Which college should he choose?

[crosse91]

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)

[peterchi]

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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.

[wonderwes]

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.

[crosse91]

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.

[peterchi]

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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.

[Paluka]

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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.



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

[Paluka]

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.

[highlife]

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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.

[nyholdem]

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.

[howzit]

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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.