It sounds like you're getting a lot out of the subscription. I've never heard about this feature of being able to customize the rankings. Yes it is a valid consideration.

I would look at Saxon, and if it seems like it might work, I'd have her take the placement test. Saxon 8/7 is the usual pre-algebra book and is a good way to get used to the Saxon way of teaching before beginning algebra. If you use the older texts - 3rd editions (2nd for Advanced Math) - then the geometry is incorporated into the other texts. If you use the newer 4th edition ones, you'll need to do geometry as a separate text, either Saxon's or something different. Saxon teaches the lessons to the student in the texts and has practice problems followed by 30 practice and review problems. Saxon is a solid and rigorous program IMO. Whether you decide to use Saxon, AoPS or whatever, I would suggest making the change for next year as it gives your daughter that time to adjust and you'll also know whether it will likely work for high school or not

http://news.yahoo.com/debunking-myths-u-news-best-colleges-rankings-133000259.html According to US News, the admissions rate only accounts for 1.5 percent of the college ranking. Then again we've seen the meteoric rise of some colleges who went from essay heavy, college specific applications to using the Common Application. This combined with mass mailings helped their acceptance rate to plummet and their rankings to soar. Maybe other criteria was affected as well?

Just wanted to clarify for those who are new to the college selection process. Until recently I never had any reason to know the difference between merit scholarships and financial aid. Even when I explain to people, they still say that dd has been given a full scholarship. I hope your son gets good news from Cornell. The top private schools are usually less expensive than the public state schools for all but the highest earners. I imagine that holding out for an acceptance off a waitlist would be hard for students from the point of view of waiting longer and needing to accept or decline the other offers by May 1st. From what I've read here, dorm choice can be affected by the date a student accepts and submits their deposit, so there's more incentive to follow through on an acceptance. For the top schools it's such a small percentage, if any, who get admitted from waitlists, but it does vary from year to year.

Just want to clarify that Harvard, Cornell and most of the most selective colleges do not offer any merit scholarships, but there are exceptions. They are usually very generous with their financial aid and thereby offer need based aid to families with higher incomes which would not normally qualify for need based aid. For example, a student with a family income up to 180K may qualify for need based aid at Harvard. That is one of the most generous. The difficulty is getting in. I don't see how colleges could, or should, eliminate a waitlist. They can't possibly know with certainty how many of the accepted students will actually attend and need to undershoot somewhat to ensure they're not overbooked for dorm rooms. Recently some colleges have been surprised by higher than expected yields and ended up with a larger class than they wanted. But obviously there are other reasons for waitlisting at some schools. Heigh Ho maybe your son can write them a heartfelt email about how much he wants to attend and it's his first choice and not waiting on ivy decisions and needs help with the costs ... It can't hurt. To all who have students waitlited, rejected and are still waiting on decisions, Creekland is right and all should work out well in the end. The admissions process will soon be over. Hang in there. :grouphug:

I would second the suggestion to take Saxon's placement test. Maybe backing up to 8/7 for a bit to make sure the gaps are filled might help her to move more easily through algebra. Or, just keep moving slowly and teach/review the basics as you go, but I think that backing up a bit might give her more confidence in her math ability.

No experience, but if you don't get feedback, I'd go with your plan and submit it asap and then when they say it's fine, ask them for that in writing. It sounds to me like a transcript "from them" should work.

I don't know about this year's applicants, but dd was waitlisted at quite a few last year. I think for some it's just that they didn't make it into the few who are accepted, but for others, it's a way to protect their yield as they think the student is either "over qualified" and will choose a "better" college, or they can't or won't offer sufficient financial aid to make it possible for the student to attend. If your son really does want to attend there, he might want to send an email and talk with his admissions rep to help them see that if accepted off the waitlist, he really will attend. Of course if others are higher on his list, he may want to find out decisions on those schools first. He can also ask if some of the merit scholarships might be available to those accepted off the waitlist. I'd guess that some of the original recipients may choose to attend elsewhere.

