A Nice New Wrinkle in our College Search

Elsa was nominated by a friend who graduated Beacon last year for a Posse Scholarship. The Posse Foundation is one which identifies solid students who might not have quite the grades or test scores for admittance into top schools. For each participating school, ten finalists are selected from a bigger pool by the schools and offered an opportunity to attend each school and their tuition is paid. Recipients still pay room and board.

Here is a quote from the Posse Foundation web site:

The Posse Foundation identifies public high school students with extraordinary academic and leadership potential who may be overlooked by traditional college selection processes. Posse’s partner colleges and universities award Posse Scholars four-year, full-tuition leadership scholarships. These Scholars graduate at a rate of 90 percent and make a visible difference on campus and throughout their professional careers.

The following schools accept New York City Posse scholars: Babson, Brandeis, Colby, DePauw, Dickinson, Franklin & Marshall, Lafayette, LAwrence, Middlebury, Trinity, Vanderbuilt, and Wheaton. Some of these schools are already on Elsa's list, making this possibility very exciting.

The rub is that Posse recipients agree to weekly two hour meetings with fellow Posse scholars, beginning right after acceptance in December (like early decision.) These meetings continue throughout the four years of undergraduate study. That's a big comittment! Also, Posse recipients do not ever learn if they would have been accepted at their other choice schools.

Elsa survived the first of three rounds of interviews. The second is next week. If she survives that round, we will have some serious decision making to do!

For more information about The Posse Foundation, go to: www.possefoundation.org.

Bowdoin

One evening this summer, Elsa suddenly decided that she was interested in one Maine college, Bowdoin. It's ranked # 6 in US News and World Reports and it's even more selective than her other choices. Terrific! Chris had told her how beautiful it is, so Elsa decided to investigate. She contacted the soccer coach and arranged a tour and a meeting for shortly after her arrival in Portland. Unfortunately, she couldn't interview on the same day, so I scheduled an interview for her for the following week, on the day we collected Jeremy from camp and Elsa and Chris from New Harbor.



The day of our visit was sunny and hot. The campus looked especially gorgeous, but as we walked around, I wondered how often it looked and felt like this, warm and pleasant, during the school year. We did a 1:30 tour with Melissa and a 2:30 information session with an admissions officer and a student. It was Jonathan's, Jeremy's and our dog, Phoebe's first college tour.





There is a warm and welcoming feeling about Bowdoin. The school doesn't feel pretentious or as indifferent to visitors as Brown did. And, I have to say, that it felt more relaxed even than Wesleyan does to me. Maybe that's because we visited during the summer. (Of course, we were also at Wesleyan during the summer as well.) I also have to say that the information session was not as specific and informative as it might have been. I cannot now clearly articulate what makes Bowdoin Bowdoin.

I get that it is rigorous, and intellectual, and there seems to be a degree of flexibility. The student presenter described an Italian class that met in a cafe outside of class to chat and practice conversational Italian. The campus is breathtaking, and one, like Dickinson in Carlisle and Brown in Providence, that is sprinkled into the town of Brunswick, a very cute and happening little Maine town where Jonathan actually used to live. Bowdoin is also close to Portland, which is appealing as well.


Bowdoin was founded on the principle of "the common good." Quoting the viewbook that is: "...the belief that education should be used to improve the lives of others and not for personal gain.* Nice.

What I like most about Bowdoin is the information it provides on its financial aid web site. There are two pod casts on there with Bowdoin financial aid officers giving general FA information, as well as information specific to Bowdoin applicants. Simply by offering such helpful and encouraging assistance makes me, as a parent, feel that our daughter is encouraged to apply both to the school and for financial aid. So, I guess we're adding another "reach" school to the list. Our next job is to whittle the list down to 10 schools. We'll post when we do.

All photos on this post were taken by Chris Bittner. (My camera battery died.)

Steely Dan

As we were leaving our house to go to the Beacon Theater August 3rd, we saw our neighbor, Paul.

"Where are you going?" he asked as we loaded into our car.

"To a concert," I responded.

"Really? What concert?" he asked.

"Steely Dan!" I replied enthusiastically.

"Wow!" was his response.

"Yes, I know. We never do anything like this." I explained.

"We never do anything at all," my husband Jonathan added, truthfully.

