<p>Whew, had to get cookies out of the oven!</p>
<p>Anyway, you walk and listen to him mull over his options. If he chooses Clemson, then you can put some conditions on it – they probably have an alchol free dorm that is a choice. Or a dorm with significant quiet hours. You could say he needs to choose that sort of dorm for the first semester AND promise to attend every class (an important first step to surviving the first semester). </p>
<p>You can also spend some of this spring/summer helping him identify his styles of learning and avoiding. I am enjoying the book “That Crumpled Paper was Due last week” by a professional counselor who helps teen males organize their lives. She has different techniques for different types of guys. Go for whatever personality/job strengths sorts of testing that is available in your community and encourage S2 to pick his fall classes according to his strengths. </p>
<p>Our S2 stumbled in a fall classics class that had tons of reading. He’s much happier this term with a computer programming class. Choosing a course load that works helps a lot with keeping things out of the ditch. </p>
<p>My heart goes out to your S1. He’s got to feel battered and disgusted with himself. It can’t be easy for him to watch S2 starting out with a clean slate. I hope you’ll encourage S1 to see this as Guy 1.0 which will be followed by Man 2.0 after a period of debugging and beta testing. Good luck!</p>