<p>High Schools in our area are not known for their STRONG academics, and that is for all races. There are of course, some strong programs within some of our schools. The public high schools that we looked at in our town, without a doubt showed Black/Hispanic/Native American children to be behind their White peers, (academically), in English, Science, and Math. Even so, the scores for all races were/are not that strong. I try my best to make sure that my son is in as many enrichment programs, etc., as I can. I talk with him about school, homework, studying, and I am trying to instill in him that doing well in school is important, (as I am sure everyone else is doing on who frequent these boards). I don't think I would have a problem with additional preparation at the college level when that time comes, (summer classes, mandatory meetings, etc.), if I knew it was a school he wanted, with a program he was interested in, and it was affordable. If the tension of being in a special program became too much for him, I hope that he would tell me, and that we would work from there on what to do, but I won't turn my back on these programs if my son were really interested.</p>
<p>With the above said, anyone's children have problems with their peers because they were in one of these diverse/AA programs?</p>
<p>I don't know anyone personally that took a "contractual" agreement, but quite a few that received "Martin Luther King" scholarships/grants and are doing well. Some had GPA requirements, some did not.
I read posts from a very unhappy girl at Wheaton that had been part of the Posse program: The</a> Posse Foundation
BUT, the sadness wasn't over her grades, they were fine and she liked her professors, that part was on track. What she detested was how nice students were toward her in the beginning during the overnight visits in the summer, and then snubbed her when school started. That aspect, which is why overnights aren't always good indicatiors, helped her make the decision. She had rich roommates that couldn't understand someone on aid, all they talked about was thier weight, looks and what outfit to buy. No one seemed to include her and I remember her wishing she went to a lower tier school with her friends. I hope she found a niche, she was doing well and it would be a shame to give up the first year.This problem she might have had at a lot of colleges but it wasn't just her...it was also the inability of those around her, even outstide of her room, to want to try to understand someone else's background. That would happen with or without Posse.</p>
<p>D attended competitive, invitation only diversity fly-in programs because I knew they would help with admissions. I warned her, however, that the overnight or fly-in programs were NOT representative of day to day life on the campus. And a bad roommate can ruin the year or so completely sour a student on a school that s/he feels compelled to transfer.</p>
<p>Here's some schools you might want to consider if you have not done so already. I don't know what your specific prefences are (i.e. large, small, geography, etc.), but I think you will find some schools on this list you might like. Some I think you are already familiar with. Most of these are smaller, but strong academically, and they are really trying to recruit for diversity. Thus, you may have some additional scholarship opportunities with some of them. Lastly, they are all SAT optional so your otherwise good credentials won't be diminished by your test scores. I am listing them in no particular order. </p>
<p>George Mason Univ
Roanoke College
Guilford
Wittenberg
Susquehanna
Goucher
Dickinson
Christopher Newport
Denison
Juniata
Muhlenberg
Hartwick
Gettysburg</p>
<p>I'm sure we could find some others depending on your preferences, but I think in addition to ones you have already considered, these are worth looking into. Hope it helps.</p>
<p>Guilford College, NC
Belmont Abbey College, NC
Loyola University of Chicago
Northwestern University
Case Western Reserve University
Ohio Wesleyan University
U of Alabama at Birmingham</p>
<p>I've read the thread and based on what you have indicated, this reaction from your D seems to be out of character and appears to be more than just normal homesickness. I would contact the RA and advise them of the situation. Also, I would maybe start contacting some of the other colleges where she was previously accepted to see if she could make a smooth transfer. I believe in sticking it out in some cases, but college should be a time when you also make great friends, etc... If she is that miserable, it may affect her overall academic success. She sounds like a wonderful student, I hope things work out.</p>
<p>Good Grief! I miss a couple of weeks and this place lights up! It's 2am and I'm FINALLY caught up. Did anyone besided TriG & FLDAD respond to AhmedK? If not, Ahmed I think Cornell & Duke are great bets. The others ain't out the ballpark either!</p>
<p>2Collegewego -- if it were my kid, those xfer papers would be BURNIN a beeline to another bastion of higher ed. It certainly reads as if your daughter has been proactive, and has used every tool in her arsenal to make a go of things. Please, PLEASE do the homework on atmosphere, however. It REALLY makes a diff.</p>
<p>I know I'm late -- but I really had to chuckle at the earlier political pillowfight in this thread. I assume we'll all be tuning in on Thurs. night? I've got my microwave popcorn all ready to go!</p>
<p>miz -- well spoken, thanks for being a knight in shining armor.</p>
<p>Harmony: That's "Ursinus" not "Ursine." My D's looking at that school. She toured and interviewed there. In fact, she already applied, after receiving one of those "Priority Applications."</p>
<p>I will be tuning in, the Lord willing. Can't wait to see it. Biden will be bashed for anything he says and does, and SNL will have a field day. I may even turn in early on Wednesday in order to be well rested up for the newsfest afterwards on Thursday night. :)</p>
<p>If you're a minority and you're selected for a job over more qualified
candidates you're a 'token hire.'</p>
<p>If you're a conservative and you're selected for a job over more
qualified candidates you're a 'game changer.'</p>
<p>Black teen pregnancies? A 'crisis' in black America .