According to the New York Times, Steely Dan, a band I have admired for years, has not performed on a tour since 1974. I would have been 16. Impossible. We don't do many concerts, especially not expensive ones. I can name the artists I have seen live in my life: Hall & Oates, George Harrison (I was 16,) Jackson Browne, James Taylor (twice) and now, Steely Dan. I named my cat 'Aja' after this album.

I have to say, this was a lifetime highlight. I've been to Africa. I've seen Steely Dan. I can die now.

The concert was fantastic. This band is SO talented. I love their music. Not one single bit was annoying. I love every song/piece they play. It's my type of music. The concert was worth the price of the VERY expensive tickets.

The concert, Aja, reminded my of my second year of college at UK. Lexington, Kentucky experienced a huge snowstorm one winter. There were three feet of snow on the ground and the state owned no snow plows. The town shut down completely. I was stuck at home, at 200 Richmond Avenue, a tiny Arts and Crafts style bungalow knockoff, with my wonderful roommate, Sugar, and her boyfriend at the time, David Sorrell. We drank Bloody Marys in the afternoons and listened to Aja. Need I say more? Thank you Becker and Fagen for those wonderful memories. Thank you for allowing me to remember them again.

PS This photo was taken from the Times web site. Had I been allowed to bring my camera, I would have taken a photo of my own. This one was taken by Michael Nagle. Where's Becker?
Read the Times review: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/30/arts/music/30steely.html

Williams and Bennington

Neither school is on our list, but somehow this week's adventure was spent on both campuses. Elsa's Beacon teammate, Chelsea, will attend Williams in the fall and is working some of their summer clinics. Somehow it seemed like a good idea to attend this clinic in case a possible link or connection might somehow be established. Most college researchers know that Williams is tied with Amherst for the #1 and #2 spots on the US News and World Report ranking of LACs in the US. While I am not someone who cares much about rankings, these positions make Williams and Amherst extremely hard to get into and allows them to be incredibly selective of their applicants. I have often been dismayed in this college search process because schools that we like are ranked high on these lists. For our family, high rankings will only serve to deter us rather than encourage us in the application process.

Unlike the Swarthmore clinic last weekend, the Williams clinic was an all day affair, beginning at 8:30 and ending after 4. There were two practice sessions and two scrimmages, as well as lunch and a campus tour. Sophomores and juniors got a brief 'how the application and recruiting process works' talk at the end of the clinic from the assistant coach, but nothing as detailed and informative as the athletes day at Haverford.



The head coach, Michelyne Pinard, spoke briefly with her interested seniors also after the clinic, but Elsa thought we were leaving and declined an appointment. Too bad!




During the clinic, Elsa's boyfriend, Chris, and I had lots of time to kill. We began with a self guided tour of the campus. Williams is a very attractive campus in a lovely area of Massachusetts. The campus is set on a hilly area with magnificent mountain views all around. The architecture is varied. One negative is that, to me, the buildings did not seem to be well planned out in terms of their placement. There was lots going on and plenty of people around for football recruiting, tennis camp, squash camp, a golf event and other things. Chris and I also joined the end of Elsa's campus tour and got to see a dorm common room, which looked just like another school's but I don't remember which. It was not especially nicely decorated and included couches, oversized chairs and a flat screened TV. On our own we found a few shops in what we believe to be the town of Willamstown. There are also banks and other businesses sprinkled into the campus. My favorite aspect of Williams is the many large sculptures placed in lovely and surprising places all over campus.

Chris and I also ventured to The Clark, an impressive art gallery set in a scenic park, complete with walking trails and picnic areas. Two parking lots were full of cars as visitors flocked to see an exhibit of Georgia O'Keefe paintings. While Chris, a student, could enter for free, adult admission is $12.50, which I found a bit steep for the half hour we had available. I would have happily offered a $5 donation, but I was not willing to pay more, so we left without seeing Georgia. We also spent time in a coffee shop in town where while I ate a great quiche, neither of us could log on to the internet. A bit frustrating! We ended the day watching the girls scrimmage.

