Respectfully, as a visual artist, I disagree with this position. I used to agree with it when I was headed off to college and I could draw circles around anyone. But I watched my less-naturally-talented (gifted, whatever) peers work hard on learning the technical aspects of good art, and by the end of the year I went from being one of the best to one of the worst.
The older I’ve gotten, the more I realize it’s hard work, not talent, that gets you anywhere. Sometimes talent’s not a blessing; it’s a burden that saddles you with too much hubris and laziness.
I think no matter where the kid goes, if he wants to write and be successful with his writing, working hard is what’s going to get him there. Not raw talent or prestigious uncles or pushy parents.
OP, some great advice here. Your son is only 17 and if he’s anything like my 3 sons were, he isn’t really focusing on the future as much as you are. I hope he applied to many different schools so he does have a choice, however, making it within the parameters you set (i.e., we will only pay a set amount, etc.) When he receives his acceptances, maybe an additional visit to one or two of his top choices would be in order, keeping in mind what majors the school offers (because he may change his mind), the size and feel of the school, etc. I will say that we did have our kids follow the money as we said we would only pay a certain amount, basically covering food, board and books. They were fortunate enough to get full-tuition scholarships to cover the rest. Two of them have graduated debt-free, which is one of the biggest gifts/advantages they can have. Good luck to your son.
For a career in journalism, these days, it’s often more necessary to have a “subject” major as well as a minor, in order to have a specialty (if political science, then either internships in local/state governments, or international relations with an area of focus and at least one foreign language, where Arabic is especially crucial; if science, environmental studies and “science in society”; if long form and human stories, sociology and zxStudies; in all cases at least one class in economics and one class in statistics.) Then, in parallel, the student should work in the school paper (whenever you can, check the paper online and after withholding the college’s name, send the links to the uncle so that he ranks them based on how good the paper seems) and have internships over t he summer (choosing a college where student’s who take unpaid internships receive a stipend Maya have value; the uncle would be very very handy there.)
Since your son is a strong writer, I hope he applied to the colleges that are the gold standard for writing (Columbia, Kenyon, Hamilton) if his stats allow him to. Those aren’t journalism schools, but graduating with a major in political science, economics, or science from any of them is at least as likely to lead to journalism jobs as a journalism major, and if no job materializes, they offer strong alumni networks and excellent career placement.
As to why he may not share your enthusiasm: your pride in his achievements may be mistaken for your strong-arming him into choosing what is the cheapest option. If you reassure him you’re so proud of him for earning so much money with his skills and talent, but that you know many more decisions are coming so you’re eagerly waiting where else he’ll get in, and ultimately it’ll be a family decision based on fit and what’s affordable, not “whatever’s cheapest”, I’m sure he’ll feel more relaxed .
Congratulations to your son!
Motherofdragons, we don’t disagree, these are two different points, I am just not being articulate. Hard work gets people a lot further than raw talent that is not supported by work.But chances are the students who excelled where you were had basic talent since they got in! I still don’t think that artistic endeavors can truly be taught: technique yes, style and vision, no.
“The GPA requirement is 3.3, on campus residency all 4 years and the program requires at least 400 hours of “approved” internship.”
ICK.
I would not want to commit to that hi a GPA, especially for his Freshman year, when kids can hit a speed bump.
DS had full tuition scholarship and the GPA for his scholarship would have been an issue if it had been 3.3 his first year.
I agree that you should go silent and see what happens with the rest of his applications.
OP – I’m thinking that your son is asking all the right questions and you might be the one with blinders on.
If your son gets all B’s his first semester – he will come up short on the GPA requirement and may lose his award. If he has an A, two B’s, and a C – same deal. Perfectly respectable GPA but not high enough to sustain the 50% merit award.
400 hours of internship? Are there paid internships generally available for students? Or is that committing to 400 hours of unpaid work that will mean your son has to turn down opportunities to earn money – or the sort of paid job that might be more impressive on a resume than an internship.
4 years of on campus residency? Fine if most students are staying on campus – but the fact that they need to specify that as part of the scholarship requirement is somewhat odd. What if dorm life & dorm food is subpar and most students move off campus by their junior year?
And is that 50% scholarship truly tagged at 50%… or is it a dollar amount that stays stable even as college costs go up over the years? How does the cost of dorm + meal plan compare with typical costs of students living off campus?
It’s wonderful news that your son got the scholarship – but it is not free money --and kudos to your son for being clear-headed enough to recognize that straight off the bat. It is money with strings attached, and an offer that he should accept only if he is confident and comfortable with living up to all the conditions that have been set.
