<p>Thanks for the responses. I think I just have too much time on my hands sitting at the computer reading about all these amazing colleges all over the country. I need a new hobby hahaha</p>
<p>Oh I said Boston and Chicago because we have family there. My sister lives in Chicago and I have a cousin in Boston. I also have another sister in North Carolina which I was going to start scouring the schools out that way next lol I suggested a couple schools to look at in MN too since my parents live there - but he has stated that every place but Houston was just way too cold. </p>
<p>Houston because in my dreams he is accepted to Rice and its the exact distance as Ole Miss is from us … a mom can dream right??</p>
<p>Blue - he is a junior now. And a very young one at that. He just turned 16 in September. That is why I am still holding out hope he may mature a little over the next year :)</p>
<p>ok, you have all given me a lot to think about and I should be grateful that his one and only choice is a sure thing and I wont have to worry about rejection letters and disappointment. Maybe we will just take another trip to Chicago this summer to visit my sister and he can take a look around … no pressure. Last time we were there was the summer after freshman year and college was not even a passing thought really.</p>
<p>As for suggesting big cities - because he has always said he cant wait to graduate college so he can get out of MS and move to a big city. So yes, I was looking at bigger cities for college. You cant get much smaller than Oxford, MS 
He has been to campus a couple of times so he knows what it is like.</p>
<p>Oh, this is completely age appropriate. From the mom of three boys…I’d drop the topic of schools for now. You can do all the searching you like, chat about it here to get it out of your system. If he wants to chat about Ole Miss, smile and nod, but don’t make anymore conversation of it yourself at this point. The focus right now, and it sounds like he’s doing this, it to try to get through any required testing so he’s ready to apply next year (I think the ACT was mentioned). </p>
<p>If he’s taking any AP courses with corresponding SAT Subject tests I would consider having him take those in June while the information is fresh if that doesn’t pose a conflict. Some schools require them and it simply leaves the door open IF he decides to apply. Usually two is fine, some will waive with the ACT, but now you’re getting into very specific schools. If he were to become interested in a school over the summer that requires SAT subject tests and wants to apply non-binding EA for example, and hasn’t taken them Jr year, he needs to review the material and test in October (no Sept SAT, grrr) to get scores there in time. It’s just anxiety provoking so better to cover earlier just in case.</p>
<p>Ole Miss may be the absolute best fit socially and academically for him after all is said and done. I do appreciate your desire to shop around a bit to have him come to that conclusion. He has plenty of time before he decides to do that or not. Keeping all options open is what’s important.</p>
<p>edit, crossed posts: Ahh, I understand about the big cities. Kids are funny. Summer is a lifetime away. He may be willing to do an informal ‘drive by’ visit of a few schools by then.</p>
<p>ticmommi4 ~ yeah, my advise was based on thinking your son was a HS senior and time was ticking fast. For you, at his time, you can relax some -maybe with some ideas in your back pocket. Show him Rice!</p>
<p>Have you suggested either Tulane or Vanderbilt?</p>
<p>I agree with the poster who said encourage him to visit a few just for the fun of it. (After careful research is done to make sure they would be a good fit, of course.) Kids often say no to things without really knowing what it is they are rejecting. It is better for him to have schools to compare Ole Miss to and then make a decision. He may still like it better but I think this is a good lesson on how to make educated decisions (no pun intended!) LOL Good luck!</p>
<p>I’ve known more boys than girls who decided early on a school. My S visited one in April of his sophomore year. He went with a friend, and I was hoping it would keep him focused on his high school work, because he is not like my girls who strove to get all A’s. He liked the school and it had his specific program, so he decided that was it. His grades and test scores qualified him for an automatic scholarship. I encouraged him to apply to a rolling admissions school as well, but he didn’t visit it or any others. Someone mentioned forcing them to visit, but my S is extremely stubborn and would have refused to go. The good news is that he is studying what he loves and is getting better grades than he did in high school.</p>
<p>Tulane is out of our price range and doesnt offer the great merit/financial aid package we would need. Like Rice, I have dreamed of Vanderbilt as well Of course either would be awesome if he had a chance of getting in!! Distance wise Vanderbilt is about 500 miles … not terribly far! Thanks Snugapug for the great advice. I know I have time but a year seems so close to me! I just sent one off to college this year and I feel like I have no time to let my guard down now lol </p>
<p>NYMom - yes I really want him to compare schools! He has only visited Mississippi schools, so of course Ole Miss would be his top choice! He has nothing really to compare it to except MS State, USM and MS College … those were the 4 he went to with school (top 20 were able to go on a college tour this year)</p>
<p>He’s a guy.</p>
<p>He isn’t going to come out and say, “Mom and Dad, I’m really nervous about going away to college. I want to go to our state university because I know a lot about it and I know people who go there. I’ll be less uncomfortable there than I would be at a less familiar school. And since I’ve already been accepted, now I can stop thinking about college until next summer, and that will feel good because I get upset every time I think about going away.”</p>
<p>But this is probably how he feels. </p>
<p>Let it be. </p>
<p>My son was also one who went to his state flagship, at least in part because he was less uncomfortable about going there than he would have been at any other university. He wasn’t ready at that time to go far away to a school where he wouldn’t know anyone.</p>
<p>Four years later, he moved to the other side of the country, and he has lived there ever since. At 22, he was ready. At 18, he wouldn’t have been.</p>
<p>* Part of me just wants him to try to reach a little higher I guess.*</p>
