Also in MA and S17 also plays lacrosse - I don’t understand the rules but it’s super fun to watch. Quite a change from D15, who was (actually still is!) a dancer.
Clarkson keeps coming up on our radar because they have engineering with a (remote) chance he could play DIII LAX. Would love to hear anyone’s experiences there in terms of facilities & academics. Seems very remote.
I agree with @CT1417 about Northeastern being worth a look. BU’s linear campus is not to my liking. Just crossing Comm Ave is a nightmare - a bike lane, 2 lanes of traffic, 2 green line trains, 2 more lanes of traffic and another bike lane. And wintertime snow & slush just add to the awful (jmo, but I speak from experience).
Babson seems like a great fit for your S17. They are well known for business & entrepreneurship programs. Far from the slopes for someone who likes to board so frequently but perhaps they have a ski club? Would he consider a LAC like Colby or Skidmore?
Encourage him to reconsider UMass (I’m getting push-back as well, so I understand). Their business program is competitive, and we hear that the club LAX has a lot of talent (kids who might have played DIII but are not DI caliber).
@jmek15 I am hoping to visit Clarkson soon and will let you know my thoughts when we get there. Son has some acquaintances that went there and said it was pretty good. Our neighbor has a daughter that goes to St Lawrence and plays field hockey there and they love it. My son might like that for the scene and schooling, but they are a top D3 lax school and are very competitive in terms of making sports teams. If your son has any interest in playing varsity D3 lax he needs to talk with the coaches now. Otherwise, club lax is fun. You can maybe walk on to a few programs, but it’s gotten more competitive just like everything else.
One of the reasons my son likes Babson is that they don’t have school on Fridays! Ha. Slacker. But he sees himself coming home and driving up to the mountains with us on occasion. We live pretty close to Babson.
I don’t know why I don’t feel the Northeastern love. Just not my fave. Doesn’t give me a good vibe. I know it’s a good school.
I don’t think I have a chance to get him to reconsider UMASS. He has stated zero interest on multiple occasions. I thought it was fine, not great. Good rep for a state school, esp biz program. Oh well. Not going to press it.
Only somewhat college-related, but wanted to share. My D is a bit stubborn and has certain pre-conceived notions. One that I had to work really hard to help her get over this year is that needing help doesn’t mean you aren’t smart. She struggled all through first semester of AP Physics and refused my offer to get her a private tutor because, according to her, smart kids don’t need/get tutoring. So I let her do it her way and she ended up with a B. When she told me her final grade at the end of the semester, I again suggested a tutor, and she reluctantly accepted my offer. Well she had her mock AP Physics exam today and I received a very excited email that she got a very high A. I’m very happy for her about the grade, but more happy about the very valuable lesson and life skill learned. It will serve her well in college and life.
The only time we’ve told D she would be punished for grades is if she made a bad grade because she didn’t ask for help. If you ask for help and work your tail off and still make a lower grade than normal then that’s fine! But if you make a lower than normal grade because you didn’t ask for help = not good.
“Smart” kids often work together in study groups. Also, not all kids are “smart” in all subjects. That is a great lesson to learn before college. My smart kid is great in STEM classes, but often needs help in the language arts and humanities. He also has learned to ask.
@itsgettingreal…my problem is my S thinks that college is going to be as easy as high school. He is taking Dual credit classes and makes 100’s in them. Granted he does have to work SLIGHTLY harder however when he has a 101 in his AP Physics class it is hard to convenience him that holding a 3.5 for scholarship purposes may be unlikely. Am I wrong in worrying that I do NOT want to set my S up for failure freshman year in college? What do I do?
@Tgirlfriend, I suppose it depends on the school your S chooses for college. My D15 took dual enrollment classes at the local (state flagship) U and got A’s, sometimes making the curve for the rest of the class. The college she matriculated to is slightly more difficult than the U was for 100 level classes, but much more difficult at upper div classes (She is in a top 20 LAC). She has to “work” for those A’s. Her scholarship only requires a 3.3 to maintain. A 3.5 is a pretty high bar. I would make sure your S understands that.
@Tgirlfriend I think most kids tend to underestimate how hard college will be. Especially those kids who get good grades with little effort. Some of those kids will still do well in college, but lots struggle. I am perfectly fine with having my D ‘re-take’ an AP class (and forego the credit), if it makes her life easier.
They still have a year of maturing to do. Can re-evaluate this time next year.
@Tgirlfriend That is a tough one and only you and he can make that determination whether it is worth the risk. Is he still very interested in Tech’s NMF scholarship? What does he plan on studying? I’d recommend, if possible, maybe on CC or of graduates of the college you may know, asking how difficult it is to maintain a 3.5 in your son’s intended major. Also, find out the probationary period, if any, to get the required gpa for renewal, which should be on the college’s website.
I have eliminated all colleges from my D’s list that have greater than a 3.2 renewal requirement, and have only kept a couple at the 3.2 level. It’s not because I don’t believe she is capable. I fully expect that she will rise to the occasion and do extremely well in college. But a lot of advice that I give her comes from my own personal experience. From my experience, lots of extremely smart kids have a hard time adjusting to college academics and college life and struggle at first. Some never do even nearly as well as they did in hs. And you can’t always predict who those kids will be, although everyone thinks it won’t be their kid. So for me, its not that I don’t want to set her up for failure, but it’s that I don’t want that kind of pressure on her. I really want her to have a wonderful college experience, especially as I did not. Stress over losing her scholarship will make that difficult.
