<p>If one is a genius, no need to work hard. Otherwise, hard work is a must at college, more so in engineering, a hardest major of all. In addition, engineering firms mostly hire from local colleges, so Ivy or not is not that important, unless one has very specific reason to go to Ivy.</p>
<p>Princess, I’m sorry if you thought I was “bragging”, I was just looking for some good feedback since I’m new to CC. Maybe “decent” was a poor word choice (intended more as a figure of speech), but “amazing” would have been just as poor a word choice, imo, based on my son’s 3.7uw, 4.5w, 2220 SAT w/ a 660 in CR, stats. Please give me some more feedback, anytime!</p>
<p>mini, Thanks for your point about likelihood of graduating in 4 years. That becomes an interesting stat, particularly in Engineering, and one of the reasons my son took Purdue off his list.</p>
<p>jshain-you definitely were not bragging!<br>
Even if a kid has a 2400 SAT, it is still a legitimate concern. Many of us parents have very bright kids who procrastinate or have terrible study skills in high school and still get good grades. We worry about how well they will function in a much more rigorous academic setting.
My dd has had a couple of experiences as a freshman at a very rigorous school that have forced her to look hard at her study skills and lack thereof! The biggie for her was staying up most of the night, and then sleeping through her alarm the morning of the test! She didn’t want to set the alarm too loud because her roommate was on a later schedule. At home, I had served as her back-up alarm clock, so I contributed to this problem. She has had to figure out on her own about how to manage her study and sleep schedule.</p>
<p>Dear 50, Cannot tell you how many times my S slept through his alarm clock and/or I was ALSO his backup. Thanks for the reminder, when discussing your experience. Even bought my kid a louder alarm. All that did was serve to wake ME up, when his new alarm went off!</p>
<p>jshain, congratulations on your son’s accomplishments! He can’t be too much of a procrastinator if he is already working on his essays!
Since Michigan has rolling admissions, he should submit this application first, and if he is accepted within a short period of time, this will become his safety. It is an extremely fine engineering school.
In terms of studying, I would suggest that you ask someone else, not you, explain to him before he goes to college that he will need to put in an hour a day, outside of class time, for EACH class that he is taking. That means five hours of studying a day, outside of class time. If he sticks to that schedule from the beginning, he will keep up and his life will be much better. In most of the colleges that you have listed, he will be surrounded by other students who do the same, so that will help.
Many very bright students who can slide on procrastination in high school turn it around in college.
Good luck!</p>
<p>A word of advice for when your S gets to college: Many, many students at top notch universities do have some trouble transitioning to college. Part of the “problem” is expectations, both on the part of the students and their parents: Dear S or D has always been one of the top students in K-12, often with little or no need to develop serious study skills, and both the kid and the parents automatically assume the kid will automatically be one of the top students in college as well. The problem is that at top notch uni’s, the kid is now (by definition) ** average ** in terms of academic background and academic talent. And 90% of those “average” students at “top uni” are not going to graduate in the top ten percent of their college graduation class. So it’s important for both the parents and the student to define “good grades/academic progress” in a reasonable fashion—particularly during the freshman year and probably the sophomore year as well. If your S has never earned a B or C in a class before, it’s important that both you and he know that he will most likely earn some B’s and C’s in college and that these should NOT be regarded as “bad grades.” As long as he’s not really in academic trouble (earning D’s and failing courses), give your S the time it takes for him to adjust to his college and learn the study skills he needs to truly excel at college and/or accept you S’s normal, but not truly outstanding academic progress, in college as sufficient.</p>
<p>jshain: the answer for my dd was an alarm that shakes the bed. It also has features such as blinking lights and a very loud volume, but she keeps those turned off so she doesn’t wake her roommate. It’s called the sonic bomb!! She ordered it from Amazon.</p>
<p>Great advice levirm and robin sue-- thanks!</p>
<p>50/40, you’re funny!</p>
<p>You could get your son to build some sort of pump-action alarm system that raises one side of his bed and tips him over off the side.</p>
<p>Haven’t you seen Inception? Give him the ‘kick’, free-fall always wakes you up.</p>
<p>hadsed, That is brilliant. He wants to be a Mechanical Engineer anyway and that project could serve double-duty-- and then some… Haven’t seen Inception. Will wait for it to come out on DVD.</p>
<p>It’s often irritating to watch an able, talented kid rush through homework or assignments using on a teeny fraction of his brain power and little effort when you know that he could do so much better. It has been a burr in my craw for a long time. But then I don’t always do my 100% on routine stuff either. You just hope that there is enough juice in them kids that they can rev it up when the time comes to do so.</p>