College Admissions Questions (2 Viewers)

[humpback]

First kid going off to college next year. It’s been an interesting experience. Some things we didn’t expect was how big of a role being a legacy is with Ivy League schools. Also the disparity in cost between schools and what kind of money they give. Some of the better schools are actually cheaper which was a surprise. She got in to Tufts and waiting to hear from Brown and Dartmouth this upcoming week.

Have you noticed any patterns in the cost/aid, or does it seem random?

Good luck!

 

[gdub]

First kid going off to college next year. It’s been an interesting experience. Some things we didn’t expect was how big of a role being a legacy is with Ivy League schools. Also the disparity in cost between schools and what kind of money they give. Some of the better schools are actually cheaper which was a surprise. She got in to Tufts and waiting to hear from Brown and Dartmouth this upcoming week.

Have you noticed any patterns in the cost/aid, or does it seem random?

Good luck!

It is probably random, and the sample size is small, so I don’t want to make it sound like that is the case everywhere. I am only looking at schools in the Northeast region which is where my daughter wants to be located.

Schools like Providence College and The University of RI, with pretty high acceptance rates, would cost more than schools like Tufts and some Ivy with really low acceptance rates. These more academically rigorous schools meet that EFC number and even go below it. I found that surprising.

 

[STEADYMOBBIN 22]

Apologies if this is a repost:

List of every (?) available scholarship by deadline date

Nice. Any way to search through these?

Theres a sidebar on the right, about halfway down. Just noticed this today.

 

[humpback]

First kid going off to college next year. It’s been an interesting experience. Some things we didn’t expect was how big of a role being a legacy is with Ivy League schools. Also the disparity in cost between schools and what kind of money they give. Some of the better schools are actually cheaper which was a surprise. She got in to Tufts and waiting to hear from Brown and Dartmouth this upcoming week.

Have you noticed any patterns in the cost/aid, or does it seem random?

Good luck!

It is probably random, and the sample size is small, so I don’t want to make it sound like that is the case everywhere. I am only looking at schools in the Northeast region which is where my daughter wants to be located.

Schools like Providence College and The University of RI, with pretty high acceptance rates, would cost more than schools like Tufts and some Ivy with really low acceptance rates. These more academically rigorous schools meet that EFC number and even go below it. I found that surprising.

Understood. Are you talking about need based or merit aid? I know the more academically rigorous schools tend to have much larger endowments (hey now), so it makes sense that they would be able to offer larger aid packages, just not sure how universal that is.

 

[gdub]

First kid going off to college next year. It’s been an interesting experience. Some things we didn’t expect was how big of a role being a legacy is with Ivy League schools. Also the disparity in cost between schools and what kind of money they give. Some of the better schools are actually cheaper which was a surprise. She got in to Tufts and waiting to hear from Brown and Dartmouth this upcoming week.

Have you noticed any patterns in the cost/aid, or does it seem random?

Good luck!

It is probably random, and the sample size is small, so I don’t want to make it sound like that is the case everywhere. I am only looking at schools in the Northeast region which is where my daughter wants to be located.

Schools like Providence College and The University of RI, with pretty high acceptance rates, would cost more than schools like Tufts and some Ivy with really low acceptance rates. These more academically rigorous schools meet that EFC number and even go below it. I found that surprising.

Understood. Are you talking about need based or merit aid? I know the more academically rigorous schools tend to have much larger endowments (hey now), so it makes sense that they would be able to offer larger aid packages, just not sure how universal that is.

Need based…and you are right about the endowment thing. That seems to be the biggest factor in reducing the price tag.

 

[pmedina]

Apologies if this is a repost:

List of every (?) available scholarship by deadline date

I’ve mentioned this this before, but if your kid is a NMF/semi finalist or national recognition scholar (mine is Hispanic, but they also have them for AA and rural students), Alabama, Arizona, and Nebraska are hard to beat for $$ and the best part is that the criteria are automatic (this scholar gets x, or have a GPA and ACT of Y get x).

Here Alabama’s https://scholarships.ua.edu/freshman/diversity-merit-scholarship/ - they even pay for Freshman housing.

We are going to visit Georgia Tech and Bama this week.

 

[pmedina]

Vaguely related question... For your kids that have cars, is the car in their name or yours?
Does it make any difference when schools are reviewing assets for financial aid?
While I'm asking, any difference in insurance rates or anything else to consider?

Interesting question. No idea, don’t recall it ever being part of any question. My oldest owns his car because his grandfather gave it to him since he helped a lot while grandfather lived with us with cancer before he passed at his home (couldn’t drive anymore). My middle son drives my wife’s/my car but I’m not even bothering with FAFSA for him. App State is where he’s going and it’s pretty inexpensive, relatively speaking. As for insurance, I don’t believe it matters or ever came up.

Car should not factor into financial aid considerations.

 

[pmedina]

Final stretch for admissions, good luck to all those waiting for final decisions and congratulations to all that have made their decisions!

Everyone has a place they can thrive and find their tribe .

 

[Drunken knight]

We also have a junior 3.83; lacrosse; marketing.

Doing our first tour over spring break to San Diego, la(ish), and Santa Barbara

trip is deferred. she is starting to think about pre-med

 

[pmedina]

Final Update on Admissions - (sorry for the long post). First, thanks for your support and well wishes; it is a stressful process! Also, congratulations to all new college students; as a first-generation student, it has been a life-altering event that I am happy to pass on to my children. Unlike me, it has never been if they are going to college, just where!

Admits:

Applied Math (Quantitative Finance) - Michigan, Carnegie Mellon, UCLA, Minnesota

Mechanical Engineering – Georgia Tech, UIUC, Purdue

Undeclared – Nebraska (Math, CS ), Alabama (Math, CS, Engineering), OU (Engineering), Ok State


Waitlist (we have opted into all, listed in the odds of getting off the waitlist from low to high based on the Common Data Set):

Amherst – would potentially accept it as the small size appeals to him.

Cornell – would possibly accept, do not see a big difference between it and Carnegie Mellon. The main difference is Pittsburgh vs. Ithica. We will see how he likes CMU and Pittsburgh.

Berkeley – unlikely to accept as he sees no difference between it and UCLA and Michigan for math; they have taken as many as 30% of the waitlist in the past.


Denied:

MIT, Stanford, Brown, WashU, USC

Overall, it went as well as we could have hoped. I thought he had a chance for one of WashU, Amherst, USC, and Cornell and would’ve liked one more choice on the small, private side. We are heading on a road trip to Alabama and GT tomorrow, UCLA on the 15th, and Carnegie Mellon on the 24th.

Nebraska and Alabama seem like outliers, but he is accepted into specialized honors subsets of those schools with excellent Merit Aid. Oklahoma schools are in case he gets cold feet about moving.

If anyone has thoughts about the above programs or works in those fields (especially math), I would appreciate them (they are listed in a somewhat order of preference). I worry about the competitive nature of some of these programs, but I know they are all excellent in their ways. We are full pay and out of state for all ☹.

 

[El Floppo]

congrats, medina... lots of amazing options there!

Ithaca is gorges! (sorry).

that's about 20 schools applied to- is that typical for kids now?

 

[pmedina]

congrats, medina... lots of amazing options there!

