[In-State Tuition for Veterans]

Sebastian thank you for clarifying.  I went to the Whitehouse site and this is the only info I could find:

 

• Announcing that all 50 states, Washington, DC and Puerto Rico are now providing recently transitioning Veterans and their dependents with in-state tuition rates at public institutions of higher learning.  This progress was brought about by a provision in the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act that the President signed into law last August;

Ah, after more searching found this link which explains better, but it's still a bit confusing.     http://www.benefits.va.gov/GIBILL/docs/factsheets/Section_702_Factsheet.pdf

 

Gr8lander sorry to hear that this doesn't apply to your daughter.  That must be especially difficult after having been told that she would get the in-state rate this year.  I wonder if the state you're in hasn't fully complied yet.

[In-State Tuition for Veterans]

I've been trying to read different articles to get clearer info, but it sounds like the children and spouses of veterans will be covered.

[In-State Tuition for Veterans]

This sounds like a great opportunity for military families.  Congratulations to those who can take advantage of this and thank you for your service and the sacrifices your family has made.

[Scholarship Opportunity or Nah?]

Some of these allow a student to apply as a sophmore or junior.  This would allow him time to decide if it's what he wants, and for some the years of work are dependent upon when the student began receiving the grant, so this would cut down on the commitment time.  Of course there's no grants until the student applies and is accepted.

[Colleges for in-depth learning]

Another vote for Colorado College.  One class at a time and in depth with field study. 

[Scholarships]

:lol:

 

... at Lori's suggestion, not your situation!

[Where do volunteer activities and awards go?]

When you get to that point in the application, he will have a variety of areas to enter the information.  I don't remember exactly, but there was club involvement, volunteer activieies, work, awards, leadership roles?, etc..  Sometimes the hardest part was deciding where to list info and some ECs fit into several of the categories.  I think we repeated too much, and they do ask that you not do that, but it was hard not to.  If that makes sense.   I think you can look ahead in the application, but I think I blocked out quite a bit of the CA process.  It was the first year, glitchy and not even remotely fun.  Some recommenders couldn't get their LORs to go through.  In hindsight when I think of everything I did wrong, the hoops we didn't jump through (some we weren't even aware of),  technical glitches, etc. it's amazing dd was accepted anywhere!

 

Your son's activities and awards can be highlighted through LOR(s) from the activity facilitators.

[Do you make your child appply to a safety school they don't want to attend?]

I would ask that if he doesn't want to apply to the safety school, would he then be okay with attending the local CC for two years instead.  If he prefers that option, and 2 years at CC and two years in-state would be affordable, then the application isn't necessary.  I'm guessing he would not prefer this and then I would ask him to apply just as a back up.  The choice of whether to attend or not would be his, but at least he'd then have the option should he not get better offers.  I'd also encourage him to find a true safety, affordable, easy enough to get accepted, and he'd like to attend.  Not all students end up with a true safety, but in that case you have to at least encourage applying to a wide variety of schools to get the best chances for good options.

 

I'd schedule a visit at the local university and arrange for him to sit in on classes in his major.  The more familiar he becomes with the university, the more he'll be able to picture himself attending there.  As he sounds like a really strong student, he'll hopefully have some very nice options when acceptances and financial aid offers arrive, but a strong local university can be a nice safety.

[Parent's Weekend is here!]

:grouphug:   I'm so sorry to hear about your weekend experience.  Unfortunately his school does have this Greek life rules reputation and has less SES diversity, and other types of diversity, than other top schools.  At the same time, there is the potential to get a great education.

 

I would encourage your son to do his absolute best in his classes as this will give him the best chance of a good transfer if he should choose to do that.  Unfortunately financial aid is generally less for transfer students, so instead of just running NPCs, you'd likely have to contact the financial aid offices of potential colleges to find out what his aid would likely be.  I would not rule out other top schools as most are much more accepting than he's finding there.  The Fiske Guide might be helpful in reading about the culture and vibe of different schools so he can choose ones which might be a better fit.

 

In the meantime, if at all possible, I would try to help your son get the navy blazer and khaki pants so he has the right "uniform".  Again other schools are much more diverse and probably don't even have dress requirements.  I'd also encourage him to get involved in the clubs which are open to everyone.  He doesn't have to wait for an invite, but simply show up at a meeting.  As his school is part of Questbridge, they should have a QB Scholars group.  That group would be where he'd find other students who are there due to generous financial aid and he might find his tribe or at least a friend or two.  He should be able to join even if he wasn't involved in QB.  If this group isn't active, he might consider starting a club which promotes social activities for students not involved in the Greek life.  Clubs are often well funded by the college and this would give these students the ability to host the types of events they'd like to attend. 

 

Obviously he should also be in volved in clubs revolving around his major areas of interest.  When the focus is on academic interests, it should matter little what frat one is or isn't involved with.  I hope he finds his niche there or that he finds some good transfer options.  :grouphug:

 

Adding that on campus jobs are another great way to meet other students.

[Snickering at this writing prompt for a scholarship competition.]

Faith, you and your family are in my prayers.  :grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug:

[Snickering at this writing prompt for a scholarship competition.]

It's sponsored by a pizza company.  Faith I hope your son comes up with a good essay and gets the scholarship. I agree with Creekland that an unusual prompt allows for more creativity.

[Shy young adults and jobs?]

:hurray:   :party:   :hurray:

[Should he drop Physics I]

If he's concerned with how his transcript will look to colleges, he should be aware that a W will suggest that it's possible he dropped it due to not doing well.  There are other reasons, but generally students drop due to a projected grade much worse than a B.  If he's aiming for top tier colleges and he's projecting a C or worse even after speaking with his professor and trying to improve, and he's at the end of the withdrawal period, then dropping might be better from an admissions point of view.  If he's a STEM student, then he should really consider taking the algebra based physics next semester so he's better prepared for when he gets to his 4 year.

