<p>“Social constructions”? Next you’ll be proving that black is white and get killed at the next zebra crossing.</p>
<p>(Who gets the reference?)</p>
<p>I don’t know if I can prove anything, actually.</p>
<p>This thread needs to die.</p>
<p>Figuratively, of course.</p>
<p>I find it a little offensive that racism is equated with conservatism. I’m sorry, but being a racist has nothing to do with conservatism. Just like antisemitism, racism is a form of hatred, not a political leaning.
Op’s sister may be conservative, which is fine, AND racist, which isn’t.</p>
<p>This is not an absolute situation:
That OP can’t accept her sister’s racism is a good sign. However, OP’s insistence that her sister is always wrong is problematic. OP is right to try and help her sister to go to college (since no one else in the immediate family has) but OP is wrong to try and get her to go to a liberal college. OP is right to try and present possibilities though, like the CTCL’s, except that engineering may not be offered.</p>
<p>I think your sister’s passion for eating meat in your presence may be fueled by your vegetarianism. 
However her ideas seem very consistent. Leave her be. No matter how completely off-the-wall stupid and provocative what she says sounds to you, just put in headphones and don’t reply. It’ll just make things worse, get you hurt, and won’t advance anything. I know how hard it is to keep your mouth shut though. It’ll be good training for when you work with someone just like your sister. Tune them off. A very good skill to have.</p>
<p>I agree that a 24 in math is a bit low for engineering even for a first-gen kid but it’ll probably increase.</p>
<p>Also, note you can do computer science without going to an engineering school.</p>
<p>OP (I remember you from last summer)
1° you’re the black sheep in the family because you’re going to college and no one has gone so they all think you’re lazy/weird.
2° you’re the black sheep times 2 because you’re liberal and they’re conservative.
It must make break very hard on you and likely totally unproductive to the family dynamics, resulting in hurt for you and perhaps for them.
Please do yourself a favor. Try to get a grant to do summer research or a professor for whom to work on your campus this summer. Or find a job on campus. And find friends to visit over Spring Break.</p>
<p>This summer, offer your sister to help her with <em>her</em> universities. Yup, the three “white” ones. Offer to help her find the 10 universities that are most homogeneous in the country, even (there won’t really be 100% white schools and even there diversity will be valued in the curriculum.) In the process, suggest a couple colleges. Including some that are famously conservative, like Wheaton, Hope, or Calvin for the top 3, Hillsdale, Gordon, Houghton, or John Brown, Samford, Birmingham Southern if she wants to be in a conservative environment too. Or even Point Loma or Asuza in California (although financial aid is less likely she may be interested in the scenery). Most will be religious except, I think, Hillsdale and Birmingham Southern. Include a few others that are middle of the road, like Alma, Albion, Hiram or Muskingum. Then there are all the public Michigan colleges like Oakland, Grand Valley State…</p>
<p>Tell her you understand that she wants a conservative college and those are the most important ones, if she wants to look at them. Or show her the viewbooks and tell her you picked those where being conservative was highly valued and where the curriculum is designed for conservative students, she can even check it out many have been ranked online. Then, STOP talking about college. Try watching TV with her (ask her to explain what’s going on. Don’t make disparaging noise about the program being “drivel” and “offensive” and “stupid”). Go about your life. Go to the library. Visit friends. Whatever.</p>
<p>If you insist you may turn her off college just to spite you and since you family isn’t all that invested in her going to school, keeping her interested in going <em>somewhere</em> the key thing. If she attends college, she’ll grow and change. You said you wanted her to be happy and the likelihood of this happening if she stays at home and has an unskilled job are lower than if she gets a degree, goes to live on a campus, sees other things.
