<p>Thanks again for all the great feedback. I’ll admit that, with all the anguish we feel about the son #1 experience (and wondering what we could and should have done differently), we are worried about how we could handle the emotional trauma of a replay with son #2. Perhaps that has to be the overriding consideration, I don’t know. Son #1 showed us, in our case at least, that making the wrong choice doesn’t always just result in a transfer to another school. The consequences can be much more dire (and I realize it is not just the “wrong school choice” factor in play, but also likely some other issues for our son). </p>
<p>Son #2 has been accepted to Samford, SMU and Clemson, and he has officially or unofficially visited all 3. He is still waiting to hear on some schools of potential interest (e.g., Furman - decent chance; Pepperdine - decent chance; Vanderbilt - almost no chance). He definitely will do overnight visits at his 2 or 3 finalists.</p>
<p>Does anyone have any insight into SMU? If he had to choose today, I think he would choose SMU. On paper there is a lot to like. It is what he probably feels is the ideal size (6,500 undergrads, 10,800 overall), not so small as to know everyone but not so large as to be just a number. (I also love that size – it is what you see with many of the top schools, like most of the Ivy League schools, Vandy, Duke, etc.) It is top 50ish in the rankings (for what that’s worth). It has a liberal arts emphasis (for a “university”), which is where he excels (750 on CR on SAT). The campus is beautiful. They have more internships from the city of Dallas than they are able to fill with students. It has Division 1 football/sports, but not over the top. It has “vibrant” greek life (which he wants, and which is a concern), but they do defer rush until second semester (so we could make it contingent on first semester success) and hopefully it is not over the top like at some of the larger state schools. Is SMU the “happy medium/median”?</p>