<p>the whole marriage thing has been off my radar, but I can see your point, My adult son went to college in Boston and ended up coming back to California and marrying a home town girl. my senior son has a serious girlfriend of two years running, but they’re not planning to go to college together. I’d like to think if my son is happy with his choice, I’ll be happy–but of course, I know that’s not always the case. And yes, the more I look at Rose, the more it seems an ideal school for my son–he loves small, intimate learning environments, rigor, science, math and engineering. seems like a very good fit for him.</p>
<p>Some of the great things about Rose. Almost all undergraduate engineering. I think people don’t understand what makes that special. It means that all your teachers are full professors. It means that you participate in research. Rose has some amazing programs providing technical expertise for business incubators. There’s some very progressive technology being supported by these kids. If he wants to be involved in sports or any kind of activity, he will have the opportunity. In fact, one of their missions as a campus is to get kids outside of the classroom. Engineers have a tendency to get a little geeky…for lack of another word…which in many cases, makes them not very socially adept. Rose pushes these kids out of their natural inclination to isolate themselves in technology. Amazing athletic facilities for such a small school. Rose grads are very very loyal. It’s a very special place. Terre Haute isn’t much of a town, but Indy isn’t far away.</p>
<p>I’m just here to add to the plug for Rose-Hulman. I’ve known many people who attended in the last 20 years, and all were very happy, academically and socially, with the school. Know 3 there right now. Great engagement and research opportunities. They do an incredible job with undergrad engineering. Indianapolis is an hour away via interstate.</p>
<p>As a father of three kids, two in college and one in high school, I strongly suggest that Chai encourage her son to go where he feels comfortable. Some liberal type kids can find a niche in conservative surroundings and some will find it hell. </p>
<p>When D2 was in hs less than 2 years ago, she became enamored of Lehigh University because it is highly selective and close to home. The campus is large and beautiful, and school administrators showed a lot of interest in her. Then we started investigating the culture. Predominately white male, conservative-leaning, Greek life rules. McCain and Palin were cheered, Obama booed—before the election. Peeling back the onion, we found reports of racial problems, documented incidents. And this is a school in Pennsylvania not Dixie. My D2 is very liberal. She thought about going there and being the crusader, someone who would help enlighten the conservative elements dominating the campus. In the end she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Once she visited colleges with very liberal cultures (colleges with only 3 or 4 Republicans on campus and they were in hiding) she felt at ease. She’s now a sophomore and loving her college experience. If you’re wondering how she’ll learn to interact effectively with right wingers in the real world after college, she’s already done that. Her public high school was the kind of place where students threw batteries at kids in the Gay-Straight Alliance. She’s not gay, but she is liberal. So she’s put in her time around right wingers. </p>
<p>Go where you feel comfortable. Don’t be an outlier or a crusader. It isn’t worth it. College should be a very memorable (in a good way) four year experience. Among the best years of a person’s life.</p>
<p>There is, however, something to be said for college environment that offers diversity of opinion and ideology rather than lockstep conformity with one world view, whether it be liberal or conservative, secular or religious. I would want my D to encounter people different from herself; I think that’s part of the value of college. Some of the best times I remember from my own college days were the late night, semi-drunken dorm room debates about religion or politics, sometimes quite heated but always fun. My classmates had strong beliefs but were not humorless or dogmatic. It would be a huge loss to higher education if colleges have become so polarized that such debates can no longer take place.</p>
<p>I don’t know that “3 or 4 Republicans on campus, and they’re all in hiding” is necessarily any better. I’m really proud of my son, who canvassed for Obama in 2008 and yet is the Republican committeeman for our precinct / council area, and tries to be nuanced on policy issues. Whether he’s a liberal Republican or a conservative Democrat varies by the day, but nonetheless, I hope he winds up on a campus where he’ll find all types.</p>