We had spent the night before in Bennington, Vermont (about 8 miles north of Williamstown?) at a cute, clean motel called America's Best Value Inn, (great water pressure.) After we checked in, we set out to see Bennington College. One odd thing we noticed is there is not one, and we drove through many times, not one sign in town directing visitors to the campus. We happend upon it eventually, after driving 24 miles north and back out of our way because I had misread the map. While lost, we saw a moose on the side of the road! By that time we found the college, it was getting pretty dark, but we managed a self guided dusk tour in the car. Verdict: Bennington is tiny, although very beautiful. It reminded me of my son Jeremy's camp, Hidden Valley, as it has a huge red barn in the center of campus, aptly named "The Barn."

The next day, Chris and I returned to Benington in the daylight to get a better look. The place was deserted. We saw some dorms, the library, and the admissions office, which looks like a grandma's porch equipped with rocking chairs overlooking the mountains. I filled out an admissions card for Elsa on which the school asks applicants to recommend a book that "everyone should read,"-nice evaluative assessment of your applicant pool- and I consulted Chris about what Elsa might recommend.

All in all, it was a relaxing, interesting and enjoyable adventure, at least for me.

College Interviews

For us, the next step in this college search and application ordeal has been a return visit to Elsa's top choice schools to interview. We have elected to do as many as possible during the summer because next fall will be jam packed with club and varsity soccer (NYC girls will play in the fall now thanks to Title IX,) SAT II's, the ACT, overnight visits and college soccer games. Oh, and there are also the essays to write and applications to fill out, on top of homework!

Elsa's first interview was scheduled at Franklin and Marshall after our tour during our April college tour trip. Elsa interviewed with an admissions officer, which was great, but the interview conflicted with the information session, and as a result, I don't feel I know as much about the school as I would like. I may have to return on my own to attend an information session. Her second interviews were last week, at Wesleyan and Connecticut College, and both were conducted by senior student interviewers.



This past week, she interviewed at Haverford and Swarthmore. At Haverford, Elsa interviewed with a senior and at Swarthmore, a really cool adult admissions officer named Nick. So far, all of her interviews have consisted of really great conversations. They have not been hard or dreadful or challenging for Elsa at all. We like revisitng the campuses again. Whenever possible, we will stop by an visit the soccer coach again. So far, none have been available. Next week: Smith and Mount Holyoke...

Connecticut College

Our college search continues, now with much more focus on finding "target" and "likely" schools. Having learned about FAFSA and something called the CSS profile, we are now looking for schools which offer merit aid for qualified students. We have learned so, so much since those early days and tours of February and April.

We learned, for example, that the athletic conference, NESCAC, in which many CT and MA schools, such as Wesleyan, Amherst, Williams, etc, participate, does not allow any kind of financial consideration for academically accomplished athletes.

Other schools, in other conferences, can offer strong students merit aid, so these are the schools we are now seeking out. However, CT College, for its location, reputation and beauty seemed worth a visit. So, Elsa scheduled an interview while I toured and attended an information session.


What stands out about this school? It's co-ed, for one thing. It has a reputation for being "preppy" but we didn't necessarily see evidence of that. I toured with a Brooklyn girl from Berkeley Carroll who had seen Wesleyan in the morning and didn't care for it but loved CT, so maybe there is something in the air that smacks of a little more conservatism than at Wesleyan. CT has an honor code, as does Haverford. It's a nice sized school, about 2,000 students. They do not offer African American studies, but they do have Africana studies, at least. Our tour guide Brianne, is a cheerful and enthusiastic sophomore who got full time work at the school for the summer. Elsa interviewed with a senior named Carly who is just as nice and friendly as she could be. We had a lovely visit on a beautiful day and really enjoyed seeing the school. We were not able to meet the women's soccer coach, but we know that her team has not been successful. I'm not sure they won any games last year, which would be depressing, I think. We did see the athletic center, which is under renovation. CT has both an ice rink and a pool.

College Tour Recap:

Here is my summary of bests and favorites of the schools we have seen to date:

Most beautiful campus: Swarthmore
Best Big City: Philadelphia, PA
Best Small City: Lancaster, PA
Best Towns: Saratoga Springs, NY, Middletown, CT, Carlisle, PA
Best Library: Not sure, I loved Dickinson's, but that's also the last one I saw...
Best Information session: #1 Haverford (for athletes), #2 Dickinson
Best athletic facility: #1, Wesleyan, #2 Dickinson, #3 Swarthmore
Best student dorm room: Smith College, I'll find the name
Best admissions office: Franklin & Marshall, roaring fire in the fireplace
Best bathroom: Bryn Mawr admission office
Happiest looking students: #1 Wesleyan, #2 Franklin and Marshall (even in the rain)
Friendliest soccer coaches: (abc order) Hanae Kaneshi, Jaime Gluck, Kelly Tyrell, Lou Reis (THE most fun!) Sarah Cooper
Best commute from NYC: Haverford, Wesleyan, Swarthmore

