musing...Yale

[RobD]

D2 got that Yale catalog mailing this week too. She has no interest so it went right into recycling but it caught my eye when I got home. Oh marketing

momknowsbest: our dad's were probably about the same age. Want to know where my dad "learned to smoke?" In the navy, when he enlisted at the age of 17 after Pearl Harbor. A pack of smokes & a Hershey bar were part of the regular care package they received. Being the youngest on the ship, he quickly picked up smoking to be one of the guys. Cigarettes weren't considered harmful back in 1942, but by the time he passed from emphysema in 1990 they sure were.

I miss my dad everyday but I'm not mad at the U.S. military for helping him pick up a bad habit. He was 17 and we all know that 17 year old boys aren't always good at making decisions based on long term consequences. Culturally smoking was much more acceptable then than now.

Dad got a semester in at Dartmouth & a semester in at Bates on the GI Bill before he had to return to work to support his mom. He was one of the smartest people I ever knew & I am so sorry that my girls never met him. I say that in honor of Father's Day we should all raise a toast or say a prayer or give a hug (if possible) to our dads.

[ucbalumnus]

Originally Posted by momknowsbest3

I've even made him consider a few that are not Christian but are somewhat conservative like TCU or Louisiana Tech.

Hmmm, Texas Christian University actually is affiliated with a Christian denomination, although a small one (Disciples of Christ). Presumably, he wants a religious school of a specific denomination?

[momknowsbest3]

No, and he knows tCU isn't really Christian exactly, but they aren't hostile to it. What is funny is that for around this area he is actually an adventurous one. He is homeschooled, but our local public school graduates around 188. 100 kids or so go to our local cc, 50 go nowhere and only 38 kids or so go to a local university..mostly to those that are an hour or less away like UT Tyler or Stephen F Austin. A very few like 1 or 2 each go to aTm, Baylor, TCU and very rarely UT.

[Hanna]

"He says he wants a Christian school that has good sports programs. ( He is a sports fanatic. He knows the stats for every conceivable sport. ) He wants a medium size school. Those are his requirements."

Sounds like Baylor is perfect -- maybe the one and only.

[Hunt]

I think there is a misconception that students at Yale (and other Ivies) experience a lot of pressure. I don't think that's true for most kids--except for the pressure that they exert on themselves. Most of them are super-active people. Yale (at least for the majors I know about) isn't really a cut-throat, competitive environment. People work hard because they are hard workers.

It's not for everybody, certainly, but I think that if a student is accepted, he or she can almost certainly handle it.

[sbjdorlo]

OP,

I'm sorry for the loss of your father. It sounds like you have some great memories of him. I'm so glad my dad's still around. He was an engineering physicist and has such wonderful stories to tell. He's an agnostic Jew, though, so different backgrounds. :-)

I'm also a Christian homeschooler and up until my son's junior year, I thought he would be going to a Christian school such as Grove City, Wheaton, or Taylor. But, he had so much college math and physics in high school, it was impossible for him to go. Even a math professor at one of the schools said he needed to go to a secular school. It wasn't in our plans but was in God's plans.

My son was accepted to two Ivies but ultimately chose a different school, MIT. The really good thing is that there are strong Christian communities on many campuses and the key seems to be to get plugged into them early in addition to a local church. I will be praying as often as I remember that my son would own his faith and grow in his faith in Christ while at a secular school.

It sounds like your son has a good strong mind of his own and want a Christian college. I assume he's looking at Baylor (not necessarily Christian, per se, but conservative) and LeTourneau? I don't know other good Christian colleges in Texas but I wish your son the best. :-)

[jc40]

Sounds like Baylor is perfect -- maybe the one and only.

That's exactly what I was thinking.

[ucbalumnus]

Originally Posted by sbjdorlo

Baylor (not necessarily Christian, per se, but conservative)

Baylor is affiliated with a Christian denomination -- Southern Baptist specifically.

Southern Baptist Convention - Colleges and Universities

(Is there a definition of "Christian" being used here that is not the obvious one? Not sure how TCU and Baylor could be considered "not Christian".)

