<p>mom365…I like your experiences and value that you share them. I don’t agree with your belief that they will only(usually) be found at elite schools :)</p>
<p>it’s not your experience at all Mom 365 - just your assumption that the experience is unique to an “elite school” environment.
Just cross posted with SAX who is saying the same exact thing - LOL</p>
<p>Like mom365, we listened to a wonderful pianist at Columbia. Our kids are also classically trained pianists, and I can say that this student was really talented! But if our older son had taken a merit offer, he’d be a classically trained pianist at a less selective school – he wouldn’t be a different kid, just attending a different college. My guess is that many students who are offered the types of outstanding merit scholarships being described on this thread are also musicians – it’s a common EC for bright kids. It’s also probably an indicator of socioeconomic status. Lessons and instruments cost big bucks, and are often out of reach for lower income families. These families are also less likely to send kids to elite colleges.</p>
<p>mom365 – no behavior problems at your son’s frat? What kind of a loser frat is that? What’s the point of a well-behaved frat? </p>
<p>(Being said tongue-in-cheek here.)</p>
<p>toneranger and sax- I agree experiences are available everywhere. It is the student and how hard he works and if he gets a mentor. Just sharing one side and what worked for us. I think my MAIN point was, don’t shy away from an elite because of financial reasons. That was the topic of this thread.</p>
<p>katliamom - Many reasons. 1. My son has a job running the Frat and gets free board 2. Belonging to a group at a big University makes it socially much more enjoyable 3. Girl Magnet</p>
<p>sax, Sticker, et al.: </p>
<p>Diehard elitist running-dog that I am, I would never even think to deny that there are not hoards of smart, talented, ambitious kids in lots of institutions up and down the prestige ladder, for lots of reasons, doing smart, talented, ambitious things. (And let’s not even begin to talk about elite public universities, which probably belong in a category of their own.) Throughout this thread, I have tried to make clear that, while I value what the elites offer, I think the differences are of degree, not kind, and often relatively small degree. It’s always worth asking how much you value those differences in dollars, and also how much you value other qualities (like economic diversity at middle-income levels, or great football teams) that the elites tend not to have as much of.</p>
<p>Columbia has a joint program with Juilliard, no? I think it’s reasonably likely that one might hear a really good pianist there. Also Yale, which has a pretty well-regarded professional music school and a history of producing professional classical musicians.</p>
<p>But, yes, of course you would be equally or more likely to hear a great pianist at Indiana. (The ONLY kid I know who turned down Harvard for a state university did so to go into the dance program at Indiana. It worked, too: he never made it past sophomore year, and is now a principal with a famous company.)</p>
<p>mom365,
“socially much more enjoyable 3. Girl Magnet”</p>
<p>– bingo. See my post #794. </p>
<p>But glad to see that students at elite schools have the same lofty reasons for joining fraternities as those plebes at state u ;)</p>
<p>Smarter kids more mature and responsible- HAHAHAHAHA- then there would be MY son!</p>
<p>Back to pianists…many state Us have music schools that are VERY hard to get into and attract some of the best. Here’s an excerpt from one on admission standards:</p>
<p>Entrance to the Bachelor of Music in Performance program requires a strong background of musical accomplishment and may require a separate audition after initial acceptance to the school. Admission to the Bachelor of Music in Composition program is based on the student’s portfolio of compositions, an interview, and an audition on his or her primary instrument or voice.</p>
<p>One of the reasons you will hear top musicians at State schools is because that is all they do. Their grades are not good enough to get into a conservatory or an elite. I know several kids like this.</p>
<p>JHS…well said.(post 807) I absolutely agree that the difference can be measured in degree. I honestly still don’t know (a year after reading this forum) what those differences are. I know what my freshman son is experiencing at his college and it just doesn’t seem like it’s much different than the students at an elite. The size of the school is much bigger and the range of SAT scores are higher at the elite but I am one to not put too much stock in SAT scores. (My sons SAT was almost perfect so Im not being a jerk here).The prestige of the name (and perks that it might bring) seems to be the one item that makes them stand apart. I know that it is worth gold in some circles…I just don’t run in those circles. Maybe we have made it difficult for him to run in those circles if he wanted to. I am still here trying to figure this out.</p>
<p>mother of wild child:If son of not wild mom has his mom’s sense of humor he has got to ge a fun kid to be around!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Gee, when my kids were little, we were wasting our time with Dr. Suess.</p>
<p>See the sad Dad?
What a bad Dad!<br>
No Plato. No Homer. No Ivy.
Such a sad, bad Dad!</p>
<p>We did read Newton’s Principia to them in the womb, though, so maybe they’ll make it into a third-tier technical school.</p>
<p>;)</p>
<p>We read comic books, “Captain Underpants,” “The Berenstain Bears,” all of the Dr. Seuss books (maybe that’s why he ended up at Dartmouth!) and an assortment of other kid lit – most of which I picked up at the grocery store.</p>
<p>dad…I am still laughing</p>
<p>sax: We all run in certain circles. We are products of our upbringing, experiences, and circumstances. As D said “Everybody lives in their own bubble. Some think their bubble is the only bubble or the most important one, but in reality every bubble is unique and valuable for each bubble inhabitant” She said that when I took her to the airport Monday or something like that…</p>
<p>oldolddad, your daughter is very bright.</p>
<p>Keep her away from here.</p>
<p>oldolddad…maybe your D could pick up where Dr. Suess left off 
I assume the bubbles reach different heights ;)</p>