<p>That’s interesting and good to know, Piper. CSULB has industrial design, so it’s on the list to visit for now. You didn’t find it too big?</p>
<p>What does anyone know about Northeastern or WPI in terms of the student body and intensity? They have relevant majors.</p>
<p>It will be interesting to see what my son will eventually do come next fall. I find it helpful to have some ideas of places to visit since he’s not been to many colleges-only local ones, MIT, and one in the Midwest.</p>
<p>What are the relevant majors that are needed?</p>
<p>Just realized… won’t S1 still be at MIT when S2 would matriculate? That could give S2 and you, a lot of security and sense of wellbeing. I’m sure S1 would look out for and help S2. Will S1 be hanging around the Boston area after graduation (or no idea yet)? </p>
<p>I think that could be a really good situation… having the 2 Ss together, especially for S2’s first year of college and away from home.</p>
<p>texas- My son’s talked about engineering or possibly architecture. I see him as a “design” person, though; he loves playing LOTR and LOL. He really helped design his robotic’s team robot. He draws, makes non-digital games on his own and is always designing stuff at home. He’s taking an animation class at the local CC and loving it, but he’s also taking physics and loving it, yet he really enjoyed his intro to engineering and architectural drafting classes last semester.</p>
<p>I think a lot will depend on what math he chooses to tackle during the summer and senior year and how well he does on subject tests and if he attends any summer engineering programs (though he’s been offered a job playing cello with a professional local theater company, so he might just take that and not do any summer programs)</p>
<p>crazymomster-yes, S1 will be a senior when S2 is a freshman and yes, that would be an ideal situation to have them on campus together for a year; they would both <em>love</em> that. But I know MIT is pretty impossible to get into and there are so many unknowns, so as always, it’s “wait and see”. :-)</p>
<p>SBJ - Rice is a good school in terms of what is available since they have an architecture and engineering schools.</p>
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<p>Eh, I found CSULA to be very different. The campus itself didn’t feel that big, though the sense of community was far less because it was a commuter campus. MIT, on the other hand, has something like 90% of people living in dorms/FSILGs - it felt more like home than a place to go to school.</p>
<p>I’m not trying to suggest CSULA. CSULA is just about the farthest thing from MIT (as far as I can tell) – I’m just sharing that I found people I clicked with even in the least likely scenario. I think that college and your social life are far more dependent on you than your college.</p>
<p>SBJ, I can think of other eastern schools, but I’ve followed your posts for years. Your son has a serious medical condition. Other than MIT, I’d look at the CA, and west coast colleges. I’d even consider Uw, with Seattle a terrific city and possible internships at MS. I’d hate to see your son in a stressful environment where he wasn’t careful with eating and sleeping. </p>
<p>Architecture? Look closer at Cal Poly then. </p>
<p>You’re right, bookworm. One can’t hide from diabetes or it will kill you. OTOH, I know that people live with T1 and go to college and do everything any other person does and I don’t want any of us to live in fear. It’s just a lot more time consuming and you can’t let up on it and yes, not eating and sleeping well would be detrimental. There’s a skier that has diabetes; pretty amazing!</p>
<p>Definitely big city colleges are most appealing since they have easy access to good hospitals (not that one anticipates needing it; my son has never gone back to the hospital for diabetes-related problems since being diagnosed almost 6 years ago). There’s a thread on CC about students with diabetes. Some of them have gone away from home and done fine, but it’s a bit stressful for the parents when things happen so far away.</p>
<p>Yes, SLO would be on the table if architecture is still a major of interest next fall. Both local schools are rather uninteresting, at least to me. </p>
<p>Piper, to some degree, yes, but atmosphere matters.</p>
<p>I was commuter student that took 7 years (working mostly full time, switching schools and majors three times) to graduate from the local state univ. and my dh never went to college. I am so happy for my MIT son to have found such great friends. I made friends as my department was pretty small, but my social life revolved mostly at the restaurant where I worked (and met my dh-yeah!), and I never had that college experience. I guess I would like to see my middle son have the same opportunity to experience the type of friendship building that my oldest has.</p>
<p>sbjdorlo, it sounds like your experience was different because your circumstances kept you from investing yourself in a college’s social scene, not because the college’s atmosphere was inherently less conducive. I agree that atmosphere matters - I just think people emphasize it too much when it comes to building a social life. </p>
<p>The honors college of any good state flagship will have a lot of smart, dedicated students, and therefore there would be plenty of opportunity for building friendships. I don’t feel like schools like MIT or Harvey Mudd are good choices for this student. I second the Rice suggestion. They get a lot of smart students because of their financial aid policy for national merit candidates, but the curriculum/work load is not as brutal as it would be at MIT/Harvey Mudd/UChicago.
