College stuff

[Chet Lemon]

The oldest is a high school junior. He has a 4.3 GPA and a 1530 SAT score, including a 780 math score. I have no idea where he gets any of this from.

Anyway, one day you are puking over the frat house balcony. The next you are guiding your own kid’s college process.

Curious how it went for those here who have been through the process. He seems most interested in Northwestern, Purdue, and Georgia Tech.

FWIW, the youngest is a theater kid and the process is going to be quite different.

 

[Shropshire Slasher]

Get your youngest to practice driving a forklift because that's what a theater degree will get you. I had an uncle that followed that route in college.

 

[qtlaw]

The oldest is a high school junior. He has a 4.3 GPA and a 1530 SAT score, including a 780 math score. I have no idea where he gets any of this from.

Anyway, one day you are puking over the frat house balcony. The next you are guiding your own kid’s college process.

Curious how it went for those here who have been through the process. He seems most interested in Northwestern, Purdue, and Georgia Tech.

FWIW, the youngest is a theater kid and the process is going to be quite different.

Enjoy the trip! Visiting college campuses was a fantastic experience to spend dedicated time with your boy. I did it twice and went to different schools for each of them and have very fond memories of the college visit trips.

Northwestern is a BEAUTIFUL campus and right on Lake Michigan.

BTW, you can secretly root against admission to the priciest private schools without telling your kid (I may or may not have done this ).

 

[Flip Wilson]

Fill out the FAFSA as soon as it opens for the year. It can be a pain in the butt. I have a co-worker whose last name is Null, and it took him forEVER to get his kid's FAFSA application approved because the system read "Null' as having no value, so it wouldn't accept anything he submitted.

 

[justgladtobehere]

Fill out the FAFSA as soon as it opens for the year. It can be a pain in the butt. I have a co-worker whose last name is Null, and it took him forEVER to get his kid's FAFSA application approved because the system read "Null' as having no value, so it wouldn't accept anything he submitted.

Was that guy ever interviewed for a radio program? I've heard that story before.

 

[micropolitan guy]

We never got to take Micro Jr. on an undergrad college visitation, he made up his mind to stay in town and had no desire to go anywhere else. Law school visitations were different, and fun.

As a high school junior/senior I visited UVa, Wake Forest and UR. Great memories. If your oldest is like me, he/she will know the minute he/she steps on campus. I sure did.

Funny thing most would probably consider UVa to be the jewel of that trio. It was my least-favorite, couldn't wait to get out of there. The Lawn was cool but otherwise nothing appealed to me.

We went to Clemson last spring on a family reunion in Greenville, my niece went there and wanted to go back and see campus again so a bunch of us went over. Now that was a place I could have had a great time at, reminded me a lot of Washington State.

Have fun! Your child has some great options!

 

[tapintoamerica]

The oldest is a high school junior. He has a 4.3 GPA and a 1530 SAT score, including a 780 math score. I have no idea where he gets any of this from.

Anyway, one day you are puking over the frat house balcony. The next you are guiding your own kid’s college process.

Curious how it went for those here who have been through the process. He seems most interested in Northwestern, Purdue, and Georgia Tech.

FWIW, the youngest is a theater kid and the process is going to be quite different.

Can't go wrong with that trio. I'd advise expanding the list a bit just to be sure. Above all, prepare him for disappointment if he applies to the Ivies, Stanford, University of Chicago and other absurdly selective places. They reject 19 of every 20 applicants, none of whom is a joke. it astounds me that kids with perfect test scores can be rejected, but it happens. That's why visits are important.

 

[Webster]

We have a college junior and a HS senior and have spent a ridiculous amount of time on the process. Made almost 50 visits between the 2 of them (with some overlap and a follow up to each of their eventual choices).

I will say this — the process is insane. Kids and parents have so much access to information and are involved in the process so much earlier. When I applied to college, my HS counselor made a list of schools (safety, maybe and maybe nots) and I applied to 8 schools without seeing any of them except for Brooklyn College, which was on my walk home from HS.

We used a private college counselor and she fills up her roster of 20 kids before 9th grade. Literally every class and activity choice was run through the counselor, especially for my younger one. He had perfect grades, max AP classes, leadership positions and a 1560 on the SAT. And the counselor told him that Brown was a huge reach early decision and Cornell only was possible (not likely) because I went there. Crazy.

Both of my kids applied early decision to their favorite schools (Carleton and Emory) and both got in. Given the class sizes, applying ED, especially ED1, is a huge advantage and places such pressure on the kids to decide where they want to spend the next 4 years by November 1st.

That being said, my older kid loves Carleton and the college visits were some of the best family bonding we have had.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

The Oldest wanted to go to a college that had an associate’s degree in the trade he was looking to pursue, and possibly a bachelor’s. He targeted one particular state school, which ended up being the only one he applied to. He was accepted, went there, got both the associate’s and bachelor’s and is now making a ****-ton more money than his former journalist old man.

So we only got to go on one campus visit. I enjoyed myself, but my wife treated it like a business trip. Then once he got in, they had an accepted students day for the kids and parents, where the kids pretty much would be separate from the parents and doing their own kids programs. I was fine, but my wife kept trying to keep the Oldest with us, to where he was so embarrassed and was about to flip out at her in front of everyone.

And one final thought: If you think this is difficult, wait until they’re not living at home. Come up with a game plan to fill your own time.

