It’s hard to believe that my little girl, not so little or young anymore, is going to college this fall. Truly, time does go by very quickly when you’re on this side of life. You do the best you can to help them grow and prepare themselves for this stage in life. It’s terrifying regardless.
Her high school years impacted by COVID, like all students, just provided a lot of unknowns and a chaotic education. While her grades for her freshman year were pretty decent, which helped her transcripts for many universities, she suffered an up and down high school experience. Again, not unusual. So as she approached the final years of high school she struggled trying to figure out what it was she wanted to pursue in college. She loved art, but she didn’t want to pursue art completely. She loved math, but data or analysis was not her thing either.
It then came time to decide the universities she was to visit and apply to which included many private universities with the potential of using her mother’s tuition exchange from Case Western. The list would be Bowling Green (where essentially her mother and her mother’s entire family of 20+ graduated from), Ohio U, Duquesne, Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), Dayton and Miami (OH). She would end up applying to those and Toledo, DePaul (Chicago), Coastal Carolina and Michigan. Let’s just say she quickly eliminated Bowling Green, loved OU, loved RIT, loved Dayton and Miami. It was at RIT where a light bulb went off for her on her career pursuit. The Duquesne visit was a mixed bag for her. She liked the small campus and it being in Pittsburgh, but it didn’t seem like “it” for her. OU she loved so much and she would know a few people there. Miami she loved the campus and engineering program. RIT she loved a lot and it became her top choice immediately. RIT conducted an entry interview where she finally came to realize she would love to pursue mechanical engineering with automotive engineering being the core focus. She had gotten into Formula 1 (F1) racing and RIT sparked that interest for her with co-op opportunities that included Honda. RIT also has women’s engineering and racing clubs as well as a Baja racing team. Dayton surprised all of us and it moved up in the top 3 and then finally Miami she loved as well, surprisingly. It was set for her top 4 list in order; RIT, OU, Miami and Dayton.
With the cost of going to college being so astronomical we kept telling her it will come down to affordability and of those that are private (RIT, Dayton and Duquesne) the tuition exchange. Back on November 1st she got all of her applications in. Shake Heights required college bound students to apply to at least 7 universities. Luckily these applications were all free at this time because this would have been a very expensive endeavor. Still, will be… She started to receive decisions pretty soon after. Toledo, Duquesne, OU, Dayton, Miami, DePaul all said yes to her. We felt pretty confident at that point that RIT would have pulled through for her since RIT’s acceptance rate was higher than Dayton, Duquesne and DePaul. Then the news came back from RIT and they did not accept her. At first we were all very taken back by this, but then the realization that there were many other great options available. Miami and Dayton started to pursue her hard with Dayton really starting to rise to the top.
It all changed for us when in January at a local accepted Dayton student’s event held at Pinstripes. When we moved to Cleveland in 2007 my wife was into the mommy blogger scene and became acquainted with many other bloggers in Cleveland such asCleveland is a Plum (Alexa) and Chef’s Widow (Amelia). We had been to many events like Disney on Ice and so forth where all of our kids grew up together through these connections. It was at this Dayton event where it was discovered that our daughter’s were pursuing Dayton as well. Alexa (step-mom) and her husband (and ex-wife) graduated from Dayton . So with this connection (reconnection) Dayton shot up to the top. Also, our old babysitter and my daughter’s former rowing teammate had transferred to Dayton as well. There have been many Shaker Heights rowers that have attended Dayton as well.
Since that time we have been super impressed with the communication from University of Dayton. Their admissions game is top notch. We’ve attended all of their virtual events where we continued to learn about this university. Also, with the chaos since inauguration it was becoming more clear that Dayton would be the best fit for her, but of course it would all depend on the tuition exchange. It really sealed the deal for us when at a virtual housing event the fact that staff were using their pronouns to identify themselves was all I needed to hear. UD is a Marianist Catholic faith-based university, but in today’s political environment (anti-DEI BS) this could be a huge benefit. Their values include diversity and inclusion which remember this country still has religious freedom.
On March 1st there was an overnight event on UD campus for Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) hosted for admitted students and then the next day for all UD admitted students to tour and pledge. Just before that weekend’s event she received the news we had hoped would pull through for her. UD was accepting the tuition exchange! This was happening! —Anyway, back to weekend.— That weekend would provide me the opportunity to tour the campus finally. (This would also be my first road trip in my EV, Captain Kirk. Which did surprisingly well given the terrible weather and temps.) I dropped her off on campus and the following morning when picking her up she told me, “Dad, this is the place. I want to accept today.” That is all I needed to hear. I knew it as well. Unfortunately, the offer was not completed yet, but guaranteed tuition exchange. I met some other wonderful parents at the event and then UD President spoke of diversity and inclusion in his speech. We then headed back to campus for a tour and to meet up with the rowing coach. UD also has a varsity women’s rowing team which my daughter wanted to possibly pursue. We visited admissions which they confirmed the tuition exchange, but still working on the offer. Her pledge would still have to wait a little longer. While waiting in admissions I ran into someone I had worked with at Progressive and KeyBank. His son was checking out UD as well. Small world. Also, one thing that makes UD unique is that the university owns many houses (with front porches) that the upperclassmen get to live in. All maintained and cared for by the university. No slum lords or terrible living conditions to deal with. Why don’t more universities do this is beyond me.
We met up with the rowing coach, which provided us a tour of the wonderful student athlete’s facilities, and then went on to talk for almost an hour. She then committed to the coach to be a rower at UD. I cannot state this any more than I can that through all of this that your kids will surprise you. This is part where you support them and help them transition to adulthood. You want them to find their path and direction, but you want them to feel empowered and have a say in the decisions. I am so proud to be her dad. I am proud of her pursuit as a student athlete for rowing, but more importantly I am happy for her and her journey. Time for her to soar. I am a Flyer dad.
