Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Posted
49 minutes ago, mdmost said:

Pretty much every single person who was there yesterday was either the Dean of Admissions (Colorado College, Macalister, Sarah Lawrence) or someone older than me (49) or around my age who was in the office of admissions. I wanted to speak directly with someone from Grinnell as I don't want to fly to Iowa to learn more and they came instead to my area. I wanted my daughter to talk further with both Grinnell and Colorado College so she can make sure she's still wanting to apply to them and feels the same way about them as she did earlier. I also wanted her to see some other options since she liked those two so much. Sure, we could've done all of this from our laptop. I saw value in spending 40 minutes driving to Duncanville to listen to presentations on these schools and to get my questions answered. I wanted her to learn more about how best to become a therapist at these colleges and what options they offer as far as internships and experiences that could aid her on this decision. Had the event been better attended, we probably don't get more than a few minutes with these people. Instead, we got almost 10 minutes with each of the schools she was interested in. This event is going to have me looking into the next virtual open house for Grinnell like my daughter attended on her own. It was pretty valuable to both of us as we had a great 40 minute conversation about colleges on our drive home. 

Thanks for this. I think then we in fact did NOT go to the same type of college fair lol. 

Posted
13 hours ago, midtown said:

Put me in the camp that unless you want to go into a very very tightly networked industry like Wall St; it really doesnt matter where you go to school, relatively speaking.   Especially if your kid has some work ethic and a personality.  My son will end up with zero debt because he's getting free undergrad at Alamo College here and living at home. He wil be able to roll his 529 into his ROTH with an engineering degree from UTSA.  He can spend the remainder of his 529 taking motorcycle mechnic courses because thats his passion.  No AI or robot is going to fix a Ducati. 

 

having a personality <<<< this is very important 

  • Hook 'Em 3
Posted

I wonder if the slashing of white collar jobs that is to come (and has already started) due to AI will change that, though. Maybe "target" schools like the Wall St. model will become a thing for jobs or career paths that right now are super democratized. Either way, if you can either afford it out of pocket or get a great value for it with merit aid, etc., I think there is little downside to going to the best school you can get into I think, personality or not.

  • 1 month later...
Posted
13 minutes ago, 4th&amp;Five said:

First acceptance in for our senior. Arkansas. We knew she was in but it made her feel good to see it. 

My first acceptance was Alabama, and I remember carrying around my acceptance letter for a week or so because I was so excited to just get in somewhere.

  • Hook 'Em 4
  • Like 1
  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

It's interesting that the personal essay was not that hard for my kid to write after our guy gave her some help but these supplemental essay questions for a few of these are very difficult for her to complete. Some of them are fairly simple and it's not been too difficult like "why did you choose the major you want to take here" but then there's other ones for some of the smaller colleges that are just throwing her for a loop. It's down to the wire as two of them have early decision deadlines of this Saturday. We'd like her to go ahead because she'll know if it's a yes or no earlier and you can get access to more financial aid with them if you're already accepted. She's also applied to some of her safety schools since a few didn't require her to submit much based I guess on her GPA and SAT scores. She had an in-person interview at a local coffee shop with an admissions counselor from Trinity yesterday. She thought it went well. That's one I could see being a great fit for her. 

  • Hook 'Em 2
Posted

Yeah, mine is finishing his up for this weekend.  I've been doing my best to be as hands-off as possible while still being supportive, but it pains a Plan II grad that he doesn't want my help or editing of his essay or short answer questions.  Gotta let that go, though.

Since I haven't been all in his business, should he be able to tell in the Common App pretty easily which schools want an official SAT report?  Sending those to a bunch of schools he's only kinda interested in seems like it would add up to almost as much as the damn application fees.

  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted
On 10/15/2025 at 10:01 AM, SimonBolivar said:

My first acceptance was Alabama, and I remember carrying around my acceptance letter for a week or so because I was so excited to just get in somewhere.

A&M sent me an acceptance and an offer of a full ride, and I never even applied. :)

My senior got all of her early admissions applications in over the past 2 weeks.  It was like pulling teeth but it's finally done.  UT and A&M are the in-state ones.

Now we've shifted over to scholarship applications.  She's been unmotivated but she's applied to several out of state programs that are going to be pretty expensive, and she now understands that her ability to generate scholarship money for herself, is critical to her ability to go to a more expensive program.

Honestly I can't wait for this shit to be over.

  • Hook 'Em 4
  • Like 1
Posted
On 10/15/2025 at 10:01 AM, SimonBolivar said:

My first acceptance was Alabama, and I remember carrying around my acceptance letter for a week or so because I was so excited to just get in somewhere.

This can't be overlooked, and it's genuinely great no matter who you are.  My daughter was an academic star, she was going to get into most places she applied (and ended up getting her first choice).  But her first acceptance was to her second choice (which she absolutely would have taken -- University of Edinburgh), and when she got it, she called me in tears, so excited -- "Dad, I'm going to college!"  I realized what an awesome feeling that was for her, because even though she "knew" she would go somewhere, to have that first real, tangible acceptance in hand really means something.

Congratulations to all the kids who are getting those this fall. Seriously, it's great.

  • Hook 'Em 4
  • Like 1
Posted
2 minutes ago, Damor said:

Yeah, mine is finishing his up for this weekend.  I've been doing my best to be as hands-off as possible while still being supportive, but it pains a Plan II grad that he doesn't want my help or editing of his essay or short answer questions.  Gotta let that go, though.

