It sounds like your daughter has a great attitude. My daughter is also a senior and they have some overlaps (in EA at Michigan and interested in the RC), and she has also applied to Northwestern.

BTW, AGD was the other sorority I preffed at Michigan. :)

Cool :) Our daughters could end up in RC together then! I think my daughter is at a point where, while she'll be disappointed if she doesn't get into Barnard, Northwestern or Brown, she did like Michigan a lot. She just wants to escape the state, and who can blame her for that?

Lol...but I do love it in Michigan.

Have you heard that the RC and the Greek system seem to appeal to mutually exclusive populations? That's what the RC rep. told us at a campus event. My daughter isn't as keen on the RC as she was in the beginning. In my day, it was pretty "hippy-ish" and from what we've heard, that may still be somewhat the case.

Which is precisely where my daughter would fit... lol. I wondered if the living in requirement for two years pretty much excluded them from greek life possibilities.

To be fair though, this is really going to depend on the chapter. A good friend of mine and I both joined Sigma at the same time and shocked pretty much all of our friends because no one expected the two hippie/hipster kids to go Greek. But Sigma welcomed us with open arms and honestly it didn't matter. I feel like there's probably a chapter that she could still fit into at Michigan, if she were interested.

I definitely think that's true at Michigan, but the Residential College does seem to be sort of a "sorority type" community where they have smaller classes together, live in the same dorm for two years, have foreign language immersion meals together and extra curricular activities set up right in their dorm. It is sort of an artsy/creative living community that you commit to for your first two years. It is designed to be a smaller college experience within the University of Michigan massive community.

I don't think being a hipster is a hindrance to Greek Life at Michigan (I think there are LOTS of hipsters at Michigan) but I think the live in requirements and additional activities might make it hard to do both.

Exactly...my impression is the RC program and students are not much of a gateway to Greek life, because they are their own family/community. The rep. that we spoke with said that some RC students do join sororities and fraternities, but not too many. She did say you could definitely go through recruitment if you want to, and some students do, but most entered the RC because they want that as their home. Most are not even going through recruitment nor are they interested: it's not that they're being rejected by the Greek groups. That's what I mean by mutually exclusive; there just isn't much overlap in interest or students. They're operating in two different spheres.

I do think the 2-year RC live-in requirement would be tricky, though, and I have wondered about that. My daughter definitely wants to go through recruitment if she attends a school with Greek life. The houses at Michigan are big and they all had a live-in requirement when I was there, unless you were living at home, studying abroad, or doing an internship/student teaching elsewhere. We really had to hold to that to keep our house filled. This could be a factor during recruitment for houses that need or require all new members to move in the next year. Maybe they wouldn't want to deal with that with an RC student. Or maybe they make an exception for RC students. This is a good question and definitely one to ask when it comes time to make final decisions!

Something else to think about the RC that you and your daughter should consider. The university I advise at has a program very much like this and the students all like the idea of it coming in as freshmen. The parents all seem to want their kids to live on campus so they are moving to a system that would require all freshmen to live on campus and give them housing in these types of residential or learning communities if requested. The idea is small college group within larger campus. The problem comes up in the second year or even the second semester of the LC. Change your major or change your mind about your career focus and you can't schedule your classes to keep even one or two still with the other LC students you started with. The kids in the Honors College - that has preferred space in particular dorms and smaller class sizes, seems to do a better job of building the type of communities that are the idealized RC.

The neighborhood around University of Chicago is very tough. I worked at the U of C hospital there one summer. The neighborhood problems do sometimes flow over on to campus. In the summer while I was there, some teenage girls stole a car and crashed it by my building; certain patients were gang affiliated and brought weapons into the hospital; someone was mugged for a backpack and a bike; stuff like that. Any campus in a big city is going to have problems, but U of C campus seemed a little dicier to me than most.

The campus is beautiful, though. The faculty is top notch. It's a very academic school. The students are very smart and very serious.

Washington University is awesome. It's a pretty low key campus for being an academic stand-out. There's a decent amount of stuff to do in St. Louis. The campus is beautiful and close to a wonderful neighborhood and Forest Park. The student housing community is very cool. Sororities don't have housing, but the Greek community is pretty vibrant. Academics are top notch. The campus is pretty safe. It's a wonderful place to spend four years.

I did a graduate degree there. I really liked it.

I'm afraid you're rubbing salt into the wound...AGDee posted that her daughter was not accepted. :(

Yeah, after visiting U of C, she didn't end up applying there and applied to Wellesley instead.

No worries, she didn't have her heart set on Wash U and she's fine with not being accepted. Going on college confidential and seeing some of the stats of kids who didn't get in... it's amazing. She's in very good company in being rejected from Wash U!

