angela in ohio
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Posts posted by angela in ohio
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I served as dc's "guidance counselor" for college admissions. I helped them decide what aspects they wanted to highlight to win acceptance, I worked with them to integrate those into their application in the correct areas, and then that led to giving a lot of feedback on their essays (and every other part as well.)
We kept a list of all essays, when they were due, and what general theme they fit into. They wrote some boilerplate to use on common themes. Then they would email me their finished essay before it was due, I'd edit it, and we'd talk about possible revisions. If I felt less comfortable with editing, I would outsource it in a heartbeat. For us, it was literally worth hundreds of thousands for them to get into certain schools.
They still send me resumes, cover letters, email drafts to professors, etc. to review and edit. It helps to have someone to bounce things off of. Dh and I always do the same for each other.
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Many years ago, I took my two young daughters and baby son to see a Van Gogh exhibit that traveled to "our" art museum. We were just starting out, and I had to spend quite a bit of our food budget on those tickets, and it was a ridiculous extravagance. :laugh: It was totally worth it!
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I have a daughter at a huge state school (44,000+) and a daughter at a tiny school (under 400 students total.) It is definitely a different experience.
One thing I always hear people say is that you can make a big school smaller. I think that is nearly impossible, honestly. Dd is in a living learning community with just over one hundred students, but they don't all have classes together, so you still end up feeling like you are at a huge school all the time. It will get easier once the majors narrow down the class options, but for the first two years, it is definitely a huge school. And those first two years, the first especially, are when it matters the most.
In general, the daily tasks of life are easier at a small school. That's a big part of feeling comfortable. How much time, energy, and stress do eating, travelling on campus, dealing with administrative tasks, etc. take? We've seen that it is easier to do those things in a small school. That leaves more physical and mental space for academics.
There were many other things we thought we would be different (amount of opportunities, etc.) that just aren't as much of a difference as we thought they would be.
Each chose their school for their specific needs, but overall, based on what I have seen with my girls and friends' children, I will be recommending a smaller school to my youngest when he is looking for a college.
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Are college classes moving toward more project-based learning and away from traditional assessments? I was told that most colleges are moving away from traditional testing. So professors don't lecture much anymore and give essay answer type tests, much less multiple choice type assessments?
As soon as you hear "most colleges are..." ignore the person. :D Seriously. And then be wary of other things they say.
Seriously, I wouldn't be shipping massive amounts of chocolate out right now if my girls weren't frantically studying for "traditional assessments." And one of them goes to a project-based engineering school. :D
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I read/heard (don't remember where) that your EFC for a second child in college is zero. I guess this isn't the case?
In our case, it sort of is. The amount for each dc was roughly half of what it was for one dc. So effectively, the second child was zero.
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What I have learned from dressing dh... :D
The lighter the shirt, the more formal. So to get away with a more casual colored or trendy suit, you can balance it by wearing a white shirt and more traditional tie. If the suit is more traditional, then you can work in a light colored shirt (blue, grey) and/or a more trendy tie.
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I have experience with both. One dd chose to go elsewhere after seeing CMU's aid package. And the other is at U of M.
CMU does not meet full financial need. U of M does not guarantee to, but in practice they do meet the need of ONLY in-state students. Out-of-state students need to rely on the merit scholarships they have for out-of-state students, which are few and far between.
CMU was my oldest dd's most expensive option, once we had all the packages back that year. We could cover our EFC, but they didn't come close to bringing the cost down to it, even with some merit aid. By comparison, U of M was mid-range (our EFC) and Olin (where she ended up) was cheap (a few thousand below EFC.)
Middle dd didn't even apply to CMU, or a few other schools in that range of acceptance and aid. We knew there was no way. U of M was not her cheapest option, but it wasn't so bad that she couldn't go. We are paying almost exactly our EFC, as they adjusted once her merit scholarships were all in (NM, state scholarship, etc.)
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You can do what I did. I worked with DD on her 4-year plan ahead of time so she didn't go into her advisor session with a blank slate. The plan did get tweaked a bit by the advisor, with DD's agreement.
This. Dd took in the plan we worked out together, and her advisor laughed and said it was perfect and she wouldn't change a thing. :D
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My middle was aimed at mathematics until she veered into aerospace at the end. :D I think encouraging a future career in mathematics is great, because even if it changes, strong math skills can help in many fields. And at least you'll have a girl who knows she can excel in that area. :)
She did accelerated math (calculus in middle school, up through college diffeq in high school) but more importantly, we rolled around in mathematics.... MathCounts and other challenges, every book in three library systems about math and mathematicians, math games and research, etc. When she was young, we did multiple programs, not simultaneously. We came at math from every angle.
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that they apply to only 3 schools. Only 3? That's seems crazy to me. I get it that the school is a wealthier private school so most kids can write the check to their safe school if they don't get into the other 2, but there are also families who need to compare financial options. What do ya'll think? Does 3 seem narrow to you? Her recommendation is one safe, one fit, one reach. With the record number of applications though, kids are getting turned away from fit schools all day long.
I think that advice is out of touch with the current college admissions environment. I would suspect budget cuts are restricting the admissions counselors' time to complete application materials, or that the admissions counselor has not had recent training, or that they are using the current students as guinea pigs to test their theory that "students apply to too many colleges these days."
ETA: Obviously, I don't think everyone needs to apply to more than three, or even three. But there is a big difference between what a homeschooler decides for their one child and what a school sets as a blanket recommendation for their students.
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These can be anxiety-inducing, but honestly we have found that most of these days/weekends are more about wooing the student than anything else, so they aren't terrible. Brush up on small talk skills, dinner manners, and protocol when making introductions, etc. Make sure she has something to wear that she feels very confident in.
