parent/child dissent

blossom
Thu, 30 Aug 2012 18:32:51 +0000

Amazon, if your son is in any way qualified for Northwestern (and I’ll assume he is) there is no doubt that he will have a fine range of choices come April and you can “kick the can” down the road and save the arguments until then. If he doesn’t get into Northwestern, problem solved. If he gets into Northwestern and you’d rather see him at… UIUC? Wisconsin? Indiana? U Penn? U Conn? U Texas? Cornell? SMU? CMU? then that’s a discussion worth having. By then your S will have surely moved his thinking beyond “I like football” and you will probably have seen that there are a wide range of colleges where your S can get a business degree while still having the non-academic experience he’s looking for.

I think for all the reasons mentioned on this thread, your S is a poor candidate for ED regardless-- so encourage him to do his own research, let him be the one to pore over the course catalog and see who has which major, and then come up with a list which includes reaches, matches and safeties, and within that list, a sub list which includes “schools I can get in as a Freshman which have a business major” and potentially " schools I can get into which don’t have a direct admissions business major where I’d have to work hard to keep my GPA high in order to get in".

No point scorching the earth over one college- it’s only August! Keep your powder dry!