Which college should he choose?
 

Hi All.... My son is a High School senior and is currently applying to many colleges. He has good grades 97 avg. and about a 1350 SAT. He is interested in Business and Finance but that changes monthly lol. His strengths in school subjects are math and science. He is very into sports and has played 3 sports in HS. He has mostly applied so far to larger universities such as, Michigan, Wisconsin, Maryland, Boston, etc.

Please give me your insight about these schools and any others large or small that may help him. I am relying on your experiences on schools you attended or currently attend.

Thanks

Re: Which college should he choose?
 

I went to Maryland. They have a highly respected business school FWIW. I wasn't in it though, so I couldn't really give much detail.

Re: Which college should he choose?
 

Michigan. Make sure he goes to a big school with at least 10k students or a state school. Even if he goes to Party U, all he has to do is get into a good grad school and he is set.

Re: Which college should he choose?
 

I went to Pomona College of the Claremont Colleges in California.

Yout cannot beat the education, he would be able to play a varsity sport, and he gets to live in Southern California. Also, their acceptance rate into grad school is off the charts.

Re: Which college should he choose?
 

sounds like hes pretty smart. I would go wherever he can get the best scholarship, cause college is freakin expensive. I had a full scholarship and still ended up 18 grand in debt somehow. I guess I'm too lazy to work a real job and go to school at the same time. But have your kid look into as many scholarships as possible, and have someone knowledgeable review his applications. Best of luck

Re: Which college should he choose?
 

Well, if he wants to play college varsity athletics, either he will get a full ride at a large school or need to go to a smaller school. Any thoughts of sending him to a Princeton, Penn or Dartmouth. Bucknell is also very good. My cousin went there and has a great career on Wall Street right now.

Re: Which college should he choose?
 

[ QUOTE ]
Hi All.... My son is a High School senior and is currently applying to many colleges. He has good grades 97 avg. and about a 1350 SAT. He is interested in Business and Finance but that changes monthly lol. His strengths in school subjects are math and science. He is very into sports and has played 3 sports in HS. He has mostly applied so far to larger universities such as, Michigan, Wisconsin, Maryland, Boston, etc.

Please give me your insight about these schools and any others large or small that may help him. I am relying on your experiences on schools you attended or currently attend.

Thanks

[/ QUOTE ]

if he (you) are serious about b-school for him undergraduate look into applying INTO the programs before he gets there..

Michigan - great b school for undergrads but highly competitive before you get in and after. once you are a freshmen you have to make up your mind rather quickly and must keep your grade at a A level to get in

Maryland - if your from NY its just a glorified SUNY schools for kids in NY to get away to and just be with other NY'ers especially from LI and NYC

Boston - GREAT TOWN and great school, same thing said about the b-school.

Wisco - if he has is legit about his schooling
DONT GO TO WISCO, a glorified party school and COLD

If its possible the best thing is WARM WEATHER AND A GOOD SCHOOL

the rest will fall in place [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]
Good luck


BTW, this is all of memory from 10years ago but im sure it hasnt changed much.

Re: Which college should he choose?
 

I went to Wisconsin. I agree with a previous poster (even though he went to Michigan). Make sure he goes to a big school. Anything the Big Ten will suffice. Job hunting is a lot easier when you go to a school that everyone has heard about.

Wisconsin and Michigan are both fine choices, if he can endure the winters.

Re: Which college should he choose?
 

Bottom line is whatever school your son goes to (and it'll be a good one with those grades and scores), he will be absolutely fine, because any of those schools will have great alumni and job networks, as well as great on-campus job recruitment.

I can't speak to other schools, so I'll put my $0.02 in on my alma mater, Cornell. I had the same business and finance interests and graduated from their undegrad business program (now the 2nd accredited undegrad business program in the Ivy league, along with Wharton). Solid well-rounded program that doesn't pigeon-hole you into any one aspect of business, so you can pick and choose to put your own program together.

It certainly fits the trend of larger universities.

His interests are constantly changing, which is absolutely fine at a place like Cornell where you can pretty much study anything and take classes in anything. I value my time in Science & Crime, Intro to Bible, Wines, and Pscych & Law as much as -- if not more that -- my time in business classes.

Finally, if cost is an issue at all, being in NY, if your son chooses the business program (or anything within the 3 state-funded schools), you're getting the same education that other people are paying through the nose for at a $10,000/year discount. (And you can still take whatever you want in whatever school or subject you want, just like everyone else.)

As for sports, there's likely a high bar for playing on the varsity teams -- it couldn't hurt to contact the coaches and inquire about those sports -- but there's a wide variety of club teams available (and intramurals).