For the interview specifically, work with her on the story she wants to tell. Then if a questions throws her, she can lead it back to the things she wants the committee to know about her. If you can practice the logistics of a large interview, that would help (looking around during answers, etc.)
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Doesn't your cyber school handle this for you? If they aren't offering the tests, they should be finding a place for their students to take them.
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Yes. His major is mechanical engineering.
Then professional references would relate to that. One from a coach whom he worked with at basketball camp would be okay, as a reference to his work ethic, professionalism, etc. (not focused on his athletic ability.).
Maybe the other could be from the factory job. If that's not possible, a letter from a professor in his field would be the next best thing, though technically a professional reference.
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I use the internet for background research for dh's prospective employees and show him what I find. I'm really good at finding people *grin*. It's not hard to find a LOT of info about people. I use it all the time to stalk... erm, find... prospective volunteers and donors.
We never let dc put anything troubling on their fb accounts to begin with, so there wasn't much to clean up, but it was definitely on the list when it was college application time. We cultivated a fb page that showed them to be active, caring, intelligent, responsible young people. :)
Some of it depends on the school, as with everything. For schools with an automatic or near-automatic admit for students with the basic stats, it might not matter at all. For selective schools, it's something to consider.
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You may need one for other puroses, but we never needed it for college. If you are able to issue a diploma according to the laws of your state, then your diploma is no less valid. We had one made up at homeschooldiploma.com. I was very happy with the product.
Same here. I've ordered two so far from homeschooldiploma.com. I only got the diploma to show at the graduation party to make relatives happy. :D Colleges just wanted to see transcripts.
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Rose Hulman, Kettering, and Michigan Tech all somewhat fit the bill. All have ChemE. We have visited and/or have friends' children at all three. Though the colleges themselves are not purposefully conservative, they attract mostly midwest upper-middle-class students who are fairly conservative comparatively speaking.
Oldest is at Olin. It's a very small engineering school. It's not conservative, but people are actually tolerant of each other's views. Compared to middle dd's experience in Ann Arbor at least, it seems very unique. :D
I posted about Calvin College on the other thread.
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With all the college cutbacks and tuition hikes - who pays for stuff like this ?
It's probably part of the cutbacks. They are now offering one less course at the satellite campus, a class that only had two students. If it's a required course for a major, it saves them cutting that program and losing those students (and their tuition.) Telepresence robots are at most a few thousand dollars, and it was possibly covered by a grant.
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Calvin College has ChemE
Very conservative, fairly small (3,990), east of the Mississippi (Grand Rapids, MI - a lovely area)
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I waited until there was a decision and posted that. We didn't list all the acceptances, because some of them were not typical colleges for this area, and I have friends whose dc struggle. Posting a blow-by-blow of all of them, or a list, seemed unkind in our case.
I did post each of their decisions. Many people were pretty convinced they couldn't go to college since we homeschooled. It was a PSA. :D
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As of yesterday, mine are all home!
One slept for 14 hours last night. :D
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My daughter goes to a small school in Massachusetts and is the only homeschooler afaik. :D
They gave us no trouble at all.
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The meal plan we had was quite expensive, but I ate better than I had my entire life up until that point. They had really really good food. Tons of choices. They had a huge salad bar. I remember eating some dishes and wondering what that fantastic thing was. And then I'd figure out wow...these herb things...rosemary...and stuff are so tasty!
And you know the freshman 15 stuff...I actually lost weight. I wasn't overweight to begin with, but I think the good food improved my health.
This is my second dd. She was describing one good meal a few weeks ago, and I realize she was talking about Duck a l'Orange! That's what they had for dinner. :D Another night they had Cracker Barrel catered in (it was Jim Harbaugh theme night, and apparently that's his favorite meal.) The dining plan is fantastic.
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My middle daughter has spent $0 since we dropped her off at college in late August. I budgeted $50 per month for her, and it sits unused. We bought about $200 of books and supplies at the beginning of the semester, and I send her some snacks from time to time. She has an unlimited meal plan, and she attends university activities which cost nothing. In an attempt to get kids not to drink, the university has great activities on the weekend with free food and giveaways.
She has a job as a research assistant for 10 hours per week, and she transfers every penny to my account to pay tuition payments. Other students use uber instead of the bus, because they don't want to wait or take the time, but she has become a pro at the free bus system.
She has an app that tells what events on campus are giving out free food, and she loads up on free t-shirts, flash drives, and pens at engineering fairs.
My older dd spent almost nothing her first two years, despite having an on-campus job transcribing music for the orchestra (she used that for tuition.) After this past summer, where she made a ridiculous amount per hour for a college student :D and lived rent free, she has been a little more free about eating out and traveling. She paid her own tuition this year and had plenty left over, so she feels like it's okay to spend some.
Neither daughter has ever spent the amount their colleges estimate for "expenses" and books. I think the article shows one side. I hope potential college parents aren't scarfed by it; if you raise them not to spend like that, they won't.
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We always do #2. A dean of admissions at a selective school once told us that if they can't find an obvious indication in your application that you have overcome failures, they don't want to take a chance on you. So dds just put it right out there.
What are your college kids doing this summer?
in The College Board
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Oldest is in North Carolina in the IBM Extreme Blue program.
Middle is home and working as a grocery store cashier. She had no luck with an internship as a first-year, and she didn't want to continue her research position for the summer. After a grueling year at school, she is happy to spend the summer in an easy job. She has figured out how to game the metric they use to rank cashiers and is trying to beat the highest rating anyone has ever received before the summer is over. :D