My son that scored perfect on his math SAT's and combined math & reading was 1530 & is the only kid in his class to be accepted into UCONN honors program says, "maybe I shouldn't go to college". Should I encourage him to go to school?
You should probably encourage him to think about what he's going to do with the rest of his life and consider whatever training that might be required for it.
Depending on what he wants to do, sometimes you should go to college for that.
If you wanted some sort of Ideological purity, you'll get none of that from me.
Only if he has a specific program in mind that leads to a body of skills and knowledge that would be hard to acquire elsewhere. For example, if he wants to study engineering. Otherwise no.
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The kid gets str8 A's in everything He has 106 in AP physics. He can definitely go to UCONN for free and is in the honors program. All the Ivy league's won't send out their acceptance letters until the end of the month. Reason he say maybe shouldn't go is because he has heard we can't afford huge tuition.Originally Posted by Acala
He is going to be on scholarship ? Yes.Borrowing money ? NO.
Depends WPI accepted 30k scholarship cost of tuition, room, board, .... 60k. UCONN supposedly free. Harvard, Yale and other Ivy Leagues don't make decisions until end of month.
He should be able to get great scholarships. Since it won't cost him much, I say he should go. If nothing else, he can create a larger network that will be valuable to him someday.
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I would shop for a better offer.
I miswrote, WPI offered 30k.
MIT was his first choice. He was NOT accepted. I guess acceptance is all about your essay and what you say enthuses you. 18,000 applicants 1100 Freshman.
With those kind of scores and extracurriculars, he should be able to get a free ride wherever he is accepted. If he eventually wants to go for a Master's or PhD, he will get into MIT grad school if his undergrad is as strong as high school. Just let him know it is not uncommon for students to go to grad school at a different school as undergrad, and when he goes out into the real world, they are really only interested in what school you got the PhD from.
If he puts it off for more than 4 or 5 years, those scholarship opportunities get harder to come by. Standardized test scores eventually lose weight in the admissions process, a lot of schools will make prospective students take an admissions test if so many years have passed, and he will have to brush up on some of that math and physics if he didn't use it in the real world.
Take a good long look at this link. There is an accompanying paperback that goes into a lot more detail.
http://www.ctcl.org/
There was one in Western Mass that let you attend any class in 3 adjacent uni's and design your own degree.
There was one in VT that is small and very unusual. They requires a year or a semester overseas.
Not in that book, and I'm not finding it now, but there is a place called Boston State college (I think) that will let you study wherever you want and will glue all your studies together for a small fee. Though I think you have to take 2-3 of their classes. Distance learning. Might be a very short on campus requirement, but say you wanted to study a field under the primary researchers in the country - maybe nanotechnology, or robotics or AI or whatever, you could college hop and this place would be very happy to glue a diploma together for you.
On Scholarships. Time is running out. Some are gone. The ones listed on the Internet are over applied to and flooded. Go to a college and look up a reference vol that is the size of a 2 volume telephone directory of a major metropolitan area. (It is 2 volumes) All sorts of weird categories. A lot of very specific categories like being related to someone that worked in this field, Ancestors from country X, interested in X, stuff like that. Alot of these are never awarded because no one knows about them so do not apply. Others are ignored because they ask for a lot.
There are free uni's in WV and AZ. You have to go down and live there a year before you qualify to go to one. Tbey both have a rep as being party schools and won't be looked at well by Ivy leagues for grad work.
There is one in PA mentioned in the top site/book that is very good at STEM. And very different. Like breaking into 5- people teams and intense time with the prof in very small groups.
There is a private school in I think NC that is free, but the admissions process is very competitive.
hope some of that helped,
-t
Last edited by tangent4ronpaul; 03-18-2015 at 11:00 PM.
MIT basically runs a flunk-out operation during freshman and sophomore years anyhow. The majority percentage of physics/math PhD candidates are foreign born there and are products of the H1-B. Likely best that he wasn't accepted to be honest but sad considering that we actually do need bright young Americans to be able to benefit from such platforms if they are proven competent and capable. I'd do UCONN but it is ultimately his choice. If he takes a year off he'll likely not want to go at all. Of course, college isn't for everyone.
There is a free one - I want to say San Antonio... (sp)
-t
-t
Did he only apply to NE schools? There are some good schools out west like CalTech, one of the UC schools (UCLA, UCSD, UCBerkley, UCSF, UCSB), CalPoly and Stanford. Probably too late to apply, not sure.
As for whether it's worth it, depends on what he plans on majoring in and what his aspirations are after college. Some degrees are worth it (especially at a top notch school).
Absolutely, he should go for a MS in a HSEC program! It is a thriving, challenging new field with tons of potential for future expansion and new technology innovations being made daily, literally, plus he will get to work every day with people exactly like Janet Napolitano, so that alone is a gigantic bonus!
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it's the one close to the Mexican border.
-t
He could just go to MIT anyway. Show up, sit in the classes, learn the stuff. Or be like Rudy. OK, maybe not good advice, but he could. If that's what he wanted, why should he give up so easily?
If you want to be a world-class engineer, and to be around other world-class engineers (the networking thing CaptUSA mentioned; you are who you spend time with), you go to MIT. Or a half-dozen other schools. You do not go to UCONN. Period. Just saying.
OK, massive brain fart. The other free state school is in NM, not AZ.
-t
I spent my first two years at a world class engineering school ...surrounded by fellow world class engineering hopefuls who spent most of their time stumbling back from frat parties puking and learning about various LSD analogues.
Just saying.
I recommend ANYONE intending to pursue higher education diploma attend a cheap accredited college for their first two years and stay in touch with the school they actually want to attend... unless full scholarship is offered.
Freshman and Sophmore year in college are just highschool 2.0 with all you can eat 24/7 drugs and booze buffet away from mom and dad. Hardly anything of substance is taught until you're a Junior at any school.
Last edited by presence; 03-19-2015 at 06:52 PM.
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...the familiar ritual of institutional self-absolution...
...for protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment...
Completely agree!
Community college is much better than uni for those two years. Class size, office hours, responsive profs.
-t
Schooling wasn't for me but if your son is such an over-achiever, I'd probably encourage him to go to college and get a really good job.
Your loss!
Seriously, I'm not saying what this man, whom I don't know at all, should or should not do. I'm just giving a perspective. It totally makes sense that he was excited to go to MIT... and is decidedly not excited to go to UCONN. That's not totally irrational. It's rational. It makes sense.
Bottom line is that he's going to do what he wants, and you as a father should just kind of let it happen, be somewhat supportive, and offer advice if and only if you think you have something valuable to say. Your son is smart. Let him be smart.
Learning is forever- most schooling is the educated's prison system.
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