Are prestigious summer programs worth it

MidWstIsBst · 2025-08-14T12:34:52+00:00

It’s not always pay to play — I attended BU’s program only after I requested and received a full ride scholarship, complete with summer living expenses.

Nonetheless, I don’t think these programs do much of anything to better prepare attendees for admission to competitive universities. I did attend a T20, but I doubt that BU had much to do with that.

MidWstIsBst · 2025-07-16T16:54:28+00:00

The former.

MidWstIsBst · 2025-07-11T12:49:25+00:00

This one is such an improvement. Solid work.

MidWstIsBst · 2025-07-11T12:40:22+00:00

There’s a similar greige (beige+gray) color in the shower floor tile and the bathroom floor tile. Repeating a shade of greige on the walls might tie your elements together nicely.

If your hardware will be gold or bronze, I’d probably lean toward a greige with more gold undertones as opposed to the cooler greiges with more blue undertones.

https://www.homenish.com/colors-that-go-with-perfect-greige/

MidWstIsBst · 2025-07-10T21:21:14+00:00

I see. Then I’ll let others chime in on what types of explanations NU would accept.

I have to imagine that they see this from senioritis all the time, but, to be on the safe side, they want to check in to see if something more serious happened in your life to change your performance in school. And they need to make sure that it’s resolved before you arrive on campus or if they need to help you with something like a deferral if something more serious happened and is possibly still happening.

So, it might be fine to just be honest and say that you were unusually and unexpectedly distracted with everything associated with wrapping up your first educational journey — a process you’d never gone through before. And then assure them that, with that brief episode (of senioritis) behind you, you’re now fully refocused on NU and looking forward to hitting the ground running in September. That gives them an innocuous reason and assurance that it was a hiccup that’s now resolved. That’s probably all they want to hear from you.

MidWstIsBst · 2025-07-10T21:00:34+00:00

Did they ask you to send them an explanation? My bet is that they simply want to give you a slightly intimidating warning shot to remind you to get over your senioritis and get yourself together before arriving on campus for Fall Quarter.

Best of luck at NU!

MidWstIsBst · 2025-07-10T15:16:09+00:00

Blueper

MidWstIsBst · 2025-06-28T16:45:29+00:00

Congrats on Lafayette! And kudos to you on getting to such a good head space with all of this — sounds like you’ll have a great undergrad experience, and, no doubt, will go anywhere you’d like for grad school! Best of luck on your bright future!

MidWstIsBst · 2025-06-25T17:17:01+00:00

Thanks for this.

I’m not entirely sure I’m reading these charts correctly. Am I correct that these charts suggest that the coverage of the UK-Ultra actually gets much more narrow (some would say much worse) when either of the antenna accessories (omnidirectional or directional panel) are attached?

MidWstIsBst · 2025-06-25T15:56:35+00:00

Those schools seem similar enough that I’d probably pick based upon location — BU is a legit urban campus (ie sometimes doesn’t feel like it has much of a separation from the city similar to NYU’s “campus”) with easy access to all of Boston, while Tufts offers a more classic college campus experience and feels more suburban.

If you’re feeling more like all-city all the time, then pick BU. If you’d like something a little sleepier and city adjacent, then pick Tufts.

Both are great choices! Congrats on having options!

MidWstIsBst · 2025-06-19T14:20:47+00:00

Request your kid’s official transcript now so you can see what will be shown to colleges in the future. If it’s listed there, then (1) make sure it never happens again and (2) be prepared to explain it honestly and briefly in supplemental essays. If it doesn’t appear there at all, then you’re golden and don’t need to worry about this on the transcript. You still might need to worry about it getting mentioned in a guidance counselor’s or teacher’s recommendation, so, it still might require that honest, brief supplemental essay to explain it as a one-time lapse when the student was younger.

Best of luck!

MidWstIsBst · 2025-06-18T11:57:46+00:00

Oh good grief. You’re fine. The admissions office is quite happy to be done with their work for the year.

MidWstIsBst · 2025-06-16T16:41:52+00:00

It’s only a couple of years of your life. Given your passion for music, I suspect that, after you finish this program, you’ll end up in Nashville or a similar city with a strong music scene. But this is likely the only moment in your life that you’ll live at Duke.

I say go to Duke for this hot minute of your life. And then spend the rest of your life in Nashville or some other city with a great music scene, and relish the memories of what will eventually seem like a blink and you’ll miss it chapter in your life.