@Tgirlfriend I don’t think there is a real answer as to whether or not high school is easier than college. It depends on the student and their strengths. It depends on their time management skills, their study habits, their energy levels, their learning styles, etc. My kids have not found transitioning to college difficult. But they also self-study a lot of subjects, so they are used to being in charge of their educations. They also have strong study habits b/c they are used to teaching themselves a lot of the material.
That said, I don’t think I would necessarily jump for joy at a merit scholarship with a 3.5 GPA requirement. That is high compared to a 3 or 3.2. Is there a probationary semester? (My D was incredibly ill 1 yr ago this time. Wondering about how illness might impact scholarships is something that I do worry about. She has an autoimmune disorder and flares are unpredictable. And if they stick her on high doses of prednisone, which they have a couple of times now, her thinking becomes incredibly foggy. Not the best situation to be in as a student.)
I think kids do need to understand that college is going to be different than high school and that those other differences might (or might not) make classes more challenging. They need to be prepared for how no oversight offers its own set of challenges and that the learning curve is not necessarily restricted to the classroom.
@itsgettingreal17 …I agree 100% I don’t want that pressure on him. It will be hard enough adjusting without the added pressure. He leaning towards electrical engineering and minor in math. Looking at Tech…A&M…UNT and OU. I am trying to get him to look at OSU also.
@RightCoaster We toured Bentley in March and it sounds perfect for your DS. It is small, suburban and has a great business program. It wasn’t right for my S but I really liked the campus and the programs they offered. I think it is definitely worth a visit for your son. Being from TX, I thought it was amazing that they had heated sidewalks so the kids wouldn’t slip on ice in the winter. They also offer non need based merit that your S may qualify for. Looks like a good list to me!
@itsgettingreal17 great lesson for your D that’s it’s ok to accept help.
@carachel2 we too have never punished our kids for any grades they brought home. I’ve always told them that it won’t bother me if they get an A or a C, it doesn’t affect my life but it will affect theirs. So they try their best and if they are happy with the outcome I am happy too. Makes for a very unstressed home.
Today my D finally got her ACT score back. Same composite as October and she put very little effort in. So, it’s on her and if she wants to take it again she is not sure if it should be June or September. She has a great score but just wanted another point to put her in the very comfortable zone for where she wants to apply. I guess we will see if she wants to put the effort in for the next round or if she’s content with what she has.
We always said that, and meant it…until our second child struggled in a class right when she first started high school and basically gave up on it, clinching an F for the semester-long course before Thanksgiving, but who kept telling us everything was fine. That F mattered to us—and we made sure she knew that—but largely because it meant that she’d been unwilling to admit to anyone else, including her parents, that she needed help.
(And even with that grade, she still pulled out a 3.54 for the year. It’s weird to think that she flunked a course but still has a GPA that puts her in the running for a good number of merit scholarships.)
I get so far behind on this thread. I appreciate reading all the ACT/SAT/writing input.
As for bugs, shouldn’t be an issue for D because she’s only looking north-ish. I remember when I was at GA Tech and was walking with a male friend across campus at night. A couple was a ways in front of us and suddenly the girl started screeching and hopping and we figured she must be one of those screechy/hoppy kind of girls. Then we came up to where they’d been and there was a grate in the ground with cockroaches pouring out of it and I started jumping around and screeching!
D11 says the worst pests at CU-Boulder are raccoons.
@RightCoaster and @jmek15
D and I started with Clarkson (looking at engineering) on our NY/MA spring break visit trip. She really liked it, especially the friendly, casual vibe. Her interview went well and she is not a good interviewer. She and I (I was invited!) were able to attend an intro chem class and it was really great. The professor was an engaging teacher and I would love to think all her profs could be like him. Of course I’m sure they set up visiting students with the best profs! The campus is pretty with modern wood/glass buildings and pretty much everything is connected. One student mentioned to us that in the winter she really wished the dorms were connected too! The campus does feel a little small and insulated. D was a bit mixed on whether this was a good thing. She liked the feel overall but could see that it might get boring after a while. We didn’t spend any time in the town (which is not next to the college), but it looked like a cute little place. It’s definitely a rural area over all.
I always joke that there are precisely two differences between living in Florida and living in Alaska: First, the mosquitos in Florida are fast and make that annoying buzz-hum thing, while in Alaska they’re incredibly slow—but utterly silent. Second, in Florida you’ll never see the things that will kill you (whether they’re alligators or mosquito-borne pathogens), while in Alaska (with its moose and bears) you will.
But yeah, after having grown up in the Upper South and living a good chunk of years in the subtropical South, I still haven’t gotten used to the lack of cockroaches (or snakes). I’m curious to see how my daughters deal with the bugs (I mean, even if they end up in, say, Minnesota there’ll be more bugs than here) when they head off to college.
I am in suburban CT. NYC commuter town with train tracks and I-95 running through town—LOTS of traffic, yet we see deer, bunnies, turkeys, hawks (always disconcerting), groundhogs/woodchuck, and lately two friends have found foxes up on their front porches!!
