<p>Too bad your son didn’t like Johns Hopkins’ brick buildings, because JHU has first-rate English/creative writing as well as topnotch CS. It is not a school for the lazy, however; it’s full of very smart, striving kids with remarkable work ethics.</p>
<p>In my experience, one of two things happens to smart, disorganized/lazy kids when they get into an elite college. 1) They figure out, quickly or not so quickly, that they are no longer going to be able to skate by and so they clean up their act. 2) They flunk out. Fortunately 1) is by far more common. In some ways, though it might seem counterintuitive, I think it’s better for such a kid to go to an excellent school than to shoot for something “easier.” Being surrounded by ambitious, highly competent peers has a way of stimulating one’s own ambition and competence. Going to a school where most of the people are either slower on the uptake or have more to cope with elsewhere in their lives (work, kids, part-time enrollment, etc.) only feeds habits of slothfulness and, often, condescension.</p>