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Mom2boys

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  1. I am the OP and wanted to add a follow-up for anyone who may come across this thread in the future. My ds did not take any math his senior year. It didn't not adversely effect him in terms of college admissions - he was accepted at every college he applied to, and was offered merit scholarships by all. Also, he earned an A- in his first college math class, taken his first semester of freshmen year. He was a little rusty, but wasn't afraid to ask for extra help when he needed it. So not taking math in 12th grade worked out just fine for my son. 

    • Like 20
  2. 13 hours ago, littlebug42 said:

    DD is going to Kent State University in the fall.  She did receive a Trustee Scholarship which covers about 1/2 of her tuition. 

    Why Kent?  She loved it there on visit last year.  She attended a Discover Theatre Day where she attended classes etc and just fell in love.  Not the most financially viable option she had but its where she really wants to be. 

    Major:  Theatre Studies (Performance concentration)

     

    We moved to Kent two years ago and love the town. I regularly attend KSU theatrical performances and am impressed with the quality of their shows. I hope your daughter will be very happy here! 🙂 (Did we connect on College Confidential?) 

    • Like 4
  3. 18 hours ago, Sebastian (a lady) said:

    tl;dr - I think Miami is a nice school and I encouraged my kids to apply there.  I think the party reputation is a bit overblown.

    We have several family members who attended in the 1980s-1990s.  We considered it a solid option in the likely admission range, and both of our older kids applied and were accepted.  I like their merit aid scholarships that are tied to test scores and gpa.  These have higher award amounts for out of state students.  Both of my kids received enough to bring tuition down below the level of in-state rates (as out of state applicants).  

    All three of the people who attended still speak fondly of their time at Miami.  They were in vastly different majors, from humanities, to social sciences, to hard science.  Two went directly into PhD programs, then to post-doc work and into working professionally in their field (not as academics).  

    The campus is a lovely one, about 45-90 minutes outside Cincinnati (depending on what part of town you're trying to get to.  I think Cincinnati is a great city, with sports, food, festivals, art museums, Broadway shows, historical sites, and an extensive parks system (Hamilton County Parks).   For transportation, Miami would be about equidistant between the Cincinnati and Dayton airports.  Cincinnati probably has more flights.

    I know that Miami has a reputation as a party school.  That always surprises me, because the three people I know who attended are not party people.  Two did Alpha Phi Omega, which is a fraternity, but one that I think is actually a true service fraternity.  To my knowledge it does not have a residence associated with it.  Miami has about 20k students, so I think it's possible to find lots of party goers, but also lots who aren't.  (Having said that around 25% of students are in a Greek fraternity.  I would have discouraged my kids from pledging a traditional fraternity there - or at any campus.)

    Back in the day, it was hard to have permission to have a car on campus.  I don't know what the current situation it.  That could make it feel more remote.

     

    I was in Alpha Phi Omega during the same time period as your family members. I probably knew them. Small world!

  4. On 4/13/2019 at 10:08 AM, dmmetler said:

    (The one in Ohio). DD spent quite awhile talking to their admissions rep at a college fair, and they actually have her cognitive science major available, as well as an animal science program. Merit aid looks like it may make it reasonable.  

    Miami is where I got my bachelor's degree. What would you like to know? It is the quintessential red brick college campus/town. A fair amount of the social life, though not all, revolves around the Greek system. It is no more of a party school than anywhere else. 

    I didn't go Greek and neither did my friends. We had plenty to do socially and a great four years. They have a campus in Luxembourg where some students study for a semester. I was in Alpha Phi Omega - the large service group Sebastian mentioned - and it was a really fun group at the time. Not sure what it is like today. I was also an RA. 

  5. On 4/7/2019 at 10:08 PM, kokotg said:

    This part is less agonizing than the waiting for decisions to come in part, but it's still tough! 

    Okay that got long--who else has a kid still trying to decide? Are we the only ones? I need commiseration! 

    My ds finally decided last Friday. It really wasn't his fault. We were waiting to hear about a final scholarship opportunity. And yes, it was a long, tough spring! I feel your pain. 

    • Like 3
  6. On 4/14/2019 at 1:11 PM, 8FillTheHeart said:

    If they don't have time to talk to perspective students, the dept is not worthy of your $$ or time.  They are a business and you are paying them if your student attends.  Meeting with your is NOT doing you a favor.  Always remember that you are a paying customer.  

    My kids email the dept head/dean.  Either the dean meets with them and invites a prof or UG adviser to the meeting or the dean forwards their email to the person he thinks is most appropriate for discussing their questions/needs.  My kids have typically received receptive responses and the meetings have normally been great.  In the few instances that they have not, those schools have been completely eliminated as options. 

    A school came off ds's list for this very reason. The faculty member he would be studying under for four years (the head of his area of concentration) couldn't be bothered to respond to ds's emails asking if they could meet on two different occasions when ds was visiting. He didn't offer to answer ds's questions via email or phone. He just didn't respond at all. The dept found someone else to answer ds's questions, but the whole situation left bad impression and was just a big red flag. Sadly, it was one of our more affordable options.

  7. Thanks so much for all the good advice. DS did make an appeal by phone this morning, and was turned down. But he is glad he tried, and they gave him props for calling himself, versus having his parents call. This particular school is notorious for giving very little aid, and we knew that going in, so we weren't surprised by the outcome. It was important to ds to know that he had tried everything possible to attend this school, and now he has the peace of knowing he did everything he possibly could. So, onward and upward.

