<p>WashDadJr shot for the stars with some college apps, and ended up at a college he really likes. Some of his applications were incredible long shots, and he wasn’t accepted to his three far reaches – but at least he went for it. </p>
<p>TallSon, on the other hand, recently announced his intention to go to Central Washington University. I talk a good game about “be happy with your school” but for this boy, Central is not just aiming a little low, he’s likely to shoot his foot off. (Central is very easy to get into.) Since he’s only a sophomore, I know I am worried too early, and being a pro around CC, I know that anything can still happen.</p>
<p>What concerns me are his reasons for wanting to go to Central. Mostly, it’s because his music teacher (a great teacher – my son is somewhat in awe of him), was talking about how good the jazz combo is at Central, and how they offer scholarships for French horn players. Now, all he can talk about it going to Central on scholarship. OK, he’s 16 and he changes monthly (recently retiring all his rock band t-shirts because “only posers wear them now”), but I don’t want him taking a safe and easy route in college just because his favorite teacher thinks it’s a good thing.</p>
<p>TallSon is a puzzle. He’s already announced that he won’t apply to a “prestigious” college because he thinks only “posers” and phonies would want to do that. He has an iPod, but it took him weeks to accept the idea, because Apple advertising is “smug and pretentious.” When he sees a Prius on the road he yells, “your car is not economically viable.” He’s painfully aware of what’s cool, because he wants nothing to do with whatever others think is right. He’s an iconoclast. He is truly independent. Frankly, he’s something of a pain in the derri</p>
<p>Aiming at foothills is a time-tested way for high school students to eliminate some of the pressure on themselves.</p>
<p>My son announced early on that he only aspired to our flagship state university. This meant that he needed to only maintain the kind of grades and earn the kind of test scores needed for admission to that school, which he did with minimal effort. He could have aspired higher and worked harder, but he does not regret his choices, even now as a college senior.</p>
<p>Maybe some kids are just hardwired to act this way.</p>
<p>WashDad - To you go my sympathies in dealing with teen recalcitrance and my admiration for your willingness to do same. (Most of the kids in my wife’s home town get no guidance at all save a boot out of the house when they reach eighteen.)</p>
<p>I don’t know your son at all. But I do know that college is a place to explore and grow — and I sense that CWU is a poor choice for that (regards your son). So I’d suggest part of dealing with this is the standard approach whenever Dear Offspring insist on purchasing inapproprite goods. “I’m willing to pay for any good quality XXX, but that’s not good quality so if you want it you’ll have to pay for it yourself.” Best of luck with this.</p>
<p>WashDad, has TallSon visited Central? My musically inclined D decided that it was too much in the middle of nowhere! Take him out there when it is really nasty and miserable and preferrably in the middle of some student break so the place looks like a ghost town. That should do.</p>
<p>I have a suspicion that TallSon might change his tune soon… Just make sure he does not take an easy route in the rest of his high school years.</p>
<p>Added: Central does seem to have a very nice music program, and all D’s music teachers praised it.</p>
<p>Talk to the music teacher your son worships (hopefully he’s not a Central alum) and tell him your concerns; maybe he can sway son’s mind. One of my kids ALWAYS quotes her favorite teachers even if its something I’ve been saying for years “Miss Jones says that it’s better to get an A in an honors course than an A in a regular course.”</p>
<p>What’s wrong with a Prius? I want one, they are SO CUTE and (I thought) politically correct.</p>
<p>I feel your pain. Our son is a high school senior. Both of his parents went to top five U.S. universities. We live in the Caribbean so he has to leave home if he wants to attend college. Our son has a 4.0 unweighted GPA and took the ACT once and got a 34. He has decided a particular second tier LAC is ideal for him and won’t consider applying anywhere else. I overheard him talking about college applications with a friend and they were muttering something about “prestige whores.” They would never use that language with me so I can only guess at what they meant. If your son still feels strongly about CWU when he’s a senior, your family will likely be happier if you support his decision.</p>
<p>LOL. Your son sounds like a stitch. Maybe you need to go listen to that jazz combo and then find some schools with even better ones. Luckily he’s young - plenty of time for him to decide his music teacher is a poser, or to decide it’s even more of a pose not to challenge yourself…</p>
<p>My 15 yo wants a school exactly like Caltech, but without the science. I’m not sure it exists though I suspect Reed comes close.</p>
<p>It’s two years before he applies. Let him talk about schools. Visit some schools, and have him talk to students and, if you can manage, graduates of different colleges.</p>
<p>It’s so early. No need to panic now, when you can panic later instead.</p>
<p>Since he’s an iconoclast, you could try to persuade him to do well in classes just to show his superiority to those other (in his mind) grade grubbers-- he can think about the purity of his studying for the sake of knowledge, versus the impurity of the other students.</p>
<p>Certainly you don’t believe that being “successful” in life is dependent upon which college one attends?</p>
<p>I have known quite a few kids who shot “low” - most liked to be a big fish in a little pond. IMO - nothing wrong with that.