And please don’t make the mistake of being unduly swayed by the school’s track record in winning writing awards. It could simply be that the school requires all of its students in certain classes to enter that particular competition, whereas other schools might not place such importance on it. If 200 students from that school submit essays and 12 win – and only 8 from the big name U. even bother, but 6 of those students win… well, you can do the math. If the awards are a big selling point for the college, then it’s in its interest to encourage its students to enter … whereas it may not even be on the radar for the big name U. I don’t know – it’s just that every college is going to have particular selling points that it emphasizes in promotional material. The big question is what happens to students after graduation. Are they getting jobs in the field? mart, well-educated students who aren’t able to find work in their major --so end up doing something else --but do
I was a journalism major in the early 80s. My profs told us all that if we insisted on majoring in journalism, we should have an additional major so we’d actually have some understanding of the fields we might be interested in covering.
One can be a journalist with any major. The key is to find opportunities to hone one’s writing skills (and these days, to be nimble in communications on various media platforms).
“The GPA requirement is 3.3, on campus residency all 4 years and the program requires at least 400 hours of “approved” internship.”
Not sure what is an issue. 3.3 is a low requirement that many cannot even afford because it will not be good enough for their future anyway, forget the scholarship. 400 of internship is also pretty low, again, many are in multi-year commitments that very much exceeds the 400 hours. The biggest one here is 4 years campus residency. Kid is the only one who could asses if he is capable of living on campus for all 4 years and if it is worth the money as most are moving out after 2 years.
Miami - there are multiple reasons a student can fall below a 3.3. And, if the student cannot attend the school without the scholarship, then the consequences are quite serious. It is definitely something to consider.
Further, whether or not many students are in multi-year commitments is irrelevant to this student. What matters is the details of the requirement and how it would fit into his goals.
“Miami - there are multiple reasons a student can fall below a 3.3. And, if the student cannot attend the school without the scholarship, then the consequences are quite serious. It is definitely something to consider.”
I am familiar with this. My D. was on full tuition Merit award in UG. Only small part of hers depended on her GPA. And the requirement for this small part was GPA 3.5. However, many (including my kid) could not even afford 3.5 as their future would be derailed with 3.5. Many kids have a goal of A in every single class and they accomplish that. We are talking about UG here, not the PhD program in Rocket science. One has to do what one has to do to accomplish the goal and it has to be clear to every college kid, not just the ones on the scholarships. They are not kids anymore, attending a college is a huge responsibility.
“It does often cost more to live on campus. So that offsets some of the benefit of the scholarship.” - Yes, I agree. And not only that but also the fact that majority of the upper classmates are moving out of campus, it may start feeling lonely there.
And many kids do not have the goal of an A in every single class, and their futures will not be derailed by it because they will go on to do many different kinds of things. Not everyone gets on the pre-med track or other pre-professional goals from day one, nor should they. Many need room to explore in order to find out what subjects they are passionate about; many want an education that includes courses outside their field of study that they are interested in but might be tough for them. I would hate for my child to choose his courses based on whether he thought he was likely to be able to get A grades in them. It is perfectly reasonable for a parent or college-bound student to look for merit aid that is not tied to quite such a rigid GPA, and it doesn’t mean they are being irresponsible. Indeed, it seems an eminently practical goal to seek assurance about the stability of one’s funding.
Some kids use their college education like a huge banquet- they take physics even if it’s not “required” because they loved in in HS. They may get a B- but they’d rather get B’s in subjects which challenge them and stretch them intellectually than get A’s by playing it safe. They’d rather take a challenging course on the Russian Revolution, or Macro economics (both fantastic for a journalism major IMHO) then take a watered down “econ and society” class or an easy “history and humanity” class.
OP- you are in the best position to discuss this with your son and figure out how he’s going to approach his education.
Miami- you have told us several times that your D opted NOT to take the harder version of several courses in order to protect her GPA for med school. That’s a choice- and it served her well. But many kids view their undergraduate years as an opportunity to explore intellectually and would not be happy taking the “easy A” version if a more rigorous option is available.
We held our breathe for a while when one of my kids applied to graduate school. He had attended a rigorous college not known for grade inflation; he had really pushed himself to take hard, challenging, and mind-expanding classes; had not given any thought to his grades (other than making sure that he was going to finish in 8 semesters which was our deal with him- we pay, but you get through in four years, otherwise it’s on your dime).