Good luck...

My overall advice is don't fret too much over the entire application process and decision on where to go. Like I said at the start, any of your kid's options are gonna be great ones.

Re: Which college should he choose?
 

wow...I don't think I've ever seen 100% of the replies be serious...i find myself almost wanting to shout SIIHP!!11ELEVEN just to bring things back to normal....


But with regards to schools, people have touched on the important stuff. My college experience was fun, but I owe a lot of money on it, and it doesn't matter so much given my line of work (computers/programming). Visit as many as you can and go by feel and atmosphere, scholarship, and location. As long as its a good school he'll do fine with jobs, etc.

Re: Which college should he choose?
 

Not Case western reserve university.

Re: Which college should he choose?
 

I couldn't help but reminisce and laugh about my high school experience after reading about your son's stats (97 avg., 1350 SAT). It seems like yesterday that I was in the same boat. Crazy high school I went to they calculate your average to the hundredth place. The difference between the valedictorian and salutatorian was about 2 hundredths of a point. Pretty sick, and the competition was pretty sick too.

I ended up going to Michigan, hated it (it was [censored] cold, and it happened to be the mildest winter in 25 years). But on the plus side, I was there when Michigan split the Championship with Nebraska fall 1997. Let me just say that Michigan games are RIDICULOUS (ridiculously awesome, that is). That stadium holds over 107,000 people and it's SRO EVERY HOME GAME. Other than that though, I didn't like the school. Big lectures, lots of kids, very easy to get lost in the fray (which I did). So I took some time off after my freshman year, went to community college for about 2 semesters, and then transferred to Tulane (great [censored] place and warm weather too). New Orleans has got to be one of the best cities to go to school in. Tulane itself is not too bad either.

Anyway, from my experience, I would say that you (your son rather) should definitely visit the school. No matter how good the school is, make sure you can LIVE there for four years. Cuz lord knows I would've killed myself had I spent four years at Michigan (or Cornell for that matter, that place is even drearier than Michigan during the winter).

I apologize for my long-winded reply. But if you have any specific questions, feel free to PM me.

Edit: Also, as JordanIB posted,
[ QUOTE ]

Finally, if cost is an issue at all, being in NY, if your son chooses the business program (or anything within the 3 state-funded schools), you're getting the same education that other people are paying through the nose for at a $10,000/year discount. (And you can still take whatever you want in whatever school or subject you want, just like everyone else.)

[/ QUOTE ] This, you should definitely look into. It is a GREAT value. Ivy league diploma for state college tuition.

Re: Which college should he choose?
 

[/ QUOTE ]Cuz lord knows I would've killed myself had I spent four years at Michigan (or Cornell for that matter, that place is even drearier than Michigan during the winter).

[/ QUOTE ]

They live in New York. I assume the kid knows how to handle a winter...Ann Arbor, Ithaca, or elsewhere.

Re: Which college should he choose?
 

I'm from New York too, and I thought I'd be ok with it...

Edit: Either way, it's all a matter of preference and where your son would be most comfortable studying as well as living. Oh, another good thing about Cornell, the food there is [censored] fantastic.

Re: Which college should he choose?
 

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Well, if he wants to play college varsity athletics, either he will get a full ride at a large school or need to go to a smaller school. Any thoughts of sending him to a Princeton, Penn or Dartmouth. Bucknell is also very good. My cousin went there and has a great career on Wall Street right now.

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Princeton, Penn and Dartmouth all have fantastic athletics. Athletes who play there are usually recruited.

IMO, southern schools are underrated. Consider Duke, UVA, UNC, Georia, Clemson, GA Tech, etc. At least visit one of these schools, and see what your opinion is.

Re: Which college should he choose?
 

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I went to Pomona College of the Claremont Colleges in California.

Yout cannot beat the education, he would be able to play a varsity sport, and he gets to live in Southern California. Also, their acceptance rate into grad school is off the charts.

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I believe Pomona is the 3rd toughest entry right now. I'd have a backup plan.

Re: Which college should he choose?
 

[ QUOTE ]
Hi All.... My son is a High School senior and is currently applying to many colleges. He has good grades 97 avg. and about a 1350 SAT. He is interested in Business and Finance but that changes monthly lol. His strengths in school subjects are math and science. He is very into sports and has played 3 sports in HS. He has mostly applied so far to larger universities such as, Michigan, Wisconsin, Maryland, Boston, etc.

Please give me your insight about these schools and any others large or small that may help him. I am relying on your experiences on schools you attended or currently attend.