Dickinson

From Gettysburg, Elsa and I drove up Route 34, an empty two lane, windy country road towards Carlisle, PA. Elsa complained that she never gets to practice driving, so I pulled over, and she drove for about 5 miles, her first time on an open road. She did very well, but wasn't ready to deal with windshield wipers and turn signals, so I helped her out a bit. When we arrived in Carlisle, we found our motel and settled in. Elsa rejected the "family dining" options suggested by the woman at the front desk and instead went on line and found us a Thai noodle shop in town. Delicious!

At Dickinson, we scheduled a 9 am tour and a 10:15 information session as our plan was to drive to Oberlin afterwards and see that school on Thursday. We sort of ran out of steam and decided to come on home, that we had seen enough schools, didn't need another "reach" school that is far away and in a cold climate. I lost the motel money on that decision because I had booked the Cleveland motel through Priceline. Lesson learned: don't use Priceline unless you're sure you will not cancel!



It was still raining on Wednesday morning, but still Dickinson looked beautiful to me. It is full of limestone buildings, wrought iron fencing and attractive signs all through the campus. There are lawns and lots of space, but everything is still accessible. Elsa was put off by the road that dissects the campus which has plenty of noisy truck traffic. That is a con, I guess, but the benefits outweighed it, to me.





Our tour began at the admissions office, which is attractive and has a fireplace, but no fire on this day. We met a nice dad/daughter duo from LA and chatted with them while we waited for the tour to begin. Our guide was a fresh-faced Ariel, from Alaska! She was lovely and very enthusiastic about her school. During the tour, she told us that she knew she wanted to come to college in the East and applied to some of the big names, Amherst, Williams, etc. and although she had multiple acceptances, she chose Dickinson. Ariel showed us the main parts of campus and even a dorm in the lower quad, which has modern housing (less appealing to Elsa and me.) This school, like Haverford, Gettysburg and Franklin and Marshall, (I think) has one central dining room where everyone eats, and several smaller quick stops and cafes sprinkled about. I think I like that.





Dickinson Science Center

After our tour, we went to an info session led by Eric, the most eloquent and thorough admissions officer I have heard yet. He conducted the session like a class, began with introductions, and really made an effort to involve the students in the discussion. He tossed out survey questions and stopped to answer questions frequently. The best was a story he told us about how Dickinson revamped its approach to teaching physics, which was not a popular class on campus. They tested students one year after they completed the course and found that the students' retention of the material was an average of only 25%. The professors then decided to try a more hands on, discussion based, workshop model for teaching the class, complete with mini-lesson, activities and discussion amongst the students. One year afterwards, students who had experienced the new approach were given the same test, and the result was an average retention of 96% of the material covered. Then the school decided to implement the workshop model whenever and wherever possible. Good story. The teacher/student ratio of all of these schools is low. At Dickinson, it may be 11-1. Each guide proudly shows us the "biggest" lecture hall which may hold 50 students and is rarely filled to capacity in any course. These are important things to consider.





After the info session, Elsa and I drove to the athletic center to meet the women's coach, Kelly Tyrell. The athletic center is one of the nicest of all, after Wesleyan. The coach wasn't expecting us (an email may not have been actually sent,) but left her class to have a quick chat. She is fun, energetic and enthusiastic about her team. She had been to MAPS, but didn't see Elsa there (too bad) and is not going to Columbia. She does the PDA instead, which I think she said is in CT. She also does not have a camp, but may visit the Amherst camp, which I will look into. Her team is competitive in their conference, and like the Swarthmore coach, she says the toughest competition is Johns Hopkins. She says her team beat Swarthmore. It's only her second year, but she is spunky and confident.

Elsa was concerned about the lack of diversity at Dickinson, so when I went to get a tee shirt, I stopped and chatted with some African American students who were having lunch in the student union. They laughed when I approached them, because they guessed what I would say beforehand. They agree with Elsa and admit that there has been a lack of diversity, but they feel that the school is addressing it and trying to increase the numbers of minority students on campus. All three like the school and were telling me what other schools they had considered and why they chose Dickinson. They were sweet.

