<p>Unfortunately, no. I don't think he even applied for it. He really didn't think he even had a chance to be accepted. He has the same grades and SAT's as everyone else, but not a whole lot of EC's. His hook was the fact that he is fluent in French, went to the Governor's Foreign Language Academy last summer, etc.</p>
<p>I think that's why he is in a daze right now. He pretty much had convinced himself that he would be at U So Carolina, and then he got accepted at W&M. It threw a monkey wrench into his life.</p>
<p>It comes down to money and whether he feels ok being an average student at W&M, or a specially treated student at USC. At USC, the HC kids are guaranteed on-campus housing all 4 years, are given a faculty committee to help them map their degree and career, etc., and are give first dibs on getting certain HC courses. </p>
<p>Unless W&M has changed since my days, it was nothing like that. It was sink or swim. Maybe it's different now.</p>
<p>When we took our daughter for her first tour in January 06, the Admission's officer told us that starting with the class of 2010, students would be guaranteed housing all four years with the addition of the new Jamestown dorms.</p>
<p>You can't apply for the Monroe program as a freshman, but you can as a sophomore and it sounds to me like he'd have an excellent chance at getting it.</p>
<p>That said, it does sound like he would get a lot of extras at USC. </p>
<p>He sounds like someone who's going to be successful no matter where he goes!!</p>
<p>I'm going to get my involuntary bump notice tomorrow or Wednesday, which basically means I can't participate in the lottery. However, there are ways around this.</p>
<p>It's nice to see things haven't changed much since 1983!</p>
<p>At least there is no more James Blair Terrace housing, I hope. That was a haul for many of my friends. Down by Eastern State Psych Hospital. Probably 4 miles from campus, and they had to ride the green school bus to get to campus. Ugh.</p>
<p>Where do the unlucky souls get shipped now?</p>
<p>I stand corrected. You do get 3 credits for AP stats (but you can't get any credits for IB calc, only if you take IB calc BC... yea, I'm still bitter). I missed it because it was not with the calc classes on the list.</p>
<p>The housing by the Psych hospital is no longer in use. This is the first school year where it hasn't been used, with the completion of the new Jamestown dorms.</p>
<p>As far as housing goes, every year in recent memory (including before I got here) they have had room for everyone who wants to live on campus. Every year, they ask for people to "voluntary bump" from the lottery. People give deposits who end up not living on campus. Maybe they go abroad, maybe they take a semester off, maybe they lock up off campus housing. Every year that I have been here they have involuntarily bumped people, and every year they have gotten back into the lottery before the date. However, this year, the number of bumps they are looking for is quite high, and might be the function of more Frats returning to campus. And as was mentioned, there are ways around the housing lottery. All of the housing is on campus. Ludwell is slightly off campus, but it's a 15 minute walk (max) from Wren at the other end, and like a 4-5 minute walk from the closest academic building. I live there now and am very happy with the situation. Now, if you are unlucky, you get to live on Frat Row.</p>
<p>Regarding French, he would be able to jump in at WM with Upper-Intermediate Conversation (206), Introduction to Writing and Reading (210) and Cross Cultural Perspectives (212).</p>
<p>I don't know much about grad schools related to Math, but PhD Math students can often get money for going to school, at least according to one of my friends who is looking at the possibility of getting a PhD. I personally don't think the money situation is that big of a deal. If both cost exactly the same, where would he go? Would the money in this situation change that? Probably not (IMHO).</p>
<p>That happened to me too, I had to insert Game in front of it!</p>
<p>But really, both nicknames are really lame! Tribe is really stupid, IMO! It was just switching from Indians to Tribe when I was in school.</p>
<p>I do see what you mean though. There is a mystique about W&M, deserved or not. When you say you went there, people are in awe, they don't really know whether it's private, public, big, small, etc.....I remember people saying they thought it was a private, Catholic school. Obviously they didn't study English history. lol</p>
<p>If your son majors or minors in Computer Science, he can obtain his Masters in Computer Science with just one additional year of intensive study. That might end up saving you some $$$ in the long term.</p>
<p>In the end, though, if you can afford either school you should let the decision be his. Chances are he'll be happier if he's at his first-choice school.</p>
<p>An argument I have heard for him to go to USC is that it doesn't much matter where you go to undergrad anymore, it really matters where you go to grad school. And that grad schools look at gpa and GRE scores more than they look at where you went for undergrad.</p>
<p>Yes, but he will be in Honors College if he goes to USC. The stats of the kids in it are very comparable to W&M as a whole.</p>
<p>I just talked to a lady here at my office, and she says we overhype UVA and W&M because we live in Va. She says the school you attend helps you get your first job, but after that, no one really cares where you went to school. I have found this to be the case, too. My boss is an ODU grad, and he makes a blankload more than I do.</p>
<p>if anything I think UVA and W&M would be underrated by people from Virginia. People don't realize how many out of state students really want to go when its a lot of in-state students' safeties (to a degree).</p>
<p>Namtrag, your boss making more money than you most likely has nothing to do with education. He probably networked better, or is just plain older and has had more time to move up the corporate ladder. That being said I agree with the fact that name recognition of a university will only help to get you your first job and after that its all about experience, but getting a job and completing the work required for that job are entirely different. Do you think an education at W&M or USC will be more helpful? Will you be more prepared for the obstacles that will be faced? Will you be a more well rounded human being by going to either college?</p>
<p>Also, is the USC Honors College a 2year program or 4 years. I know a lot of colleges offer Honors classes instead of having the students take regular general education requirements, but the honors program lasts two years and covers all the gen. eds. This would mean that being in an honors college really has no benefit once you start getting into your major.</p>
<p>It's a 4 year program. They can get a special degree if they take enough honors classes (I believe 65 or so hours). The cool thing is, they can honorize their AP credits too. For example, if you get the first 6 hours of calc classes via AP scores, then you take the next level of math class and get at least a B, then the 2 calc classes beome "honorized". Meaning you now have 9 hours of honor classes.</p>
<p>From what I can see, they have HC course offerings in almost every major, and at every class level.</p>
<p>I think there are about 1200 kids in the HC at USC. I think they cater to them pretty well. The university is trying hard to raise its standing in the rankings, I am guessing.</p>
<p>And on the subject of where you attend making a difference, it does to some degree. I am just of the opinion that it's not as important as some people make it out to be. There are plenty of really smart kids going to USC, U of Oklahoma, Florida, etc., and they seem to do pretty well in the world.</p>
<p>I think the point made by my coworker is that, if you live in Minneapolis, LA, Seattle, etc, people won't really be impressed overly by the fact that you went to W&M, UVA, or South Carolina. They may have heard that W&M and UVA are great schools, but it won't be a big deal to them if you went there.</p>
<p>I will be happy with either choice my S makes, and I think it is a good problem to have. The scholarship is $20,000 total to USC, but if you take into account that he would also get in-state tuition rates, it is actually worth about 65,000.</p>