9 posts tagged “college admissions”

 Son's part of this exercise was up on the screen when I came down this morning. It's intentional as he wants me to proof it. I am at a loss to explain why, but son has never learned to write. Not writing with style and flourish, but just write period. He's literally a living in the flesh poster child for 'Why Johnny can't write in college'. Not to say I'm a John Dunne, I've noticed slips of mine in this blog from time to time.

But that is not the point, in reading (and proofing) it, I saw there were things he & I both agree on (that he's a people person and no one stays a stranger for long with him) and at least one eye-opener
for me; that he credits lacrosse with allowing him to overcome his social awkwardness and become a more friendly and outward going person.

Whaddya know, I've actually did one thing right.

I am supposed to provide son's guidance counselor with information to the questions shown below so she can form a snapshot of him to provide as a recommendation for the schools son will apply to.  Have the feeling of doing someone else's work, but at the same time, she looks after many, many other students.

The more we get into the college admissions process, the more  gaming I sense and can't believe colleges, those that require letters of recommendation that is, aren't aware of this, which makes the whole exercise seem pointless.

Have made good headway into this 'homework' and hope to finish up today.  The questions posed to me (and parents of other seniors) are:

1. In what areas in the past 2 years, has your student grown intellectually, emotionally & socially?  How have those changes defined his character?

2. What do you consider to be his/her most outstanding traits?  Please feel free to use anecdotal examples.

3. List 3 adjectives that describe your student and tell why they do?

4. If you were to write your own child's college recommendation, what would you say in the first paragraph that would prompt the reader to continue reading? WRITE THAT PARAGRAPH.

Is advice given to me by a parent, a person with who I've worked with closely over the years at large international automobile manufacturer #1, who has also gone before me so to speak in raising children.

 His point is that between the ages of 13 to say 22, parents are in the eyes of their children,  hopelessly stupid, so his advice has been don't add to one's frustration by offering advice based on your accumulated wisdom.

 Case in point,  son is now working, sporadically, but at least working on, his college applications. One for a big school in Columbus, Ohio, and another for another school in Ohio, but not a large one.  The first thing I tried to tell him was not to start in pen on the original copy he has as slip ups and 'wait a minute, maybe I ought to say...' happen. But noooooooo.  So now one is marked up and spotted with correction fluid.  Lucky for him, fresh applications can be readily downloaded on-line now.

 He's also got a cousin, now a grad student at the big school in Columbus,  who's been through the process and an excellent source of help.  Have told son to keep in touch with this cousin of his, particular for pointers-suggestions for the 'Why I want to..' essay son must write.  Again,   he's not doing that partly as he somehow sees getting outside assistance as cheating.    Have told him there is no way he can do this alone and that there is a big difference in getting ideas and suggestions and having someone write this essay for you.

 Last are priorities.  He's got some hard deadlines looming.  First getting the applications finished by Thanksgiving and then preparing himself for retaking the SAT and going over the ACT, which he has never taken. So what are his priorities?  Well there 's on Craigslist,  a new paintball gun offered for sale, locally too, that he must have.  My response if he's got time to think about that, he's also got time to deal with the things he must deal with within the next month, and that I do not want the hear anymore about the paintball gun.

Can't wait to see what he's like post 22 years of age.

This time to a big, nationally-known university in Ohio. The campus is indeed big, but not as overwhelming as we were led to believe.  Difference of course as night and high noon as far as what is offered to students and comparative facilities, i.e., all classes in the engineering department were housed in one building in the smaller school we visited and at the other bigger school, each branch of the engineering school has its own building.  The bigger school of course has more 'Toys' too.  My impression is this university and perhaps other big universities see themselves losing students to smaller school as they are seen as too big & impersonal.  Much talk about programs to help the individual students all 46,000 of them.

Am put off by the school's 'honor' program/track for incoming kids with high SAT/ACT scores.  That strikes me as patently unfair.  The playing field should be level at college with it being up to each student to demonstrate how brightly they shine.

The school also has a Japanese  program, which son could get a minor in in his sleep if he applied himself and the school is hooked up with some good universities in Japan.

We even managed to meet son's cousin, a grad student there which was amazing given the student body size.  What's son is thinking?  He may apply, but he's got to get his SAT's up, take the ACT which means boning up.  Get his essays in order...and he doesn't seem to get the message.  Do I see a train wreck  coming?

And we were around for my aunt's 89th birthday.  She still refuses to wear her hearing aid so..... While we were eating, a woman came up to her and with a smile said my aunt may not remember her but she  delivered her children (ironic, a trained cardiologist spending the bulk of her practice delivering babies). My aunt said, Oh, yes she remembered.  Aunt also mentioned a program at this school for 1st generation students which has greatly reduced tuition.  Son could be thought of as that, he wasn't born here  and immigrated here....

And today, as if my right leg muscles haven't been punished enough for the past 3 days, I drive up to my college for a job fair.

The same university son was in for the summer Japanese program, only this time, a formal open house for the school of engineering. Was 1,300 miles round trip; out Friday pm and back Sunday pm.  I am exhausted.