Thanks

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where are you from? has he spent time on either coast? I believe cliamte/weather is as a huge factor as education. If you are from the mid-west then i don't see much cultural difference of going to Wisconsin, but if he is from east or west coast, Michigan and Wisconsin, and even Maryland are worlds apart from Boston. Going from someplace like Florida and spending tundra winters in Wisconsin or Michigan, upstate New York will make your son instantly regret not choosing a local university.

Looks like your son likes Big Ten and ACC schools. I think a lot of Big East schools (Syracuse, ND, Georgetown, BC) have strong business programs so you might want to look into that, and maybe he can reach even into the Ivys, although his SATs are borderline. But what's $50 in application fee for a nice job after if he doesn't flunk out!


Michigan has a strong business core and he'll be exposed to large university type feel. If he wants to go for a smaller school than somewhat smaller east coast private schools as well as some west coast schools have strong business schools coupled w/access to any metropolitan city. (as well as atlantic city). I'm talking BC, Georgetown, Penn, and maybe NYU. These are slightly smaller schools but not small in the sense of liberal arts small.

As for sports, if he his going to walk on, then obviously a smaller school is preferable as it will increase his chances of getting playing time if he makes the team. All schools have intramurals and club teams of the sports he's probably interested in. This is guaranteed at the big universities. A lot of schools have small clubs for the lesser known sports: waterpolo, sailing, crew, tennis, - call ahead.

The main point I would look for now if I was to do it again is: school's facilities, cultural match (as personally i would avoid going to the mid-west school), graduating requirements and options for degrees, and social life, i.e. how do students get drunk. The best classes i had were in my major field and the side classes i got to take (photography, music)

Large universities have usually better facilities, public funding, and strong support for sports. Michigan and Wiscosin, Maryland are also no slouches for academics but it is probably easier for your son to slip academically than in a smaller university w/smarter student pool.

Re: Which college should he choose?
 

Thanks for the replies so far. I appreciate all the info.
The guidance department at his school feels the Ivy schools would be a reach because of his SAT scores. They feel you need about 100 points higher than he got for those schools. The same has been said Duke and UVA.

As far as varsity sports in college he could play soccer or lacrosse at a D3 school, but feels he would rather go to a larger university.

I wonder if he might get a little lost at a Michigan type school. We are going to visit a few schools in ther next couple of months. It's ultimately going to be his choice but I certainly appreciate all the help.

Please continue to give me all of your opinions and views.

I will show him this thread and discuss it with him later

Thanks Again

Re: Which college should he choose?
 

one more thing. . .how are you paying for this?

loans or out of pocket? Getting residency for a state university will save thousands.

Re: Which college should he choose?
 

We are from NY... Im not sure he's thinking very much about the cold weather in his decision process, maybe he should? Why do you say you would avoid the mid-west schools? (Mich. Wisc.)

I've put away some money for college.

Re: Which college should he choose?
 

i was in this boat too about 3 years ago. I'm from austin and had a 92 avg at a private college prep school, my sat was 1410. I major in advertising here at UTexas. My advice: find the best school that also meets your social needs. I could have also played D3 lacrosse, but i didn't like small schools.

So:
research yourself
visit one small one medium and one large school
which one does your son like the best?
now, find the best business schools that are that size...and proceed accordingly.

as for college lacrosse check www.uslia.com -the club teams are pretty competetive (d3 level at least for the top 25-30 teams)

Re: Which college should he choose?
 

[ QUOTE ]

I wonder if he might get a little lost at a Michigan type school. We are going to visit a few schools in ther next couple of months. It's ultimately going to be his choice but I certainly appreciate all the help.


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I say Michigan if he's serious about Business. Excellent undergraduate business program. As another poster said, he'll have to keep his grades up for his first two years, and apply for admission into the Business school for entry in his Junior year.

HOWEVER -- I have heard that this is changing. It may already have, definitely check up on this, but I heard that there were plans to make the undergraduate Business education into a 4-year plan, i.e. you apply for admission to the B-school straight out of high school.

In terms of whether or not he will get lost -- if he makes it into the B-school, it's a small enough community within the school, I think it would suit him well.

Yes it's cold. I disliked that a lot, but that's about all that I disliked.

Re: Which college should he choose?
 

This is a stretch, send him down to Austin to go to UTexas. They have one on of the highest rated business schools in the country (Finance, Accounting, Management). You need like around a 3.7 gpa just to be considered to get in. Warm weather, great city, lots of girls and good campus life. However, that is a longgggg way from home.

