Definitely check out CWRU…it is not in downtown Cleveland. It has 5000 undergrads. They are known for merit scholarships.
Why are his ECs light? What are they?
I ask about his ECs because I used to do alumni interviews for CWRU. I had a student that didn’t appear to have many ECs at all, much less leadership. But we were talking about that…and it turned out that he watched his little brother after school, so he couldn’t do traditional after school activities. It turns out his parents were getting divorced and he started to notice his brother falling through the cracks. So he started making sure he did his homework, and also signed him up for a baseball league. He took him to practices and games.
So not only did he babysit his brother, he showed leadership in making sure his brother had opportunities and support.
Look at the map. If it was any closer to the airport it would be sitting on the tarmac. But yes, you have to go around the airport to the other side to get to the terminal
For my son who wasn’t interested, getting on to a campus lit the spark. Are there ANY colleges in your area doing in person tours? Our first visit was to an in-state school that my dad had strong connections to, we did a visit to see some of the fundraising completions and just to “check out a college.” While that particular school was never a contender really, spending those 2 hours or so actually on a college campus made college seem more real to my son, and seemed to open the door for him to be able to picture himself in college, and start to think about what he wanted (for example, that school was too small). I bet with all of the virtual tours, it still seems abstract. Maybe getting on any campus tour would help? Or, if time and money permit, a trip to one that might be a contender? Getting out of the house can be a mood lifter in these times, and having that time to kind of focus on college, without staring at a computer, can be nice, even the drive could give you time to help you try to see how he’s feeling about it all.
One of my kids is a Santa Clara engineering and biology grad. I’d be glad to share info via PM.
@SchoolNews a lot of kids, boys in particular, are not enthused about the whole college search thing. Remember, nothing is forever. If he wants to be an engineer, pick an ABET accredited school. If it doesn’t work out, he can always transfer elsewhere.
Family member here started at Rose Hulman because he thought he wanted a small school. He started two years but transferred to his state flagship to finish, and loved it there. Got his masters at another large flagship with full funding.
I would suggest a couple of things.
Don’t talk about college search every day. Set up a 15 minute appointment once a week and share ideas.
Your student needs to make a list of what is important to HIM in a college. Ask him to do that...and don’t nag about it.
Let your student be in the driver’s seat. It might make you crazy, but if he doesn’t get it all done, he can take a gap year.
Honors colleges....remember, even if your kid gets accepted with a huge scholarship, there is no guarantee they will get accepted to the honors college. Ask me how I know.
University of New Mexico is also worth considering as well as the others mentioned here.
Why expect him to know now? He’s got roughly 3 months . All he needs is 1-2 good fallbacks, sure to admit him. The rest becomes finer tuning. Let him breathe. Let him grow.
We put so much emphasis on this, drown some of them with info, spin their heads. They’re 17.
45 info sessions sounds like punishment to me. We stopped after maybe 3 (and that was with a sweet road trip, nice meals, some fun.)
They really are the same. A sales pitch. His future does not depend on dragging the process.
Instead, we should simply set the right expectations for each kid. Put the oxygen back in the room. Save some energy for the apps/supps.
And be sure whatever targets are realistic for his actual profile. No point aiming at schools he may not qualify for, just for name.
Adding. Yes, they need some feel for this. But we Googled non official bits, casual videos kids post, maybe short sports clips, the flash mob posts. I’d forward a few to D1.
As knowstuff said, ours didn’t care about the building views or 3D printer (ours was White Boards, couldn’t care less.) One was into music, wanted to know that scene. Not the tsunami of info we adults can process.
Noone has mentioned Olin! Selective, small, project-based, used to be as prestigious as MIT but different experience. It’s in Needham MA.
Also like Tufts, WPI for East Coast. Possibly Northeastern. Also check Colleges that Change Lives website. State U’s would be a good choice too for engineering and large schools are broken up into smaller components.
In person tours and info sessions blend together and we only did 4. I can’t imagine 45.
My son was like this, and it was a bit strange because he was a motivated student. At one point I told him he didn’t have to go at all, but could work, and I meant it. I went out and when I came back he had made a color-coded chart!
It sounds like your son is overwhelmed. No school is perfect and he can’t really make a mistake. How did he end up looking at so many websites? Help him narrow it down to 6-10.
Think about location (urban, rural, suburban), distance from home, academics, extracurriculars, gen eds, and most importantly “vibe.” If possible. And of course cost.
We are also on the east coast. We also aren’t catholic. SCU is a very ecumenical school.
Our kid also looked at USD. As noted, their engineering was not as strong. Kid was also not thrilled with the location relative to greater SD. It’s up on a hill with really no public transport to get off campus. They do run a shuttle. Seemed like a lot of kids had cars and my kid wasn’t interested in a car in college.