Ithaca is gorges! (sorry).

that's about 20 schools applied to- is that typical for kids now?

I would recommend around ten depending on the major selected - (2 safeties, 3-5 targets, 3-5 reaches) - and make sure it is a true safety (which means acceptance, affordability, and one your student will be happy to attend).

 

[The Z Machine]

@pmedina , can you describe your son a bit for us? What is he in to? What is his social scene? What type of school most appeals to him?

 

[((Morpheus))]

Final Update on Admissions - (sorry for the long post). First, thanks for your support and well wishes; it is a stressful process! Also, congratulations to all new college students; as a first-generation student, it has been a life-altering event that I am happy to pass on to my children. Unlike me, it has never been if they are going to college, just where!

Admits:

Applied Math (Quantitative Finance) - Michigan, Carnegie Mellon, UCLA, Minnesota

Mechanical Engineering – Georgia Tech, UIUC, Purdue

Undeclared – Nebraska (Math, CS ), Alabama (Math, CS, Engineering), OU (Engineering), Ok State


Waitlist (we have opted into all, listed in the odds of getting off the waitlist from low to high based on the Common Data Set):

Amherst – would potentially accept it as the small size appeals to him.

Cornell – would possibly accept, do not see a big difference between it and Carnegie Mellon. The main difference is Pittsburgh vs. Ithica. We will see how he likes CMU and Pittsburgh.

Berkeley – unlikely to accept as he sees no difference between it and UCLA and Michigan for math; they have taken as many as 30% of the waitlist in the past.


Denied:

MIT, Stanford, Brown, WashU, USC

Overall, it went as well as we could have hoped. I thought he had a chance for one of WashU, Amherst, USC, and Cornell and would’ve liked one more choice on the small, private side. We are heading on a road trip to Alabama and GT tomorrow, UCLA on the 15th, and Carnegie Mellon on the 24th.

Nebraska and Alabama seem like outliers, but he is accepted into specialized honors subsets of those schools with excellent Merit Aid. Oklahoma schools are in case he gets cold feet about moving.

If anyone has thoughts about the above programs or works in those fields (especially math), I would appreciate them (they are listed in a somewhat order of preference). I worry about the competitive nature of some of these programs, but I know they are all excellent in their ways. We are full pay and out of state for all ☹.

Congrats! Applied mathematician here, happy to help. Shoot me a DM

 

[Galileo]

congrats, medina... lots of amazing options there!

Ithaca is gorges! (sorry).

that's about 20 schools applied to- is that typical for kids now?

I would recommend around ten depending on the major selected - (2 safeties, 3-5 targets, 3-5 reaches) - and make sure it is a true safety (which means acceptance, affordability, and one your student will be happy to attend).

In contrast, my kids applied to 4 each.

 

[bigbottom]

congrats, medina... lots of amazing options there!

Ithaca is gorges! (sorry).

that's about 20 schools applied to- is that typical for kids now?

I would recommend around ten depending on the major selected - (2 safeties, 3-5 targets, 3-5 reaches) - and make sure it is a true safety (which means acceptance, affordability, and one your student will be happy to attend).

This is pretty much exactly what my kid did.

Congrats on a successful process. Your son has a bunch of amazing options!!!

 

[pmedina]

@pmedina , can you describe your son a bit for us? What is he in to? What is his social scene? What type of school most appeals to him?

Quiet, introspective, and spends most of the time at home, but whenever we go anywhere and see people everyone seems to like/know him (gets a lot of shout outs saying his name), so I think he’s relatively popular at school, just has small group of friends.

Has a girlfriend, and has attended all the proms with other dates, so must have some socials skills I’m not aware of .

For activities - runs cross country, played club soccer, and plays the violin - again seems liked on the team. He likes watching other sports (football, etc) but not obsessed.

So far on the visits he likes the Michigan vibe of the places we’ve seen. We’re from a suburb of OKC, so not the boondocks, but obviously not a LA or ATL.

I’m worried his quietness will get him overrun at a big school where you have to be aggressive for resources/attention. Hates to “bother” people.

 

[PIK95]

First kid going off to college next year. It’s been an interesting experience. Some things we didn’t expect was how big of a role being a legacy is with Ivy League schools. Also the disparity in cost between schools and what kind of money they give. Some of the better schools are actually cheaper which was a surprise. She got in to Tufts and waiting to hear from Brown and Dartmouth this upcoming week.

Have you noticed any patterns in the cost/aid, or does it seem random?

Good luck!

It is probably random, and the sample size is small, so I don’t want to make it sound like that is the case everywhere. I am only looking at schools in the Northeast region which is where my daughter wants to be located.

Schools like Providence College and The University of RI, with pretty high acceptance rates, would cost more than schools like Tufts and some Ivy with really low acceptance rates. These more academically rigorous schools meet that EFC number and even go below it. I found that surprising.

My buddy is the AD at Providence. My son didn't apply there. To expensive mostly. He will probably end up at URI. We haven't got much good aid from any school except RICollege, where he really doesn't want to go. Still taking to soccer coaches, hoping that works out. Congrats on all your options. That's great!

 

[pmedina]

Final Update on Admissions - (sorry for the long post). First, thanks for your support and well wishes; it is a stressful process! Also, congratulations to all new college students; as a first-generation student, it has been a life-altering event that I am happy to pass on to my children. Unlike me, it has never been if they are going to college, just where!

Admits:

Applied Math (Quantitative Finance) - Michigan, Carnegie Mellon, UCLA, Minnesota

Mechanical Engineering – Georgia Tech, UIUC, Purdue

Undeclared – Nebraska (Math, CS ), Alabama (Math, CS, Engineering), OU (Engineering), Ok State


Waitlist (we have opted into all, listed in the odds of getting off the waitlist from low to high based on the Common Data Set):

Amherst – would potentially accept it as the small size appeals to him.

Cornell – would possibly accept, do not see a big difference between it and Carnegie Mellon. The main difference is Pittsburgh vs. Ithica. We will see how he likes CMU and Pittsburgh.

Berkeley – unlikely to accept as he sees no difference between it and UCLA and Michigan for math; they have taken as many as 30% of the waitlist in the past.


Denied:

MIT, Stanford, Brown, WashU, USC

Overall, it went as well as we could have hoped. I thought he had a chance for one of WashU, Amherst, USC, and Cornell and would’ve liked one more choice on the small, private side. We are heading on a road trip to Alabama and GT tomorrow, UCLA on the 15th, and Carnegie Mellon on the 24th.

Nebraska and Alabama seem like outliers, but he is accepted into specialized honors subsets of those schools with excellent Merit Aid. Oklahoma schools are in case he gets cold feet about moving.

If anyone has thoughts about the above programs or works in those fields (especially math), I would appreciate them (they are listed in a somewhat order of preference). I worry about the competitive nature of some of these programs, but I know they are all excellent in their ways. We are full pay and out of state for all ☹.

Congrats! Applied mathematician here, happy to help. Shoot me a DM

Sent a message (hopefully, correctly).

 

[Instinctive]

@pmedina , can you describe your son a bit for us? What is he in to? What is his social scene? What type of school most appeals to him?

Quiet, introspective, and spends most of the time at home, but whenever we go anywhere and see people everyone seems to like/know him (gets a lot of shout outs saying his name), so I think he’s relatively popular at school, just has small group of friends.

