<p>Well, as long as he shares the arm rest and doesn't mind letting me out occasionally, I'm fine with it.... Oh, and does he cry loudly during takeoff and landing?</p>
<p>:) He does take the aisle seat, D. You're right about that. </p>
<p>I don't think he makes a sound. He's eighteen. He can sleep in an economy seat.</p>
<p>He never cried during flights but we did have one horrific diaper episode during one of those interminable runway delays at JFK.</p>
<p>i'm not a parent, im a student and i will be going to an "elite" research university. Both my parents went to SUNY Stony Brook and 1 of 4 grandparents attended college (in Holland). My parents during the process never steered me in any direction beyond what I felt would be best for me. They wanted me to get into a school of a higher perceived caliber than they had attended, but never tried to influence my decision beyond helping me identify my likes and dislikes and applying them to the schools i was looking at. I made my ED (and luckily my enrollment) decisions on my own, but certainly my parents general support helped</p>
<p>I went to a small state university for undergrad, a private university for one Masters, and then a small liberal arts college for second Masters. My husband went to the same private university for undergrad and grad. First kid goes to a private university and second goes to a different one but not the one my H & I attended. We'd love for kid #3 to go to our university, but only if he's definitely interested in it.</p>
<p>I've never seen nor done a scientific study on this, but some of the most fervent LAC supporters I know are grads from large universities (as opposed to large university grads, which I originally typed.) And I have always been interested in the high percentage of college professors, at LACs and big universities, that have sons and daughters at LACs.</p>
<p>reidm: "some of the most fervent LAC supporters I know are grads from large universities "</p>
<p>I certainly fall in that category. I credit the University of Michigan for giving me a wonderful education but socially for me it was all wrong. At the time I was painfully introverted and didn't have a clue how to take advantage of everything a mega-university could offer. I'm sure guidance was there but you really had to seek it out, something that I was not emotionally equipped to do. When my son started his college search I tried to keep an open mind as he's not me, but for sure, I steered him toward LACs. We did visit Michigan and he was tempted (he said, Wow, a whole city of kids!) but after a year and a half of LAC nurturing he and we are really glad he made the choice that he did.</p>
<p>Question for you parents who attended UMich in the 60's & 70's: Do you remember the test that they called the carrot test? The one that was supposed to rate your motivation? For 40 years I've been wondering which is it: Do more aggressive people prefer their carrots cooked or raw? My academic counselor (Who in retrospect I realize must have been a 22 year old graduate student, at the time he terrified me with gravitas.) told me my motivation was low which turned out to be a self-fulfilling prophecy.</p>
<p>No carrot test for me. But in summer before I entered college at my LAC, they asked us to complete a psychological profile consisting of a series of multiple choice questions. I still remember two of the questions but have no idea what I was telling them with my answers. (And I don't remember my answers.)</p>
<p>(1) Do you like warm furry things next to your skin?</p>
<p>(2) Who would you betray first -- your best friend or your country?</p>
<p>Momrath, I went to UM in the late 70's and have no memory of a "carrot test". But I was a junior transfer; i'll ask my H if he has any idea what that is.</p>
<p>Momrath,</p>
<p>My W and I both attended U of M in the 70s, but fortunately we never knew each other. I remember discussing the carrot test, but not taking it. I had a similar experience to you - I went BGS, to avoid language and science, and missed a lot of what the U had to offer. I think I saw a counselor once in 4 years. There is so much there, but you had to seek it out. It would not come looking for you. At the time I was not a seeker. I am now, to the extent my kids constantly get embarrassed.</p>
<p>However, I did and do love Ann Arbor. I still buy wine from VC and drive up to pick it up.</p>
<p>Indiana in the 70s here! D applied to IU (for music) but decided the program was better for graduate school. It was fun visiting and touring with her, though. I reminded myself of all the old people wearing their red sweaters that used to come back to IU for games when I was in college. They seemed so OLD, and now I am one of them. My old sorority house is now the Admissions Office. S will probably apply to IU as a safety, especially if he gets recruited. However, he would be better at a smaller U or a LAC. He likes personal contact with his teachers. Our state U, Texas, seems too large to me and can not be considered a safety anymore. GO BIG TEN</p>
<p>I attended local small private univ (w/out dorms) for lst year, transferred to smallish state university where I met h. I then went to a mid-size private uni. for master's and h. went to Ivy league for PhD. It should be obvious where our first ended up - a small LAC (the one 'type' neither of us managed to enroll in). We didn't try to influence choice. He clearly sought out the small places. We were thrilled with his choice and h. especially is envious. In fact, if we ever retire, we'll probably move near a small college.</p>
<p>Not necessarily. I went to an LAC and my H went to a private university. We tried to identify schools that would be the best fits for our kids in terms of all the factors including, but not limited to, academics, geography, diversity, extracurricular opportunities, etc. S ended up at a large public and D will go to an LAC, both on the West Coast.</p>
<p>reidm & momrath - agree with your hypothesis - large uni converts to LAC's here. Growing up in CA, with abundance of UC and Cal States, nobody said boo about LAC's or out of state schools. H - USC, me - UCLA. Big time sports and media and name recognition. Our S wanted nothing less, and easily chose UMich (out-of-state). Not much research went into college search for him. 5 years later, D (just as big a sports fan) required more effort to track down a place suitable to her quirkiness, ending up at an excellent LAC. If we could quantify the quality of her education at the end of her four years, I would be confident in concluding that hers will surpass mine, H's, and S's put together. Well worth the $$.</p>
<p>Do you think this big U to LAC conversion is more geographical or generational in nature? Lesser degree of conversion by those raised in the NE with a predominance of LAC's?</p>
<p>I went to a LAC for undergrad and a big state U for grad. My husband went to a big state U for undergrad, and a smaller state U for grad.When I listened to what my s. wanted in a college -small classes, small student:faculty ratio, faculty that know you by your first name and invite you over for dinner, few or no required classes (distribution courses were ok), would prefer to avoid a language requirement if possible, research opportunities, supportive environment- didn't want to get lost in the crowd- it sounded pretty clear to me that he wanted a LAC. Then my h. suggested that if he planned to major in Physics, he should have exposure to engineering. So, out the window went the LACs. He found a small, well respected university that had everything he wanted. So, I think regardless of what we might have directed him to, he found his own niche, and loves it (apologies to those who have heard this story on other threads).