<p>One other factor to consider when looking at a school in the Bible Belt is their rules about social behavior. For example, University of Oklahoma offered very generous aid to NMFinalists. As soon as my dd found out that they had very strict curfews in the dorms for guys and girls to be in their separate dorms, she said no way. She had several gay guy friends and by age 18, we were not enforcing bedtimes on weekends!</p>
<p>She probably would have been okay being around a more conservative group of students, but didn’t want to go to a school which was stricter than her parents about males and females hanging out together late in the evenings.</p>
<p>I know nothing about the particular schools you mentioned, though. Just wanted to suggest that that is something to check into.</p>
<p>I’m certain such places do exist, but I have not encountered any schools where the student populace is nearly as socially and politically monolithic as portrayed by reputation or assumption. That’s why it’s so important to take the time and effort to perform sufficient due diligence, particularly when financial issues weigh heavily in the balance. </p>
<p>Ultimately, it comes down to variables that are very specific to the student’s readiness for contrasting experiences and perspectives. Some are going to be highly adaptable and able to deal with a change in culture with relative ease and social dexterity. Others perhaps, will be a bit more hypersensitive and fragile about such things. </p>
<p>I have spent the majority of my life in environments where I was an “outlier.” I think I am stronger and more adept at life for having had those experiences, and in many ways my life has been enhanced by them. Yet, I know others who absolutely could not have walked the same path. But given my level of comfort, I have never been very fearful or worried about putting my kids in the midst of opposing cultures. I’ve always believed that to be a natural aspect of their education and maturation into adulthood. Of course, I temper that comment by adding that I am not referring to circumstances which would predictably put them in harms way. I fully understand there are extremes that need to be avoided. But to me, most college environments don’t come anywhere close to meeting that threshold. Some are definitely going to be more suitable than others for your son, but I don’t subscribe to the notion that “culture” needs to be a primary driver in the decision tree…except when it’s understood, with some degree of certainty, the student is going into school unprepared or unable to navigate certain known or forseeable conditions. Otherwise, I don’t think they need too much protecting. I think some of us parents tend to worry too much about these things… and yes, some rightfully so – it really depends on the character and sensibilities of the student in question.</p>
<p>FLVADAD…agreed. And to take that a step further, it is a strong majority of kids who really don’t know about, or CARE about politics, IMHO. Even the brightest kids. They are more interested in their grades, their dates, their parties and their hobbies and activities in my experience. And they are a much more socially open generation. I think that southerners are getting a VERY unfair rap here. In my experience, as a Northerner who has lived my whole life in the East and the Midwest, but who has travelled a lot in the South…Southerners are more POLITE, but not, overall, much different than the rest of us. i think there may be bigger differences between Urban and Rural areas, than there are between North and South these days…as evidenced by electoral maps. My apologies for the generalizations that have been made here against you guys.</p>
<p>At least in the case of my daughter, the issue was the prevailing culture.</p>
<p>University of South Carolina is a big football and Greek scene. Since it is a state school, most of the kids are from South Carolina.</p>
<p>There ARE differences between the North and South. The experience of going to school in Boston will differ from that of going to school in Clemson or Tuscaloosa.</p>
<p>Some students easily settle in to a new environment, others prefer something more familiar. It is a big part of the issue of “fit.”</p>
<p>We have the opposite problem here. While d wants to go to a school that has some diversity in opinions, as a conservative Republican and a fairly mainstream Christian (not YE, not anti-dancing, etc), she doesn’t want to be only one of four Republicans on campus or some such thing. She doesn’t want to have her religious beliefs mocked and ridiculed. SHe also isn’t interested in schools which have a large anti-military feel. She doesn’t think that everyone should think like her and she isn’t going to rule out a school just because there are some radicals on campus but they can’t all be radicals or even a majority.</p>