White teen pregnancies? A 'blessed event.'</p>
<p>If you grow up in Hawaii you're 'exotic.'
Grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers, you're the quintessential
'American story.'</p>
<p>Similarly, if you name you kid Barack you're 'unpatriotic.'
Name your kid Track, you're 'colorful.'</p>
<p>If you're a Democrat and you make a VP pick without fully vetting the
individual you're 'reckless.' A Republican who doesn't fully vet is a
'maverick.'</p>
<p>I don't think Obama has said that AA should entirely switch to economic; I heard him say that he didn't think his daughters or similarly advantaged children should qualify. How many fit in that slot? And the truth is that his daughters would benefit from AA of another kind; a development admit or a celebrity/child of celebrity admit. Top colleges court these admits and have lower admission standards for them because of the prestige, cache or $$ the kids bring in.</p>
<p>Athletes we know get preferences; legacies of course. I wouldn't encourage my D to go to a program that made her check in and had demeaning conditions but if she gets "points" for adding diversity or a school wants to make a contribution to society by doing its part to equalize access to elite education, that would be fine.
I recently read in a book about the test score gap that looking at admit patterns, if schools went heavily by test scores with black students, they would constitute 2% of elite school admits; yet these students are shown to benefit more and do better at these elite school than their counterparts who go to less selective colleges. </p>
<p>In our family we are a nurse and a teacher. We made over 100k last year; where we are from that is middle class, even on the higher end. But my D goes to a school where in the 4 years she has been there, I have never met anyone from her school that was not more affluent than we were; trips to Europe, country clubs, boats, hundreds of $ spending sprees for the girls most weekends, etc. I know there are families on here that are similarly advantaged but most are probably not. </p>
<p>At this point it may be difficult to separate the strands of racial and economic disadvantage but statistics shows black families are far less wealthy than white ones. And it is primarily the very advantaged who get into these schools. I know my H grew up in segregated schools in the south and did not get the education he would have in an equal opportunity society; this affected our children indirectly. The legacy of racism I think will take several more generations to erase if we are lucky.</p>
<p>My D did a fly in at Scripps last week and it didn't feel like a charity program; it felt like they were looking for smart academically prepared minority students to come to their school for those student's benefit and for theirs. She loved the black student organization which is shared by all the Claremont colleges and looks upon it as more social support than remedial which I think is probably accurate.</p>
<p>If your kid is high achieving, high scoring academically prepared black student than they are in shallow pool in our country, unfortunately, and colleges seek out the rare in all areas so it doesn't seem unfair although I look forward to the day when that pool is shallow no longer.</p>
<p>No problem. And no reason for you to apologize. I wasn't offended. I just wanted to be sure other people understood which college you were recommending.</p>
<p>okgirl, my D loved the Scripps diversity weekend, and while we are not first gen, or disadvantaged, I think their invite did what it was intended to do. I had never heard of an LAC, and we never would have considered one. Between meeting the kids that end up being at these diversity things, and finding CC, we may be able to close an "exposure gap" that I think might be a little independent of income and college education. I agree it will take a few generations to happen.</p>