<p>Even 70% employment would be very high today. Better a manager than just a clerk or greeter.</p>
<p>American, although mid-size, doesn’t really have a “rah-rah” sports identity. Unless he is really into politics, he may find other departments lacking, or not enough support to help him decide, although their counseling people were very impressive when we visited. UVA might be too hard for your son to get into, may not be worth spending the time on. If he is accepted, then he could always visit that one later to decide. Just wanted to point out that if he isn’t really excited about certain schools, the visit could just bore him, or turn him off. I would spend more energy trying to help him decide a possible course of study so that you can focus on schools that offer what he thinks he wants. Not all LACs offer majors in everything…Even though lots of kids change their minds, it helps to at least start at a school that offers what you think you might like.</p>
<p>OP – your son sounds pretty normal to me. I didn’t have any internal drive to narrow down my list about 35 years ago, so I just applied to the ones that sounded prestigious or had good sports teams. </p>
<p>I hate to say this, but you might want to help him apply to LOTS of schools – like 10-15. After he gets into 6-8 your desired “narrowing” will have been accomplished by the adcoms themselves. </p>
<p>Which reminds me of the scene in the film Office Space, where the incompetent clerk officed down in the storage room was revealed by the efficiency consultants (the Bobs) to have been fired five years prior. Due to a glitch in the software, his paychecks were not stopped, and he had been showing up to work every day. His Manager asked: “well, should I fire him AGAIN?”, to which the Bobs replied: “No, that’s not necessary. Too messy. We’ll just correct the glitch in the system, the paychecks will stop, and everything will work itself out”. </p>
<p>In other words, don’t stress about it, let the adcoms do your narrowing :)</p>
<p>Your son is probably right – doesn’t much matter where he goes among that list of Top 100 colleges you mentioned. He’ll find his place and be successful no matter.</p>
<p>Sounds like a pretty typical high school boy and a lot like my son who will be starting college next year. Because of conflicts with ECs we did visit a bunch of colleges during the summer before his senior year however he really had no idea what he wanted to do other than the preferred size and location of the school. However that really changed during the fall of his senior year and he became a lot more focussed … I have not asked him about this but my guess is his interest kicked in as the level of “college talk” picked up at school … and his peers dragged him up to speed.</p>
<p>With our son we found that as the process moved along, he matured and it all started to “click” with him. Happenned around second semester junior year. He’s not an easy going kid so we were surprised that he liked everywhere we went, except Sewanee which he couldn’t get away from quickly enough. (not bashing it. Our daughter’s camp counselor is a Senior there and couldn’t be more articulate or on the ball). After he realised that he’d seen what he was going to see he focused more on the details. It IS sort of overwhelming! Maybe he’s a happy go lucky kid that would be happy anywhere? If so, consider yourself fortunate!!</p>
<p>I have a friend from tot playgroup days who now lives across the country, but we keep in touch with FB, etc. This past year I asked her how the college search was going and she lamented that her son was SO not engaged and she was worried sick about his attitude, basically throwing up her hands. Two months ago asked her what he was going to do and she said, “looks like he’s going to Georgetown” so you never know what’s ticking inside those heads…IMHO especially boys!</p>