<p>Did he look at Western State in Gunnison? It' s instate for you so costs are pretty low compared to other states. The size is small, I think around 2500 and they have students from all 50 states so it has a nice diversity of people coming from all over for a state school. They have a core curriculum and it functions much like an LAC so undecided frosh have awhile to settle into something. His GPA is well within range and he can still snowboard at Crested Butte or Monarch. They have a football team at Western. It's probably a 4 hour drive and a mountain range in between so your S should feel like he's far enough away. My S and I looked at Westerminster in Salt Lake City and our tour had quite a few from Colorado. Neat school, but for your son I don't think they had a football team - I could be mistaken though. Definitely snowboard there, too.</p>
<p>Be careful with the gap year--I recently read (and I wish I had the article handy for credibility) that something like 10% of students who take a gap year actually go on to college.</p>
<p>Motherof3, I know a boy similar to yours who went to Fort Lewis College (Durango) because snowboarding figured prominently in his college plans. Warning, it's a party school, so if he's prone to distraction that way, FL may not be the best idea. Another thought is University of Montana. It's small, close to snowboarding, and has low tuition for Colorado residents. Two of my D's friends went there (we live in Denver) - one is thinking of transfering because it's too small - but the other (a bright kid but not a stellar student) is thriving there.</p>
<p>If he wants to teach, and perhaps be a coach, he should go to the best state school you've got. The price is reasonable, the teaching program will meet the state requirements, and that's where the hiring programs for when he gets out will be.</p>
<p>Another option to help him mature as a student is a PG year at a boarding school. Although pricey, FA and scholarships are available. He would gain organizational and time management skills, and be able to participate in sports. This is the route we are taking with my #3 who sounds very similar to your S.</p>
<p>I'm wonderng why you are ruling out Div 2. I don't think athletics at these schools is necessarily more competitive than Dv. 3, and in some cases less so, but they do give out scholarships. </p>
<p>At the D2 school I work at, there are kids who couldn't touch D1 athletics, and aren't ready for the academic level of D3, but they fit here perfectly, and get scholarships to do so. We are a very small LAC, and the students get personal attention from profs and coaches.</p>
<p>We dn't have football or lacrosse, but some D2's do, which might offer the right combination of sports focus, decent academics, and scholarship which would make them attractive to your S. I googled to get the NCAA lists of D2 colleges with football or lacrosse, there's actually not that many, but might be worth looking at. Some are state schools and some are small private colleges.</p>
<p>Sounds like me, a parent; and sounds like my S. I was in the lower fifth of my HS class and never broke 1100 on the old SAT. Now a tenured Prof at a top-ranked LAC. Past performance does not predict future performance. ADHD (me and my son) may be a burden in HS, but allow you to blossom at higher level work. RE: Football, etc. and college entrance at DIV III: You would be shocked at how low the grades and SATs can go. That's how I got in. That's how my son will get in, if he goes that route. The problem: you may have to look at small publics that play DIV II, but not 'meat grinding' schools. Your impulse is correct; stay small and be open as to geo region. Contact me if you want. I am the faculty football coach at my college and though it does not offer $$$, I may have some suggestions if you get more specific.</p>
<p>A friend of mine has a son who was a so-so student but a great athlete. Both the son and Mom decided that he would not be able to play D1 athletics because of his size and the time committment for his sport at that level. What they did was to look for schools in a certain sports division so the parents could see some of the games. He's a freshman this year and recently completed his first season of basketball. I thought that was a pretty good strategy since it quickly eliminated alot of schools. </p>
<p>I think my son's college, Roanoke (in Virginia) is pretty high up for Lacrosse in D3. There is no football there so the kids really get behind the lacrosse team. Beautiful location, very good freshman support system.</p>
<p>Just another note: the purpose of the 25th High School reunion is to personally validate that HS GPA and SAT score do not predict future success.</p>
<p>Brian, what a breath of fresh air on these forums especially to mothers of sons.</p>
<p>For briansteffy: Award for conveying the most in the fewest words :D.</p>
<p>Amen Brian!</p>
<p>DH is a prime example of that - Practically flunked out of HS. Holds a BA from DePaul, MA from Denver University and is almost finished with Doctorate at DU. </p>
<p>They are kids and 'they are not done yet'.<br>
Thanks for the reality check Brian :-)</p>
<p>Rebecca</p>
<p>There is something going on with boys today; in HS and in the small college I teach at. Perhaps its the video games. Perhaps its the culture of 'dissing' and cynicism. Perhaps its because we drugged so many of them in elementary and junior high school. Who knows. I just keep reminding myself that those who are well 'schooled' - A students - are just that; 'well schooled'. Some buy into it (school) and some do not. My son does not.