I heard that Wash. U. has been mass-marketing in an attempt to increase applications and lower their admission rate, thus making them look even more elite. I wish I could remember where I read this...it was a "real" article, not a internet posting. The article stated the admissions stats. and how they had dramatically decreased over the past 2 years. Also, U of C went up from 9 to 5 on USNWR rankings, and selectivity is one of the criteria. I think they're doing the same thing. I believe that my daughter received 30+ mailings, postcards, e-mails, etc. from U of C and many from Wash. Univ., too. They are great schools, but after I read that, I did wonder whether they were over-recruiting with their copious promotional materials and invitations to apply. The more Harvard brags about their 6% admissions rate, the more the other top schools have to try to compete. I'm just being cynical, but I'm ready for this whole college admissions ordeal to be done with!

Yes, my daughter received more stuff from U of C than anywhere and the marketing was brilliant, likening it to Hogwarts! It did look like Hogwarts when we visited...lol.

Tell hypoallergenic my vote is for Hogwarts, wherever that is to her. :)

Someone said Hogwarts?
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...-_Feb_2008.jpg

That's where I went to graduate school...turrets, cloisters, etc. But don't be fooled, even though the university itself was established in 1451, the building is a 19th century Gothic revival mash-up (and it's awesome).

Is that the University of Glasgow? I was there for a conference in July.

Argh! Like I said earlier, it sounds like she's got some good acceptances to cushion the blow from this.

This time of year--college admissions season--is such a stressful time, ugh. Honestly? I don't think I've ever been as stressed as a working, bill-paying adult as I was during my junior and senior years in high school.

I can't see it letting up anytime soon, though. I see my niece, who went to the same HS and has many of the same teachers, and it's ridiculous how much higher the bar is raised for these kids. Spanish V and calculus for a junior? Those were senior classes back in my day, unless a kid had studied in a Spanish-speaking country or was a math whiz. Now? It's virtually standard. Granted, my HS was--and is--extremely competitive, but it's still a small HS in a relatively laid-back town. We aren't talking Fairfax or Westchester or Fairfield counties! :(

If she doesn't get more acceptances, it will be the University of Michigan for her. Spending time on college confidential has actually been good for her. With U of M in her backyard her whole life, she didn't really realize what a well regarded school it is to people everywhere.

My cousin who brought her daughter here from Alaska to visit U of M is really glad they made college visits. Her daughter is going into naval and marine engineering and has been accepted to both U of M and Webb Institute (on Long Island). After visiting both, she has officially decided on U of M. She was happy to meet family here that she had never met before and said she would feel comfortable calling us if she needed something or coming here for Thanksgiving without her mom. I'm kind of excited about that :)

I believe UM has an AGD chapter. So maybe your cousin's daughter will head that way?

They do have a chapter. I don't see her going that direction though. She's already spoken with the rifle team coach and will be on the club rifle team. And she will probably play women's club hockey. She didn't like the other school because she witnessed a lot of partying and said "the dorm was like a fraternity house.. beer bottles everywhere." I just didn't get the sorority vibe from her!

Should hypoallergenic decide to go to UM, UM is extremely well regarded academically in other parts of the country. This coming from a Buckeye living in Fairfax County, near DC.

Here, too. University of Michigan is very impressive.

Ask any Michigan alum...they'll be glad to confirm how fabulously well-respected they are, everywhere in the world, except in that state just to the south. ;)

Awww... sorry. And Wash U is like that. She did very well, if she got the interview. They have way more kids apply than they have slots to fill. Sometimes I think they take the applications for the qualified kids and throw them down the stairs. The ones that land on the third step from the bottom get accepted.

Lol...great theory!

Added bonus for hypoallergenic... Her second trimester grades just came in and she got all A's. She was really sweating Physics and AP Calc because she got A-s in those two last trimester. She's really more of a right brain person and has to work at hard at those two courses. However, she got As in them this trimester and bumped her class rank up one. She thought for sure she was going to get A-s and drop out of the top 10. She was sending me texts last week like "Is Dad going to be upset if I don't make top 10?" "Is Grandpa going to be upset if I don't make top 10?" "Are YOU going to be upset if I don't make top 10?" Of course the answer to all of them was NO, we are very proud of her and love her bunches whether she made top 10 or not. Anyway, she is solidly in the top 10. And this is the trimester that the school bases everything on, so she's happy today. Her counselor said she'd have those mid-year reports in ASAP.

Well, she was like that at one point in time, when she had to decide whether to stay in band or try to be valedictorian. It was a very difficult decision for her, but if she stayed in band she couldn't fit all the AP classes into her schedule. One of the valedictorians dropped out of band but hypoallergenic decided that it was one of her passions and that was more important than being valedictorian. From that point on, she placed a lot less importance on class rank.

Additionally, she knows that some of the kids above her didn't exactly come by all of their grades honestly. Knowing that she earned what she did with her integrity intact was a big deal for her. I couldn't be more proud of *that*. But, I know she has put a ton of effort into Calculus and Physics and am really proud that she pulled off the A.

