<p>Among other schools our son was accepted to Santa Clara University and the University of Miami. They both offered similar scholarships of about $21,000. We visited both campuses, and he has narrowed his search down to these4 two, but he cannot decide. We live in a suburb of Chicago. Any help with the decision would be appreciated</p>
<p>What does he want to study? Good internships and jobs for comp sci at SCU. It’s a small U with some religious classes required. For our kiddo, the deal breaker was they told us S would have to withdraw if he missed a total of two weeks in any term, regardless of how well he was keeping up or if it was documented in note from md. (S has had chronic health issues from middle school, causing frequent and prolonged absences.)</p>
<p>Sorry, I am not familiar with u of m.</p>
<p>Son is recent UM grad, not in law school. </p>
<p>UM was a great school for my son both socially and educationally. Great place to visit, though so is CA!</p>
<p>Son came down with mono shortly after starting freshman year. Missed classes. Profs very understanding and he did not risk “withdrawal” from the U. </p>
<p>Mono? Flu? Unexpected illness (Friends son had emergency appendectomy). The idea that they have a policy of withdrawal for absences when the student may be able to keep up with the work or make it up sounds unfair to me.</p>
<p>DD graduated from SCU in 2010. She missed almost three weeks of school winter term of her senior year and the dean of students, her professors and her advisor really worked with her to complete the term. This was not a chronic issue, but rather a one time event. DDs roommate also had a health issue and the school worked with her. For a one time unanticipated illness, they were great. Formthe above poster I think their concern would be the possibility of this happening term after term…which would be hard for the student (I will say…I did not agree with what SCU told this student…and they did lose a good student!).</p>
<p>SCU has very strong engineering and business schools. The campus is very well maintained. Facilities are terrific. Faculty really reaches out to students. Yes, there is a three course religion requirement, but there are well over 100 religion courses from which to choose. DD is not Catholic and she really liked her religion courses. She also really liked the Jesuit focus on community outreach and the like.</p>
<p>I know nothing about U of Miami. </p>
<p>If you would like additional info about SCU, send me a PM. DD was the head of Shadow SCU (a program for accepted students), worked in the admissions office, and was a student ambassador and tour guide. She probably can answer your questions.</p>
<p>They lost at least two excellent students (S and later D). Our S chose to go to a school who promised they would work with him. They said that they had other students that they worked with and would be willing to work with him and us to be sure he was fine. He entered his college with 60 credits, as he would have entered SCU with. He did research and published several papers in his field as well as a totally unrelated field. He graduated with honors and got a fabulous internship ald later several solid job offers in his field.</p>
<p>We were pleasantly surprised that S did NOT have any absences due to health throughout his 4 years at SCU. Actually, SCU lost more than S, D also followed S and did not even apply to SCU and happily matriculated at the same school as S and has had a supportive U where they have worked with her for her health issues and absences.</p>
<p>I tried talking with several different people in SCU’s administration and all of them were very unwilling to work with S and us. We decided we didn’t need to go to a school that was so inflexible and punitive. I told the admissions people that was why we had eliminated their U from consideration and they were surprised about the responses we had received.</p>
<p>I am hoping SCU has changed since it gave us its responses in 2006, but it’s best if you inquire if you have any of the issues we did. My friend’s S is very happy there. Fortunately, he is healthy and has not had extensive absences. Have heard of athletes who have missed quite a bit of school at SCU due to their sports and not penalized.</p>
<p>Does he thrive with more structure (SCU) or less structure (UM)</p>
<p>Son is a current freshman at UM. He is just so happy. Really happy. Academics are hard and he works hard at school, but when he is not working hard there is so much opportunity. As a freshman, he has some how worked with professors and gotten himself involved in two research projects. Not something that is required of students, but if they want to the opportunity it is there. DS loves the school, loves the area, loves everything. He says almost the entire student body is happy to be there; something he doesn’t hear when he talks to his high school friends at different schools. That’s all I can say. He is happy, so I am happy. :)</p>