RBOCollege

• We’ve decided that DC1 will be making any and all college choices.  We do have a few rules that we’ve outlined here before:  It must be in the Fiske guide.  It cannot be a public school in another state (we’re not paying private school tuition for a state school, and the states with reciprocity aren’t as good as our state flagship).  But other than that it’s up to DC1.  We have saved and will pay for whatever.
• While DC1 was researching about Harvey Mudd for hir practice “Why Mudd?” essay, zie came upon a lot of stuff about the insane workload and how students put things off to the last minute because they’re taking 5-6 classes a semester when students at the other 4 consortium colleges are only taking 4 classes/semester.  And how there’s so little grade inflation that literally only a handful of students have gotten a 4.0 since 1955.  (I mean, I didn’t get a 4.0 in college either, but I also never got below a B and was never concerned I would get below a B.  I think DH got a C in a pre-med weedout class he had to take for his major at the regional ivy he went to.)
• HMC has recently cut a couple of classes from their core curriculum, but it’s still generally 5-6 classes a semester going forward, except the first semester is only 4.
• But our students at the state flagship also take 5-6 courses a semester, so maybe that’s not horrific?  Still, our undergraduate classes aren’t anywhere near as intense as classes at a top liberal arts school.
• I had so many friends burn out at Caltech who are now not working in anything STEM related.  (I feel super guilty about my ex-boyfriend from high school who could have graduated from our state flagship in 2 years instead.)  Harvey Mudd isn’t that because they have support systems and stuff, but if DC1 wants to go to graduate school, will a lower GPA hurt?
• DC1 is currently thinking HMC for early decision.  They accept 25% of their early decision applicants and far less than 10% of their regular decision applicants.  DC1 doesn’t really have any “spikes” in terms of extra curriculars (everything zie has done would be considered “4th tier“).  I would feel so much better if zie knew what hir full option set was before making the decision to do HMC.
• It’s hard to make these decisions as a 15 year old.
• Another thing we talked about was social lives.  I went to a top liberal arts school, which draws people across all different majors.  And I’m super lazy.  So I tended to just socialize (ex. eat meals with) people I lived near rather than people I had actual things in common with.  I did have friends who were nerds (math majors, the guy who introduced me to Kenshin, etc.), but, because I always got low housing lottery numbers, seeing them was more of a weekly thing than a daily thing (technically, I got mediocre housing lottery numbers, but my roommate got insanely low ones each year and I couldn’t dump her because that’s how I ended up being paired with her in the first place– her friends dumped her because she brought their average down too much).  At any large school, your people exist (DH found his through fencing club), but if you’re lazy, you won’t necessarily make an effort to see them.  At a place like MIT or HMC or Caltech, you’re surrounded by people with interesting interests, but the workload and lack of grade inflation can make socializing vs. work tradeoffs difficult.
• PE is a 4.0 class.  Since DC1 took it as a junior, hir class rank dropped from 25 to 23.  That explains why the class was mostly second semester seniors!  We didn’t even think of that.
• (Also the class rank denominator dropped a lot– I guess kids do drop out of high school when it’s no longer required, which is super sad.  It’s not redistricting and there wasn’t a drop like this last year and it’s not like the university is making cut-backs or anything so university parents aren’t leaving.)
• DC1’s class schedule doesn’t work– zie cannot take AP Music Theory because it’s never offered.  AP Art History doesn’t fit into hir schedule.  AP Spanish V (a point of contention in the grumpy household, but we gave in with the proviso that zie include it as an alternate) doesn’t fit into hir schedule.  There are no 5.0 classes that weren’t on hir list (Anatomy, AP Bio etc.) that fit into the blank spot left after all the other classes are set.  So zie can either take a “research” elective (they have to come up with something and submit it to a science fair) or zie can take multivariate calculus at my university (sadly, they don’t let hir take classes over the summer, just during the school year).  DC1 wants to take the calculus option.  I’m not sure if this is going to be possible because of class schedules (the university has to open up their evening section to make it feasible, which it will probably do after freshman enroll), and if it is, I’m so worried about the work load on top of AP Chem, AP Calc-based Physics, AP Statistics, AP English, AP Government, etc.  Especially since it looks like the engineering version’s evening section is full and zie would have to take the math major section if it opens up.  We barely got through this year and zie had PE/study hall for one class!
• The grades for above won’t matter if zie does early decision or goes to the state flagship.  The AP tests won’t matter if zie goes to HMC (they don’t accept any).
• DC1 had to get a meningitis shot to apply!  We’re still waiting for that to go through before zie is allowed to try to sign up for calculus even if there is a section that works for hir.
• My friend recommends the research option because the teacher gives everyone 100% and the class is essentially over in February after the science fair.  But that requires finding a mentor and sitting in the back of the physics class DC1 just finished everyday during the free period and DC1 says zie doesn’t want to do it.
• I don’t think zie will be able to use hir summer internship project for the science fair because it uses protected and proprietary data.  But that’s something we will have to look into if calculus doesn’t work out.
• I kind of hope multi-variate calculus doesn’t work out.
• My undergrad no longer allows undergraduate cars on campus!
• Not related to college: Covid update:  My friend who I walk with at work’s daughter has covid, just a day before she was going to get her first vaccine (or a week before her 5th birthday when she had been going to get her vaccine).  DH’s colleague that he was at a conference with the other week seems to have picked up covid at the conference she went to directly after.  I am so glad that DH didn’t get it at the conference and I’m also glad I didn’t make it into work this week(!) since I’m the only person at work who masks still and one-way protection isn’t perfect, and even I don’t mask on our outdoor walks.  County reported levels are 25/100K.  I hope these are all mild cases.

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