Has a girlfriend, and has attended all the proms with other dates, so must have some socials skills I’m not aware of .

For activities - runs cross country, played club soccer, and plays the violin - again seems liked on the team. He likes watching other sports (football, etc) but not obsessed.

So far on the visits he likes the Michigan vibe of the places we’ve seen. We’re from a suburb of OKC, so not the boondocks, but obviously not a LA or ATL.

I’m worried his quietness will get him overrun at a big school where you have to be aggressive for resources/attention. Hates to “bother” people.

I loved my time at OU, and would only offer these as words of advice:

1. It was nice to be far enough away from home (Dallas at the time) to not be able to depend, rely on, or see parents often - or have them drop in - but still be close enough to see them when needed. Forced me to grow up and that was wildly important to developing a real work ethic and being where I am today (vs HS where I had very little work ethic and was just smarter than everyone else and didn't have to try)

2. He sounds like a really good student, so if he's at OU, make sure he's in the Honors College. That was basically the only place where everyone had uniformly consistent high caliber academics, the honors college versions of classes (most gen eds have a section, and then some honors college specific courses) were all fantastic and challenging

3. If at OU, there are also college-specific honors programs - make sure to get the info quickly and target them (most you apply to sophomore year - I know for sure the Arts and Sciences one and the Business one) which do a great job on providing a cohort of similarly minded students

4. By all accounts, around 5-10 years ago Alabama basically liked what OU had done with the honors college and national merit scholarships and copy/pasted the programs and has done awesome with them (no firsthand knowledge there)

 

[pmedina]

@pmedina , can you describe your son a bit for us? What is he in to? What is his social scene? What type of school most appeals to him?

Quiet, introspective, and spends most of the time at home, but whenever we go anywhere and see people everyone seems to like/know him (gets a lot of shout outs saying his name), so I think he’s relatively popular at school, just has small group of friends.

Has a girlfriend, and has attended all the proms with other dates, so must have some socials skills I’m not aware of .

For activities - runs cross country, played club soccer, and plays the violin - again seems liked on the team. He likes watching other sports (football, etc) but not obsessed.

So far on the visits he likes the Michigan vibe of the places we’ve seen. We’re from a suburb of OKC, so not the boondocks, but obviously not a LA or ATL.

I’m worried his quietness will get him overrun at a big school where you have to be aggressive for resources/attention. Hates to “bother” people.

I loved my time at OU, and would only offer these as words of advice:

1. It was nice to be far enough away from home (Dallas at the time) to not be able to depend, rely on, or see parents often - or have them drop in - but still be close enough to see them when needed. Forced me to grow up and that was wildly important to developing a real work ethic and being where I am today (vs HS where I had very little work ethic and was just smarter than everyone else and didn't have to try)

2. He sounds like a really good student, so if he's at OU, make sure he's in the Honors College. That was basically the only place where everyone had uniformly consistent high caliber academics, the honors college versions of classes (most gen eds have a section, and then some honors college specific courses) were all fantastic and challenging

3. If at OU, there are also college-specific honors programs - make sure to get the info quickly and target them (most you apply to sophomore year - I know for sure the Arts and Sciences one and the Business one) which do a great job on providing a cohort of similarly minded students

4. By all accounts, around 5-10 years ago Alabama basically liked what OU had done with the honors college and national merit scholarships and copy/pasted the programs and has done awesome with them (no firsthand knowledge there)

Agree on all! My daughter has been happy at OU and I was a professor there for over 20 years before leaving academia for greener pastures . I live about 30 miles from campus.

Bama definitely trying to mimic OU on attracting National Merits.

 

[The Z Machine]

Admits:

Applied Math (Quantitative Finance) - Michigan, Carnegie Mellon, UCLA, Minnesota

Mechanical Engineering – Georgia Tech, UIUC, Purdue

Undeclared – Nebraska (Math, CS ), Alabama (Math, CS, Engineering), OU (Engineering), Ok State

Definitely some cultural differences in these big schools. UCLA vs. UIUC vs. OU. I really only know about UCLA, Berkeley, Georgia Tech, CMU, and Purdue.

Is he interested in watching D1 college sports? Does he care if they win?

Is he going to participate in Greek life? The UC schools are pretty weak for Greek life, particularly at Cal.

Since you're going to pay full tuition out of state, and it doesn't sound like finances are a major issue, I'd look strongly at CMU. Very well regarded programs in high tech ME (robotics, integration with computer science as opposed to more traditional ME like combustion engines) and applied math as well. He's unlikely to get lost in he numbers there and he'll get a damn fine education that can cross a few technical areas.

Waitlist (we have opted into all, listed in the odds of getting off the waitlist from low to high based on the Common Data Set):

Amherst – would potentially accept it as the small size appeals to him.

Cornell – would possibly accept, do not see a big difference between it and Carnegie Mellon. The main difference is Pittsburgh vs. Ithica. We will see how he likes CMU and Pittsburgh.

Berkeley – unlikely to accept as he sees no difference between it and UCLA and Michigan for math; they have taken as many as 30% of the waitlist in the past

Agreed on Berkeley vs UCLA. UCLA is bigger and has a little less history than Cal. But the girls are better looking in LA vs. the bay area and UCLA actually has a chance to win stuff in football and basketball.

Michigan is kinda in between but being in a college town has its perks compared to a giant city like LA. Again, cultural differences.

The advantage about Cornell is the "ivy" name and connections in New York. Those are real and I've seen networking help Cornell grads first hand. I wouldn't be able to withstand the winter though.

 

[((Morpheus))]

Admits:

Applied Math (Quantitative Finance) - Michigan, Carnegie Mellon, UCLA, Minnesota

Mechanical Engineering – Georgia Tech, UIUC, Purdue

Undeclared – Nebraska (Math, CS ), Alabama (Math, CS, Engineering), OU (Engineering), Ok State

Definitely some cultural differences in these big schools. UCLA vs. UIUC vs. OU. I really only know about UCLA, Berkeley, Georgia Tech, CMU, and Purdue.

Is he interested in watching D1 college sports? Does he care if they win?

Is he going to participate in Greek life? The UC schools are pretty weak for Greek life, particularly at Cal.

Since you're going to pay full tuition out of state, and it doesn't sound like finances are a major issue, I'd look strongly at CMU. Very well regarded programs in high tech ME (robotics, integration with computer science as opposed to more traditional ME like combustion engines) and applied math as well. He's unlikely to get lost in he numbers there and he'll get a damn fine education that can cross a few technical areas.

Waitlist (we have opted into all, listed in the odds of getting off the waitlist from low to high based on the Common Data Set):

Amherst – would potentially accept it as the small size appeals to him.

Cornell – would possibly accept, do not see a big difference between it and Carnegie Mellon. The main difference is Pittsburgh vs. Ithica. We will see how he likes CMU and Pittsburgh.

Berkeley – unlikely to accept as he sees no difference between it and UCLA and Michigan for math; they have taken as many as 30% of the waitlist in the past

Agreed on Berkeley vs UCLA. UCLA is bigger and has a little less history than Cal. But the girls are better looking in LA vs. the bay area and UCLA actually has a chance to win stuff in football and basketball.

