<p>congrats on Olin
you can make this a great experience
make yourself proud (and dad will take pride in it too)</p>
<p>Calmom,
I really like your post on the value of financial independence.... excellent to guide this student to what Olin offers him..... sometimes just having California in the name of the school is a tremendous lure.... seems so exciting etc... it is hard for a kid to understand 4 years of financial pressure... when there is another option that is very viable..... but not in California....</p>
<p>What your dad could be trying to say is that he's worried about you and your future. I haven't read any of your other posts, but is there something that has him doubting your ability to succeed? Trust me, it could be a really small thing that combined with normal parental angst has blown up way out of proportion.</p>
<p>The other posters are right. Parents can get nuts during senior year and often over silly things. I was pretty upset that in my son's senior year he opted not to bother with the service requirement for NHS (claimed he had better things to be doing than working at bake sales and such) and was practically the only top student not wearing that sash at graduation. Even though I knew NHS at his school was pretty meaningless and that it wasn't a big deal to top colleges either, I guess maybe his decision made me worry about him being lazy, unwilling to play by the rules of resume building, or uncaring about community service, or whatever. In reality, none of those things was true at all and he's even more involved in college than he was in high school. He just wanted to do what he thought was meaningful.</p>
<p>Just remember,...you are the one that has to decide. If Olin feels "right" to you, great! But if Caltech is the school that you feel best for you...go there...deal with the 4 years, and get a GREAT job after you graduate!</p>
<p>Also, if you do well at Olin, there are a lot more graduate students at Caltech than there are undergrads. Good luck!</p>
<p>I'm not going to address the Olin v. Caltech discussion. I hope you made your decision for the right reason and will be happy. Once you make a choice, you cannot then hold it over your father's head or regret it -- just move forward with a positive attitude. But what I wanted to tell you was, once this is over and you've sent in your postcard, you and your dad should go for a long walk and talk about this process and the stress and how it brought out some unpleasantness and how you should each own up to your part. Tell him that you felt as if he hated you -- I bet that will come as a big shock to him and hopefully will be a wake up call for him. Don't blame, just let him know how this argument affected you. Often people don't realize what they're saying or how they come across. This is an extremely stressful time for students and their parents and it's good to acknowledge that and put it behind you as soon as possible.</p>