<p>Sorry I just kind of guessed from your description. So this unnamed college seems like a good fit, well like I said it is a quandry because you don’t want him to not go because of worry or for him to worry if he does. I’m so jealous really as I really wanted to go to school and did not have a parent anywhere near as supportive as you and it made it so difficult all the way along. He’s a lucky boy.</p>
<p>I hear they’re pretty flexible, what about reconnecting with the financial department and explaining your situation and maybe if they get some not enrolling they might see their way through to more aid? It’s worth a try, I think I saw somewhere here where someone did that and it worked (not this unnamed school but another unnamed school). And I do know that this unnamed school has some really strong programs in the liberal arts piece also, particularly writing. Unlike many of those other schools where it’s all just weak fluff.</p>
<p>BandD…I am back! congrats to your S on some good choices! </p>
<p>Why not make him try number 1? really? Look…ask him…what’s to lose if he goes to school one? He gets a taste of something different, independence, free mac, improve his portfolio… But, if he goes to the “school that shall be unnamed”…he gets debt and a very, very high chance of not lasting more than a year. I only made my son do one thing after he was accepted at that same school that your son is thinking about…the “school that was unnamed” accepted him before CMU but about the same as VCU…Son really prefered, like your son, that expensive choice. I told him that he could accept the scholarship up to a year later so he could transfer after a year at VCU…but the high, high drop out rate at that school was very discouraging and my only two experiences with it (friends with kids that went there)…both dropped out and they are still paying those loans! I told him that that school was a “no” because of the cost and low probability of finishing. Luckily, CMU came through (high cost but likely to finish within 4 years) so we didn’t have to debate this but initially he did agree with us that a state school with a good retention rate was better than a riskier expensive place, at least for the first year. I figured if he was that committed to the art track after a year at VCU he would be likely to succeed at the art school with the high drop out rate. </p>
<p>You have done a lot for your kid and I am sure while he knows it he can’t full grasp the depth of what you have done and would do for him.</p>
<p>…i am a big believer in sacrifice…my parents were down to pennies when I went to Duke and I am eternally grateful but when it became too expensive I had to come home…luckily the semester at the state school made me want to go back to finish but the experience also made me appreciate both my dream school’s benefits but particularly the costs. It took years to pay off those loans and, while I don’t regret it, it definitely shaped my graduate school choices (turned down Berkeley because their stipend didn’t cover all my costs). The semester off at the alternative allowed me to save some money, become determined to do well at Duke when I returned, and to appreciate what my parents were sacrificing for me. Ask your son to try choice 1…if he hates it but does well it will make the transfer easier financially and potentially give him a shot at someplace entirely different. You will help him follow his dream but he should not turn his back on the opportunity to do it in a way that is less painful financially and may stregthen his chances for success. See what he thinks if you put it this way…</p>
<p>bears:
One thing want you know just in case. When my D attend SAIC pre-college program. There was a boy who was a senior just get out of high school. He was planning to attend community college. D said he was very social, and worked very hard. there is a teacher helped him by talking to someone in the admission and they give him presidential scholarship.
Is that make sense to have your S get in one of their summer program?
Sorry, I am crazy but this is true, so I want you know.</p>
<p>love
you are not crazy at all
I can see that happening. their pre-college is exceptionally generous.
last week, while he was meeting profs I stopped by at CE office to see who the kind man being so nice/generous to us since, let’s see… three summers ago?
he remembered my kid. they also talked at Pratt NPD while my kid had no clue why this guy knew who he was ( my kid wouldn’t have had clue, since I handled tedious paperwork as usual)
I was imagining Santa Claus-y jolly old man and guess what! He is like, MGMT cute and young!!! was I glad I look for him LOL. </p>
<p>now I look back I must admit that I was extra mean to old trin because she acted as if her D is the one and only SAIC-love thus deserve near full ride or something.
thing is, the guy said sometime back how much his mom sacrificed to give him the best education, now he is determined to help those in need.
SAIC is funny that way, so super expensive but would shell out generous institutional grants.
I am not counting for extended merit, for I have seen Valtergeorge and Barney’s works. I am sure your said kid’s works are as good as theirs.
it is only fair.
I feel somewhat in peace now. whatever happens, happens.
(maybe because I just finished big pile of works. now, seriously crunch numbers shall I?)</p>
<p>Bears
This sounds like you are on the right track. I have nothing but good things myself to say about SAIC administration. The few dealings with them I have found they were receptive, approachable and concerned about their students which is remarkable considering how big the school is. It does sound like the school might be good fit for your son as I get the impression that he is drawn towards the more conceptually oriented schools. Let us know how it’s going, your CC “fans” are in your corner that’s for sure!</p>
<p>I have been lurking, feeling too sensitive to comment. but as I wake these are my thoughts and feelings. </p>
<p>Place is very important. Place is part of our destiny. If we feel drawn to a place there is a reason…there are things that are going to happen there, important people that we are going to meet. Something in us knows where we are trying to go and what we are trying to learn in life. Attraction to place is a clue to us for that. </p>
<p>Somehow things work out…and putting ourselves on the line is ok sometimes. Some of us have an outward struggle with money but most of us have an inward sense of survival and because of that strange things happen when we least expect it around money.</p>
<p>As in peachy job finally dropping into my lab last April right as we were making the decision about where/how we were going to send D1 to school.<br>
Unfortunately (or par for the course) the peachy job is set to evaporate on June 30 – but since D1 is home now anyway… oh wells.
Sometimes it seems that there’s always a little black raincloud hovering over only your head… but then it turns out that it really had a silver lining. But I’m still trying to figure that one out.