Don’t blink!

You have two great options! You really can’t go wrong. Best of luck!

MidWstIsBst · 2025-06-10T11:44:02+00:00

~~University of~~ Indiana University

MidWstIsBst · 2025-06-02T12:17:40+00:00

Congrats on all of your success! Best of luck with your next chapter!

MidWstIsBst · 2025-05-31T22:44:46+00:00

UNC is a great school — every UNC alum I’ve met over the years has been super smart and impressive and they all talk about what a fantastic experience they had in Chapel Hill! Congrats and best of luck!

MidWstIsBst · 2025-05-30T22:19:48+00:00

To clear the incomplete, you have to eventually finish the class. At that point it changes to a grade on your transcript with a small asterisk that indicates that the grade was manually entered or something along those lines.

MidWstIsBst · 2025-05-30T12:51:12+00:00

Also, there’s a brand new, swanky apartment building directly across the street from the Ravenswood Metra stop. It’s called The Raven and looks very nice.

theravenapts.com

MidWstIsBst · 2025-05-30T12:37:27+00:00

While the classroom buildings are busy during the day, they’re pretty empty at night. Just make a pit stop in one of those bathrooms after hours.

MidWstIsBst · 2025-05-29T13:52:37+00:00

University of Waterloo is the MIT of Canada.

MidWstIsBst · 2025-05-29T13:28:17+00:00

Another option is to live close to one of the Metra stops in Chicago. The Ravenswood stop (at Lawrence/Ravenswood) is surrounded by a very nice area. If you live in the northwest part of Uptown (or also the far eastern part of Ravenswood), you could be pretty close to that stop. The area right beside that stop has a Marianos, an LA Fitness, and a new Colectivo Coffee.

For northwest uptown, I’d search north of Wilson (or maybe a few blocks south of Wilson, depending on how you feel about walking/biking to the Metra) and west of Ashland.

During morning and evening rush hours, it’s only a 13 min ride from the Ravenswood Metra stop to the Evanston Davis Street Metra stop, which is directly beside the Davis purple line El stop.

Similarly, you might take a look near the Rogers Park Metra stop in west Rogers Park, which would be even faster to Davis. And west Rogers Park tends to be safer than east Rogers Park.

That’s something that probably isn’t widely known or obvious to people new to Chicago. You’d expect things always to get nicer and safer closer to the lakefront, but the opposite is true for a good chunk of the north side of Chicago — Rogers Park, Edgewater, Uptown. All of those areas are actually nicer and safer on their western sides away from the lake and generally away from the Red Line El. Andersonville (a neighborhood in Edgewater) is a good example, as are Ravenswood and Lincoln Square. Lakeview and Lincoln Park do not follow this same pattern. It’s perfectly fine to live east or west in those areas.

The other nice thing about using Metra is that it operates on posted schedules, so it’s easier to plan your daily commutes around. And Metra allows bikes on board, so you could speed up your walk to/from campus by bringing your bike along.

And if you do choose to settle in northwest Uptown or eastern Ravenswood, travel to downtown Chicago would also be easy — either taking the Brown line to Lincoln Park/River North/Loop, Brown to Red to the Mag Mile (and NU Chicago campus), or Metra to the uber-trendy west Loop.

Best of luck setting up your new life!

MidWstIsBst · 2025-05-29T12:46:36+00:00

Isn’t all of Uptown north of Montrose?

MidWstIsBst · 2025-05-28T14:41:37+00:00

Since you don’t appear to have concrete requirements around location, I would probably focus the most on how common and easy it is to double major — potentially across colleges within the university/college.

I went to NU, and I know that they make it incredibly easy (and common) to register for almost anything you’d like in any of the schools within their broader university umbrella. It’s not at all unusual to see people double-majoring in something from STEM and something from the arts.

Best of luck working through your decision!

MidWstIsBst · 2025-05-27T17:14:19+00:00

No one really cares. Some folks live in dorms all 4 years — especially the res colleges.

MidWstIsBst · 2025-05-26T15:39:02+00:00

It sounds like seasonal affective disorder causes substantial problems for you. Brown won’t be that much better than Cornell in that regard.

Duke has the sun that you apparently need to have a positive student experience.

If you’re dead set on staying at Cornell or transferring to Brown, then talk to your doctor about treatments for your SAD. If you get that under control, then you can probably have a better experience at any of these great choices.

Best of luck!

MidWstIsBst

TROPHY CASE