Thanks. About 150 kids from our high school apply to OSU every year and because my son is on two sports teams (and has played with his teammates since he was five!) he knows about 20 of them very well, so we are very, very familiar with the OSU ‘rolling’ (sort of) admissions practices. And my oldest went to OSU, and while the limit for scores had increased quite a bit since he entered 10 years ago, the process had not changed. I guess not asking for too much from a college which has 49,000 students is reasonable! Every other Friday night, for about two months each winter, is filled with chatter among all parents here, as OSU is the prize most kids shoot for here.
My oldest, despite being in bschool at Columbia right now, is urging my son to go to OSU. His point is that OSU’s engineering program will kick his rear end just fine, but he will also have a ton of fun. More importantly to my youngest, OSU is the center of a gigantic multi-institutional research program (something about surface something or other and nano something - the basic science behind renewable fuels. I don’t understand a word he is saying). He read a book a year ago and kind of lit him on fire for what he wants to learn. So, there are only 20 schools in the country participating in this initiative. Almost all of his schools on his list have a part in that research consortium. A couple have a very active lab which do the same kind of things but are not part of that research consortium. Not great, but acceptable to him.
He sought out a chem engineering prof in a local university and has been doing scut work in his lab and he has been great at steering my son. The goal at the undergrad level is not to come out of college knowing that stuff, but to get a solid grounding in the basic sciences so he can get to the good part later. He loves that chem engineering will allow him to work right away after college if he wants to earn money first, or go on to more right away. A 17 year old has a hard time imagining 10 more years of schooling (like his parents did and we do not reminisce about grad school/post docs fondly!).
So, his college list choice has nothing to do with elitism (but he is human and would naturally like to have an elite college experience, too). It has to do with which schools are part of his research consortium, and elite schools are ranked for a reason- they have excellent professors who do cutting edge and important research. There are lots of fantastic minds in other colleges, too. But in chem engineering, size of program matters. You need BIG labs and such to do this kind of work. Few have it.
As luck would have it, my son’s babysitter stopped by last night during her summer break. She goes to OSU medical school. She turned down a full scholarship at Harvard to go to OSU as an undergrad. We learned last night that she turned down a full scholarship to Harvard medical school too! Ha! (She is this tiny, 4’ 10”, incredibly quiet little genius who has an amazing mind). She only mentioned that because she was chatting with my son about the impact of location on his decision and also how, for her, OSU’s size was a huge advantage because there was nothing she couldn’t find there. He gets that.
It was good for him to be reminded of the strategy he had started with in his college…the only bad thing about OSU (besides an iffy foortball recruiting year, he tells me), is its location being in Ohio. He is a dual Italian citizen (we all are), so he has spent a lot of time traveling in his short life. He wants out of Ohio for college. I get it.
He spent many hours in the locker room last year as his senior friends lamented their latest rejection. He is fully aware of the odds and very prepared. And not at all worried about OSU acceptance. His GPA is .6 pts. higher than its 2018 cut off and two of the kids he tutored in math last year are entering freshmen in engineering in August. If lightening strikes, and OSU somehow bombs out and all else failed, he’ll spend a year on his construction job and earn enough to pay for OSU room & board for a couple of years (which he actually seriously considered doing anyway because he loves his job, too).
I appreciate your reaching out!
I presented his journey on CC not for help, per se, (although when we started this I was a bit freaked out until he eventually shared his strategy and intended process with me). It is for those parents/students out there who are a bit odd like my son. Not every kid cares about the food, the dorms, the otter students, or junior year abroad (and that is because they are 17). And the 1/3 safeties, 1/3 match , etc. rule is not always a good rule.
People have a tendency to over react to potential downsides and take unnecessary steps to avoid that downside, where the resources taken to avoid that downside are better applied to seeking the upside. With his 10 app limit (his HS rule), makes zero sense to apply to more than one safety and less sense to apply to any ‘matches’ at all. There are none he would attend, and we have no financial barriers to any of his acceptable options.
I know we are not the rule, but the exception. But given the huge number of messages I have gotten regarding otter kids thinking just like my son, we are not the sole exception. People on CC tend to react to the rule, not the exceptions, despite posters articulating the circumstances. Not sure if many have reading comprehension issues (that would be ironic!), or more likely they have some unknown agenda and beat their drum regardless.
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