<p>I have two ideas. One is: Syracuse University because its Communications schools is supposed to be top-shelf; it’s a small city in upstate New York, nothing fabulous but still a city. Weather is terrrrrible all winter (heavy lake-effect snow events), although college students are affected much less by these than homeowners since it’s the care of property that is the hardest piece. Classes usually stay in session, kids are young, so blizzards don’t shut down the learning the way it shuts down a business or public school with school bus issues. Often the State Univ at Buffalo is open on snow days when the public schools must close; it’s quite different to have 6 year-olds waiting outdoors for buses than hearty 20 year olds walking from dorms to classrooms.
Fall and late spring (May 1 onward) are delightful; summer outstanding in upstate NY, if he spends a summer term at Syracuse. SYracuse does attract many NYC-area kids, so that can be a source of irrritation if trying to escape snootism. </p>
<p>I’d also ask him to challenge himself just a bit harder on the “snoot” factor. It’s easy to feel uncomfortable by freshman year encounters, discovering how so many other families raise kids with values different from home. If he found other things he liked about the school, he might rationalize it and say that, as a Communications major, he MUST learn to cope with everyone. If he’s observing the snoots from afar and feeling badly, that’s an attitude change he could make on his part. If, on the other hand, they are closely bullying, commenting or scrutinizing him (e.g., a roommate and that roommate’s circle of friends…) well, that’s closer and more difficult to handle constantly.</p>
<p>Have you tried giving him a pep talk (not just agreeing with him) to blow off the snoots a bit more, and be less ruled by them?</p>
<p>Has he challenged himself to join some grittier activities on campus (such as politcal activism to help Katrina or Darfur victims, for example) where he’d meet those motivated by more than designer labels?</p>
<p>These would all be worth exploring if he is on the fence about transferring.</p>
<p>On the other hand, there’s a “tipping point” for everything; and if the fit turns out is wrong for him, he’s lucky b/c Communications majors are all over the country now.
Is there anything in Atlanta at Emory (since CNN is headquartered there)?
I’m guessing you’ve already considered Boston University–I hear they have a great Communications school too…and yet that’s a place where he might be finding “snoots” from the Northeast.</p>
<p>Now I’m going to launch into some stereotypes, but please hold your fire, everyone, until I get through this:</p>
<p>Basically, if a kid is not suburban and wealthy, he will be stunned at the culture of his peers when he gets to college, because a goodly number of suburban wealthy kids engage in a lot of flaunting and vocal judging of others. If they don’t judge, they sometimes offend by saying things as if “everybody” knows or does something…when all “everybody” means is, everybody raised just like them. It’s a provincialism. </p>
<p>I find that rural-raised kids are by necessity very humble, sometimes more defensive than they need to be since their environment offers great community-building values but they can’t always articulate them against the gloss of the suburbs and cities. And urban kids sometimes are skilled at sizing people up and deciding who’s for them and nuts to the rest, so they don’t get their feelings hurt by what others do or say.</p>
<p>But if your kid comes from a small city or is from the not-upscale-suburbs, it can really be rough to meet kids who wear it on their chest, "I’m from Competitve Public H.S. just outside of (Major City X); “What, you’ve never heard of (Private School y)” or if from an urban public district, they’ll surely identify if they went to a “Magnet School.” My S began hearing about others’ “magnet schools” when he was moving in to his freshman dorm. At the time, he was carrying a refrigerator upstairs with a 'fridge magnet name of his lackluster rural school. He laughed, "There’s my ‘magnet school.’ " So sometimes a bit of assertive humor is also helpful, but that takes much confidence and your S might not be feeling so cheeky right now.</p>
<p>The only counterbalance to it for a young adult is to put it all in a box called “It’s Them” and not be judged by it, then just as quickly go aggressively out into the campus life (away from the screens) and find a small handful of real friends who care about something. With a half-dozen buddies (in an organization, doing something) his emotional attention will be redirected towards those people and the “snoots” will become more background-blur, less central to his thoughts each day.</p>