Michigan is kinda in between but being in a college town has its perks compared to a giant city like LA. Again, cultural differences.

The advantage about Cornell is the "ivy" name and connections in New York. Those are real and I've seen networking help Cornell grads first hand. I wouldn't be able to withstand the winter though.

 

[pmedina]

Admits:

Applied Math (Quantitative Finance) - Michigan, Carnegie Mellon, UCLA, Minnesota

Mechanical Engineering – Georgia Tech, UIUC, Purdue

Undeclared – Nebraska (Math, CS ), Alabama (Math, CS, Engineering), OU (Engineering), Ok State

Definitely some cultural differences in these big schools. UCLA vs. UIUC vs. OU. I really only know about UCLA, Berkeley, Georgia Tech, CMU, and Purdue.

Is he interested in watching D1 college sports? Does he care if they win?

Is he going to participate in Greek life? The UC schools are pretty weak for Greek life, particularly at Cal.

Since you're going to pay full tuition out of state, and it doesn't sound like finances are a major issue, I'd look strongly at CMU. Very well regarded programs in high tech ME (robotics, integration with computer science as opposed to more traditional ME like combustion engines) and applied math as well. He's unlikely to get lost in he numbers there and he'll get a damn fine education that can cross a few technical areas.

Waitlist (we have opted into all, listed in the odds of getting off the waitlist from low to high based on the Common Data Set):

Amherst – would potentially accept it as the small size appeals to him.

Cornell – would possibly accept, do not see a big difference between it and Carnegie Mellon. The main difference is Pittsburgh vs. Ithica. We will see how he likes CMU and Pittsburgh.

Berkeley – unlikely to accept as he sees no difference between it and UCLA and Michigan for math; they have taken as many as 30% of the waitlist in the past

Agreed on Berkeley vs UCLA. UCLA is bigger and has a little less history than Cal. But the girls are better looking in LA vs. the bay area and UCLA actually has a chance to win stuff in football and basketball.

Michigan is kinda in between but being in a college town has its perks compared to a giant city like LA. Again, cultural differences.

The advantage about Cornell is the "ivy" name and connections in New York. Those are real and I've seen networking help Cornell grads first hand. I wouldn't be able to withstand the winter though.

Thanks so much!

Greek life he’s meh at this point. If he did it would be a frat that leans to attracting STEM students.

He would like to watch D1 sports, but says it’s not his top priority.

He’s been reading online and laughed that for Michigan/UCLA they have a work hard/play hard mentality and at CMU and GT it’s work hard/work harder .

Lucky that finances are not driving the decision, but it’s not a small check for us, and I don’t want to overpay. It’s one of the reasons I left academia.

No banking on any waitlist schools, but Cornell and Amherst would be strongly considered based on the personal attention.

To give everyone my thoughts, I like CMU or GT. If I’m going to pay that much I’d like a personalized experience (CMU) and GT for the money is actually a good value (Purdue also fits here).

As for culture, he’s never lived outside Suburbia USA.

 

[Instinctive]

@pmedina , can you describe your son a bit for us? What is he in to? What is his social scene? What type of school most appeals to him?

Quiet, introspective, and spends most of the time at home, but whenever we go anywhere and see people everyone seems to like/know him (gets a lot of shout outs saying his name), so I think he’s relatively popular at school, just has small group of friends.

Has a girlfriend, and has attended all the proms with other dates, so must have some socials skills I’m not aware of .

For activities - runs cross country, played club soccer, and plays the violin - again seems liked on the team. He likes watching other sports (football, etc) but not obsessed.

So far on the visits he likes the Michigan vibe of the places we’ve seen. We’re from a suburb of OKC, so not the boondocks, but obviously not a LA or ATL.

I’m worried his quietness will get him overrun at a big school where you have to be aggressive for resources/attention. Hates to “bother” people.

I loved my time at OU, and would only offer these as words of advice:

1. It was nice to be far enough away from home (Dallas at the time) to not be able to depend, rely on, or see parents often - or have them drop in - but still be close enough to see them when needed. Forced me to grow up and that was wildly important to developing a real work ethic and being where I am today (vs HS where I had very little work ethic and was just smarter than everyone else and didn't have to try)

2. He sounds like a really good student, so if he's at OU, make sure he's in the Honors College. That was basically the only place where everyone had uniformly consistent high caliber academics, the honors college versions of classes (most gen eds have a section, and then some honors college specific courses) were all fantastic and challenging

3. If at OU, there are also college-specific honors programs - make sure to get the info quickly and target them (most you apply to sophomore year - I know for sure the Arts and Sciences one and the Business one) which do a great job on providing a cohort of similarly minded students

4. By all accounts, around 5-10 years ago Alabama basically liked what OU had done with the honors college and national merit scholarships and copy/pasted the programs and has done awesome with them (no firsthand knowledge there)

Agree on all! My daughter has been happy at OU and I was a professor there for over 20 years before leaving academia for greener pastures . I live about 30 miles from campus.

Bama definitely trying to mimic OU on attracting National Merits.

Wonder if I had you - what did you teach?

 

[STEADYMOBBIN 22]

I’m venting a little here because I can’t vent anywhere else….

The visit to Penn State Altoona was a complete disaster. Same price as UP but the dorms are the size of my car and there is NO AIR CONDITIONING. $50k/year and no air conditioning?

ZERO flair or campus pride. The two dorks who escorted us on our tour barely new anything and basically acted like they couldnt get away faster. The whole tour was 35 minutes. I know Altoona isn’t University Park but FFS they didn’t even give this a honest try.

My wife takes her to Salabury and they blew her socks off.

Now my daughter is staying in this awful state for college and is now gonna be on the crappy eastern shore.

Note. There’s nothing wrong with the eastern shore or Salabury, Theyve actually poured over $350 million into the campus recently and it shows. I just want more for my kids than to stay here. I’m born and raised in Maryland and have lived here ever since. I’m crestfallen.

Obviously IRL I’m all Smiles and positivity.

 

[The Z Machine]

There’s nothing wrong with the eastern shore or Salabury, I just want more for my kids than to stay here. I’m crestfallen

I can understand that perspective.

But there's plenty of life out there for her. Study abroad or even a transfer of she doesn't like Salisbury. Plus, if she leaves college with little or no debt, she'll be free to take a lower paying but more satisfying job anywhere.

 

[belljr]

I’m venting a little here because I can’t vent anywhere else….

The visit to Penn State Altoona was a complete disaster. Same price as UP but the dorms are the size of my car and there is NO AIR CONDITIONING. $50k/year and no air conditioning?

ZERO flair or campus pride. The two dorks who escorted us on our tour barely new anything and basically acted like they could t get away faster. The whole tour was 20 minutes. I know Altoona isn’t University Park but FFS they didn’t even give this a honest try.

My wife takes her to Salabury and they blew her socks off.

Now my daughter is staying in this awful state for college and is now gonna be on the crappy eastern shore.

Note. There’s nothing wrong with the eastern shore or Salabury, I just want more for my kids than to stay here. I’m crestfallen.

Obviously IRL I’m all Smiles and positivity.

forgive me if i missed it - but if you are Main Campus acceptance why visit Altoona at all?

 

[STEADYMOBBIN 22]

I’m venting a little here because I can’t vent anywhere else….