He was admitted to his first choice program; his attitude towards college (I’m here to learn, not to rack up a string of A’s) did not hold him back. I realize this strategy doesn’t work for everyone, but not every kid wants to pick a college knowing that their GPA will be the most important thing both going in and coming out.
On the subject of the OP’s original dilemma- i.e. son not jumping up and down- I say let this go for a while. If he doesn’t have a bunch of buddies who have gotten acceptances already, he’s not yet in the mindsight of the “yay it’s over” game. So let it sit for a while.
Maybe this is the best option for him- both educationally and financially. And maybe not. Too early to tell.
@MiamiDAP, your kid was pre-med. This kid is a writer. He may want to join the staff of the university’s newspaper or other campus publications even though major positions on such publications are extremely time-consuming and likely to damage his GPA. But they also provide valuable experience and could help him get a job.
Depending on a particular kid’s ambitions, GPA plays different roles in different students’ lives.
D applied to 8 schools last year, and received very substantial merit scholarships at 3 (roughly 2/3 to 3/4 tuition for 4 years). All 3 were excellent small, private LACs with track records of significant accomplishments by their alums. She would have been a legacy at 2 of the schools, and knew them well. We told her the choice was entirely hers from all the schools she applied to.
She chose the school with the second smallest merit scholarship of the 8, meaning more out-of-pocket required from us each year. It is a pretty substantial sacrifice for us to write that larger check each semester, but we okayed her list, and we left the decision to her. It is also further from home than the others, and logistically more difficult (and more expensive) to get her there and back.
She has had a tremendous first semester there. She has made wonderful friends, has had challenging, stimulating classes, made the varsity team for her sport, and has been to professors’ homes for meals. It has been everything she had hoped for, and more. She is stretching herself in ways I could not have predicted last year in high school.
We allowed her to “own” her decision, and she ran with it.
Thankfully the thread righted itself, but just a caution anyway: no more posts about bias regarding school type. Amazing how easily one stray comment gets things totally off topic.
"Miami- you have told us several times that your D opted NOT to take the harder version of several courses in order to protect her GPA for med school. "
You are definitely mixing this up, I never said that, it was somebody else. My D. would have not gotten the “top pre-med” award (only one was awarded in her class), if she took an easy way at college.She. took care of one college class in HS that was very difficult for her - History. She did not have to take History at college because she got college credit while in HS taking actual college History (not AP). She did that because she knew that her dad could help her with this very challenging (for her) class. The rest of her college classes were not “walk in a park” at all. In fact, her very first Bio derailed many Honors students from the pre-med track. The level of college classes was shockingly much higher than AP HS classes and many were derailed because they did not realize that they had to step up in efforts. However, those who stepped up and realize that they had to have primarily As, eventually applied to Med. Schools with great success.
As I said, one do what one got to do. If what is required is to take some college classes while in HS, go for it. I do not know what is required in journalist major to keep afloat. But if one wants it really bad, he would have to figure out requirements and fulfill them, or get derailed from his dream. Scholarships have nothing to do with it.
"your kid was pre-med. This kid is a writer. He may want to join the staff of the university’s newspaper or other campus publications even though major positions on such publications are extremely time-consuming and likely to damage his GPA. "
I fully understand that ECs are time consuming. If you need to know what pre-meds have to have, here are some: volunteering, Medical Research, shadowing physicians…
Again, if you are not ready to meet ALL requirements, then the field is simply not for you. I do not know what is natural “attrition” rate in journalist majors, it is about 85% among pre-meds, only about 15% of initial pre-meds will ever apply to Med. School and only about 40% of those who apply will get accepted. Again and again, college is not a PhD program, the ones who are ready to work hard will accomplish what they are set up to accomplish and rest will not, with or without a scholarship.
I am very sure that journalist major is a challenging one, but neither Biology, nor journalist majors are the hardest. The straight As are very possible. It is like singing in the music classes of the Music minor when you had no voice coaching prior to college. What do you do, if you got to have an A and you sing in duets with the fabulous Music Major who posses an awesome voice? - Well, you just work harder, you have no choice if you cannot afford a B.
Many good points here about reading the fine print for Honors Colleges / Honors Programs. That’ll be its own tab in the spreadsheet - privileges, GPA for retention, requirements for living on campus, service hours.
And it’s necessary to take into account any extra fees for Honors participation. Sometimes it’s zero, but examples are out there that approach $1000/year and even more.
My oldest was like the OPs son. Any school who gave him too much, he initially discarded as beneath him because it came too easy. In the end, he did choose one of the large merit schools. However, he never did rejoice in his achievement.