<p>Perhaps you’re unfamiliar with the med school app process. As someone who has recently gone thru this with a child (he’s a first year med student now), I can tell you that the last thing you should want for a premed student is to end up at a reach school with stats that are “average for the school.”</p>
<p>Right now, your son’s ACT is rather average…25. If he gets it up to a 29-32, then he’d be low for schools like Rice. His fellow students would be stronger than him…particularly in the Pre-med prereqs. Guess who’d be grabbing the A’s needed for med school?</p>
<p>BTW…Rice has 2 locations ON CAMPUS where undergrads can buy alcohol. It also has 1 location that’s just for grad students. I spent a few afternoons on Rice’s campus while a friend was getting cancer treatments at MDAnderson.</p>
<p>What is it with these stubborn boys?? Maybe with the girls they just agreed so easily to visit other schools thinking it was a great way to visit new malls while there??? lol Since boys could care less about shopping and malls they are less easy to persuade? </p>
<p>Seriously, my son is impossible to budge. About anything he has set in his mind to. One track mind all the way.</p>
<p>Marian that makes sense … and mom2 - he has a 3.5 and I can count on 1 hand the number of times he has opened a book to study at home. He is smart. He has a 25 on the ACT because he never studied or tried to prepare. He started teaching himself 3 weeks ago and on Saturday he scored a 30 on the practice test. He has the ability. You also have to remember we live in MS, the education being offered to him is not top-notch - but I see what you are saying about the kids he will be up against.</p>
<p>I know med school is tough and I am saying he PLANS that route now … I think some sort of medical research or maybe engineering will be more his speed, but again he is stubborn and will not listen to me. He will figure it all out when he gets to college.</p>
<p>Junior year seems a little early to be locked into school, but it’s great that he’s a shoe-in at a school he likes. However the rest of the coming year pans out. I took my older son on one spring break college trip to humor me. “All I want is a good computer science department, all dorms look the same,” was his mantra. At the end of the trip he was still singing the same song. So I didn’t drag him along on any more trips and he applied to a bunch of schools sight unseen. He actually was willing to visit for the accepted student events when it was all real and he made a choice in April that had not been on our radar junior year. </p>
<p>Anyway, my approach would be to make one short road trip with him and/or visit a college or two while doing other stuff. “As long as we are in Chicago, lets look at the college, who knows maybe you’ll want it for grad school!” Make it clear you are asking him to humor you and that if Ole Miss remains his favorite you won’t stand in his way.</p>
<p>We pretty much lived the NW flavor of your story last year and a common one in our state. Magnetboy refused to apply to any privates or even to UW, a 20 minute bus ride away and one of the nationally ranked state flagships. I too was ready for the cross-country flights, scholarship searches and spreadsheets. We eventually accepted it for what it is: a pretty good match for him on the other side of the state (sight unseen), a school famous for party-til-your-dog-don’t-know-ya weekends.</p>
<p>He is a proud freshman out there among the rolling wheat and lentil fields of the Palouse, making friends, doing well in classes, and loving it. Accept the wisdom of his choice, and early congratulations on a (hopefully) pain-free college selection process.</p>
<p>Yeep. You’re getting all worked up about a junior who thinks he knows it all right now? Give him some space. Once he hears about his friend’s college trips or about the colleges they are considering his view will open up. I second Mathmom’s recommendation to visit some other schools while traveling just to get some idea of what’s out there.</p>
<p>hahaha thanks y’all! Seriously I am glad I posted this and got this all off my chest before he got home from school. Now I can just talk about his day and not his entire future when he gets home! :)</p>
<p>I have boy/girl twins who are now college freshmen. DD was enthusiastic about visits starting in ninth grade. She did much of the selection and planning of the trips, and even took notes at each school. DS started out rather disinterested and went downhill from there. By the end of his junior year, he refused any future visits (although he did attend the accepted students day at the school he now attends). He just was not interested in talking about college until his buddies were talking about it in the fall of his senior year.</p>
<p>By the way, both ended up at highly selective universities that each fit them very well. They had distinctly different processes, but both arrived at great conclusions.</p>
<p>Not sure what party school rankings you are looking at. Can’t be Playboy, because our state school, UW-Madison, is #2 this year. Don’t see Ole Miss on that list at all. </p>
<p>I see they were #3 on Princeton Review’s list in 2012, but for 2013 they dropped all the way down to #14, so it’s all good :P</p>
<p>Hey tlcmom, I thought I would maybe offer advice from a student perspective. You mentioned in another post that some schools were out of your price range, and maybe your son is so focused on this one school because he knows it won’t be terribly expensive and won’t leave him/you with a lot of debt. </p>
<p>Also, say you encourage him to apply to some more “upper tier” schools against his will, and once an acceptance letter from one of them comes, he falls in love with the school and desperately wants to attend…but the financial aid doesn’t come through. As I student, I might feel a bit bitter that I was encouraged to reach higher when I already had a school that met all my needs. If you look at more schools, I would make sure they will be “doable” financially, or make sure he knows he won’t be able to go unless a miracle happens. </p>
<p>I have gotten a lot of advice that college is what you make of it, not specifically where you go. This applies to drinking to… It is a choice and happens everywhere. I would say give your son time to think about things… You may think he has a one track mind, but I bet he is thinking about a lot during this period of change. Good luck to you and your son, I think he will be happy no matter where he ends up!</p>