The visit to Penn State Altoona was a complete disaster. Same price as UP but the dorms are the size of my car and there is NO AIR CONDITIONING. $50k/year and no air conditioning?

ZERO flair or campus pride. The two dorks who escorted us on our tour barely new anything and basically acted like they could t get away faster. The whole tour was 20 minutes. I know Altoona isn’t University Park but FFS they didn’t even give this a honest try.

My wife takes her to Salabury and they blew her socks off.

Now my daughter is staying in this awful state for college and is now gonna be on the crappy eastern shore.

Note. There’s nothing wrong with the eastern shore or Salabury, I just want more for my kids than to stay here. I’m crestfallen.

Obviously IRL I’m all Smiles and positivity.

forgive me if i missed it - but if you are Main Campus acceptance why visit Altoona at all?

She didn’t get into the main campus. She got into their 2+2 program. Her plan was two year there and two years at UP.

She was all for putting in the work. Altoona is the closest to UP.

I was happy with it because it was smaller, she could get her feet wet and get accustomed to college life without the distractions of the ginormous UP.

 

[STEADYMOBBIN 22]

There’s nothing wrong with the eastern shore or Salabury, I just want more for my kids than to stay here. I’m crestfallen

I can understand that perspective.

But there's plenty of life out there for her. Study abroad or even a transfer of she doesn't like Salisbury. Plus, if she leaves college with little or no debt, she'll be free to take a lower paying but more satisfying job anywhere.

And I do appreciate this perspective. It isn’t about what I want but what she wants and will be successful at.

I’m paying for it (provided they graduate with a degree).

I was just venting. I’m moving on.

WE ARE

seagulls

 

[humpback]

I’m venting a little here because I can’t vent anywhere else….

The visit to Penn State Altoona was a complete disaster. Same price as UP but the dorms are the size of my car and there is NO AIR CONDITIONING. $50k/year and no air conditioning?

ZERO flair or campus pride. The two dorks who escorted us on our tour barely new anything and basically acted like they couldnt get away faster. The whole tour was 35 minutes. I know Altoona isn’t University Park but FFS they didn’t even give this a honest try.

My wife takes her to Salabury and they blew her socks off.

Now my daughter is staying in this awful state for college and is now gonna be on the crappy eastern shore.

Note. There’s nothing wrong with the eastern shore or Salabury, Theyve actually poured over $350 million into the campus recently and it shows. I just want more for my kids than to stay here. I’m born and raised in Maryland and have lived here ever since. I’m crestfallen.

Obviously IRL I’m all Smiles and positivity.

Just a thought since it sounds like you and your wife split up the tours- were these your daughter's thoughts too, or do you think maybe you and your wife have different approaches/expectations? It's something I've thought about as we go through this now, it isn't practical for my wife and I to go on every visit but it makes it harder to make direct comparisons- I may have hated something she loved or vice versa. Also, we have to bite our tongues a lot so we don't overly influence our daughter while on these tours.

And at Salabury, twice, even after editing.

 

[bigbottom]

I’m venting a little here because I can’t vent anywhere else….

The visit to Penn State Altoona was a complete disaster. Same price as UP but the dorms are the size of my car and there is NO AIR CONDITIONING. $50k/year and no air conditioning?

ZERO flair or campus pride. The two dorks who escorted us on our tour barely new anything and basically acted like they couldnt get away faster. The whole tour was 35 minutes. I know Altoona isn’t University Park but FFS they didn’t even give this a honest try.

My wife takes her to Salabury and they blew her socks off.

Now my daughter is staying in this awful state for college and is now gonna be on the crappy eastern shore.

Note. There’s nothing wrong with the eastern shore or Salabury, Theyve actually poured over $350 million into the campus recently and it shows. I just want more for my kids than to stay here. I’m born and raised in Maryland and have lived here ever since. I’m crestfallen.

Obviously IRL I’m all Smiles and positivity.

Just a thought since it sounds like you and your wife split up the tours- were these your daughter's thoughts too, or do you think maybe you and your wife have different approaches/expectations? It's something I've thought about as we go through this now, it isn't practical for my wife and I to go on every visit but it makes it harder to make direct comparisons- I may have hated something she loved or vice versa. Also, we have to bite our tongues a lot so we don't overly influence our daughter while on these tours.

And at Salabury, twice, even after editing.

Between my wife and me, we took our son on about 12-13 tours. My wife was with him on all of them, and I made maybe half of them. While we both had opinions and favorites, at the end of the day, what we thought played very little role in the school he ultimately chose. Now granted, we had spent a lifetime saving for school (and we only have one college education to pay for), so cost was not going to ultimately be a prohibitive factor. Otherwise, yeah, our input would have been more of a factor by necessity.

 

[scorchy]

Waitlist (we have opted into all, listed in the odds of getting off the waitlist from low to high based on the Common Data Set):

Amherst – would potentially accept it as the small size appeals to him.

This doesn't really open up a spot or anything given yield management algorithms, but I know at least one admitted student who's turning down Amherst - senior at my son's school that's an excellent student and all-around great kid with a first-generation hook. He carpet bombed applications, in some cases solely based on ranking with no real intention of attending, and did really well. I know at least a few kids with better stats that got waitlisted at Amherst, Chicago, and a few UCs that are pretty displeased with him, which is a shame. I get it, but I'm also not sure he knew any better and didn't necessarily follow the advice of the school counselors.

 

[scorchy]

that's about 20 schools applied to- is that typical for kids now?

Mine applied to ten (two rolling in early September, one restrictive early action, six early action, and one regular). He pulled all but the one regular decision once he got the REA acceptance in mid-December. Probably would have added three or four more if that hadn't come in.

I can't recommend enough getting in a rolling decision app or two soon after school starts. It's great for the anxiety to get that first acceptance from a school you like.

 

[humpback]

I’m venting a little here because I can’t vent anywhere else….

The visit to Penn State Altoona was a complete disaster. Same price as UP but the dorms are the size of my car and there is NO AIR CONDITIONING. $50k/year and no air conditioning?

ZERO flair or campus pride. The two dorks who escorted us on our tour barely new anything and basically acted like they couldnt get away faster. The whole tour was 35 minutes. I know Altoona isn’t University Park but FFS they didn’t even give this a honest try.

My wife takes her to Salabury and they blew her socks off.

Now my daughter is staying in this awful state for college and is now gonna be on the crappy eastern shore.

Note. There’s nothing wrong with the eastern shore or Salabury, Theyve actually poured over $350 million into the campus recently and it shows. I just want more for my kids than to stay here. I’m born and raised in Maryland and have lived here ever since. I’m crestfallen.

Obviously IRL I’m all Smiles and positivity.

Just a thought since it sounds like you and your wife split up the tours- were these your daughter's thoughts too, or do you think maybe you and your wife have different approaches/expectations? It's something I've thought about as we go through this now, it isn't practical for my wife and I to go on every visit but it makes it harder to make direct comparisons- I may have hated something she loved or vice versa. Also, we have to bite our tongues a lot so we don't overly influence our daughter while on these tours.

And at Salabury, twice, even after editing.