I answered the question which wasn't asked. lol I was thinking in terms of which math courses could or should be studied together and not which areas of math are combined in a specific course.

It is easy to forget some of the terms used in Algebra 1 which aren't used in subsequent courses and do show up on standardized tests. Prep books are good for reviewing them. Solving the actual problems should be very easy after upper level math courses. Integrating algebra II and geometry works nicely, but I'm not sure what should be integrated after that. Pre-calculus is usually a time consuming course, so it might be a better stand-alone courses. Statistics and probability is often combined with calculus as the statistics is a lighter AP course - from what I've read. Other than that, until higher level college courses, the progression needs to be followed as the calculus courses build on each other.

Whatever you find that works well for him, I'd ask him if he'd be willing to work year round to help bring him up to a better level for engineering. If he's been bored with math this year, and previous years, he may be able to work longer each day and progress further that way too. Needing more of a challenge is a much better "problem" to have than if he's doing lighter math because he's been struggling. It's also easy to fix. You may also want to consider a conceptual physics course if he hasn't had any physics yet as it will probably be of interest and will give him time to get more algebra and trig before going with a more math heavy course. He can also learn programming without needing higher math to start. As for a specific math program, suggestions already given are good and if none of those fit his style, Saxon is great prep for engineers and continues through calculus. Lots of problems to solve. Geometry is also integrated into the "older" editions and would allow him to advance more easily. But the lessons and problems do take a good bit of time each day. There is no short cut. I'd also suggest SAT math prep books if he wants challenges, but it might be better in another year or so after he's learned more algebra and geometry.

I'd suggest she contact admissions and start arranging overnight visits at all three. That will help her decide. I doubt that UR's aid will be even close to Cornell, but I don't know this from personal experience, just that one meets 100% aid, and the other doesn't. It probably won't cost so much more that it would put it out of the running though. UR has the best access to a city, if that's important to her. As she'll be in engineering, I'd also have her look at the ratio of men to women in her department and take a look at the professors as well. Some are perfectly comfortable being one of only a few women, and others prefer a more balanced ratio. I have no idea how the three would compare on that basis. I agree with Creekland that I wouldn't lean towards Clarkson, but it might be a good fit with all the mentoring and opportunities. She needs to figure out that part.

It all depends on the student. There's also two ways of looking at the size of the pond and the fish. One is the physical size of the student body and the other is the academic strength of the student and the campus as a whole. Both should be taken into account as far as fit goes, but like everything related to fit it really is different for each student. It's possible to be a big fish in a big pond just as it's possible to end up a small fish in a small pond. And as has been said, it's also possible to find smaller swimming ponds within lakes. The student needs to visit the schools and spend as much time there as possible to get a feel for the fit. There are pros and cons to each scenario.

Young women and young men are so different! I will agree with needing lots of underwear especially for reading period and finals week, but do not think for a second that they will be turning anything inside out to extend their use. :lol: Then again, some seem to consider finals week grunginess some sort of badge of honor. :svengo: I think what you buy will depend entirely on what they already have and what they need. Some keep it all casual and can get by with relatively little, and others like variety and have clothing for any occasion. What I would keep in mind is that how your daughter already is is not likely to change significantly just by virtue of attending college. I would consider these to be some must haves for some though. Outerwear appropriate for the climate and all that goes along with that, backpack/messenger bag, business casual outfits, casual clothing or whatever they normally wear, work-out clothing appropriate to indoor and outdoor temps, bathing suit, shoes/boots as appropriate, shower shoes/flip-flops, bathrobe, slippers?, pjs, sweats, a business outfit, formal gown, and hats and accessories as needed. They don't have to have it all before they get there. Part of the fun is shopping locally with their new friends. I'd avoid overbuying ahead of time as some do pick up on the styles worn by the majority on campus. I would make sure that they have all the bedding and towels and such that they'll need right away. Orientation is very busy and there's little time for shopping. Some $$ for them to spend at the bookstore for them to show their school pride is also nice, and they may be getting some t-shirts during orientation and special events.