Keys for him choosing a school:
1. Have him apply for everyone he can get accepted to.
2. Take the time to visit every single campus you consider. Your decision making will be based a lot on the visit you take of the area
3. People change majors all the time, dont be surprised if he changes his
4. Its all about the right mix. Right campus, right college towm, and the classes you need for your major. When he decides make sure he has a list of several options, so he can feel happy about his decision months/years after making it.

Re: Which college should he choose?
 

I'm going to have to throw UT in here for consideration. Great McCombs business school, 4 year program. And the business school classes are very good. I don't know what it costs for an Out of State Student, but it won't be any more expensive than other Out of state schools. FWIW, is your son interested in a fraternity to shrink the school? Maybe a club sports team? Austin is a great town AND we beat UM in football last year. So take that Ann Arbor.

Re: Which college should he choose?
 

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I'm going to have to throw UT in here for consideration. Great McCombs business school, 4 year program. And the business school classes are very good. I don't know what it costs for an Out of State Student, but it won't be any more expensive than other Out of state schools. FWIW, is your son interested in a fraternity to shrink the school? Maybe a club sports team? Austin is a great town AND we beat UM in football last year. So take that Ann Arbor.

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I don't disagree with any of this, Austin is great. I fully endorse Texas as a second choice to Michigan.

While I'm at it, I am vehemently opposed to the University of Maryland. Not too much basis for it -- just that I took a course there this summer and the campus is absolutely terrible. I admit that I don't know much about the school otherwise.

Re: Which college should he choose?
 

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I went to Wisconsin. I agree with a previous poster (even though he went to Michigan). Make sure he goes to a big school. Anything the Big Ten will suffice. Job hunting is a lot easier when you go to a school that everyone has heard about.



[/ QUOTE ]

I think this is atrocious advice. The idea that big schools are better for job hunting is preposterous.

Re: Which college should he choose?
 

If your son is actually interested in playing sports in college, that is really going to limit his choices to small schools.
I went to Cornell and it was great.
Maryland seems like a poor choice. Maryland does not have a good academic reputatino, why get good grades and test scores and then pay out of state tuition to go there?
If he is interested in a big state school experience, Michigan and Austin are probably the best choices. I'll mention Cornell again because it is a great school and does not feel small like I would imagine the other Ivys do.
Personally, I think it would be a mistake to not apply to some longshot smaller schools and try and get in.

Re: Which college should he choose?
 

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Well, if he wants to play college varsity athletics, either he will get a full ride at a large school or need to go to a smaller school. Any thoughts of sending him to a Princeton, Penn or Dartmouth. Bucknell is also very good. My cousin went there and has a great career on Wall Street right now.

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Princeton, Penn and Dartmouth all have fantastic athletics. Athletes who play there are usually recruited.

IMO, southern schools are underrated. Consider Duke, UVA, UNC, Georia, Clemson, GA Tech, etc. At least visit one of these schools, and see what your opinion is.

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With his SAT scores and grades (unless his class rank is VERY high), there is no way in hell he will get into Duke or UVA. It's also doubtful he will be accepted into UNC or GTech either out of state. Clemson or Georgia he will get into easily but they aren't really very good schools compared to the others.

I recommend most of the Big East schools. Rutgers, BC and Villanova for example are all well respected schools with excellent business programs. The Big Ten is good as well but the campus's are absolutely enormous and its so easy to get lost in the crowd. Northwestern is the best academically but I doubt he would want to live on that campus.

Re: Which college should he choose?
 

He actually applied to the b school at UMich. I believe you can appy either as a freshman or certainly after your freshman year.

Thanks for the advice on UT. It sounds like that might be a good option also.

He eliminated UNLV, figured he'd be seeing me too much. lol

Please keep the good advice coming.

Re: Which college should he choose?
 

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We are from NY... Im not sure he's thinking very much about the cold weather in his decision process, maybe he should? Why do you say you would avoid the mid-west schools? (Mich. Wisc.)

I've put away some money for college.

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should've seen your username, "NYholdem"...
then weather shouldn't be a factor, especially if you live upstate!

Don't heed much interest in my negatives of Michigan/Wisconsin. It's just a personal taste. I prefer living in the cities on the coasts above the mid-west.

There are great schools in the South, UVA and Duke like you've mentioned and visiting schools is a great idea if he hasn't heard much of these schools.

Picking a place based on its general location on the map along w/its academic strong points was the way i went about it. (I wanted to go to the east coast and didn't consider the South which I should've done along w/Pac-10 schools.)



as for the $, you probably know this:

east coast private school ~$30k/yr.

UM in state: $~5k
UM out of state: $15k

unfortunately, the private schools never get cheaper.

Re: Which college should he choose?
 