Since I haven't been all in his business, should he be able to tell in the Common App pretty easily which schools want an official SAT report?  Sending those to a bunch of schools he's only kinda interested in seems like it would add up to almost as much as the damn application fees.

Yes, the Common app is pretty easy at figuring out who needs what. We sent her scores out a couple weeks ago through the College Board site even though a lot are test optional. There's a checklist the Common app gives on what you need to turn in and what's optional. Though it feels like optional is not really optional unless it's not going to help their application. Our guy said to send her scores to all but two of the colleges she wants to apply to. One was a head scratcher because that school is test neutral and said a score would not be counted against you if you submitted it. He said her school would be on the low end of what they get which is still funny to me as her score is better than 92% of the people who took the SAT. 

We plan to apply to these Nov 1st schools by Thursday. We had planned on applying early to UT but when we took the tour on Columbus Day they said don't apply early unless you are completely done and ready because applying early had no bearing on getting in or not it just meant you'd get a decision faster. 

We did an open house of UT-Dallas on Saturday. She has a direct admission offer from them through Common and it would save us some money if she lived at home for the first year. I really want her to go out of the city though, just for her to grow as a person. We are facing the very real possibility that maybe she's just not ready. She's applied to North Texas and was accepted already. I think she just wanted that as a backup. UTD would be fine for her as she could double major in psychology and child development. They told her it would just be one additional course since both are under the Psychology department and share most of the same coursework. She wants to be a child/teen therapist. The direct admission offer is confusing. She's not admitted if she applies. She just doesn't have to turn in the personal essay, counselor recommendation, and teacher evaluations/other recommendations. The admissions person we talked to said they'll just flag her application when it comes in so she's put in the highly considered pile. 

  • Like 1
Posted
2 hours ago, mdmost said:

Yes, the Common app is pretty easy at figuring out who needs what. We sent her scores out a couple weeks ago through the College Board site even though a lot are test optional. There's a checklist the Common app gives on what you need to turn in and what's optional. Though it feels like optional is not really optional unless it's not going to help their application. Our guy said to send her scores to all but two of the colleges she wants to apply to. One was a head scratcher because that school is test neutral and said a score would not be counted against you if you submitted it. He said her school would be on the low end of what they get which is still funny to me as her score is better than 92% of the people who took the SAT. 

We plan to apply to these Nov 1st schools by Thursday. We had planned on applying early to UT but when we took the tour on Columbus Day they said don't apply early unless you are completely done and ready because applying early had no bearing on getting in or not it just meant you'd get a decision faster. 

We did an open house of UT-Dallas on Saturday. She has a direct admission offer from them through Common and it would save us some money if she lived at home for the first year. I really want her to go out of the city though, just for her to grow as a person. We are facing the very real possibility that maybe she's just not ready. She's applied to North Texas and was accepted already. I think she just wanted that as a backup. UTD would be fine for her as she could double major in psychology and child development. They told her it would just be one additional course since both are under the Psychology department and share most of the same coursework. She wants to be a child/teen therapist. The direct admission offer is confusing. She's not admitted if she applies. She just doesn't have to turn in the personal essay, counselor recommendation, and teacher evaluations/other recommendations. The admissions person we talked to said they'll just flag her application when it comes in so she's put in the highly considered pile. 

As a side note, I'm curious why UTD is not part of the UT system's CAP program.

Posted

Correct. They can get all 4 years easily from their incoming freshman. I was fairly impressed with the campus. They've made an effort to modernize and beautify the campus. Lots of construction going on. I'd imagine they've become a good alternative for the kids in the top 7-10% that can't get into UT or aggy for engineering and pre-med. Plus the area has more than enough kids to fill it. The only issue I would have with my daughter going there is she would lose the true college experience and we talked about how she'd have to get more involved in groups and research since the natural options to meet people wouldn't be as easy there. 

Posted
3 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

This can't be overlooked, and it's genuinely great no matter who you are.  My daughter was an academic star, she was going to get into most places she applied (and ended up getting her first choice).  But her first acceptance was to her second choice (which she absolutely would have taken -- University of Edinburgh), and when she got it, she called me in tears, so excited -- "Dad, I'm going to college!"  I realized what an awesome feeling that was for her, because even though she "knew" she would go somewhere, to have that first real, tangible acceptance in hand really means something.

Congratulations to all the kids who are getting those this fall. Seriously, it's great.

Yeah, four years ago I probably wouldn't paid attention to this thread.  Now having gone through this with my oldest, and a sophomore and freshman in the pipeline, I genuinely get happy for all the Surly parents and their kiddos.

  • Hook 'Em 2
Posted
1 hour ago, mdmost said:

The only issue I would have with my daughter going there is she would lose the true college experience and we talked about how she'd have to get more involved in groups and research since the natural options to meet people wouldn't be as easy there. 

My oldest and I checked out the campus when she was applying.  It seemed more like a business park than a college campus to me.

Posted
5 minutes ago, Jerry Callo said:

My oldest and I checked out the campus when she was applying.  It seemed more like a business park than a college campus to me.

Fair. They did say on the tour that they put in the long water feature and magnolia trees in the middle of the campus because the campus was once voted the ugliest in Texas. It struck me as similar to a lot of UT affiliate schools like UTA and UTSA. UTEP at least feels like an actual college campus.  

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.



×
×
  • Create New...