<p>He had been talking about criminal justice – and I know York is good for that. But then on his PSAT or SAT form, he indicated that he wants to major in marketing. I have no idea where that came from. Then he said he really had no interest in marketing and thought he might major in history. Last weekend, he said he thought he would like to be a screenwriter. </p>
<p>So . . . yes, he has given it some thought. :)</p>
<p>lol, sounds like a typical teenage boy. 
If I remember right the most popular major going into Freshman year was “undeclared”. They basically took a bunch of classes in all different things and almost everyone had a major decided on by the end of the year… and had finished up almost all of their electives in the mean time, lol!</p>
<p>Undecided?</p>
<p>My son is also undecided. When asked by others(not patents) he says he is not sure maybe computer science or something math science related. With us he admits he has no idea, and can’t even commit in a broad general way. </p>
<p>How does this affect the schools we visit and ultimately add to our list?</p>
<p>I fear with small schools he may decide he wants to major in something not available.</p>
<p>Large schools often require students to apply to a specific school or major. </p>
<p>I like the idea of schools that admit students to the school in general and let them select their major any time before the end of their sophomore year.</p>
<p>Any ideas on schools that are a good fit undecided B students?</p>
<p>We are looking on the east coast from NC to MA and maybe as far west as Pittsburgh or eastern Ohio. </p>
<p>We have looked as far Elon (huge Reach perfect school for son)which is about 9 hours from where we are in NJ, but 5 or 6 hours or closer would be much better. (think ability to make the round trip in 1 day if necessary.)</p>
<p>“undeclared” is popular until end of sophomore year for many, then you have to “declare”.
or “Undecided”. LOL. </p>
<p>Getting accepted is the easy part! Paying for it is another! :eek:
As in paying for it 11 consecutive years for all 4 children.</p>
<p>eddie, my school took undeclared majors but had degrees available in comp sci, math, physics, etc. See post #38.</p>
<p>EdieNJ…in NC, East Carolina University (lots of kids from NJ attend) is a big state u. with what you’re looking for…first two years are for the most part gen. ed. requirements, wide variety of majors. [East</a> Carolina University](<a href=“http://www.ecu.edu%5DEast”>http://www.ecu.edu)</p>
<p>If you’re looking for small private in NC check out Queens University of Charlotte… really nice school in a beautiful part of Charlotte, gives merit aid, easy access to interstates and airport. [Queens</a> University of Charlotte | Charlotte, North Carolina](<a href=“http://www.queens.edu%5DQueens”>http://www.queens.edu)</p>
<p>edieNJ: not sure why you think Elon is a huge reach; you do know that their GPA’s recorded are weighted (by them)?..we know alot of 3.X kids who are entering in the fall…</p>
<p>I have three kids and all were B students (3.2 - 3.7), various rigor of classes, interests. I probably visited a good two dozen schools between all of them. All three ended up (youngest is graduating next Friday) at small private colleges. My oldest went to a private Christian College in Illinois, my next one went to Roanoke College in SW Virginia and my youngest will be going to Champlain College in Burlington, VT. All received very good merit aid. </p>
<p>Two were accepted at Elon, two were accepted at Millersville U (one at the honors college), all were accepted at my daughters college. One was accepted at York, Hartwick (on the short list for youngest), Drexel (also on short list for youngest), RIT, Kutztown, PSU Main and branch campus, Guilford, Marist, Arcadia and University of Hartford, Florida Institute of Technology,and Wentworth Institute of Technology. Substantial merit aid was offered from Guilford, Arcadia, and Wentworth.</p>
<p>A couple of colleges I would recommend for undecided students are Hartwick in Oneonta, NY, Arcadia College in Glenside PA, Ursinus College in Collegeville, PA, Guilford College in NC and Roanoke College in Salem, VA. I would also suggest reading two books - Colleges that Change Lives and this one - [Amazon.com:</a> Finding the College That’s Right for You! (0639785387336): John Palladino: Books](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Finding-College-Thats-Right-You/dp/0071423060/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1307744342&sr=1-2]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/Finding-College-Thats-Right-You/dp/0071423060/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1307744342&sr=1-2) There are sooooo many great colleges out there!</p>
<p>kathiep, I bought Palladino’s book after seeing it recommended by someone (you?) on CC and I agree, it is really helpful. </p>
<p>Thanks for the list of colleges that accepted your kids! This is all really good information. Arcadia is on my list of schools to possibly visit. I think Ursinus is too reachy for my kid but it does look very nice.</p>
<p>I went to PSU but the party scene nearly did me in. I would not send my unmotivated slacker-boy there. Great school for the right kind of kid, though.</p>
<p>Funny thing is I also bought the Palladino book last fall based on kathiep’s recomendation. I did just discover that I have the 2004 edition, I wonder if I should buy the new one. the cover looks the same but the info in mine is a bit dated. No wonder I paid $1.08 for the book.</p>
<p>I believe Elon is a huge reach for my son based on a few things. </p>
<ol>
<li>It is a red hot school at my son’s high school.</li>
<li>Guidance counselor had strong negative reaction at his jr conference.</li>
<li>I don’t think Elon’s weighting system will help him much as he has few honors(math only) and no AP classes until next year.<br></li>