    • Like 6
  8. Has anyone successfully negotiated for a tuition reduction or additional merit money? Ds's second choice school is offering significantly more (as in double) the merit and talent money of his first choice school. We'd like to get more from his first choice school as that is the only way we can afford to send ds there. Any advice for us on negotiating with school #1? 

    • Like 1
  9. 1 hour ago, kokotg said:

     

    do you mean in the homeschool supplement? I'm planning to just use that for some basic information about the places he's done outside classes; the actual course descriptions for those classes I'm putting in the long course descriptions document that I'm uploading as one of the 4 documents allowed under "transcripts."

     

    Yes, I mean in the homeschool supplement. You are writing course descriptions for all of your son's classes? I didn't do that. I'm just uploading a standard transcript.

  10. On 10/6/2018 at 4:57 PM, SA Homeschooler said:

    Oh goodness,  I have to say that I am just so over this whole college app thingy.  Could this be any more tedious?  Sorry...just a bit of whining.  This has prob been the most overwhelming part of homeschooling!! School profile, counselor's letter...etc.  I'm so tired of generating content. Anybody else?

    I am so over the Common App too, and I just started working on it. Had I known ds wanted to apply to a school that only took the Common App, I would have started back in August. Now I am really under the gun to get the whole RIDICULOUS  thing done. The school profile section is such a joke for homeschoolers. Who do they make us do that? But it was the distilling all the info for his 17 outside classes down to only 1000 words that just about pushed me over the edge. 

    • Like 2
  11. On 10/7/2018 at 8:04 PM, FuzzyCatz said:

    Oh nice, we're doing music too.  We are recording pre-screens in a couple weeks.  My son is auditioning for voice programs (but has other musical interests/skills too).  

    The music deadline/portal business is definitely crazy making!  We started an acceptd account for him today and I wish they all used that portal.  Almost like a common app!  

    Right there with you FuzzyCatz and Saw. My son wants a BFA in tech theatre. This whole apply to each school twice - once for academic admission and then again for the fine arts program - plus putting together a portfolio, the acceptd account, the interviews - it's making me crazy.  Bring on the chocolate! 

    • Like 3
  12. 3 minutes ago, MarkT said:

    Is there a particular math class such as College Algebra required for this degree - if so maybe consider doing that class over the whole year and try to place out of it at the college.  For a BFA IMHO don't think taking math would be make or break unless you are applying to very competitive colleges.

    I am going to look into this more, but from what I have seen at some of the schools he is looking at, math is not required. He will be taking dual enrollment classes at our local university, so he could take a college math class this fall and then be done with a math requirement, if there is one. But he feels that having fine arts classes over math and science would boost his chances of admission to a college of fine arts. The colleges themselves aren't ultra competitive academically, but tech theatre/lighting design programs are, which is why I am even considering going along with the "no math or science senior year" plan. 

    • Like 3
  13. 2 hours ago, kand said:

    Some colleges require some kind of quantitative class senior year—doesn’t have to be math, but something that uses math, like math-based science for example.  My daughter applied to a couple schools that had that requirement. 

     

    Good to know. He doesn't want to take science either (he has 3.5 credits) in favor of more fine arts classes. But maybe he could take consumer math or an accounting class.

  14. My ds, who intends to pursue a BFA in Lighting Design, does not want to take any math in 12th grade. He has four math credits already, through precalc, which seems to meet the admissions requirements for the universities he is considering. But I have read multiple places that colleges really like to see math taken in 12th grade on transcripts - I believe because it shows rigor and that the student didn't slack off senior year? Did any of your kids not take any math in 12th grade? Did it hurt them at all in terms of college admissions or merit scholarships?

     

    • Like 2
  15. My ds, who intends to pursue a BFA in Lighting Design, does not want to take any math in 12th grade. He has four math credits already, through precalc, which seems to meet the admissions requirements for the universities he is considering. But I have read multiple places that colleges really like to see math taken in 12th grade on transcripts - I believe because it shows rigor and that the student didn't slack off senior year?

    So my question is, how important is it in terms of college admissions and merit scholarships to take math in 12th grade? Will it hurt his chances for admission considering he is going the BFA route? 

  16. My youngest will be a senior next year and wants to take most of his classes through dual enrollment. We won't know how much funding we'll receive from the state until late in the spring, after online providers have already begun enrollment. And he won't actually be able to register for college classes until July, which could leave us scrambling to find online classes that still have openings if he can't get the courses he needs through DE. So planning for next year is a little tricky. I would love to be able to make decisions now and sign up for online classes in February and March like I always have in the past. 

    • Like 2
  17. We had a plan for 11th grade, but I scrapped it when a job change required moving to a new city. Ds lost some of his extra-curriculars (concert band, steel drum band, choir). But he gained the opportunity to dual enroll at the local university, and the state awarded him 12 free credit hours of tuition. So we need a new plan before college registration on the 31st.

    • Like 1
  18. My ds15 did not retain anything he learned in TT algebra 1 (though it worked well for my older son.) I had ds repeat algebra 1 with Saxon, which turned out to be a much better fit for him. If you went that route, you could take the next three years to work through algebra 1 & 2. Geometry is integrated into both books, so she would get some geometry as well. And you can purchase reasonably priced instructional cds to supplement the tutor's instruction.

    • Like 1
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