The most helpful thing for us was to listen to him as he thought aloud what he wanted in a college education. He didn't want a school over 6000 undergrad, so that narrowed things down a lot.</p>
<p>Do you think this big U to LAC conversion is more geographical or generational in nature? Lesser degree of conversion by those raised in the NE with a predominance of LAC's?</p>
<p>Maize & Blue, In my case it's both. When I graduated from my suburban Michigan high school in 1965 almost all kids who went on to college went to state schools. We were fortunate in that our state had, and still has, excellent choices. Of my whole class which was close to 2000 students only two went out of state, one to Denison and one to Columbia. Denison sounded like heaven to me, but when I broached the subject to my father (also a grad of Umich) you would have thought I was proposing Mars! Fast forward thirty five years to when my son was a junior in high school and I decide it's time to learn about colleges. The first I looked into were the big names -- Umich, Stanford, the Ivies. LACs were still not on my radar screen. Hamilton/Haverford/Hampshire, Swarthmore/Skidmore, Wellesley/Wesleyan -- I knew NOTHING. It wasn't until much later in process, many books and websites and conversations, that I learned that there was a whole other world out there. Once we understood the differences and began visiting, the right path became clear. I still have an affectionate and appreciative outlook toward Michigan. Had my son chosen to go there or any other big university, I wouldn't have stood in his way as his personality and mine are not the same. I am constantly amazed, even among educated people (like me) how little understood LACs are. Among Asians, where I live, we're back to the it might as well be Mars era.</p>
<p>Momrath, not to provoke the furor that erupted out in one of the student forums, but the LAC's-as-Mars syndrome among Asian families is one facet of the whole hypercompetition among Asians for about two dozen schools...all big universities.</p>
<p>another one here! :) let's see, quote momrath's post from above, insert "1971", insert, "2 guys from my HS class went to Brown (wherever that is?) to play football" and I graduated from UofM after attending for 2 years. Our S would be totally lost at a large school. During our search process I found myself wishing I had gone to a small school like the ones we were touring. Of course the younger S really perked up when we went through Ann Arbor! :)</p>
<p>Being a Southeast Asian family, 'LACs as Mars' was not far from the truth for us. We did know a bit about Swarthmore from the literature they sent us and I had a positive impression of the one LAC I knew about. But, yes, for us this is a completely different experience. I did not have a chance to do any due-diligence before I shipped myself off 1500 miles from home to the college I went to about 29 years ago...for my son it was a completely different experience.</p>
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<p>Do you think this big U to LAC conversion is more geographical or generational in nature? Lesser degree of conversion by those raised in the NE with a predominance of LAC's?</p>
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<p>Personally, I think it more a matter of the family's economic position and history with people going to college. Among the highly educated and economically well off the LACs will enter the conversation quickly and be discussed ... for others if they venture past "State U" the first schools that pop up are the well known big ones ... IVYs, Stanford, UMich, MIT, Duke, etc. The real gap in this picture for me are the guidence departments who should know about the LACs and present them as an option.</p>
<p>I know at my daughters high school they had a history of sending more people to LAC's rather than large universities. They have sent students to all of the Ivies (except HYP), a few have gone to Umich,and a nice handful each year to NYU. Maybe because it is a small public school (daughter's class of 97 students was their largest graduating class). But my daughter also took classes at Barnard and NYU before graduating and knew that NYU was not for her as she wanted a smaller setting. Guidance counselor was very helpful as she knew the LAC's (all tiers) like the back of her hand.</p>