Although I am usually a college brand snob, I am really pulling for Kalamazoo for some reason.

I have been thinking a lot lately about my college experience and whether or not I attended my "spirit school" (think spirit animal). While I loved Georgetown a lot more than I disliked it, in the back of my head I will always think what could my life have been like had I attended Hampshire College.

I see a lot of comments about this college or that college looking favorable to grad schools. Let's be realistic. All grad schools care about are undergrad GPA and your GRE/GMAT/LSAT score. Good luck to your kid choosing his school. Worry about the best price tag, job placement stats, and an environment he will enjoy.

A couple of years ago @ the CNU Info Night in NoVA, I was very surprised to see that both President and Mrs. Trible were in attendance. I think that was the only time I have seen a University President attend a general information night for any college.

His wife was very good at connecting with the people to whom she was speaking. My son was wearing a college crest belt and she pointed out that her husband had graduated from there. One thing my son and I both noticed during Trible's talk that he has taken traditions from both of his alma maters, Hampden-Sydney and W&L, and implemented them at CNU.

President Trible has definitely raised the profile of CNU during his tenure.

President Trible (aka PTrib to the students) has definitely raised the bar at CNU. He frequently walks around campus, talking to students and taking interest in their lives. Rosemary, his wife, has her own weekly bible study with students. At graduation she waits at the end of the stairs to personally hug every graduating student. They're wonderful.

I personally love that he's implemented traditions from his alma maters there. When I graduated, it was tradition to throw a penny you got at Freshman Convocation into a fountain as you walked to graduation. They have since gotten rid of the fountain and put a bell tower in its place, and now graduating seniors will ring the bell as they walk by. I'll be down this year for it, and I'm excited to watch it happen.

I have a lot of pride and love for CNU...and their crazy amazing beautiful new dorms they're building.

Rosemary Trible (UT Beta Xi) was recently profiled in The Key as a Kappa Kappa Gamma Alumnae Achievement Award recipient for all her good work.

^^^ lol

Alum, I'm always amused when someone wears a clothing item from another school to a college night, orientation, etc. I think it's funny she spotted that!

I'm working on a W&L needlepoint crest right now, to frame for my daughter's room.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming.

I hope Halo is happy, no matter where he decides to go. He does have two great choices. I will say that Michigan is always a great option for grad school, which K isn't, so he could do both. I think Michigan is a great choice for anyone who is a self-starter, and close to home would be great.

He is no closer to a decision. He is, ultimately, not thrilled with either choice. I had hoped these accepted student days would give him clarity, but they haven't.

Hang in there, Mom!

He has two great choices. Either choice will be a good one. He is going to have a great time at either school and get a great education, once he settles in.

This whole process is just so different than what Hypo went through. She was tense about whether she'd get into her dream school but then she did. Halo told me he will be telling me to put the deposit down for Michigan but he's not ready to commit quite yet.

He applied to Michigan because "Everybody expects me to go there." I think he's choosing Michigan for the same reason. He believes it is the "better" school, but he's more comfortable at K College. At the same time, he says he thinks he will get bored at K and is concerned that there are only a few professors for each subject. That means he doesn't get a broad perspective and if there is one he doesn't care for, he's stuck taking their classes anyway. I think what he's really acknowledging is that he won't grow as much at K- or will outgrow K- so even though Michigan is really overwhelming to him, he knows he will experience more personal growth.

That doesn't mean he's excited about it.

What about starting at K and then transferring if he doesn't like it? Or applying to transfer elsewhere next year?

Has he pursued the wait list options with any follow up?

But what would transferring do to his scholarship possibilities? He would leave behind whatever scholarship package School A provided. And unfortunately, transfers have very few (practically zero) scholarships available to them. So unless School B was willing to hold whatever scholarships they are offering Freshman-Halo in 2014 and make them available to Transfer-Halo in 2016, transferring two years from now could really hurt the pocketbook.
:(

I really think he's going to be fine at Michigan. I think he will come to love it after that first Saturday in the student section in the Big House. I also think that it will greatly increase his confidence once he gets comfortable there. He will get comfortable there. Some of this may have been happening even if it was Brown because, honestly, he's the kid who has always had a hard time dealing with change. In some ways, Michigan will help with that because he'll be close enough to come home whenever he wants.

He had joked a few weeks before those final decisions came in that if worse came to worse, he would go to Michigan, be in the RC and marry JS- last year's valedictorian and homecoming queen. We met up with her after our tours were done and she showed him around the dorm, the classrooms, the cafeteria, the theater, the gelato shop and the coffee shop. She showed us her room and he met one of her friends who will probably be in a class with him in the fall. They were really nice and talked about how much they love it there.

The girl who lives across the street from his dad is also in the same program. Even though he "married" her when he was 4 and she was 5, in her backyard, under a tree, he doesn't care for her now. He did mention that he wished she wasn't there. It's not like he has to hang out with her.

Ironically, he really liked the girl he knows at K a lot at one point too, but then she dated one of his best friends so she became off limits...lol. She looks a lot like Hypo and people actually used to get them confused because they were in the same band section.

In another funny twist, my best friend since kindergarten had a baby girl two week after I had Hypo. When I called her to tell her I was pregnant with Halo, she laughed and said she was pregnant too. Our boys are a few weeks apart in age also. Her son is going to Michigan too.

Michigan is also our most economical option and is cheap enough that I can afford his football tickets and also fraternity dues. At the point when Hypo graduates, I probably won't qualify for financial aid anymore and at Michigan, his housing costs could really drop because he'll move out of the dorms and into an apartment or house. OR, he could apply to be an RA. Overall, this could be a very affordable education for him, leaving him with very little debt on graduation and in a good position for grad school. If we had some sort of financial disaster, he could commute to Michigan- another real bonus. It wouldn't be fun, but it could be done.

He has accepted his spot on the waitlists although he's not sure he'd go to Oberlin at this point. I think they hurt his feelings. He would definitely go to Brown and he has written the admissions counselor, updated some of his activities, let him know he would definitely attend if accepted off the wait list and finished the letter with a note that if he can't get off the wait list, Brown will be #1 on his list for grad school. But realistically, they haven't used their wait list in 2 years.

Awww, even if he's going to be a slightly reluctant Wolverine at first, I'm happy we're (...probably...) getting such a great kid and wonderful student. Tell him I said Go Blue!

One thing I was a little bit surprised to discover was how many kids who went to high school in Michigan **didn't** want to hang out with people they already knew. I was the only kid from my high school class who chose UM, and so I didn't know a soul when I stepped on campus. I had no choice but to start from scratch, and I was kind of expecting a lot of the kids from Michigan high schools to arrive with many classmates and acquaintances in the same class, and their peer groups pretty much set from high school, and thus I'd have a bit of extra work to do to make friends. To my pleasant surprise, most people were looking to have a different experience than they'd had in high school, with different people. To quote a friend of mine from Rochester Hills, "Whatever, I spent 4 years with them. I know them. I'm ready to move on."

There will be plenty of other people for him to meet. He might not like that one girl, but there will be 6,998 other freshmen who aren't her.

Right- and she'll be a sophomore! So it's 6999 :)

He did note that the male to female ratio in the RC is 1:2. The odds are definitely in his favor.