Thought/expected he, to ask some questions but almost all of the questions came from parents.  Am not sure how much sunk in either, but its now all up to him.

The school's message was, yeah we're small, (Total student pop 3,400 something), but we have no grad students, so you'll not have to go into a holding pattern during your freshman/sophomore years and then apply - and hope you are accepted to the school of engineering, as you'd have to do in a big university, you'll be taught by the professors, not grad students or TA's; in short, we'll look after you. 

I suppose an opposing argument is that the programs at larger, more renown universities are geared for 'the survival of the fittest' and this truly outstanding talent will thrive there and go on to bigger and better things in life; not to mention their facilities are probably far more advanced (natch as they have more $$$$).  

Son mentioned another school, about 20 minutes drive from the house he is interested in. Sure its in-state, but I told him part of going to college is leaving home, growing and dealing with a level of independence you'll never have once you leave college and staying that close to home is really not a step in that direction.

One comment which stood out was made by a panel member of grads who when asked about what there is to do there besides study (the town is small, reaaaaal small), she said "If you want it, you can find it" (!!!). Looked quickly at son, but his face showed no reaction/comprehension.

Took a peek in the bookstore and Jesus Christ, Mary and all the Saints!  Could not believe the textbook prices.  Don't recall seeing any that were for under $130 dollars!!!  And these textbooks were at least in outward appearance, no different from the tomes son has to lug around right now.  No wonder I've read articles of late about students fed up with the prices and doing something about it.

Very apt way this morning to start September; temperatures right now around a nice 60 degrees (that's 14 or so for those unfortunate to be stuck with Celsius), have the sliding door in the family room left open to let the cooler outside air in, and some neighbor's dogs are barking their heads off which mine has just now gone out to 'investigate' (and roll around on the wet grass while she's at it).

One more week and son will be back in school!  I think he's in denial; as I have periodically asked him if he needs to go shopping for clothing or if there are any school supplies he needs, like an upgraded calculator for pre-calculus/Trig.  His answer has been 'no' and today I'm going to let him know that he will not have me dragging him along for last minute back-to-school shopping.

He's also not made any progress about what he intends to do after June of 2010, when he graduates.  Have told him numerous times he needs to look into colleges, for I am not going to send him off to any college without him first visiting one. Nor am I going to stand for him going to the community college 10 a 10 minute walk away simply because its there.  He needs too to address his testing scores, either by signing up again for the SAT, or take a practice ACT test and then decide which of the 2 test he's more comfortable with.

And, he's also been told that with no plan, and no college lined up by June, he'd better have a plan to get a full-time job somewhere as a.) he sure as hell won't be allowed to  lie about the house, and b.), at his age, if he's not a student he can't be covered under the health insurance we have, so he'll have to find, and pay for his own coverage.  All this seems to be just background noise to him and for me it is hard to watch him piss valuable time away on his Xbox.

Son got his SAT scores last week and there's no way to sugarcoat it, they were abysmal all across the board.

Now if he was pulling down D's and C's, I'd not be overly shocked, but he's got a couple of C's and the rest B's & A's

Now this says to me that either the quality of  instruction at his school and the grading system is a frickin joke, or as I have long suspected, the SAT is really not a true yardstick for measuring intellectual competency, but rather an elaborate game which one (the test taker) must learn to 'play'.

Son took the 'score' result badly thinking that it just shows he's 'stupid' (I know that's teenage drama, but what can you do?). My message to him is that he's got to a.) Retake the thing in September,  b.) Use his time to continue taking practice  tests,  c.)  Keep/improve upon his grades in his senior year with the hope that an enlightened/alert college admissions officer will look at the grades, and the SAT, see the anomaly, think 'wait a minute, something is wrong here' and take that into consideration when considering his application for admission.

Its over. Son thought it was not as bad as he had imagined it to be.  Told him to think of the experience as one of life's rites of passage, like going through the birth canal- to which he said 'Huuuuuh?'

  Over time I guess, he'll understand better what I tried to convey.

Celebrated in the evening with tacos and Sanarac beer.  No preconceptions on how well he did, but we're looking at taking it again in the fall.

Tomorrow morning, son takes the SAT.  Right now he's 'relaxing' with his xBox and on-line gaming.  In a wider perspective, guess it is 'whatever floats the boat' and if this is the way he relaxes, ok.

He's had to prep for this, one-on-one as his PSAT scores were, well not good. Part of  why he did poorly was being cowed by the test and also unfamiliarity and not knowing 'how' to take it.  And perhaps it is also the very nature of the test or tests like it.  Some absolutely suck at it and others, like my cousin's son, who had ho-hum grades, but could ace the SAT and LSAT.

And I'm not going to get into the argument about SAT being a fair indicator of future college performance,  far too many trees have fallen for that and besides from an admissions officer's point of view, how else would you decide who gets in and who doesn't.

It'll be great if he does well, but we both are set that he'll take it again in September and then think about (I hope) what school he wants to attend.