<p>Friends don’t let friends go to OSU. (Go Blue!)</p>
<p>Pg and MOWC- I am just curious why people dont want to send their kids to SMU. Thats all.</p>
<p>REALLY FOLKS…I could post the name of virtually ANY school and we are going to get a slew of parents who don’t want to send their kids their. Don’t take this sort of bias seriously. Well, with the exception of UCLA. ANYONE who would not want to send their kid there is STUPID. Do you hear me???..STUPID,STUPID,STUPID.</p>
<p><<well, with="" the="" exception="" of="" ucla.="" anyone="" who="" would="" not="" want="" to="" send="" their="" kid="" there="" is="" stupid.="">></well,></p>
<p>Guess I’m STUPID! ;)</p>
<p>Harvard. Really!</p>
<p>Too many big classes, too many over-confident kids, too many type A’s, too many future Masters of the Universe.</p>
<p>I know the place intimately, and it is not at all the right place for my kid.</p>
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<p>LOL Hunt! Like father like son? :D</p>
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<p>That’s just the stupid kind of thing that someone who went to USC would say. Which just goes to prove my point about why I wouldn’t want my kids to go there.
:D</p>
<p>Plenty of people want to send their kids to SMU. Just not Pizzagirl and me! It doesn’t even have good athletic teams anymore.</p>
<p>My D had to cross some really great schools off her list (Duke,UNC) because the state has smoking in restaurants. We had a great tour and the stopped at a place to eat and had to go to the ER because of an asthma attack. We take for granted in our state the no smoking thing in public. Even the Mc Donald’s was thick with smoke. We realized she would not be able to enjoy a simple dinner off campus with her friends.</p>
<p>Three people have now asked me in PM’s what’s my beef with SMU. I don’t have a beef with it. I knew at least 5 people who went there, and they reported back to me a very strong insular-Dallas culture, great superficiality on the Greek scene, and professors/ classes that were better than the academic attention the students wished to give their studies. They were unimpressed and all but one of them transferred out and couldn’t get out of there fast enough. I think its name means pretty much nothing outside of Dallas (it might have meant something 25 years ago with the Cotton Bowl and so forth -indeed, one of my friends was on the Cotton Bowl championship team) and I just don’t see any reason to send a kid there. ASU - honestly, from relatives who have gone there, who aren’t academically inclined in the least and whose pictures and stories basically depict a bunch of rich Californians and Midwesterners who are having fun in the sun for 4 years and, oh, maybe attending a class every now and then. Those are my impressions. others don’t have to share them; it’s a free country.</p>
<p>So many reasons already posted that I definitely agree with. Religion, Greek presence, academic strengths… Around here some parents are afraid of UW-Madison, sigh. Great academics and that scary Madison liberalism is good for their kids.</p>
<p>We seriously chose to ignore U of Chicago when son was a 15 going on 16 year old HS senior runner applying to colleges. The academics are great, although I dislike the “Great Books” approach- prefer a broader range of lit options. Our big problem was location in a bad part of town coupled with a son who would have chosen to do his distance running alone in those bad neighborhoods at all times of day or night. He was (is?) so stubborn he wouldn’t have listened to us about safety- choosing safer areas within a short distance of campus (ie the Lakeshore).</p>
<p>Wis- That’s interesting. WildChild was strongly recruited for running by UChicago and we were quite impressed with the coach and the program. I, too, was concerned about the area (having gotten my running career started while a law student there). Son applied EA but went elsewhere, and reconsidered it for a transfer, but didn’t wind up going.</p>
<p>Any college with an undignified or silly name, like Harvey Mudd.</p>
<p>Penn State. I went there. I always told my kids they would not be allowed to go. Any other huge university in the middle of nowhere with big alcohol/Greek culture.</p>
<p>Mom of Wild… We didn’t tell son our opinions at the time- he probably would have applied if we had. He ended up doing club running at UW so Chicago running may have been an option (UW track club does D3 races). Didn’t know that back then. Do remember worrying when he went running alone in a sleet/ice storm once- drove around (scary roads) looking for him. He did come home safely and we couldn’t reason with him about how he could have slipped, fallen and not been seen in the dark… Around here the runners are hardy- many do outdoor running all seasons after school instead of on the indoor track. I learned about all sorts of cold weather running gear.</p>
<p>I remember some of your posts (began CC after many of them). Sons can be challenging as kids, so much better as they grow older and mature.</p>
<p>squidge - you got that school name correct. I’m not paying for disney world and steak night. That president seems like a multi level marketer and putting all his eggs in aesthetics, ice cream, piped in music, and not into the academics.</p>
<p><<any college="" with="" an="" undignified="" or="" silly="" name,="" like="" harvey="" mudd.="">></any></p>
<h2>Or any school with a strange mascot name. Just couldn’t handle the Wooster Roosters or even the Rice Owls.</h2>
<p>simpkin - Most big state U’s have alcohol/Greek culture issues. All depends on the kid in terms of how they handle it. </p>
<p>DS#1 is at Penn State - not a big drinker, was never interested into the Greek scene. Loves the school. DS#2 is at LSU, also not a big drinker and quit the frat he pledged the first week. Again, very happy.</p>
<p>Marian,</p>
<p>If I saw an advantage to it, I would have no problem going to where the winters are long and brutal. Many moons ago, I went to grad school in just such a place. However, I know that for someone who has always lived at a latitude of 30 degrees North, like my son, the length of the winter, more than the intensity, could add extra stress to what would already undoubtedly be a quite stressful time. I may be a bit overprotective, but it bothers me to think about sending my one offspring to such an environment.</p>
<p>Others here are worried about overtly religious environments. As long as the science classes are rigorous and unaffected by religious dogma, I do not see the problem. My S has been an atheist since he was a small child, and he finds religious trappings to be completely nonthreatening and even entertaining. And he likes to think for himself, so he is going to disagree with virtually every kid, religious or not, on the majority of political or social/cultural issues, and is not seeking a place where everyone or even most kids will agree with him.</p>
<p>“Schools where the football coach makes more than the president”, someone said.</p>
<p>OK, then that rules out UC Berkeley and UCLA:</p>
<p>Jeff Tedford UC Berkeley HEAD COACH $2,349,037.96</p>
<p>Benjamin Clark Howland UCLA
HEAD COACH, INTERCOL ATHLETICS $2,076,534.61</p>
<p>Mark Yudof, President UC System, ~$560K</p>
<p>Momzie, my best friend is transgendered and I seriously doubt someone attending Oberlin was so immensely influenced by the liberals to actually change their gender. Being transgendered isnt something you choose. My friend knew when she was five years old she was a woman. That person was probably attracted to Oberlin because it was a place they knew they would feel safe at coming out. :)</p>
<p>I would NEVER want my kids to attend Brown Mackie or some other,for profit school. Definitely wouldn’t want them attending a conservative bible school either.</p>