Between my wife and me, we took our son on about 12-13 tours. My wife was with him on all of them, and I made maybe half of them. While we both had opinions and favorites, at the end of the day, what we thought played very little role in the school he ultimately chose. Now granted, we had spent a lifetime saving for school (and we only have one college education to pay for), so cost was not going to ultimately be a prohibitive factor. Otherwise, yeah, our input would have been more of a factor by necessity.

Yeah, how much of a say each has in the decision is going to vary from family to family, I was more factoring in parental influence on the child's opinion (the amount of parental influence on their opinion will also vary from family to family).

I may walk around a campus mumbling "$50/k a year and all you get is a room smaller than my car and no air conditioning?!?" where my wife might say "you won't be spending much time in your dorm because there's so many awesome things to do and the campus is so beautiful with such great weather that you don't even need air conditioning!"

That's just a hypothetical of course , but I do always remind myself to try to keep my comments to a minimum (both positive and negative) because I want her true feelings.

 

[scorchy]

Now my daughter is staying in this awful state for college and is now gonna be on the crappy eastern shore.

Note. There’s nothing wrong with the eastern shore or Salabury, Theyve actually poured over $350 million into the campus recently and it shows. I just want more for my kids than to stay here. I’m born and raised in Maryland and have lived here ever since. I’m crestfallen.

Obviously IRL I’m all Smiles and positivity.

It would seem disingenuous at this point for me to sing the praises of the eastern shore, but she may actually be happier at Salisbury.

I wasn't going to write this earlier given the excitement, but I know several folks who went to a PSU satellite campus that were less than happy with their experiences. Generally, they felt the campus vibes were really disconnected given (1) huge numbers of commuters and (2) none of the kids planned to be there for more than a year or two. They said a lot of the kids they knew never made it to UP for their junior years. I may hate Salisbury the town but I have to think it's just as nice as Altoona and I know that the college itself is a much tighter community.

So cheers to your daughter. If we're ever in town at the same time, I'll buy you a beer at Evolution Craft Brewery (even though you're a Cowboys fan )

 

[pmedina]

Waitlist (we have opted into all, listed in the odds of getting off the waitlist from low to high based on the Common Data Set):

Amherst – would potentially accept it as the small size appeals to him.

This doesn't really open up a spot or anything given yield management algorithms, but I know at least one admitted student who's turning down Amherst - senior at my son's school that's an excellent student and all-around great kid with a first-generation hook. He carpet bombed applications, in some cases solely based on ranking with no real intention of attending, and did really well. I know at least a few kids with better stats that got waitlisted at Amherst, Chicago, and a few UCs that are pretty displeased with him, which is a shame. I get it, but I'm also not sure he knew any better and didn't necessarily follow the advice of the school counselors.

Well if he’s from Oklahoma maybe it helps out chances

 

[pmedina]

@pmedina , can you describe your son a bit for us? What is he in to? What is his social scene? What type of school most appeals to him?

Quiet, introspective, and spends most of the time at home, but whenever we go anywhere and see people everyone seems to like/know him (gets a lot of shout outs saying his name), so I think he’s relatively popular at school, just has small group of friends.

Has a girlfriend, and has attended all the proms with other dates, so must have some socials skills I’m not aware of .

For activities - runs cross country, played club soccer, and plays the violin - again seems liked on the team. He likes watching other sports (football, etc) but not obsessed.

So far on the visits he likes the Michigan vibe of the places we’ve seen. We’re from a suburb of OKC, so not the boondocks, but obviously not a LA or ATL.

I’m worried his quietness will get him overrun at a big school where you have to be aggressive for resources/attention. Hates to “bother” people.

I loved my time at OU, and would only offer these as words of advice:

1. It was nice to be far enough away from home (Dallas at the time) to not be able to depend, rely on, or see parents often - or have them drop in - but still be close enough to see them when needed. Forced me to grow up and that was wildly important to developing a real work ethic and being where I am today (vs HS where I had very little work ethic and was just smarter than everyone else and didn't have to try)

2. He sounds like a really good student, so if he's at OU, make sure he's in the Honors College. That was basically the only place where everyone had uniformly consistent high caliber academics, the honors college versions of classes (most gen eds have a section, and then some honors college specific courses) were all fantastic and challenging

3. If at OU, there are also college-specific honors programs - make sure to get the info quickly and target them (most you apply to sophomore year - I know for sure the Arts and Sciences one and the Business one) which do a great job on providing a cohort of similarly minded students

4. By all accounts, around 5-10 years ago Alabama basically liked what OU had done with the honors college and national merit scholarships and copy/pasted the programs and has done awesome with them (no firsthand knowledge there)

Agree on all! My daughter has been happy at OU and I was a professor there for over 20 years before leaving academia for greener pastures . I live about 30 miles from campus.

Bama definitely trying to mimic OU on attracting National Merits.

Wonder if I had you - what did you teach?

Mostly Pharmacy and some medical school classes. Faculty appointment was with College of Pharmacy and College of Medicine.

 

[Instinctive]

@pmedina , can you describe your son a bit for us? What is he in to? What is his social scene? What type of school most appeals to him?

Quiet, introspective, and spends most of the time at home, but whenever we go anywhere and see people everyone seems to like/know him (gets a lot of shout outs saying his name), so I think he’s relatively popular at school, just has small group of friends.

Has a girlfriend, and has attended all the proms with other dates, so must have some socials skills I’m not aware of .

For activities - runs cross country, played club soccer, and plays the violin - again seems liked on the team. He likes watching other sports (football, etc) but not obsessed.

So far on the visits he likes the Michigan vibe of the places we’ve seen. We’re from a suburb of OKC, so not the boondocks, but obviously not a LA or ATL.

I’m worried his quietness will get him overrun at a big school where you have to be aggressive for resources/attention. Hates to “bother” people.

I loved my time at OU, and would only offer these as words of advice:

1. It was nice to be far enough away from home (Dallas at the time) to not be able to depend, rely on, or see parents often - or have them drop in - but still be close enough to see them when needed. Forced me to grow up and that was wildly important to developing a real work ethic and being where I am today (vs HS where I had very little work ethic and was just smarter than everyone else and didn't have to try)

2. He sounds like a really good student, so if he's at OU, make sure he's in the Honors College. That was basically the only place where everyone had uniformly consistent high caliber academics, the honors college versions of classes (most gen eds have a section, and then some honors college specific courses) were all fantastic and challenging

3. If at OU, there are also college-specific honors programs - make sure to get the info quickly and target them (most you apply to sophomore year - I know for sure the Arts and Sciences one and the Business one) which do a great job on providing a cohort of similarly minded students

4. By all accounts, around 5-10 years ago Alabama basically liked what OU had done with the honors college and national merit scholarships and copy/pasted the programs and has done awesome with them (no firsthand knowledge there)

Agree on all! My daughter has been happy at OU and I was a professor there for over 20 years before leaving academia for greener pastures . I live about 30 miles from campus.

Bama definitely trying to mimic OU on attracting National Merits.

Wonder if I had you - what did you teach?

Mostly Pharmacy and some medical school classes. Faculty appointment was with College of Pharmacy and College of Medicine.

Definitely not me then

 

[zoobird]

Cornell and Amherst would be strongly considered based on the personal attention.