<p>You might be right, but this is also another differentiating factor around fit. As but an example, I know many kids who would absolutely not want to be in a school like the one above. They would consider such an environment anti-intellectual (or to those outside the US, rather “too American”). Just like some kids would feel alien in a politically active environment when they themselves do not even read the newspaper; or athletes who would not want to be in a school full of the non-athletic and so on. Some tribes matter, some do not. </p>
<p>Some issues of fit matter for some kids, and not for others. While I agree with those that suggest many can be a comfortable minority, it really depends upon how one is a minority (along which dimensions), and how that matters to them personally and in terms of their identification. I have never had a problem being a woman in an largely male environment, but I would find it frustrated to be surrounded by a majority that have an entirely different political world view than me. It really depends upon the person and the attribute defining the minority and majority. </p>
<p>I also think in a big school atomsphere you can always ‘find your people’ or avoid those that are jerks, in a small school environment it might not be possible.</p>
<p>starbright…not exactly sure that you are correct, but you have a right to your opinion. And you are right. Some kids just won’t FEEL like a particular school is a fit…which is why there are so many schools. I do find it interesting that people would say a Southern or a conservative school might be “anti-intellectual”. I think there is a prevailing elitism I find, often on this website, to that effect. My husband grew up in a rural southern town to divorced and working class parents. He is very enlightened, albeit a personally conservative kind of guy. He also scored a 99th percentile on his radiology Boards…something I venture to say most Ivy League or Urban East coast medical school grads did not do. I would put his “intellectualism” up against most anyone’s, frankly…y’all. I used to think a lot like this, growing up on the East Coast. Until I realized that an accent, conservatism, Christian values and manners did not make one less educated.</p>
<p>Ditto, debrockman. As a life-long Southerner (with periodic forays to Chicago and London), I don’t think being from the South precludes one from being intellectual - we just talk funny. But, the South still is, by and large, very conservative and very polite. True story: when I first left Texas at 17 and went to Chicago for college, I called my mother in tears because I went to Marshall Fields to buy a winter coat and stood there for 5 minutes and no one waited on me. That would never happen at Neiman Marcus. Set one foot in the store and a smiling big-haired blonde lady would come up immediately and say “May I hep yew?” and probably call me "darlin’ or “suga’.” I also got “reamed” by a professor for calling her ma’am. Differences between the South and the rest of the country are real.</p>
<p>debrockman - Thanks for saying what I wanted to say and saying it more elogquently than I would have Would also like to include that that accent might be midwestern, in addition to southern.</p>
<p>This is an interesting thread and I hope OP finds some good insight. I will say that I was struck by post #8 by SallyRub - a lot depends on your kid. I was a conservative kid who went to a very liberal school. There were a few (very few) kids that were not tolerant of my views and background and voiced hostility, but the vast majority of liberals and apolitical types were beyond wonderful to me. I was challenged a lot and enjoyed the challenge. I emerged more confident in my opinions having had the opportunity to defend them against thoughtful challenges.</p>
<p>OP…I do want to say this about Rose since it is on your list…their professors are more than willing to distribute C’s and even D’s to kids who are accustomed to earning A’s…even to kids from “elite” highschools. And what normally happens is that these kids really dig down to do better work. That’s the mentality there. Not doing well is not a problem in and of itself. You are there to learn. Engineers are all about continuous improvement. What is a problem is not digging down to do better. Because the profs know that all these kids are smart. When I see a 3.5 gpa from a Rose kid, I am REALLY impressed. I did notice yesterday at the career fair that both the kids cars and the recruiters cars were from everywhere. If you want to go to medical school, this might not be the school for you. Really good grades are earned the hard way at Rose. And if you are a guy attending Rose, you learn to dump any form of sexism you might have had. The girls at Rose are every bit as talented as the guys. There just aren’t as many of them.</p>
<p>I just noted that there are two synagogues in Terre Haute, and if you remember your history, Terre Haute was the home of Eugene V. Debs.
[Eugene</a> V. Debs - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_V._Debs]Eugene”>Eugene V. Debs - Wikipedia)
Terre Haute has its share of leftists. :)</p>
Would also like to include that that accent might be midwestern, in addition to southern.</p>