Need insight on Fordham, UMD, UMass, Boulder

Karabu
Tue, 27 Apr 2021 18:47:49 +0000

Updates! Everyone has been very helpful!

Son and I visited Fordham and UMD last week (2 flights, 2 nights, 1 train ride).
At Fordham, it was a self guided tour outside (it’s tiny, but bigger vertically). Son wondered if it’s too small to find his crowd. I also talked to a current pre-law student there. NYC was intoxicatingly beautiful, son loved the energy (he’s been to NYC before).
After dinner in DC (also beautiful, much calmer and grandiose), we got a tour from a current student of UMD who was fantastic and provided us so much valuable, honest info. Son was personally invited by the music director to attend their choir rehearsal, very personable and special. Gorgeous, immense campus. While the surrounding nature was beautiful too, we got an impression that the area around it is not as vibrant as he would like, no real collège town (our point of reference is CU Boulder, high plank), and not as conveniently accessible to DC as advertised, although still an enticing draw. I think he was dismayed to hear that students take the shuttle or Uber to the three bars, the vibe he was trying to avoid.
After both tours, he said he still didn’t know! At the airport, he said he was leaning Fordham.
He almost officially committed on Friday, and on Saturday morning CU Boulder School of Music reached out to him via text and offered a large additional scholarship that brought COA to only $3k more than Fordham! Exciting, but back to debating! Boulder would be a completely different path: Coveted Aerospace program plus Music major. We suggested that he should choose Boulder if he would LOVE to go into engineering and work super hard to earn two diametrically opposing degrees, but that it wouldn’t be a place to discover yourself and search for what he wants to do (most likely).
Last night, he committed to Fordham! We talked about this long journey, that wasn’t all laurels, but still so rewarding and humbling, and allowed him to feel accomplished and wanted. I feel light-headed just thinking about the exciting direction his life is going! Now to celebrate graduation! ‍:mortar_board: