What I learned from the returning freshman this week

[Anonymous]

Wow. Such talkative kids! Mine told me all about the food and that he can’t control the heat in his dorm room.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Okay. Case Western: has made some really great friends, hates Cleveland, he found a spot behind the library to go to cry in private, has gone to the orchestra seven times, has only left campus three times, really gets along well with his roommate (he's jewish and liberal and was worried, but they sat watching the election results and cried together), is getting a C in chemistry and the professor screams at people if they go to office hours, the frats are either known for being losers or roofie-ing people so doesn't want to join, was waitlisted at NorthWestern senior year so thinking of trying to transfer there, the food in the dining halls is TERRIBLE, all the girls seem like they're at college to find a boyfriend to turn into a husband and move way too fast.

Your son cried on Election Day?

When he found out the results, yes.

OMG.
DP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I talk to my kid once a week and hung out with him over Thanksgiving, but I cannot begin to summarize even his own experience like this, let alone his friends.

I wonder if this is chatgpt generated?

OP - oh lord. Its definitely not AI - all me.

I hung out with my kid (and friends) many times all week.....it was great. The girls and guys were very open about the good and bad. Think many (most?) of them miss their high school bubble.

Clearly, I missed the mark here with this summar. I thought it was fascinating. Guess, I was wrong.

The people giving you grief are mostly being pissy because all the schools you mentioned are schools most of their kids have no shot at.
If you had started with JMU and Radford and sprinkled a little bit of Tulane and Yale in the mix, you would have gotten a much friendlier response. Welcome to DCUM.

Even single data points can be useful. So here's one:

Penn: The non-wharton kids all seem pretty chill and are enjoying their college experience (a lot of kids seem to have community service backgrounds) but a lot of the wharton kids seem to be standing around waiting for people to notice they are going to wharton and not penn.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They were all here.....
it wasn't that hard. I thought I'd share bc I thought it was interesting. Maybe its bc I know these kids?

Good thing I didn't post the rest!!!
I'll see about deleting this if you all really think its irrelevant.

You know that many kids and all at those top level universities???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Okay. Case Western: has made some really great friends, hates Cleveland, he found a spot behind the library to go to cry in private, has gone to the orchestra seven times, has only left campus three times, really gets along well with his roommate (he's jewish and liberal and was worried, but they sat watching the election results and cried together), is getting a C in chemistry and the professor screams at people if they go to office hours, the frats are either known for being losers or roofie-ing people so doesn't want to join, was waitlisted at NorthWestern senior year so thinking of trying to transfer there, the food in the dining halls is TERRIBLE, all the girls seem like they're at college to find a boyfriend to turn into a husband and move way too fast.

My son is a senior and loves Cleveland- he goes to sporting events, concerts, loves the art museum. Fribley is the good dining hall.

Thanks, I'll tell him about the dining hall!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I talk to my kid once a week and hung out with him over Thanksgiving, but I cannot begin to summarize even his own experience like this, let alone his friends.

I wonder if this is chatgpt generated?

OP - oh lord. Its definitely not AI - all me.

I hung out with my kid (and friends) many times all week.....it was great. The girls and guys were very open about the good and bad. Think many (most?) of them miss their high school bubble.

Clearly, I missed the mark here with this summar. I thought it was fascinating. Guess, I was wrong.

The people giving you grief are mostly being pissy because all the schools you mentioned are schools most of their kids have no shot at.
If you had started with JMU and Radford and sprinkled a little bit of Tulane and Yale in the mix, you would have gotten a much friendlier response. Welcome to DCUM.

Even single data points can be useful. So here's one:

Penn: The non-wharton kids all seem pretty chill and are enjoying their college experience (a lot of kids seem to have community service backgrounds) but a lot of the wharton kids seem to be standing around waiting for people to notice they are going to wharton and not penn.

You are just so so wrong. I haven’t even paid any attention to what the specific schools are. I just think the whole exercise is plain weird and I think anyone who goes along with this is equally weird and pathetic. So yeah, that includes you. What the hell is wrong with you people?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They were all here.....
it wasn't that hard. I thought I'd share bc I thought it was interesting. Maybe its bc I know these kids?

Good thing I didn't post the rest!!!
I'll see about deleting this if you all really think its irrelevant.

You know that many kids and all at those top level universities???

The comments here are all around interesting.
Yes, its a selective private high school. Its not that unusual here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They were all here.....
it wasn't that hard. I thought I'd share bc I thought it was interesting. Maybe its bc I know these kids?

Good thing I didn't post the rest!!!
I'll see about deleting this if you all really think its irrelevant.

You know that many kids and all at those top level universities???

Kids who go to top schools tend to flock together. My DC has 5 friends at Harvard, 4 at Yale, many at his college Stanford, a few at Princeton, Williams, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I talk to my kid once a week and hung out with him over Thanksgiving, but I cannot begin to summarize even his own experience like this, let alone his friends.

I wonder if this is chatgpt generated?

+1
It's certainly not a genuine post.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I talk to my kid once a week and hung out with him over Thanksgiving, but I cannot begin to summarize even his own experience like this, let alone his friends.

I wonder if this is chatgpt generated?

OP - oh lord. Its definitely not AI - all me.

I hung out with my kid (and friends) many times all week.....it was great. The girls and guys were very open about the good and bad. Think many (most?) of them miss their high school bubble.

Clearly, I missed the mark here with this summar. I thought it was fascinating. Guess, I was wrong.

The people giving you grief are mostly being pissy because all the schools you mentioned are schools most of their kids have no shot at.
If you had started with JMU and Radford and sprinkled a little bit of Tulane and Yale in the mix, you would have gotten a much friendlier response. Welcome to DCUM.

Even single data points can be useful. So here's one:

Penn: The non-wharton kids all seem pretty chill and are enjoying their college experience (a lot of kids seem to have community service backgrounds) but a lot of the wharton kids seem to be standing around waiting for people to notice they are going to wharton and not penn.

NP. This isn’t true at all. Taking ONE anecdote about any school and pretending it means anything at all is absurd. Doesn’t matter what the school is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I talk to my kid once a week and hung out with him over Thanksgiving, but I cannot begin to summarize even his own experience like this, let alone his friends.

I wonder if this is chatgpt generated?

OP - oh lord. Its definitely not AI - all me.

I hung out with my kid (and friends) many times all week.....it was great. The girls and guys were very open about the good and bad. Think many (most?) of them miss their high school bubble.

Clearly, I missed the mark here with this summar. I thought it was fascinating. Guess, I was wrong.

The people giving you grief are mostly being pissy because all the schools you mentioned are schools most of their kids have no shot at.
If you had started with JMU and Radford and sprinkled a little bit of Tulane and Yale in the mix, you would have gotten a much friendlier response. Welcome to DCUM.

Even single data points can be useful. So here's one:

Penn: The non-wharton kids all seem pretty chill and are enjoying their college experience (a lot of kids seem to have community service backgrounds) but a lot of the wharton kids seem to be standing around waiting for people to notice they are going to wharton and not penn.

You are just so so wrong. I haven’t even paid any attention to what the specific schools are. I just think the whole exercise is plain weird and I think anyone who goes along with this is equally weird and pathetic. So yeah, that includes you. What the hell is wrong with you people?

Maybe something is wrong with you?
It's not weird if you are looking for data points on fit. It's helpful. Like unigo? Ever used that?

I personally think parents should focus more on social fit - academics and "name" should come secondary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I talk to my kid once a week and hung out with him over Thanksgiving, but I cannot begin to summarize even his own experience like this, let alone his friends.

I wonder if this is chatgpt generated?

OP - oh lord. Its definitely not AI - all me.

I hung out with my kid (and friends) many times all week.....it was great. The girls and guys were very open about the good and bad. Think many (most?) of them miss their high school bubble.

Clearly, I missed the mark here with this summar. I thought it was fascinating. Guess, I was wrong.

It's anecdotal but still interesting.

A few years ago a New Yorker writer wrote that UMC people obsess about college admissions like Jane Austen obsessed about suitable economically-favorable marriage matchmaking. I found that quite apropos. Both obsessions are motivated by status and economic worries.

It's gossipy but there are some obvious incentives for understanding conditions on the ground.

I also like to ask people about their experiences. Why is college sacred vs. a vacation experience? It sure costs more.

First of all, college isn't sacred.
However, an education should be.

[Anonymous]

Such a painfully sad and odd post.

[Anonymous]

The information is useful but some of the summaries have an undertone of entitlement. I’m a graduate of two of those schools and my kid is attending one of them. No one is begrudging those kids their accomplishments. Kudos to the kids whose hard work landed them at those schools. The point is, they worked so hard to get there and it’s sad if they feel if their experience is just “meh”. They don’t know how lucky they are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They were all here.....
it wasn't that hard. I thought I'd share bc I thought it was interesting. Maybe its bc I know these kids?

Good thing I didn't post the rest!!!
I'll see about deleting this if you all really think its irrelevant.

Please post the rest!!! This is suuuuper interesting and relevant to this forum. Thank you!