My daughter is a freshman in Cornell engineering, and while there's a lot to recommend it, personal attention definitely isn't a strength of Cornell. Everyone agrees that career placement services are shockingly bad, office hours require waiting on line for hours to speak to a TA who may or may not be helpful, and most of the things the school does to address mental health appear to be more about being able to say that the school addresses it rather than actually reducing the main causes of stress for students

 

[El Floppo]

Cornell and Amherst would be strongly considered based on the personal attention.

My daughter is a freshman in Cornell engineering, and while there's a lot to recommend it, personal attention definitely isn't a strength of Cornell. Everyone agrees that career placement services are shockingly bad, office hours require waiting on line for hours to speak to a TA who may or may not be helpful, and most of the things the school does to address mental health appear to be more about being able to say that the school addresses it rather than actually reducing the main causes of stress for students

such a good school, so that's sad to hear. I will say Columbia in my undergrad and grad days (the smallest ivy) had amazingly easy access to professors and admin. I wish I had taken more advantage of both, tbh.

 

[zoobird]

Cornell and Amherst would be strongly considered based on the personal attention.

My daughter is a freshman in Cornell engineering, and while there's a lot to recommend it, personal attention definitely isn't a strength of Cornell. Everyone agrees that career placement services are shockingly bad, office hours require waiting on line for hours to speak to a TA who may or may not be helpful, and most of the things the school does to address mental health appear to be more about being able to say that the school addresses it rather than actually reducing the main causes of stress for students

such a good school, so that's sad to hear. I will say Columbia in my undergrad and grad days (the smallest ivy) had amazingly easy access to professors and admin. I wish I had taken more advantage of both, tbh.

Could be completely different once she's taking advanced level classes, but that's been her experience in the freshman classes.

Other things that stand out about her experience so far:

• Grading is really brutal - class averages are typically around B-, which I think is very different than many top schools and creates a ton of stress. Of the schools that you listed, I feel like Cornell, Berkeley, CMU are three of the schools that I've consistently heard are a grind (the other that comes to mind is U of Chicago) relative to almost everywhere else. There's also a massive difference between engineering and most other majors, where students spend way less time studying and generally get much higher grades. That said, grades to engineering majors don't seem to matter very much unless they're planning to go to grad school or to apply to top-tier financial firms. My company hires entry level data analysts (mostly with math, engineering or economics degrees) and we don't even ask for people's grades.
• There are a ton of project teams. She's on the data science team, and it's probably her favorite thing at Cornell so far. But getting onto them is very competitive, and many of those who don't get on definitely feel like they're missing out on something.
• She's made a lot of good friends, from a variety of sources - her dorm, classes, project team, sorority, other activities
• Fraternities and sororities are a bigger deal at Cornell than we expected. She joined a sorority, which is something that we definitely wouldn't have expected or wanted, but it seems very low-key. I'm sure she's exaggerating, but her perception is that those who don't end up doing nothing but studying (as opposed to...studying almost, but not quite, all of the time)
• She's learning a lot and enjoys being around a lot of really smart people
• Coming from an area that's mostly middle class to upper middle class, she's been shocked by the number of extremely wealthy people who go there, and the tendency of the school to nickel and dime people (ie - pay extra for gym classes, with the cooler ones costing the most) can create a bit of frustration around the wealth differences

 

[The Z Machine]

Cornell and Amherst would be strongly considered based on the personal attention.

My daughter is a freshman in Cornell engineering, and while there's a lot to recommend it, personal attention definitely isn't a strength of Cornell. Everyone agrees that career placement services are shockingly bad, office hours require waiting on line for hours to speak to a TA who may or may not be helpful, and most of the things the school does to address mental health appear to be more about being able to say that the school addresses it rather than actually reducing the main causes of stress for students

Sorry to hear that, @zoobird . I went to Berkeley for engineering and as I recall, there wasn't a career placement services office at all. There were some job fairs, but nothing other than that. There was minimal oversight for classes selection and degree requirements. Maybe it's better these days, but those big universities expect the student to be on top of their ish.

In fact, I figured out 7 weeks into my last semester of my senior year (by pure luck, without any input from counsellors) that that I was missing a "connecting" humanities requirement. I needed 2 classes in the same department, but I had spread out my humanities courses more broadly. I had to beg a psych professor to allow me to add his class despite being 7 weeks in. I'll never forget you, Prof. Dacher Keltner, you saved my butt. I had already accepted a place at GT for grad school.

FWIW, grading was harsh at Berkeley in Engineering, particularly for first and second year classes. It was a rude awakening for me my freshman year. In the end, I was a pretty solid B+ student. I think I got maybe 2 A grades (many more A- grades) throughout my time. Generally, the students were really smart and had better study habits than I did. I still got into a good grad school, so the grad programs know the challenges for each undergrad university that feeds them.

 

[The Flying Turtle]

Admits:

Applied Math (Quantitative Finance) - Michigan, Carnegie Mellon, UCLA, Minnesota

Mechanical Engineering – Georgia Tech, UIUC, Purdue

Undeclared – Nebraska (Math, CS ), Alabama (Math, CS, Engineering), OU (Engineering), Ok State

Definitely some cultural differences in these big schools. UCLA vs. UIUC vs. OU. I really only know about UCLA, Berkeley, Georgia Tech, CMU, and Purdue.

Is he interested in watching D1 college sports? Does he care if they win?

Is he going to participate in Greek life? The UC schools are pretty weak for Greek life, particularly at Cal.

Since you're going to pay full tuition out of state, and it doesn't sound like finances are a major issue, I'd look strongly at CMU. Very well regarded programs in high tech ME (robotics, integration with computer science as opposed to more traditional ME like combustion engines) and applied math as well. He's unlikely to get lost in he numbers there and he'll get a damn fine education that can cross a few technical areas.

Waitlist (we have opted into all, listed in the odds of getting off the waitlist from low to high based on the Common Data Set):

Amherst – would potentially accept it as the small size appeals to him.

Cornell – would possibly accept, do not see a big difference between it and Carnegie Mellon. The main difference is Pittsburgh vs. Ithica. We will see how he likes CMU and Pittsburgh.

Berkeley – unlikely to accept as he sees no difference between it and UCLA and Michigan for math; they have taken as many as 30% of the waitlist in the past

Agreed on Berkeley vs UCLA. UCLA is bigger and has a little less history than Cal. But the girls are better looking in LA vs. the bay area and UCLA actually has a chance to win stuff in football and basketball.

Michigan is kinda in between but being in a college town has its perks compared to a giant city like LA. Again, cultural differences.

The advantage about Cornell is the "ivy" name and connections in New York. Those are real and I've seen networking help Cornell grads first hand. I wouldn't be able to withstand the winter though.

Thanks so much!

Greek life he’s meh at this point. If he did it would be a frat that leans to attracting STEM students.

He would like to watch D1 sports, but says it’s not his top priority.

He’s been reading online and laughed that for Michigan/UCLA they have a work hard/play hard mentality and at CMU and GT it’s work hard/work harder .

Lucky that finances are not driving the decision, but it’s not a small check for us, and I don’t want to overpay. It’s one of the reasons I left academia.

No banking on any waitlist schools, but Cornell and Amherst would be strongly considered based on the personal attention.

To give everyone my thoughts, I like CMU or GT. If I’m going to pay that much I’d like a personalized experience (CMU) and GT for the money is actually a good value (Purdue also fits here).