Agreeing with Kiana. I find it appalling that someone wants an adult struggling with a minimum wage job to pay full freight for their remedial classes, but wants the child of parents earning 200K plus to attend for free.

Introductory Chem should be fine for someone who hasn't taken chemistry in high school. Look at the course description for prerequisites. It probably doesn't have any except maybe a certain level of math. I wouldn't recommend going into General Chemistry without some previous exposure as that is intended for science majors, pre-med, etc.. Intro Chem or high school chemistry is usually a prerequisite for that. As for AP Chemistry, I'm not familiar with it but I believe that it covers only the first semester of a General Chemistry sequence and does that in a year as opposed to a single semester, so that should be doable at the slower pace.

No idea if there are others as I just remember being so happy for the two who got into MIT this year, so I noticed it missing. I'm sure everyone will be looking for theirs and let you know if anything's missing. You really have done a very nice job! And congrats to all the students and parents! On edit, I have no idea why I thought two were accepted. Congratulations to Snowbeltmom's MITer!

TechWife it is a very impressive list indeed and you've done a great job with updates and all! Looked through quickly, but I didn't see the MITers. Did I miss them?

The average cost of tuition for community colleges is about 3K. Families with income over 200K per year would have to shell out the full amount. Really not seeing the problem ...

I still think that Case and others waitlist or deny students based on protecting their yield or not being able or willing to meet financial need. I would imagine that when they evaluate the likelihood of a student attending, they not only look at stats, but at the family's finances. What they usually don't know is the parent's intent as to what they are able or willing to spend towards the student's education. Case is a great school and would likely have been a good fit. It was also the school with the lowest ranking and the highest acceptance rate out of all dd applied to, so we were considering it an admissions safety. It was one of the decisions which surprised us the most. In hindsight and having run the NPC, there is no way she could have afforded to attend as their aid would have been considerably lower than any of her offers and would have left an impossible gap. That's what they knew, and we didn't. The low percent of need met should have been our clue. A full ride scholarship is certainly worth trying for. I have no idea what scholarship dd applied for, or even if she applied. Applications are just a blur at this point. I tried to find a full ride scholarship now, but I can't seem to find one for Case. They may have discontinued it, but I have no idea. They do have several partial or full tuition scholarships. Maybe some of those stack to equal a full ride. No idea. I think that the waiting is even harder for homeschool moms. We have more invested and we're more involved in the process. With each decision I tended to second guess what I did in my role as guidance counselor. Did I answer that question the best way, did I give enough into, did I explain enough, was my advice on or off target ... these were some of the questions. But in the end, the majority of the schools she applied to were "lottery" schools as those were the ones with generous aid. And for those schools, there's any number of reasons why someone could be accepted, rejected, or waitlisted. So for those waiting on schools, especially the rolling admissions ones which should have given their decision weeks ago, I feel for you. Hopefully within a couple of weeks time, all will have received good news and can start shopping for dorm room accessories.

Dd was waitlisted at Case too and had also not demonstrated any interest. She would have been happy to attend, but she would not have chosen it over other choices. They were right in protecting their yield. Dd didn't pursue any of her waitlisted schools.

Sometimes the colleges you most expect acceptances from are the ones which will deny or waitlist as they expect the student will be admitted to "better" colleges and not accept the offer. As was said, they may be protecting their yield. It may also be purely financial as they might be trying to limit the amount they give out through merit scholarships. This time last year was so stressful for me as waiting was difficult. Everything becomes much clearer once all the offers are in hand. Hope he ends up at the best college for him. Hang in there.

University of Virginia is ranked #130. These rankings are all about international reputation.

Shhhh. Mama is 1800 miles away .... lol Cynthia, hoping and praying he heals quickly and well. :grouphug:

Syracuse is another. Smith has environmental science and policy but other engineering programs. I'd look for in-state options which are affordable even without an athletic scholarship. That would give her the option to join the team, and the ability to opt out if she wants to devote more time to academics. Here's a link so some top ocean engineering programs. http://study.com/articles/List_of_Top_Ocean_Engineering_Schools_and_Colleges.html