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I went to Pomona College of the Claremont Colleges in California.

Yout cannot beat the education, he would be able to play a varsity sport, and he gets to live in Southern California. Also, their acceptance rate into grad school is off the charts.

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I believe Pomona is the 3rd toughest entry right now. I'd have a backup plan.

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send him to Harvey Mudd!!!!!! [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

Re: Which college should he choose?
 

I don't really know what grades/test scores it takes to get in where these days. I'm assuming his #s aren't quite good enough to get into the very top schools or the tough out of state public schools (so no-go on Harvard, Princeton, Michigan, Berkeley). If this is the case, I think he should look into the next tier of private schools. These would include Cornell, Northwestern, Emory, Penn, etc...

Re: Which college should he choose?
 

I agree in general about the school size issue. I went to both a large and a tiny school and I hated the one and dropped out. Big schools are a ripoff, essentially, the Wal-Mart of education. If he can't get into an Ivy League (big woop) he could try a good smaller place like Swathmore or St. Mary's etc...Of course I'd recommened my alma mater St. Johns College, but that's not for business majors! [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

Just my O-pinin.

Re: Which college should he choose?
 

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I went to Pomona College of the Claremont Colleges in California.

Yout cannot beat the education, he would be able to play a varsity sport, and he gets to live in Southern California. Also, their acceptance rate into grad school is off the charts.

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I believe Pomona is the 3rd toughest entry right now. I'd have a backup plan.

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send him to Harvey Mudd!!!!!! [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

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CUNY and F.I.T. are now accepting the class of 2010 applicants.

Re: Which college should he choose?
 

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CUNY and F.I.T. are now accepting the class of 2010 applicants.

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Baruch in the CUNY system has a pretty good Business program, granted it's no Wharton, or Michigan B-school, but it's still pretty good.

Re: Which college should he choose?
 

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Maryland seems like a poor choice. Maryland does not have a good academic reputatino (sic), why get good grades and test scores and then pay out of state tuition to go there?

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Chris,

While that may have been true 20 years ago before the Len Bias incident reshaped the university, or even 10 years ago when you were looking at schools, it's no longer the case. In fact, the 1350 SAT may be below average for incoming out-of-state students at UMCP. In the 2005 US News and World Report rankings, Maryland was a Top-20 public university, ranked only one spot behind Texas. Their business school was ranked 27th in the nation, and in the Top 10 of public universities.

----------------------


I had a similar list of schools I was considering out of high school, and ended up going to Maryland because I got a scholarship there. I chose it over places like Hopkins and Duke, and don't think my education suffered one bit. You get from college what you want. The OP's son can get a fantastic education from any of the schools listed, provided he wants to learn. I loved Maryland, and would make the same decision in an instant if I had to do it again.

The sports teams are great, social life is good, you're less than a half hour from both Baltimore and DC, etc.

And the education is really top-notch too as far as a state school goes.

If you had any more specific questions, I'd be more than happy to answer them too.

UMTerp
UMCP - Class of '99
B.S. Civil Engineering

Re: Which college should he choose?
 

Granted, I got a 1200 on the SAT the only time I took it while completely wasted from the night before (in 1993), but isn't it fairly easy to get 1200+ now? I got a whopping 600 on the math section. I add g00t.

Re: Which college should he choose?
 

IIRC, when they "recentered" the SATs (I want to say in 1996 or 1997), the average score went up somewhere in the ballpark of 60-100 points.

Re: Which college should he choose?
 

the way i see it, for the most part, a univeristy is a university. what really makes the difference is 1) does ur kid fit with the school (i'm tlaking the type of ppl and community not grades) and 2) what kind of netwroking will they have done when they get out.

1) is obviously a personal choice that none of us can answer for u.
2) as long as u r not coming out of a that is not viewed as less than good, a degree is a degree. i go to Northeastern in boston. Northeastern does a co-op program that ensures netwroking. when i graduate (from the 5 yr program) i will have doen 3 6-month co-ops at 3 different companies. these r not just busy work, paper pushing internships, these r paid, full time employment job.
when i graduate i will have 18 months of work experience on my resume as compared to (assuming the ppl from my graduating class got a job directly after graduating) other ppl's 1 yr.

also we have a great club lacrosse team. 11th in the nation in the uslia.

Re: Which college should he choose?
 

We will begin visiting schools next week. We are going to Maryland first and then heading up to the Boston area soon after. We'll probably go to Michigan in December (see how he likes the cold then)...

Please tell me more about Northeastern,

Also Those of you who went to UTexas and Mich please give me some more personal experiences.

Thank you all for your continuing help.