<p>UCLA is more competitive in general and is a top school which sounds like a great fit for your son. However, every state is going to have very smart kids that will gravitate toward their flagship schools for many reasons-cost, travel, desire to stay closer to home,etc. Utah will have plenty of smart kids and many will be concentrated in majors like engineering. In addition, they seem to be going after smart kids from other states like your son to add to their profile.</p>
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A 3.6 in BME at Utah will be hard, and not something to take for granted even if your son is well above the avg for admission stats. I do think (but can’t prove) that UCLA is more competitive, but what’s the relevance? He doesn’t need to make a 3.6 at UCLA - that’s the whole point.</p>
<p>Utah may be the right choice here, but it’s important to be clear on the exact terms of the scholarship. I don’t think I’d go for it unless there’s some kind of forgiveness or probation possible.</p>
<p>You might want to consider what would happen if your son did not achieve the 3.6 gpa requirement by the end of freshman year. Do you have the resources and are you willing to pay up if the scholarship is lost? Even if you think it is only a 25% chance of losing it, figuring out what you would do in those circumstances would be helpful.</p>
<p>Just to be clear, I would guess that your son is more than capable of maintaining a 3.6 gpa. </p>
<p>But, just because it is always a good idea to have a plan B, or a hope for the best/plan for the worst plan, what is your plan B if son runs into some unreasonable tenured prof who dings him and there’s nothing he can do about it? </p>
<p>Worst case: if he does lose his 3.6, what do you do then?</p>
<p>Not because he WILL, but because you absolutely need to know what will happen if that happens, if you accept this set of circumstances.</p>
<p>Still, either way, barring unfortunate circumstances, I’m sure he will be just fine.</p>
<p>Thank you for all of the input. It appears that my son is now really set on UCLA and I don’t mind paying a bit more nor him having some manageable debt. That being said, I do hate to pass on the Utah opportunity but in the end his happiness should make him a better student.</p>
<p>Poet, by the way, regarding your statement, “what is your plan B if son runs into some unreasonable tenured prof who dings him and there’s nothing he can do about it?”: Not sure, which is a huge, huge problem in the world of academia. Tenure shoud be outlawed (sorry Blossom, just the truth).</p>
<p>There are TAs which also have ability to assign grades, also visiting profs. It’s good to have an alternate plan, just in case grades don’t stay above 3.6 for any reason. Seems like a stressed to me.</p>
<p>Glad you and S are happy with his preference. Travel costs to and from college should be much lower at UCLA than Utah as well. It will be good for him not to have a set GPA for his funding. Great school with lots of great departments if he switches fields. ;)</p>
<p>Congratulations to you and your son on talking this through. UCLA is a great choice!</p>
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You really think there are a huge number of “unreasonable tenured profs” who “ding” students and would be fired for it if not for their tenure?</p>
<p>tap…tap…tap…</p>
<p>Just read this whole thread - did he get into Stanford?? :)</p>
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</p>
<p>No, it’s really not.</p>
<p>Alright, alright, maybe it’s not a huge problem, but I’ve heard many a horror story about kids being “dinged”, as poet put it, for reasons not associated with the actual work they did nor the grade they should have received. If tenure protects professors from these types of actions then yes, it should be questioned. Didn’t mean to get off track.</p>
<p>dfin2013, unfortunately my son was “rejected” from Stanford, and weirdly enough (to me at least) also got rejected from USC the same day. Stanford was a total reach while he and I thought USC was a pretty good shot. As many a poster on CC can attest to, sometimes there’s no rhyme or reason why one kid gets in and another rejected. Thankfully he had already made his mind up on UCLA but it did ding his ego a bit; which, quite frankly, is probably a good thing knowing that there’s a lot of smart kids out there (as I always tell him, it’s a big, big world out there).</p>
<p>Well, I don’t want to get into a discussion about tenure, and what I may or may not think about tenure, but the dinging does happen, and I’m glad you were able to think it all through with your son.</p>
<p>Good luck to you both!</p>
<p>poet, didn’t mean to use your quote to get off line, it just rang a chord due to some recent stories I have heard. They may be isolated, but it made me feel like wanting to ring someones’ neck…and I’m not a violent guy :)</p>
<p>Thanks on the good wishes. The path has truly been exhausting and many of you were quite helpful in swaying me away from the “free” opportunity in Utah (relatively “free” for me that is, not my son and his academic well being…).</p>
<p>Now, does anybody know how to not end up in a “triple” dorm room at UCLA 
??</p>
<p>Well, I googled “triples at UCLA” and their housing info says the majority of kids well be in triples their first two years due to renovations of some of their dorms(although you probably already know that). Sounds like there may not be a whole lot you can do about it but maybe somebody will have an idea.</p>
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I’m sure there are a lot of students who think or say they were graded “unfairly”. Presumably you are only getting one side of the story, from which you are apparently willing to be judge, jury, and executioner.</p>
<p>congrats on UCLA and the decision being made!</p>
<p>I have no tenure (on soft money), and I “ding” kids all the time–for not doing the assigned work, turning in work late, not turning in work that fits within the parameters of the assignment. I also just don’t think anything short of excellent work deserves an A. And, surprise! The standard for what constitutes excellent is a bit higher than it was in high school. I am sure I have been the evil prof behind some of those horror stories. </p>
<p>The thing I hate most about the cc parents forum is a really strong anti-professor bias. Yes, we all went into academia motivated by a deep hatred of students and a desire to screw with them at every opportunity. We are little better than toddlers in our need to have everything our own way. And I would imagine that the more selective the college, the worse we are because teaching at a top twenty would really swell up the old head.</p>
<p>When you have to keep a 3.6 to keep your scholarship, you have to keep the worst case scenarios in mind as possible.</p>
<p>I have nothing against professors or tenure, but if you are telling me that professors aren’t human and don’t occasionally develop personality clashes with students, I think you are not being objective. The only reason this even matters, in this conversation, is the 3.6. Otherwise, it’s not even worth bringing up.</p>
<p>But, all contingencies were broached: Illness, family things, roommate, significant other break ups. It’s one among many things that can and do, occasionally, cause a problem with keeping a GPA that high.</p>