<p>I’m so pleased that this thread is working out.</p>
<p>My son is a bit more like Cardinal Fang’s son, with his test scores being disproportionately higher than his GPA, and so may be branded an underacheiver. (He definitely did not study the way that he should have, and sometimes didn’t study at all…but he has been very committed to other things and just got a wake up call during college vists. Now all of a sudden he is studying and doing much better…but it’s too late to really affect his GPA.) He has a lot of strong ECs, but is interested in schools (big publics) that I don’t think really consider ECs. </p>
<p>We also have affordability issues, and I think small = expensive (normally), unless I’m missing something! </p>
<p>For him, I think a large school will be okay. He is pretty responsible and is usually up and out the door before the rest of us are even awake. So I’m not thinking he will suddenly start skipping class just because they wouldn’t notice he is there. Actually, I’m sort of wondering if having a big class will mean that he pays more attention because he won’t be busy joking with his friends so much or trying to maintain some kind of “BMOC” reputation. When we look at the whole package that is our son, we do see him fitting in best at a larger school. So I have to support his interest in that. (He also wants a school with some kind of great sports team to root for, and with a good Greek system.) He is extremely outgoing and has a “big” personality. Unfortunately he isn’t very introspective and he isn’t worried about getting into a school…he has said to me already, “I will get into a college, and I will go there and like it.” I guess it’s good that he doesn’t worry…but maybe that is the case because he knows I do enough worrying for the both of us!</p>
<p>Having said that, I guess I wish I could find maybe a “medium” school…something that maybe had 5,000 kids instead of 15,000. Then again, I don’t know that a 5,000 kid school is necessarily going to give a kid any more attention than a 15,000 one…so maybe what I’d really like for him is a school that has an excellent guidance department. Does any college actually have this, even small ones? </p>
<p>My biggest concern right now is that every school on our list is a possible rejection. The GC gave us two schools that she thought were safeties: IU and UMass. He didn’t really like IU and we haven’t seen UMass yet. I keep thinking about that “love your safety” thing and it worries me. His top choice right now is University of Maryland, but to me it looks like a 50/50 shot given his GPA.</p>