Here in PA - very bright kids who go to state schools with lots of AP classes make out very well - for one thing all those credits they earn in hs transfer to the state school. Some even graduate early and coupled with instate tuition and a nice scholarship leaves money for grad school.</p>
<p>As far as not wanting to go to a “prestigious” school - I have one of those - while I was touting Cornell etc… she was looking south. In her junior year the mailbox started filling up and filling up. the mail just sat and sat. we drove around she wouldn’t get out of the car. finally at the end of the year, I took her aside and said please tell me - is there any school you are interested in? Sheepishly, she said yeah - one school. Warren Wilson College - a hippie school. eeeeeeek. Her SAT’s were 300 points above the average.
long story short - we visited and she loved it and loves it now into her 3rd year.</p>
<p>I am a believer that the school must “fit” the student - not only in academics but culture and environment and personality.
Just keep showing him around… good luck!</p>
<p>I like the kids I know who went to Central. But it’s so cheap, a scholarship doesn’t mean much.
oh I like them- but they are in ROTC & like guns- so it wasn’t metaphorical.</p>
<p>my older Ds favorite high school teachers (a biologist and a award winning poet) went to Central.</p>
<p>Maybe he can talk to my D- she wants to go to schools in Florida.</p>
<p>Don’t know what the music programs are like though- but I do know that the more you push, the more he will push back- so…exposure to a range of choices and letting him come to his own conclusions is probably most effective in the long run.</p>
<p>My D, who strove very hard in HS (had very high GPA and test scores) was much like your S (except she’d disagree on the Priuses). She still doesn’t own an Ipod (though that may change because it’d give me somthing to give her for Christmas), didn’t have a cell phone till after she graduated college, does NOT wear trendy clothes, etc. She went to a very non-competitive HS, had lots of friends from all levels of economics, achievement, etc, and announced that she was not going to hang out with a bunch of “prep school kids” at some “elite” college. She instead went to a nearby pretty good OOS flagship that she could’ve gotten into with half her accomplishments.</p>
<p>And was miserable. D discovered that the people there were not nearly as “real” as her HS friends, in fact, she found that a “just good enough” school can be (Not always, but often) a haven for preppy slackers. She ended up transfering to an “elite” where she found a whole bunch of iconoclasts, from all walks of life, and was much, much happier.</p>
<p>Not that telling Tallson this will change his mind. Just make sure he really gets to know what the students, academics, etc really are like at the different schools, as opposed to his pre-conceptions. And maybe then Central will seem different to him, or maybe he’ll confirm it really is what he wants–just should do so from a place of much more information than he actually has now.</p>
<p>For someone who’s into music and is afraid of fancy-named school – Indiana U is vary famous for music, and many top musicians choose it over much “fancier” schools. UIUC is also outstanding, especially for band musicians.</p>
<p>nngmm- Be aware that admission to Indiana’s music school is EXTREMELY competitive. It is a conservatory level program and only the top musicians are accepted.</p>
<p>Since you’re local, it should be easy for him to find a host for an over-night next year–if he’s still interested. If it’s not a great place, that should help.</p>
<p>Regarding the college, maybe he just needs to be made aware that there are good music programs at other colleges as well, likely some even better than Central’s, and that some of them provide scholarships as well. Being a realist, he should understand that there’s no coincidence that his Wash. based teacher just happens to be recommending a Wash. college for the program. If he talked to an Ohio based teacher there’s a likely chance that an Ohio college would have been recommended for nearly identical reasons. Ditto with any other region.</p>
<p>Maybe if he starts researching the music programs at some of the colleges you feel are a better general match for him he’ll start to realize he has more and perhaps better choices.</p>