Can’t say much more about what’s going on with D1 because I’m not really sure. We are probably close to the ‘face the reality of your situation’ talk. I think she’s still hopeful about returning to MICA in the Fall, but it doesn’t seem that she’s demonstrated that she can do this successfully. Unfortunately wanting something does not necessarily equal being able to do whatever it is that you wanted. Ain’t that life?</p>
<p>Greenwitch, thank you for the kind words and support – thanks, really, to all of you for continuing to be supportive. We’ll keep soldiering on, lol.</p>
<p>mamabear lurks!!!
I forgot to add one more option
6. live in the commune with no pay, work dawn to dusk and learn what really mean to do service to the community.</p>
<p>PS
falling love with place is well, hard if one is lived in NYC all these years.
SAIC give away free ticket to the museum and after we did Sunday, say 6PM, nothing to eat in the Loop but fast food or 7-11. too beat to go across them rivers, we found Panda Express just about to close the store. all them tourists are lining up to get fake chinese food in styrofoam tray. like, breadline in the depression or something. It was a sight.
I always thought Chinese takeout joints are like powerrangers.
One or two girls taking order with couple of men in the back swinging arms fighting fire and wok.
even it was fake Chinese, it was powerranger-ed. man, the efficiency. we had actually hottest, freshest takeout in years.
yeah but going around State, Wabash, Michigan he did reconsider if “Chicago” is the thing for him…</p>
<p>Gmom
NO! I am the Eeyoe first, you can’t!! lol
I always thought you are the tigger. less bouncy these days, eh?
you need Roo’s strengthen medicine.</p>
<p>Talking about place, State, Wabash, and Michigan, gotta be right up there of my favorite places in the world. Spent many a Saturday down there as a kid in the old library (where Cultural Center is now), spending 79 cents for lunch in Woolworth basement cafeteria. Wanted my D to like SAIC sooo bad, mainly because I love the city. Your S should be used to busy city being from NY. Can’t believe he would be intimidated, I found NY way busier!!</p>
<p>that’s the other point!
where have woolworth gone? I remember first time at Chicago, I and my roommate went there she got some cross-stitch kits, I got yarns, ate tuna salad platter and burger in the luncheonette.
second time, there was FAO, I bought tiny Lego set to keep my kid then some four year old quiet for coming art institute visit. It was the aquanaut set with pincer arms. he built it near the fountain on the grass.
he remembered that day, colors. canary yellow pincer arms, green green grass. That was the Chicago he knew.
we went around the fountain and it is now paved. FAO is long gone. woolworth no more.
I could not believe how far the aquarium to field museum are. I’d skipped back then (was young)
he could not excite about all them American apparels, H&M, whatnot. was looking for some distant memory.(and 1buck samosa or $ 2.50 falafel)
times a-changing. I know it’s fine. just stock up food in the dorm or eat fastfood on Sundays.
(plus note: there were gated hedges near the fountain, in the hedges are family of bunnies. brown/grey short ears like Peter rabbit kind. he found them and I thought he was kidding. bunnies in the city? there were!! eating what they could find in the rows of tulips. we had Traderjoe’s granola bars: cranberry and stuff. broke bits and threw them in, or shouldn’t have? supposedly organic and no preservatives)</p>
<p>Okay, Bears dear, you can have the Eeyore crown. However I am the very antithesis of Tigger, lol – or Roo, for that matter. I probably come closer to Rabbit…</p>
<p>We still have a bunch of old Winne the Pooh VHS tapes. How I loved WP and the Blustery Day – especially after we moved to NY from California. And Rabbit inspired me to try Rutabagas for the first time. The ‘Dawn Chorus’ has resumed, and when I’m awakened by all the noise in the morning, my first thought is of Winne the Pooh. Of course, I only get awakened by the dawn chorus on weekend mornings when there’s not trip to the barn scheduled and I get to ‘sleep in’.</p>
<p>you, rabbit? would mess up my lineup
like, redbug for the narrator, smarty for owl, love or G for kanga, drae for Christopher Robin, poo for switters (I really don’t know why, sorry switts) rabbit was fammom for no particular reason.
do I forget any old timers? casting is open!! who want to be piglet?</p>
<p>I think maybe I am piglet but I’ll take Christopher Robin.</p>
<p>Ahh Woolworth’s. In our local (outdoor) mall there were two! One had a lunch counter with a window to the outside. This mall was built in the 50’s with all the stores facing interior walkways. I worked in the one without the lunch counter during my senior year in high school. I was fired for insubordination. A red bearded ([Photos</a> from Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town](<a href=“http://www.imdb.com/media/rm2446558208/tt0066327]Photos”>Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town (1970))), over-eager young manager asked me to clean the aisles one night after our shifts had officially ended. I refused and got the call the next day. </p>
<p>Built on top of some of the stores was a hospital. I was born there. Every once in a while it hits me that I was born in a mall…how very American.</p>
<p>I hear this talk of how Chicago has changed and can’t help thinking the same about NYC. To me a lot of the soul has gone out of it. It feels so homogenous and to cleaned up. My younger son is starting to say he wants to go to NYU, where I went. For one, I’m pretty sure we can’t afford it but I also don’t see the allure. The village feels like a mall to me now. </p>
<p>Does anyone know anything about Brooklyn College? Does it have a real campus? Could it be a contender?</p>
<p>it has campus, brick buildings and flowering trees, only at the end of Flatbush. which you might find allure but suburban teen would find it otherwise.
then again, gentrification never stops! by the time he is on it, would be called say, Flatbrooming: FLB for short, or some other new name.</p>