if you are a college student home for break, you're bound to be asked "What school?". Besides those who said "oh, I (or my son, daughter, husband, daughter, etc) went there, what kind of reply do you get from poeple. I've noticed that certain schools seem to elicit the same response from different people. At least that is how it seems to me. What have you found (for yourself or your kids)? What school and what response do you get?
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Preparing students with disabilities for college
Did you know most kids start talking about going to college in middle school? That's when college prep begins, but slowly. If you wait for transition planning you are very late. Did you know some schools waive transition planning for students going to college? Sometimes transition planning for your student includes something like busy work such as writing down some facts about three colleges--well it is countable. You don't want to be mean, but if kids will be taking algebra or something difficult in the fall, find a program or a nice summer school class to introduce the topic in the summer. Before high school starts, look at instate college entrance requirements and high school graduation requirements. Your student must meet high school graduation requirements that match college requirements. Take two years of foreign language in high school and there will be more foreign language requirements in college. Colleges do not waive foreign language very often (I'd plan on never). If a student is admitted without the language requirement met or another area is not met, those missing requirements must be met and the college graduation requirement has to be met too before college. Same is true of any other missing requirement. You will pay tuition for the make up classes and your student won't get credit toward college graduation. Credits can be earned at a community college. Really difficult high school classes could be done in summer school. You gonna need to provide something nice as a reward for summer school. Something the kid needs for college like a new bike or wants desperately are good choices.Your budget could be up to the college tuition for remedial classes. If your son or daughter has difficulty reading, get audiobooks from the local library or from Reading for the Blind and Dyslexic (RFBD). It doesn't have be the same version. Shakespeare hasn't written anything new in some time. The movies where the actors use the actual reading are pretty cool. This sounds really mean but it isn't. Whatever your son or daughter learns before high school will help them in college and beyond.
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Can high schools report class rank while reducing rank-grubbing?
In places where class rank is important (e.g. Texas and other places where class rank is heavily weighed for admission and scholarships), can high schools report class rank the following way to reduce rank grubbing?
(A) For class of Y finishing 11th grade, record GPAs for each percentile threshold (top 1% / 99th percentile, top 2% / 98th percentile, ...).
(B) For class of Y+1 finishing 11th grade (a year after class of Y), give each student a percentile rank based on the threshold calculated in (A) above.
I.e. students in the class of Y+1 do not have to engage in rank-grubbing or cutthroat competition against each other, but are only trying to meet the GPA thresholds set by the previous class of Y. Yes, there could be grade-grubbing, but grade-grubbing happens no matter what.
Not sure how to handle scholarships where valedictorian status is required for eligibility or heavily weighted. Perhaps the following:
(C) After the class of Y+1 percentile ranks have been determined, a class of Y+1 student applying for a scholarship which requires or heavily weights valedictorian status may ask his/her counselor whether s/he has valedictorian status. Valedictorian status is not announced or used by the school otherwise.
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Parents with T1 diabetics-college close or far?
Are there any parents of T1 diabetics who would like to share particular challenges/successes of college? If your kids went somewhere other than your home city, I'd love to hear how it went.
Thanks.
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CAL Poly SLO 20K scholarship or CAL/UCLA
Son wants to study physics and eventually go to grad school for PhD. We live in California and would not ever get merit aid. Cal Poly SLO offered him the new $20,000 per year Frost scholarship. Tuition is only $9,000 so would be almost free to attend. Believe he will also get into Cal and UCLA because he has 35 on ACT, 4.9 weighted GPA, ECs, was offered to apply for some Regents/Alumni scholarships, etc. He really liked Cal Poly campus when we visited two years ago and is very impressed by/appreciative of this scholarship offer. We could pay about 20 of the 30K UC cost, but he'd get loans for the remainder. Free is fantastic, but should he give up the UC prestige?
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