<p>Dad…can I ask this…</p>
<p>Since you’re looking into a variety of schools…some where you’d pay full-freight and some where your son may get scholarships…and you’re (smartly) trying to figure out the cost-benefit of either type of school…</p>
<p>Are you considering telling your son that the consistent efforts that he puts forth his senior year (grades, tests, essays) might influence what direction you will lean? </p>
<p>The reason I ask is this. Your son is very smart, but if he’s not wired to “super perform” over an extended period of time, then he might end up at the bottom of the heap at a top school (if accepted) where his classmates are all super-driven. His GPA at such a school could really nose-dive when his performance is compared to the cut-throat kids who might be at such schools.</p>