She said they started announcing the top 10 from the bottom. One of her friends from pre-school was #10. Hypoallergenic was #9 going into this trimester, so when they announced someone else as #9, she said she thought she didn't make it at all. But then, they announced her as #8 and she was really excited :)

They announce that? Seems like an invasion of privacy.

I just had lunch yesterday with a Chi Omega new member from WashU who owns a t-shirt that reads: "I Attend a Prestigious School No One's Ever Heard Of" (or something to that degree -- surely it doesn't end with a preposition!)

They publish that in the newspaper! They get special honors at graduation. How is that more invasive than announcing a valedictorian and salutatorian? So many of them tie for ranks that they honor the top 10 instead of just the top two (there are 3 tied for rank 1-3, and 4 tied for rank 4-7), then hypo at # 8, one at #9 and one at #10.

I offended one of my student teachers when I told him that the gigantic bulletin board that they had at his placement school (also his alma mater, so he was defensive about the school) was violating FERPA by posting the current GPAs of the top 100 students (down to 3 digits past the decimal).

However, most parents don't complain about accolades, so I don't think anyone is complaining much over the recognition of high grades. Personally, I like it because my daughter gets good grades, and I am also proud of her "Senior Scholar" status this year. Colleges send in Dean's Lists to have published in the hometown paper, too. It may not be as specific as the school GPA listing, but you can then tell who didn't get a 3.5 if they're from your town and not on the list.

If anyone started announcing the names of students who have bad grades, then I'm sure there would be a stink!

I vote for this!! Then maybe they would do better...or at least maybe their parents would do their homework for them, lol.

We sure are! Go Blue!

But seriously, if that is where she goes, it's a great place where everyone can find their niche. I could have gotten a great education at any one of so many excellent schools in this country -- and I attended other schools for grad school, so I've gotten a good slice of life at a couple of excellent colleges -- and I remain very, very glad I chose U of M.

It's no accident that we have such massive school pride -- it's because it's a place worthy of such pride!

Don't get me wrong, like any large institution it has its pros and cons for darn sure (just tonight, a young friend of mine who's gotten in there for grad school -- and who went to a very small undergrad school -- complained to me about them not having sent her some information she wanted. Me: "Errr ... you should get used to hunting down information on your own. There is very little handholding there. This is how it is, not a glitch."), and there are plenty of ways it might not be the right place for someone ... but if she feels at home there, she will have a blast.

From the first time she stepped foot in Ann Arbor (to meet "Lemony Snicket" for a book signing at Borders), she loved it. She just wants to escape this state and I can't blame her for that. U of M would be the easiest for me, for sure. It's only 45 minutes away...lol. She knows she would be happy there. She loves the restaurants, coffee shops, stores, central campus, etc. She really just wants to leave the state.

One of my sisters felt the same way. She had grown up in Bloomington and her father worked for the university. She had a very unusual last name, so everyone on campus knew who her father was, and at times he was not all that popular on campus. She was determined to go out of state until she realized that neither her car nor any of her friends would be going with her and that she would have to fly to and from school which meant fewer trips home. :-) She ended up very happy at IU even though it was the "home" school.

I feel her -- I wanted to leave Michigan by the time I was done at UM, too, heh -- but you know what? The rest of the world still will be there 3-5 years from now. If the one and only thing wrong with UM is that it's not in Pittsburgh or Miami or DC or Seattle, she can sprint to any of those places with a puff of smoke behind her after college! (... and she'll have the strength of the largest alumni base in the world behind her when she goes.) I know it's hard to think that far ahead when you're 18, but it's so important to try to think long-term when making this decision.

I know that Penn State touts the largest DUES PAYING Alumni Association in the nation! I think PSU passed U of M around 2009 or 2010. Penn State also has the largest student-run philanthropy in the world (THON). Too bad AGDee's daughter wasn't interested in becoming a Nittany Lion but, I wish her all the best!

As far as attending schools--I was set on Temple for the longest time (not sure why). I didn't want to attend my alma mater, at first, because I had family members who had worked for the school and growing up I was tired of hearing about how great PSU was. As I got older, I was able to appreciate everything Penn State had to offer. Attending a Big Ten university has definitely opened doors for me and I hope it will continue to do so in the future. Good luck to your daughter!

She should know all of her results over the next 13 days.

Wellesley- 21st
Barnard- mails them probably next Thursday or Friday
The Ivies all announce on 3/29

Northwestern and American are in there somewhere too.. I want to say around the 25th/26th.

We talked about stress levels tonight. She said it's at the point where she'd rather find out that she didn't get in to most of the schools than to simply NOT know. She's got herself prepared for lots of bad news but the one that will be really tough if she doesn't get in is Barnard. She feels pretty sure she'll get into American. She's really hoping she gets into Barnard. She doesn't think she'll get into Columbia, Brown or Northwestern. She has no idea about Wellesley and is regretting not requesting an "early evaluation", where they send you a "likely", "Possibly" or "Unlikely" response in advance of official decisions. But, two weeks from now we should know where she's going.