 

[Webster]

We went to a reception this week for the kids who got in ED1 to my son’s college to be. 56% of the class is expected to be filled by ED1 acceptances. Now this includes athletes, so the percentage is probably in the 40-45% range when they aren’t factored in, but that still is crazy.

 

[Huggy]

I am going the opposite direction. I am the one looking to go to school when I retire in four or five years. I am planning on getting a degree in history and while I could get one online I actually want to go to class so I am going to do something that was absolutely unthinkable when I was 18 and go to the University of Toronto.

 

[MTM]

My son too was a high achiever in high school. One mistake we made was applying to too many schools. There were a handful of Ivys and other elite schools. His top choice was Georgetown. Dropped a lot of money on applications basically so he could say he applied to certain schools.
He was not selected by any school outside of California. Only got wait listed at one. But he was accepted by UC Riverside, UC San Diego and UCLA and wait listed at Cal, where he was later accepted and attended sight unseen.
I wish we visited more campuses. Only went to San Diego and UCLA. We had been to Riverside and that was definitely a safety school.

 

[micropolitan guy]

My son too was a high achiever in high school. One mistake we made was applying to too many schools. There were a handful of Ivys and other elite schools. His top choice was Georgetown. Dropped a lot of money on applications basically so he could say he applied to certain schools.
He was not selected by any school outside of California. Only got wait listed at one. But he was accepted by UC Riverside, UC San Diego and UCLA and wait listed at Cal, where he was later accepted and attended sight unseen.
I wish we visited more campuses. Only went to San Diego and UCLA. We had been to Riverside and that was definitely a safety school.

By going to Cal instead of Georgetown he'll get as good, if not better, or an education and you'll save a ton of money.

And you can stay at the Hotel Durant when you visit him. Great place, right next to campus, super hotel bar and lots of dining options within easy walking distance.

 

[MTM]

By going to Cal instead of Georgetown he'll get as good, if not better, or an education and you'll save a ton of money.

And you can stay at the Hotel Durant when you visit him. Great place, right next to campus, super hotel bar and lots of dining options within easy walking distance.

He graduated from Cal in 2020. Had a great experience.

I usually stayed in Emeryville or at a Best Western in Berkeley because everything up there was expensive.

 

[ChrisLong]

He graduated from Cal in 2020. Had a great experience.

I usually stayed in Emeryville or at a Best Western in Berkeley because everything up there was expensive.

By going to Cal instead of Georgetown he'll get as good, if not better, or an education and you'll save a ton of money.

And you can stay at the Hotel Durant when you visit him. Great place, right next to campus, super hotel bar and lots of dining options within easy walking distance.

I stayed at the Hotel Durant a couple of times on Pac-10 Skywriters Tours. That was in the mid-'80s. It was old then. But, yeah, the bars were plentiful and now have been joined by microbreweries.

 

[qtlaw]

Yes Cal is in Berkeley, which is shall we say "a little rough around the edges at times" but the campus? Gorgeous, just as a college campus is envisioned. Self-enclosed, walkable to everything, conducive to focusing on being in college and not worrying about what's going on outside.

Now one thing I will say about the comparison of Cal to Georgetown (or any private school) is that a UC is a sink or swim school, you've got to take care of yourself and understand that it's up to YOU and you only to navigate yourself to graduation in the major you want. There's very little handholding. But when you get out? Hold your head high because you did it the hard way. My UC, like Cal, had 800 people in a freshman chem lecture hall.

I've never attended Georgetown but the private schools we toured all had much smaller class sizes, probably at most 100 (some I know who went to Wash U in STL said their max was 50!). So much different experience.

 

[Chet Lemon]

Whitman Jr. finally secured something to do this summer - a week-long residential astrophysics camp at Rutgers. So the college search is about to hit high gear.

I keep warning him that even with his SAT score (1550) and stellar GPA, AP classes, etc., he is going to be shocked at the arbitrariness of admissions.

Seems like he has his heart set on Northwestern. I keep pushing Michigan.

I thought it was pretty cool the other night at the year-end awards when he received Student of the Year at his school in Physics AND U.S. History! Just kind of a cool combo. I like the well-roundness.

 

[Dirk Legume]

Whitman Jr. finally secured something to do this summer - a week-long residential astrophysics camp at Rutgers. So the college search is about to hit high gear.

I keep warning him that even with his SAT score (1550) and stellar GPA, AP classes, etc., he is going to be shocked at the arbitrariness of admissions.

Seems like he has his heart set on Northwestern. I keep pushing Michigan.

I thought it was pretty cool the other night at the year-end awards when he received Student of the Year at his school in Physics AND U.S. History! Just kind of a cool combo. I like the well-roundness.

Man, with the potential to attend a really prestigious school, it sucks that he gonna throw his summer away on goofy stuff.

 

[Chet Lemon]

Man, with the potential to attend a really prestigious school, it sucks that he gonna throw his summer away on goofy stuff.

My summer workshop was probably something like “How to Write About Football Good.”

 

[tapintoamerica]

We went to a reception this week for the kids who got in ED1 to my son’s college to be. 56% of the class is expected to be filled by ED1 acceptances. Now this includes athletes, so the percentage is probably in the 40-45% range when they aren’t factored in, but that still is crazy.

The Early Decision process is financially driven. Admission is offered disproportionately to full-paying customers. They accept and are ready to fork over the cash without need of financial aid. As a result, the enrollment-management administrators can truthfully tell Trustees in their January meeting that the class is on track to meet or exceed its collective revenue target figure.