Colleges face a practical problem. How do you select from a large pool of applicants, and how do so efficiently and at minimal cost to the institution? Well, the only way is to rely on shoddy aptitude tests (SAT,ACT) and the presumption that HS GPA predicts college GPA. There is a correlation, but it is weaker than many assume (the relationship between SAT/ACT scores and performance is dismally weak). We obsessively measure HS kids with dismal measures. The problem? Some kids believe the results. They assume its a science. Remind them that 100 years from now we will laugh at the SAT much like we now laugh at those who used to predict intelligence by measuring the contours of the cranium.
My S just got back from play practice. It's 10PM. He has had this schedule for a month now. He was also getting up at 5AM so that he could get to lifting sessions for football. So he sleeps during class. He somehow sustains a B-plus average. He does not have the energy to prep for the SAT and he will likely not do well. Add to this his ADHD; well, the bottom line (for me) is that he is a far more interesting kid than the well-schooled that are shoe-ins to the top-ranked colleges. I just wish that I could get him away from gaming, yet, on the other hand, its a great way for him to escape the presuure of the search-selection-admissions game.</p>
<p>I had too add one more thought...you actually see articles these days about kids burning out...I say what the heck is THAT all about. How are these kids possibly going to complete in the extremely fast paced, competitive, resourced starved, global work force if they can't even get through college wtihout having a nervous breakdown. It just underscores to me the kids that manage to balance their life in high school and get reasonable grades are the ones that will most likely have balance in their adult life and isn't that balance in life what most all of us strive to achieve? Everytime I get my hair in a knot over my boys' report cards, I take a step back, take a deep breath and now I'll remember your 25th anniversary quote instead of counting to 10. More often than not one of my boys will just say "mom will you chill out and get a grip".</p>
<p>We are so much a part of this club. S2 is into football, working on his old truck and friend's '66 Chevelle, eating out/playing ball with the guys and working his part-time job to fund interests #2 and 3. Academics are not top of his list. He had done well enough (mostly B's with an A here and there) until he ran into Spanish last year. Limped thru Spanish 1 with a C and now failed Spanish 2 this year(jr)plus got a C in math and Eng.. He will be a senior next year and HAS to pass Span. 2 to get into any of our state u's (we don't have private sch.$$$). He took the SAT on 3/10 so the jury is still out there.<br>
I think he is giving up on college because he now thinks he can't or maybe doesn't want do it. He doesn't even want to talk about college because he says he doesn't know what he wants to do. His friends will likely stay here and go to CC so that might play into this. We are at a loss as to what to do. Don't want to force him into a decision that may be wrong but feel he needs to have some sort of aim/direction. I am hoping that by Senior year he may feel a little more sense of urgency and be interested in making a plan.</p>
<p>I love this discussion, Brian & Mom. My guy is still young (14-going-on-11-1/2 ;)) so I hope he'll grow up a bit in the next couple of years. But right now, he frustrates H & me to no end with his flakeyness, inattentiveness and lack of concern about homework or grades. I agree that video games are pretty stupyfing - I call it 'opium of the boys' - but actually feel that traditional school just isn't a good fit for so many of them.</p>
<p>Momof3--there may yet be hope if your son is a junior. Lots of boys, and I have seen this over and over, just don't "get" that grades matter until they are juniors. Remember that on average they are a full two years younger in terms of brain maturity than girls, so while you often see girls getting it together and becoming more self motivated at the same time they enter high school, for the boys it happens halfway through HS. </p>
<p>I have a nephew who was an underachiever in high school and is now blissfully and divinely happy at Western Oregon State in Monmouth OR--it is an hour from the ski slopes and it is in a gorgeous little city within an easy drive of Portland. I don't know if they have lacrosse but check them out. I also thought of Fort Lewis, Lewis and Clark college in Portland OR, and Whitworth in Spokane, WA. Possibly even Whitman, although he'd have to pull his grades up a LOT. There is a google list of men's lacrosse colleges; unfortunately it appears you have to go east. The only one I saw listed in the Rocky Mountain states was Colorado College, and the curriculum there is not for everybody.</p>
<p>I'm in my mid 20s, have a masters degree, and still dont know what i actually want to be when i grow up!</p>