Actually most ivy leagues could be good choices for this student because they aren’t quite as intense as MIT either and they give you more freedom to determine how much time you spend in class.</p>
<p>Rice has the added benefit of the largest medical center in the world (IIRC) across the street, so medical services are most definitely available, and top notch! </p>
<p>Rice has an architecture school and a music school (with offerings for both music and non-music majors), engineering and a large selection of humanities, without the overall stress of some of the more intense schools. </p>
<p>I’m wondering why no one has really grabbed onto the Stanford idea, which I think would be a good choice, as it is closer to home with a lot to offer academically. </p>
<p>I do think that Stanford probably would also better support “game design”, if that is your son’s primary interest. I am unaware of Rice offering anything along those lines. There is a school in Arizona that is pretty much all game design… can’t remember the name though, but could look it up.</p>
<p>I think Stanford would also be a good choice. Brown is also pretty flexible and has a Bohemian vibe.</p>
<p>I agree about the intensity of MIT and Mudd being too much for him right now. I have thought about the Ivies, but I only know about Princeton personally, having visited with my oldest. I think Brown would not quite be the right fit, though the idea of designing one’s own path is intriguing.</p>
<p>I’ll look more closely at Rice’s and Stanford’s majors. My son looked at USC’s game design program last night and thought it looked impressive. The downside is that they require 3 subject tests from homeschoolers and I’m not sure he’ll have three; two for sure, math and literature, though I guess he could do physics if he self-studies during the summer since his college physics class only covers half the topics.</p>
<p>Honors colleges at large universities-what do students do in an honors college? What is the benefit? </p>
<p>^Well, if you are considering MIT at all, he’ll need a second math/science SATII. I don’t know about other colleges, but I assume any elite college would want to see a second SATII in science from someone with a technical major. If he has taken an AP class in a science class, I would choose that one to take. </p>
<p>Mileage will probably vary in terms of what an honors college may mean. In some places, they may actually group them in a dorm. In others, the advising system may be different and there may be special enriched classes open to them. For example, they may take a more theoretical version of an intro class. They may also have special enriching seminars/talks for them. In addition to augmenting the education for the higher level student, they generally try to introduce some measure of community. </p>
<p>Yes-I forgot he’s planning to take the physics SAT II next fall. He’ll take it after the second semester of physics at the community college. Not sure whether that will be Nov. or Dec. So he’ll have three.</p>
<p>Thanks for the description of honors colleges. We’ll explore that option.</p>
<p>One particularly good honors college is the Turing Scholars program at UT Austin (~50 students/year). It’s a computer science honors program, and can be customized to do game design and programming. All the honors programs at UT Austin offer housing in the honors quad which is a group of 4 dorms, so there is a sense of home within the larger university.</p>
<p>Having read through what the OP has written about her son in this thread…it appears he may best thrive at a school like Stanford as others have mentioned…looking at his strengths and weaknesses…but, the hardest part is getting in…</p>
<p>Yep! LOL I’m discovering some interesting programs at various schools. You definitely have to dig deep, though.</p>
<p>My son is preparing some cello pieces for competitions, so he’ll at least be ready with several pieces for whatever schools will need that.</p>
<p>He and I were talking and he really could see himself in either music or the game design/animation type fields. I don’t think he’s totally closing the door on engineering or architecture, but he does seem pretty excited about these new ideas. Just through this exploration, he’s beginning to ask more questions.</p>
<p>Thanks again for all the great advice, all!</p>