Finally, accept that there are irreconcilable differences. But that’ll be for when both of you are adults. Still 8 years to get through so just try to make them as easy for you as possible.</p>
<p>^ thank you for that. I appreciate your advice!</p>
<p>I am applying for McNair Scholars, so that will hopefully get me on campus this summer for a while.</p>
<p>I really do think that she plays up on her feelings because she wants to spite me. It’s not just me either; she fights with Mom more than she fights with me if that’s possible!</p>
<p>How about some smaller schools that are more moderate? I heard that Lawrence has a good physics program.</p>
<p>I will once again suggest that you leave it to your sister to find a college that suits her needs, abilities intended major, and personality. From your description a moderate school will not fit the bill, she will be happier and fit in better at a more conservative, perhaps a Christian college. And not to be rude, but if you are as forward with your sister as you are on this board (as of this moment 5 threads on this first page alone are dedicated to a college hunt for a sister who doesn’t seem to want your help-- as well as a number of older threads on the same topic) then I can see why she is tired of hearing from you.</p>
<p>Lawrence indeed has a good physics program and may be reachable for your sister.</p>
<p>Some of the schools I listed (Hillsdale, Hope, Alma, Albion) are in Michigan. Those may be easier to visit.</p>
<p>Get invested in something else, though. Go to the high school and see if they could use your help during the break. Make a presentation about college, why it’s cool to go, etc, for the sophomores, for instance (keeping in mind the variety of interests in that age group - ie, pick your subjects among hundreds! meet new people! sports! parties! gigantic libraries! no parents! research/discovery! discussions where everyone has something to say! figure your life out!). Ask if the guidance office could use your services. Offer to be a reader for seniors’ application essays.</p>
<p>If your sister is truly interested in trucks (rather than just boys who drive trucks), there are any number of good and useful career tracks for her. Yes she can be a truck mechanic. Yes she can be a long- or short-haul driver. Yes she can be a truck salesperson. Yes she can design truck engines, or truck bodies, or truck tracking systems, or well the list goes on and on. What she’d like to do with trucks will determine the type of post-high school education she would need to pursue. Talking with her about trucks and why she likes them could be a good place to start helping you to improve your relationship. If you are willing to learn a bit about trucks, it will give you something neutral to talk about with her for the next few years.</p>
<p>The only thing with the more conservative schools is that she won’t take religion courses if they’re required (I’m not saying that all conservative schools are religious.)</p>
<p>Good idea about visiting the high school!!!</p>
<p>She likes trucks, but I don’t think she’s interested in them enough to work on them/design them. I think she’s just in love with the idea of a girl who drives a truck. She mostly just bashes people who drive foreign vehicles, especially Priuses. She despises foreign vehicles.</p>
<p>And whenever I talk to her about colleges, which is hardly ever, she just dismisses me no matter what I have to say. My mom is the one I’m forward with.</p>
<p>My sister DID mention Texas A&M. She said that her physics teacher’s son goes there. She also said that it’s one of the most conservative schools in the US. I don’t know if she’s super interested though, because she said something about not going to Texas. I also know that she isn’t into UMich anymore, BUT I think she still might be interested in Kzoo because she kept the brochures that she got there. Usually she just throws all of her stuff away. I do stay out of it, much more than I used to.</p>
<p>I’m mostly worried because of time. She’ll start applying as soon as the end of August, and she’s only visited 1 school (not overnight.) At this point I’m less worried about where she goes, but how many schools she applies to. I want her to have plenty of options when the time comes, conservative and not conservative.</p>
<p>I mean, I went from aspiring to go to Wheaton to going to a liberal school in a short amount of time. I applied to a number of religious schools. What I ended up picking worked out for me, however. I think that she should apply to a variety of schools.</p>
<p>I was a big carnivore until last summer. I used to be indifferent on gay marriage, against abortion, etc. People change. When I was her age, I would have been on the more conservative end. Our parents are more conservative-leaning, as well as most of our relatives.</p>
<p>I am a black sheep.</p>
<p>She obviously does not want your help. Let her make her own decisions, and learn from her own mistakes.</p>
<p>My sis just said that she’s more interested in math than physics or engineering…interesting.</p>
<p>Actually, no, it’s not “interesting”. It just shows your sister is consistent in her interests - she wants a STEM major but isn’t sure which one.
It doesn’t change the list of universities we suggested and it doesn’t change the fact that you should let her be.</p>
<p>Well, I would say that if she’s interested in math, liberal arts schools become a good option.</p>
<p>Liberal arts schools don’t become a good option if she doesn’t like them. </p>
<p>“I am not handling this well at all. I have been trying to change her views because I honestly believe that she is <em>wrong</em>. That’s my problem. I can’t change her.”</p>
<p>“Have you considered the possibility that some of her more extreme statements are in reaction to your own overbearing attempts to tell her how to think? Do you really think that everyone in the world who doesn’t agree with your opinions is <em>wrong</em>?”</p>
<p>Ding, ding, ding!!</p>
<p>I suspect she finds your intolerance of her different views and desires for her own life to be judgmental and bigoted. I suspect she is pulling your chain regularly, knowing precisely what sets you off.</p>
<p>I would suggest she check out UW Madison. For your own happiness, it is a liberal town. For her sanity, it has TWO daily student papers, one liberal and one conservative, from what I have heard. That truly is unusual diversity, in a university. She may like it.</p>
<p>And I think but am not sure they have some sort of 1 and 1/2 instate tuition cost for other states in the midwest. I’ll check that later this evening.</p>
<p>This thread is back!!</p>
<p>hm. It looks like UW Madison is the only UW that does NOT participate in the Midwest student exchange. Maybe she’d like some of the others, but Madison is the one I was thinking of, in particular. In any event this does tell you which colleges she can get 1 1/2 instate tuition from: <a href=“Institutions | Midwest Student Exchange Program”>Institutions | Midwest Student Exchange Program;
<p>My sister retook the ACT in March and raised her composite score by 2 points (she got a 23.) 26 in math. She wants to visit Michigan Technological University next week.</p>
<p>Thanks for the update. Has she visited Kettering yet?</p>