@ucbalumnus the number 10 bus runs from the San Jose Airport to the train station in front of the main entrance to SCU…often and free. It’s also a very very short Uber ride. That airport is very very very close to that campus.
@SchoolNews have you looked at Lafayette? Another terrific school but in a small town.
Agree with others…stop looking at virtual tours. They all start looking the same after a while.
My D was horrible with being involved in college selections. She just about refused to be involved. I ended up giving her a list of schools and she picked one and I picked two more I wanted her to apply to. She got into the one she picked herself (as well as the ones I selected) and that is where she ended up going. If they are not into it, just let them pick one or two and be done with it. Some may say that type of behavior is an indication they are not ready, but she is in her first semester of college and doing great so far. It’s all so overwhelming and they are so extremely busy their senior year.
It is not that unusual for kids to not be passionate about a particular school. Especially tough if he is not at school as some of what gets kids interested is listening to their friends and classmates talk about what schools they are applying to. You got some great recommendations for mid-sized schoools. Add in your State U (or even some of the smaller ones in your state, like Rowan in NJ which is smaller than Rutgers and has a good engineering program).
If money is not an issue, may also look at Northeastern and Drexel which have coop programs. I also know kids that got a good engineering education at Tufts.
I had to start the list for my kids. I spent a lot of time with the Princeton Review book for my oldest and then online lists for the others. Did your guidance counselor give any recommendations? You may also have to do more of the legwork in this time of Covid, regarding the location and atmosphere of the schools.
I sat through one virtual college admissions / tour with my daughter and vowed never to do it again. So boring and yes, they do seem all the same (she’s our third and the other two are sophs and juniors in college). No way I’m having her do another unless she wants to really go to a school that needs “demonstrated interest”.
Does your child really need to go to college to take the next step in life? What does this young person want to do? Is college part of that plan or need to accomplish that goal?
@SchoolNews, life is not a race and if your son is not ready, I think waiting is a good idea. ShawSon did not apply to college until the fall after he graduated from HS. He had not even taken the SATs/ACTs. He had time to study for them and do a good job on applications. He needed surgery which he had during that year but also did a number of very interesting activities that he included in his college applications.
Three interesting asides.
ShawSon said the extra year of maturation helped him focus on success in college once he got there.
People told us that it would hurt his ability to get in. He applied to a lot of schools for other reasons (brilliant kid who is severely dyslexic), but he got in to almost all including Little Ivies and Ivies.
I had a related experience many years before. I worked hard as an undergraduate in a STEM field at an Ivy and worked incredibly hard on a senior thesis that took on a problem that other people had not been able to finish and apparently got better results than my advisor thought possible. (No one ever told me this but I saw his recommendation to me for a postdoc but one of his collaborators told me that the thesis would have been the best PhD thesis in his department for the last 10 years). Immense amount of work. I don’t think I slept much (had a GF, started on a minor varsity sport, got all excellent grades in my courses) and I was totally exhausted after that year. I had gotten into all of the PhD programs I’d applied to but just didn’t have any interest in going. It didn’t occur to me that I could defer. Anyway, I went and had a lackluster year. Loved the place but just needed a year off, which I took after that year. Should have done it a year sooner.
So, if he is not interested, I think waiting a year could not hurt and could help.
The trick will be finding something valuable for him to do in that year other than apply to college. Chosen well, he could substantially enhance his application.
You got it made! You pick schools for him that fit your budget and are what YOU Think are a good fit for him. Where do the kids from his school, his group of friends go or are thinking of going? For my kids, it was kinda simple to start the list: in state public’s, local favorites, Catholic schools. Since I’m a LAC buff, I threw a bunch of those Into the mix (got thrown right out, but, oh well, I tried). Checked out some bug football out of state public schools because they loved to watch college football. Penn State, Michigan, Ohio State, Alabama made the list by that virtue. Maryland , Delaware went in the list because cousins went there and they were familiar with it. Villanova and Northeastern were high reaches for one of mine, but that’s where several friends wanted to go, so we visited. After some visits, Pitt somehow became first choice, we toured Duquesne, a good match and Carnegie Mellon a bear impossible reach that day, though I really felt the LACs Gettysburg, Dickinson and some small Catholic schools were my preferences.
I could add more about how we did it, got her revved up. But despite our tours, a turning point came when D1 took a whirlwind road trip with a friend and her grandparents to visit a few colleges. It was just an opportunity, but doing this with a friend lightened the pressure and they bounced ideas off each other.
Would I do this during covid? Maybe. Not to parts of the country that flaunt reasonable precautions. And this was a drive, no airports, just one overnight. Today, I might even limit it to a day trip. I’d control for every iota of health safety I could. Even just driving onto some campuses gives more impression than some boring marketing presentation.
The exploration has to feel real to our kids. I don’t think you can just tell a kid to go research, expect him to figure it out the way adults can.