School Fair, 03 May 2018, Duke, Georgetown, Harvard and Penn; in Bogotá, Colombia

[Lanny]

The morning of April 19th, when I came home, DD told me about this event. She had received the invitation, from Penn, about 10 days before that, but didn't think that we could go up to Bogotá for this. DD and I needed to Renew our U.S. Passports, so I told her that if we could get appointments to do that, we would go, and come back very early this morning (608 A.M. flight), so she would be here for the SAT tomorrow morning. We made the 2 appointments with the U.S. Embassy and then I made the reservation for our return flight, which we took this morning. And then the other reservations, for the hotel and the flight from Cali to Bogotá.

DD initially had interest in Duke, several months ago, and then she also became interested in Penn and has  added Harvard to her list. Georgetown is an excellent university, but it is a Catholic university, and after 4 school years in a Catholic school, I don't think DD will be interested in attending any university that is affiliated with any religion.

My assumption (incorrect as usual) was that it would probably be over at about 10 P.M., but they finished at 830 P.M. and then were available, individually, for approximately 30 minutes in the lobby, so more questions could be asked of the Admissions Reps from the 4 schools. It was extremely short, but we learned so much. It was awesome. I remember using words like "wow" and "awesome"  and "excellent" to DD and my wife I am sure that DD felt the same way that I did. Their next stop is in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

They announced at the beginning that no photographs or videos or recordings could be made. I had never thought about doing that, but if they had permitted it, having a recording would be extremely nice.  So much information, in so little time...

These 4 schools are obviously extremely selective and they have huge Endowments. The Admissions are Need Blind. I do not believe they offer Merit aid.

There was one school, or possibly this is all of them, where they showed that a family with an income of less than $65K is expected to pay nothing.  And, that the Average cost to a family is $12K per year.

For those Overseas who are not U.S. Citizens, at least one of them has the same (?) Financial Aid available.

There was quite a bit about the Admissions Process and what they look for and that is far more encompassing than SAT and ACT scores and GPA.

Rigor is very important, but I don't think they place much trust, if any, or allow credit, for AP courses.

From reading threads here on WTM, and other things, I had an idea about how the Admissions process would work, but the session last night shed a great deal of light on this.

One thing I have read on WTM a number of times is that students can often attend a Private university for far less, than attending the Public universities in their own state. Possible exceptions to that are UNC in Chapel Hill, which I read is required by state law to have 82% of the Freshmen class be NC residents, and UVA in Charlottesville.  

DD will hopefully be able to sleep well tonight and hopefully she will do well on the SAT tomorrow. Good luck to everyone taking the SAT tomorrow!

I'm glad that we were able to attend this event last night.  I do not memorize things and there are probably a lot of things I would include here if I had a better memory...

OT: Wednesday, after the Embassy, we went to the Gold Museum, which I read several years ago was rated one of the 25 best Museums in the world. If you are ever in Bogotá, they suggest at least 2 or 3 hours. It is quite impressive.