Overall, of the three PA target schools, Dickinson is my choice. Elsa prefers Franklin and Marshall. To me, that visit wasn't complete because we didn't meet the coach and therefore do not have a complete sense of the school. I guess we'll be heading back to Pennsylvania at some point!

Gettysburg

From Franklin and Marshall, Elsa and I drove in the rain, west on Route 30 towards Gettysburg. Route 30 is, at first, a four lane highway, but at some points there are lights, and the last 30 miles, it became a two lane road with lots of truck and roundabouts to slow the traffic down to a crawl. Even without stopping for lunch, we were almost late for a 3 pm info session, and felt we had to call the school to warn them.

The info session was good. It was well attended, maybe 15 families, and it was led by a young male admissions officer and a junior student, Tara. Both were articulate and enthusiastic and gave us a very favorable impression of the school. Tara traveled to Seville, Spain as a sophomore and became fluent in Spanish, and then qualified for an internship in Nicaragua for three months over the summer prior to her junior year.








After the info session, three guides showed up and we selected Dominique because she is an anthropology and French double major. We had a private tour. She was informative but not overly enthusiastic and she and Elsa did not really connect. Funny how that really affects one's impressions of a school. It was cold and rainy, our guide was fine, but not thrilling and our overall impression was : it's okay. It's actually a very attractive campus. I liked it a lot.



At this school, the soccer coach, Matt, had practice scheduled at 4 and was not going to be able to see us. I wondered if his schedule would change because of the weather, or if we could watch the practice for a bit, but Elsa was just as happy to drop of her information and video in his mailbox instead.

One of the things that slowed us down about Gettysburg is the Greek life. All three of these target Pennsylvania schools have fraternities and sororities, but Gettysburg has the largest number and the highest percentage of students involved. There are, I think, 6 mens and 7 women's. Dominique is a member, and explained to Elsa about rushing. This school does not allow it first year. Originally, Elsa wanted a school with no Greek life at all, but that's hard to find, especially in warmer climates. Even Wesleyan has one or two, although they are less of a force on campus than in other places, I'm sure.

Franklin and Marshall

Elsa and I drove out of Media, Pa. where, after we finished at Swarthmore, we had an expensive dinner in town complete with live opera entertainment for which we had to pay $3 each. That was a first. We found our way to our hotel in Lancaster, and spent the night. We awoke to rain, and experienced out first rainy tours yet. Although growing up, I spent many weekends in Philadelphia visiting my grandparents, I don't think I had ever been to Lancaster, population 55K. What an adorable city! It's the 8th largest city in PA. Elsa and I loved the cute row houses and couldn't decide which one we wanted most as we drove to the F&M campus.

We parked in visitors parking and proceeded to follow a tour away from the admissions office and got so lost, we had to call for directions back to the correct house. Franklin and Marshall is a beautiful campus, but looks very different from Swarthmore and Haverford as most all of the buildings are brick, giving the campus a warm red look, as opposed to the gray and stone colored limestone buildings on the other campuses.



Our tour guides were Emily and Wes, very personable and informative, as usual. They both spoke to the whole group and had private chats as we walked from stop to stop. I quickly learned that I wanted to be near the conversation to get as much information as possible.





One nice thing about this school is that classes seem to let out at the same time. Suddenly, the walkways were full of lots of students passing each other, on their way to their next class. it made the campus seem busy and vibrant. Most of the students seemed happy, although wet. There seemed to be a lot of kids that look like kids Elsa would be friends with.

Elsa loved the F&M campus and the school is now high on her list of "target" schools. It helps that her friend, Tyler, will attend in the fall. That, I think, put F&M on the map for her. Here, Elsa had her first interview. It lasted about 35 minutes, and she went alone with the interviewer to a rear office. When they were done, they both came out and included me in the end of their conversation. The woman was very nice and indicated that Elsa interviewed as much as she was interviewed. I hope that is a good thing.



After the interview (we had no info session at this school,) we ambled over to the athletic center to find the coach, from whom we had not heard via email. Turns out, she has a day job in a school and is not on campus all of the time. This could be a problem. We left Elsa's packet and her video, but do not know what to expect.