Advice for my brother

Parents Forum
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<p>Okay, well I'm sort of posting this for my mom, who's beginning the college search process with my brother. His situation is somewhat unusual and she's not entirely sure where she should start looking, so we thought the CC parents might have some ideas.</p>

<p>First, we live in northeastern Connecticut, and don't want to go too far from that, so we'd like to stay within New England/NY/maybe northern PA/NJ</p>

<p>My brother probably has ADD and he's always had trouble focusing, so his grades kind of reflect that. Some semesters he's had all A's with a few B's; some semesters it's B's and C's. He has a September birthday and is on the young end of his grade, and my mom has often thought it might have been better if she'd waited a year when he started kindergarten. </p>

<p>He hasn't usually been in the highest levels of classes (our high school has three levels, and he's mostly in the middle, standard, college-prep one). He's also not a great test taker. His PSAT's were all around a 55 (don't remember exactly).</p>

<p>When he is interested in something, he's passionate about it. Right now, that includes environmental causes (he's writing a letter to Al Gore asking him to speak at an event that he's helping to plan at his high school), political causes (he was a volunteer and then a paid worker for Ned Lamont's campaign and stayed home from school election day to work the polls), music (he plays the drums and is in a Latin jazz band, and is a DJ for the Uconn radio station) and theater tech-work.</p>

<p>Right now, he sees his future in theater tech stuff. He's been managing sound and/or lighting for the school productions all through high school, 2-3 plays a year, as well as whatever community children's plays happen in the summer. If he could get a degree in that, it would be ideal.</p>

<p>When I was looking at schools, we looked at Emerson, and even then we thought it would be perfect for my brother. He'll probably apply there, but it might be a bit of a reach for him to get into. I'd guess his GPA is around a 3.0, class rank probably somewhere between the top half and top quarter (his high school is weird about giving out stuff like that easily). </p>

<p>Does anyone have any ideas or insight about somewhere that he'd fit in well? Ideally, somewhere he could get into, a supportive environment, a good theater program, and hopefully opportunities to continue his political interests and radio stuff. Thanks in advance for any ideas.</p>

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<p>I only know them from their websites, but Ithaca College and the theater department at Syracuse U. might be worth reading about. Ithaca, which has the Roy Park School of Communication, theater, music is also a small, progressive rural community which could be good focus for the ADD issues. My niece is there now in Musical Theater and she really works hard on her stuff!</p>

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<p>Also if she can consider a gap year between high school and college for him, in which he can work, save money, do enjoyable projects with plenty of structure, it would let him get that extra year of maturity while under her roof. In case she's at all thinking he might "blow it" the first year as a freshman.
A long time ago, I read an article called "The Boys of Summer" that tracked boys with late birthdays from elementary through h.s., and they all had academic difficulties that stemmed from their relative emotional and motor coordination differences compared to the girls. Girls in first/second grade are about one year ahead of boys in fine motor, on average, so they master the printing skills, coloring, cutting to please the teacher, etc. If you seat a girl with an early birthday in First Grade beside a boy with a late birthday, he's feeling/experiencing as much as a two-year difference in skills, yet the same work is expected from both of them! So the young boys conclude this school thing isn't for them...and it all goes on from there. So, think about if a gap year could help him recover some maturity now, before he ventures away.
Just a thought. Not for everybody, obviously!</p>

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<p>I was just about to suggest Emerson until I saw that you were looking at it already. I'll be sure to post in case I think of somewhere else. Good luck!</p>

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<p>First of all - Eireann, you are a very good sister to take such an interest in helping your brother with his college plans!</p>

<p>Second of all - I do not want to sidetrack this thread to an unintended topic, but I must comment on Paying3Tuitions' post above. It may be true that many boys with late birthdays have difficulties in school, but it is not true that ALL boys with late birthdays have such problems. Without going into details here which are unrelated the thread, my son was born in September and was one of the youngest in his class. His problem in school was that he was way ahead of his peers in academics and attention span, and he was an excellent athlete, too. The only problem he had due to his young age was from about grades 7 to 9 when he was very small compared to other boys (especially those in sports), but by grade 11 he was the same size as everyone else. Since is 22 now, and has gone all through school and graduated from college, I can say with certainty that holding him back would have not been the right thing for him and I am sure this is also true for many other boys with birthdays in late summer/early fall.</p>

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<p>Yeah, MotherofTwo, I don't think it's true for all people, but it may be true for him. Thanks for the ideas. Keep them coming!</p>

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<p>A relative of mine goes to Seton Hall in NJ. He's really into theater/communications/media (sounds like your brother) and chose that school for it's opportunities in those areas. He has been able to get highly involved even as a freshman. You might look into it.</p>