As for culture, he’s never lived outside Suburbia USA.

My son is a freshman at GT and really enjoys it. The class work is difficult, but he is doing well grinding it out. He has found time to be in a fraternity and also plays on the club soccer team so he has plenty of time for fun. I will say based on the parents Facebook feed there are a lot of first years struggling in classes.

 

[Oracle]

As I said, have her focus on the research topics and the personality of the professors whose topics she's interested in. For a PhD in the hard sciences you're selecting a professor and research topic area as much as you are selecting a university. She'll be working with her advisor for the next 4-6 years so that relationship is critical. Once she has a short list, she should ask for descriptions of the upcoming research topics she'd likely work on and the name of at least 1 current PhD student, preferably one that came directly from undergrad and not from industry, and one that has 3 or more years in the program. Then she should set up a phone call with that student to understand the program and professor and what the lab is like. She should ask that student for the name of another student or try to find one on FB or LinkedIn. Getting multiple perspectives about a potential advisor is crucial. Picking a good one that is supportive and not terrible might be the most important aspect of doing a PhD in the hard sciences. The other is staying motivated on the topic area throughout the 4-6 years of work that lie ahead. Lots of life to be had and learned between 22 and 27.

You have been immensely helpful. I have copied your posts and texted them to her. She was very excited to have such a well thought out/helpful advice. Thank you!

Update…

“Massachusetts Institute of Technology




April 12, 2023
Dear Piper,

This letter is to confirm that we have received your acceptance regarding our offer of admission. Congratulations on your admission! We look forward to seeing you soon.

Best,
MIT Graduate Admissions”

She was initially somewhat intimidated by the professors she wants to work with as one is currently on the space station and the other is a MacArthur grant recipient.

 

[bigbottom]

As I said, have her focus on the research topics and the personality of the professors whose topics she's interested in. For a PhD in the hard sciences you're selecting a professor and research topic area as much as you are selecting a university. She'll be working with her advisor for the next 4-6 years so that relationship is critical. Once she has a short list, she should ask for descriptions of the upcoming research topics she'd likely work on and the name of at least 1 current PhD student, preferably one that came directly from undergrad and not from industry, and one that has 3 or more years in the program. Then she should set up a phone call with that student to understand the program and professor and what the lab is like. She should ask that student for the name of another student or try to find one on FB or LinkedIn. Getting multiple perspectives about a potential advisor is crucial. Picking a good one that is supportive and not terrible might be the most important aspect of doing a PhD in the hard sciences. The other is staying motivated on the topic area throughout the 4-6 years of work that lie ahead. Lots of life to be had and learned between 22 and 27.

You have been immensely helpful. I have copied your posts and texted them to her. She was very excited to have such a well thought out/helpful advice. Thank you!

Update…

“Massachusetts Institute of Technology




April 12, 2023
Dear Piper,

This letter is to confirm that we have received your acceptance regarding our offer of admission. Congratulations on your admission! We look forward to seeing you soon.

Best,
MIT Graduate Admissions”

She was initially somewhat intimidated by the professors she wants to work with as one is currently on the space station and the other is a MacArthur grant recipient.

So awesome! Congrats to your daughter on her admission and decision!!!

 

[The Z Machine]

She was initially somewhat intimidated by the professors she wants to work with as one is currently on the space station and the other is a MacArthur grant recipient

Amazing! All the best to her at MIT.

She's earned her spot there. I hope she crushes it.

 

[Galileo]

As I said, have her focus on the research topics and the personality of the professors whose topics she's interested in. For a PhD in the hard sciences you're selecting a professor and research topic area as much as you are selecting a university. She'll be working with her advisor for the next 4-6 years so that relationship is critical. Once she has a short list, she should ask for descriptions of the upcoming research topics she'd likely work on and the name of at least 1 current PhD student, preferably one that came directly from undergrad and not from industry, and one that has 3 or more years in the program. Then she should set up a phone call with that student to understand the program and professor and what the lab is like. She should ask that student for the name of another student or try to find one on FB or LinkedIn. Getting multiple perspectives about a potential advisor is crucial. Picking a good one that is supportive and not terrible might be the most important aspect of doing a PhD in the hard sciences. The other is staying motivated on the topic area throughout the 4-6 years of work that lie ahead. Lots of life to be had and learned between 22 and 27.

You have been immensely helpful. I have copied your posts and texted them to her. She was very excited to have such a well thought out/helpful advice. Thank you!

Update…

“Massachusetts Institute of Technology




April 12, 2023
Dear Piper,

This letter is to confirm that we have received your acceptance regarding our offer of admission. Congratulations on your admission! We look forward to seeing you soon.

Best,
MIT Graduate Admissions”

She was initially somewhat intimidated by the professors she wants to work with as one is currently on the space station and the other is a MacArthur grant recipient.

Kick ***! Congratulations

 

[pmedina]

Just got back from our last visit on Monday (Carnegie Mellon). We thought we had it narrowed down to CMU, Michigan, and GT but were thrown a curveball Thursday morning.

He was accepted off the waitlist for https://raikes.unl.edu/ - obviously, Nebraska is not at the same academic level as the above, but this program is a cohort of 37 students handpicked for a 4-year learning community. He would still major in applied math and complete the minor of CS in the Raikes program. Now the focus is internships, but one student or so a year focuses on a research track. The program director spent 30 mins on the phone with him today, discussing how he would tailor the program to get him research experience.

I told him to pick the program he thinks is best suited for him and not focus on cost, but the cost difference is staggering (this is just tuition/room & board).

1. Mich (280k for 4 years)
2. CMU (333k for 4 years)
3. UCLA (260k for4 years)
4. GT (183k for 4 years)
5. Nebraska (158k for 4 years - 124k in Merit aid = 34k net cost for 4 years)

Is it crazy to consider Nebraska for math? If anyone has time, take a look at the program and give me your thoughts on the program.

 

[((Morpheus))]

As I said, have her focus on the research topics and the personality of the professors whose topics she's interested in. For a PhD in the hard sciences you're selecting a professor and research topic area as much as you are selecting a university. She'll be working with her advisor for the next 4-6 years so that relationship is critical. Once she has a short list, she should ask for descriptions of the upcoming research topics she'd likely work on and the name of at least 1 current PhD student, preferably one that came directly from undergrad and not from industry, and one that has 3 or more years in the program. Then she should set up a phone call with that student to understand the program and professor and what the lab is like. She should ask that student for the name of another student or try to find one on FB or LinkedIn. Getting multiple perspectives about a potential advisor is crucial. Picking a good one that is supportive and not terrible might be the most important aspect of doing a PhD in the hard sciences. The other is staying motivated on the topic area throughout the 4-6 years of work that lie ahead. Lots of life to be had and learned between 22 and 27.

You have been immensely helpful. I have copied your posts and texted them to her. She was very excited to have such a well thought out/helpful advice. Thank you!

Update…

“Massachusetts Institute of Technology




April 12, 2023
Dear Piper,

This letter is to confirm that we have received your acceptance regarding our offer of admission. Congratulations on your admission! We look forward to seeing you soon.

Best,
MIT Graduate Admissions”

She was initially somewhat intimidated by the professors she wants to work with as one is currently on the space station and the other is a MacArthur grant recipient.

Congrats! Which department?