</ol>
<p>There are a few other red hot schools at our HS such as Marist and Delaware, but at least Delaware accepts so many more students in total and can absorb more students from 1 suburban NJ HS.</p>
<p>There are so many recommendations I will have plenty to keep me busy this rainy morning. I guess I won’t have time to clean the house. :)</p>
<p>morton0, have your son take a look at: </p>
<p>Hampshire College (MA) (part of the Five College Consortium)
Bennington College (VT)
Marlboro College (VT) </p>
<p>They don’t have the proximity to NYC as Sarah Lawrence or Bard. Eugene Lang is, of course, within the City itself. They do have that “alternative” type of curriculum. Lang has housing for one year as I recall, others commute. It sounds like he is interested in these types of schools.</p>
<p>Simpkin… Summer is a great time to visit Central and Western NY. ,…I am hoping to make it up to the Rochester area in early July. Will wait on trekking to York till there are more options to look at in the general area of Pennsylvania … and definitely after AP grades are out. Will keep you posted. </p>
<p>Have you considered the greater Boston area? These are some of the names of a couple of colleges that wrote to my S after he took the PSAt. Nichols, Anna Maria, Holyoke. Those are the one’s I looked at but he really doesn’t want to go to Massachusetts for some reason.</p>
<p>Edie: there are other kids in your son’s position who, in light of the competition in their HS, choose to apply ED to Elon (if it’s their first choice school) given it’s high ED acceptance rate…that was part of my reference to it not necessarily being a “reach”…but ED is certainly not the way to go for everybody…</p>
<p>Yes, summer is probably the nicest time to visit, and would certainly be the most convenient. But . . . my daughter and I did almost all her college visiting in the summer, and at least for the small LACs, I didn’t think it was very helpful. It’s so hard to get a sense of a place when there are no kids around. My D thought she really liked a particular LAC during a summer visit (pretty campus, good tour guide and she really hit it off with the interviewer) but after she was accepted, we went back in April and it was clearly not a good fit for her. </p>
<p>We walked around Ithaca’s campus last July and it was completely deserted. Some of the other small schools had programs for high schoolers there, so there were only high school kids on campus.</p>
<p>Just today S received flyers for open houses this summer at Elizabethtown and Alfred, and it’s tempting, but I think we’ll wait till fall. </p>
<p>Boston, sure, but I don’t know those schools. Off to google . . . thanks.</p>
<p>Some other LACs to look at:
Wittenberg (OH)
Allegheny
Juniata
Washington & Lee
St. Anselm’s
St. Michael’s
Knox
Lake Forest</p>
<p>We too are faced with the summer visit dilemma. We have so few done that I feel the need to do some visiting over the summer. I feel the need to visit enough to narrow down son’s list. Right now he has few strong opinions. He strongly disliked Rowan, liked Elon and V Tech (both reaches we did in response to his reaction to Rowan)and thought Susquehanna and St Joe’s were fine. Since there is no clear pattern of likes and dislikes, narrowing down our search is difficult. Combine that with undecided and some lopsidedness as to GPA/SAT scores and our search continues. </p>
<p>I plan to try to take him to summer visits such as the ones mentioned at Alfred that may be a little better attended, and less dead feeling.</p>
<p>My goal is to have a good list by mid October and to have provided him with enough information that he can decide if he wants to do ED at Elon. </p>
<p>I think the only negative for Elon for him may be distance from home. I also have questions about how open the music department is to non majors. My other concern is that don’t want him to apply ED to Elon because I love it. (which I do, I was sad several years ago when my older D chose another school.) </p>
<p>I could not let him do ED at a $50,000+ school but it should work for Elon if he wants it.</p>
<p>Two of my kids did this program at Rochester Institute of Technology and both found it very helpful in helping them think of careers and majors - [RIT</a> College & Careers Homepage](<a href=“http://www.rit.edu/emcs/admissions/careers/]RIT”>http://www.rit.edu/emcs/admissions/careers/)
</p>
<p>My son was accepted to RIT and chose not to attend, but while there he learned more about the Network Security major, which is what he is going to do at his chosen college.</p>
<p>We visited Ithaca College on our way to RIT. While it was a little hard to picture without students on campus, son did get to have an interview with the professor of the department he was interested in and that informed him enough to know that he was not interested in applying. Beautiful campus, btw. One of my daughters best friends graduated from Ithaca and is now working for CNN.</p>
<p>Anna Maria College (MA) was going to close its doors at one point, around 2007-2008.
As far as I know it is still open, a relative of ours was afraid it would close before he graduated.</p>
<p>^^^^ scary. Is there a way to find out the financial health of a college? Is this public information that is accessible somehow?</p>
<p>You will have to look around on the internet and see what you can find.
My dates are correct as this was close to the time that relative graduated. </p>
<p>The smaller Catholic schools do not usually meet a high percentage of need like Stonehill (MA) Emmanuel (MA) Fairfield (CT) Seton Hall (NJ) Providence (RI) etc. I say “usually”, because of course for a student the school really desires that student may receive a great financial aid package. (“Preferential Packaging”)</p>