Katsmeow
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2009
- Messages
- 5,308
Oh my. I think I admire any kid or parent who will go through that.
I have 2 kids starting college within the next year. They are, um, different.
The first to start college will be starting community college in January. He'll be living at home since he is 15. Obviously, he is a bright kid and one might think that he would be academically inclined and competitive and want to go to just that wonderful a school that was super hard to get into. One would be wrong. I suspect he will go to community college a few years (i.e. until he is 18...being smart does not alas make him mature enough to go away to college earlier) then likely transfer to a state university. This eternally B student says he will now start making A's. (I believe him...he puts huge effort into doing just enough work to make a B with an occasional A-).
My other is a more conventionally aged senior but again does not a conventional situation. He was adopted internationally and came to the US as an uneducated non-English speaking kid. It is a tribute to the fact that he is very bright that he is in fact graduating this year. He also has a hard head and doesn't learn from anything other than personal experience. That means that when he was a freshman in high school he totally refused to believe me when I told him that if he did no homework and didn't turn in assignments he was going to fail. He thought I was wrong. The first day of summer school in English the kind teacher went around and gently ask all those in the class what they struggled with in English. For some it was reading, others writing and so on. My son's answer? "Nothing." Not unreasonably she asked him why he was there. He told he didn't struggle with anything...he just didn't do his work. That year he failed 3 (!) courses.
He learned from experience and has actually done very well since then. Of course, this didn't help him overall average although amazingly he is somehow in the top quarter....
He is not academically inclined either but does realize he needs to go to college. He wants to start at community college (actually a residential junior college) and then transfer to a state university. Originally we were going to send him to a fairly easy to get into state university but the junior college is 1/3 the cost and everything fully transfers.
Seriously, I just can't get myself to believe that competitive undergraduate schools are worth it. I don't quarrel with those who feel otherwise but I went to an undistinguished state university for undergraduate and then a very good professional school and that is how I've steered my kids. They don't have any interest in the competitive schools (i.e. doing what you have to do to get into them) which is good in their case.
I have 2 kids starting college within the next year. They are, um, different.
The first to start college will be starting community college in January. He'll be living at home since he is 15. Obviously, he is a bright kid and one might think that he would be academically inclined and competitive and want to go to just that wonderful a school that was super hard to get into. One would be wrong. I suspect he will go to community college a few years (i.e. until he is 18...being smart does not alas make him mature enough to go away to college earlier) then likely transfer to a state university. This eternally B student says he will now start making A's. (I believe him...he puts huge effort into doing just enough work to make a B with an occasional A-).
My other is a more conventionally aged senior but again does not a conventional situation. He was adopted internationally and came to the US as an uneducated non-English speaking kid. It is a tribute to the fact that he is very bright that he is in fact graduating this year. He also has a hard head and doesn't learn from anything other than personal experience. That means that when he was a freshman in high school he totally refused to believe me when I told him that if he did no homework and didn't turn in assignments he was going to fail. He thought I was wrong. The first day of summer school in English the kind teacher went around and gently ask all those in the class what they struggled with in English. For some it was reading, others writing and so on. My son's answer? "Nothing." Not unreasonably she asked him why he was there. He told he didn't struggle with anything...he just didn't do his work. That year he failed 3 (!) courses.
He learned from experience and has actually done very well since then. Of course, this didn't help him overall average although amazingly he is somehow in the top quarter....
He is not academically inclined either but does realize he needs to go to college. He wants to start at community college (actually a residential junior college) and then transfer to a state university. Originally we were going to send him to a fairly easy to get into state university but the junior college is 1/3 the cost and everything fully transfers.
Seriously, I just can't get myself to believe that competitive undergraduate schools are worth it. I don't quarrel with those who feel otherwise but I went to an undistinguished state university for undergraduate and then a very good professional school and that is how I've steered my kids. They don't have any interest in the competitive schools (i.e. doing what you have to do to get into them) which is good in their case.