 

Regarding his high school GPA, if you're weighting the DE courses, then even a B will still be 4.0 for the GPA. 

[Should he drop Physics I]

Does he/do you want his first really challenging class to happen now while he's home and attending community college, or when he's a new freshman at his 4 year college?  This is an opportunity for him to figure out what more is needed to do well in the class.  Study group, attending professor's office hours, tutoring, learning center, reading the text or a different one, taking better notes, improving test study - all of these should be available to him.  Good to learn how to use these now so he's ready for the next step up.  Even if he ends up with a B, how he took on the challenge could make for a good essay on applications. 

 

Another option, if he needs more of a foundation or is having trouble with the calculus part,  would be to find out if he can drop this class and join the non-calculus based physics class.  He'd likely need to talk with his professor and the dean or dept chair as this may require an override in administration. 

[Would you let your child apply to a college if they don't fit all the requirements?]

Your son might want to email or call the admissions rep for his area and discuss this with them.  It's good to have a contact and only they can tell you what would be acceptable.  I'd be very surprised if the 2 vs 3 years of foreign language is a deal breaker, but the rest of his application should be strong.  Even if he doesn't want to contact them, I'd still say it's worth an application.

[Which public universities have highly regarded Fine Arts programs?]

Based on the US News (graduate school) rankings, there are quite a few in the top 20 or so in California.  I know that most people don't want to retire there due to the high cost of living.  Arizona State University in Tempe is ranked highly at #22 and in a popular retirement state.

 

Here's the link for the US News rankings.  http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-fine-arts-schools/fine-arts-rankings

[NYT: public unis and upward mobility]

I would think that most Californians know the incredibly good value of their state universities and the ease of transfer from a CCC.  Guidance counselors must really be dropping the ball if they're not passing this info along to their students.  When I read about the high cost and lack of financial aid for the California public universities, it's related to an OOS student's costs.

[List other colleges applied to ????]

Rice's was the only one for dd too.  It's not necessarily a sinister question, but one I wish they hadn't asked.  Dd asked my opinion and I'm not sure that my advice was the best.  Would be interesting to know if they still have this as a supplemental question.  Anyone have a student applying there this year?

[University of Rochester vs RIT]

We didn't even come close to meeting those UR requirements.  Talk with admissions as I'm sure they're flexible. 

[List other colleges applied to ????]

I think it's about the worst question a college could ask a prospective student to answer.  I remember it being on the paperwork dd filled out to tour some colleges, but only on one college's list of supplemental questions.  They asked her to list all the colleges to which she will apply.  She was honest.  She was not accepted.  Just as students look at schools and try to guess their odds of being accepted, they probably look at where students apply and figured their chances of being chosen.  Protecting their yield.

 

I've read mention that naming a rival college isn't a bad idea as they don't like to lose a good student to their nemesis.  Hopefully someone can tell you how their student answered and were accepted.

[How are the First Years getting along?]

Faith, :grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug:

 

Glad to hear your son is doing so well.

[Transcripts from cc]

I think we did both - included it in the Common App and had official transcripts mailed directly from the college. 

[University of Rochester vs RIT]

I wouldn't worry about UR for homeschoolers at all.  Admissions waived some "requirements" for her and the financial aid was good but not enough to meet our need.  She liked the campus, the students and the overall vibe.  She wasn't interested in RIT, so can't compare.

[Is college tuition too high?]

It's the pacing and instructional style which sets apart on campus courses from DE in the classroom and even the AP classes, many of which also allocate a full year for a typical semester course.  And part of the college experience is having students with a variety of life experiences contributing to discussions on a level rarely seen in high schools.

[Is college tuition too high?]

My impression was that the original intent was to have college professors come into the high schools to teach these classes.  The schools near us were somewhat successful at picking up adjuncts who wanted more jobs, but I don't know that there were ever any "regular" professors doing this.

 

But then they couldn't even find PhD's willing to take the job on as an adjunct position.  Too much travel time for the professor?  Not enough pay?  Not enough prestige to put on a CV if one ever wanted to go after a "real" job?  Too much school admin to deal with?  Teachers in the schools wanted the jobs themselves?  I don't really know what the story was.  It's not like were hurting for PhDs in the area who would have been qualified to teach these classes.

 

What I've heard from kids in the high schools near us is that the college in the schools program was a complete joke.  They were as bad as the high school classes (which already seem really dumbed down to me compared to what we had when I was in school).  Some of these kids went and retook the same classes DE in a regular college and found huge differences in the amount of material covered.  I don't know if that's been the fault of the teachers or if trying to teach college to a class that is made up entirely of high school age kids just won't work in most schools.  Too many of the students perhaps still think it's just high school so why bother?  This can be a problem in DE at a college as well, if the class has too many high school students in it.  There've been complaints from the actual college students that it can really bring down the level of a class if over 50% of the students are high school DE students.  (Just because some kids have the maturity at that age doesn't mean they all will)

 

At work, we're also finding the kids coming in with these college in the schools classes are pretty much unprepared for anything following in the sequence.  The kids who took AP are somewhat better.  As mentioned, there's at least some accountability in the test. But it still seems that AP isn't as good for the students as an actual class with a decent college professor.  (I say this both as someone who works at a college AND as a parent who's had kids go both routes.  It's not all about professors wanting to be paid.  They usually get enough students as it is.)

 

Yes I think it would be very hard to replicate the true college class experience in a high school classroom with just high school students no matter who's teaching the course.  Dd's DE college had a limit on the number of DE students allowed in a class.  It only became a concern in one introductory class as most others were not typically taken by DE students.