[sbjdorlo]

ucbalumnus,

Yes, in my case. I look at a college's mission statement, history, and core values, and see if they align with the central core doctrines of historic Christianity (and I am speaking of Christianity through the Reformation and then speaking about Protestant colleges, though conservative Catholic colleges such as Belmont Abbey have mission statements that may reflect a supreme focus on Christ, the centrality of the Gospel, and the supremacy of scripture)

Here are several to compare:

Belmont Abbey College, Charlotte NC - Vision Statement - Liberal Arts:Catholic Benedictine heritage

GCC: About GCC

Mission - Taylor University

http://www.grace.edu/files/uploads/w...s/covenant.pdf

Baylor University || About Baylor || Read Our Mission Statement

Texas Christian University

http://www.letu.edu/opencms/opencms/...nd-vision.html

[ucbalumnus]

Perhaps you could say that you are looking for a "Christian school with a religious mission, curriculum, and/or environment"? (Of course, a devout student looking for such may want to pay attention to denominational affiliation if the school is not non-denominational.)

[mamita]

Momknowsbest3--

Also, so sorry about the loss of your dad. My dad has been gone 23 years, never met my kids... It is such a loss. Getting the Yale catalog juxtaposed with a recent loss (and even last few years would be recent) would get one to musing about the past...Oh, and it's Father's Day! It seems your son has strong ideas about what he wants from college-- good for him for having a direction and focus, so no comments there about pros and cons of different approaches to the college search process.

Just wanted to alert you to some books about family members having grown up with a parent with mental illness, especially during an era when it was either not recognized or acknowledged, in case these might be of interest to you or others here : The Years of Silence Are Past: My Father's Life with Bipolar Disorder. Also, Breaking the Silence: Mental Health Professionals Disclose Their Personal and Family Experiences of Mental Illness, both by Stephen P. Hinshaw.

(Sorry not to be able to have underlined the titles...)

Wishing you well.

[vicariousparent]

Originally Posted by OP

Way too much pressure and way too liberal.

I will not argue with 'liberal', but I don't agree about the 'pressure'. True, many of the students are high functioning and highly driven, but that is an intrinsic to the students, and I doubt that internal 'pressure' could be avoided by simply choosing a different college. If anything, Yale tries hard to create a supportive, lower pressure environment for these highly driven students.

My dad was SO smart. Perfect scores in science a math, but he wrote wonderful poetry and painted as well.

Does sound like a good fit for Yale.

He kept up with the Yale goings on and got the magazine and reunion infor and stuff.

Sounds like he had some nice memories of his time there.

I have no idea what the point of this is.. Just musing..

Perhaps there is a reason you are musing.... perhaps you want to know what your father would really want for your son...

[Hunt]

When people refer to a "Christian" college, they usually mean a school at which more-or-less evangelical Protestant Christian doctrines are incorporated into the curriculum and campus life. It doesn't usually mean Catholic colleges, or colleges that are affiliated with Christian denominations but are largely secular in terms of curriculum and campus life. Note that this shouldn't be taken to suggest that Catholics aren't Christians, or that other schools are anti-Christian, or anything of the sort. It's simply a general term that people use to apply to a certain type of college, on a spectrum that runs from, say, Bob Jones University to Wheaton College in Illinois.

[jonri]

Note that this shouldn't be taken to suggest that Catholics aren't Christians, or that other schools are anti-Christian, or anything of the sort. It's simply a general term that people use to apply to a certain type of college, on a spectrum that runs from, say, Bob Jones University to Wheaton College in Illinois.

It's not a term that "people" use--it's a term that some very narrow minded Evangelical Protestants use. I have not so fond memories of being told in college that I was not a "Christian" because I didn't believe in the Trinity because I thought that Mary, the mother of Christ, was divine. It took a few minutes for me to realize that this was not intended as a joke.

The usage of Christian to mean only Evangelical Protestants is despicable to those of us who are Christians but not Evangelical Protestants.

As a Catholic who attended an Ivy--not Yale, BTW-I found the OP's message absolutely sickening. I'm sure her dad would be very, very disappointed by having such a daughter.

I'm sure of one thing: Christ was not a conservative.

BTW, I know several born again Christians who attended Yale. Some are very good friends of myself and/or my offspring. They did learn, however, that using the term "Christian" to refer to a very small segment of those who believe in the Trinity and the divinity of Our Lord was thoughtless.

I suspect I'll get flak from my message. I have no problem if the moderators delete it...as long as the OP's message is also deleted. I believe it is a violation of the TOS.

[Hunt]

jonri, I was a born again Christian who attended Yale myself. However, I am capable of understanding that referring to a segment of colleges as Christian colleges is not the same thing as thinking that Catholics aren't Christians. Perhaps it would be better if there were a different term in use--"Evangelical Christian Colleges," maybe--but there isn't. It's too bad that it cause so much misunderstanding.