10 posts tagged “college”

This time to a big, nationally-known university in Ohio. The campus is indeed big, but not as overwhelming as we were led to believe.  Difference of course as night and high noon as far as what is offered to students and comparative facilities, i.e., all classes in the engineering department were housed in one building in the smaller school we visited and at the other bigger school, each branch of the engineering school has its own building.  The bigger school of course has more 'Toys' too.  My impression is this university and perhaps other big universities see themselves losing students to smaller school as they are seen as too big & impersonal.  Much talk about programs to help the individual students all 46,000 of them.

Am put off by the school's 'honor' program/track for incoming kids with high SAT/ACT scores.  That strikes me as patently unfair.  The playing field should be level at college with it being up to each student to demonstrate how brightly they shine.

The school also has a Japanese  program, which son could get a minor in in his sleep if he applied himself and the school is hooked up with some good universities in Japan.

We even managed to meet son's cousin, a grad student there which was amazing given the student body size.  What's son is thinking?  He may apply, but he's got to get his SAT's up, take the ACT which means boning up.  Get his essays in order...and he doesn't seem to get the message.  Do I see a train wreck  coming?

And we were around for my aunt's 89th birthday.  She still refuses to wear her hearing aid so..... While we were eating, a woman came up to her and with a smile said my aunt may not remember her but she  delivered her children (ironic, a trained cardiologist spending the bulk of her practice delivering babies). My aunt said, Oh, yes she remembered.  Aunt also mentioned a program at this school for 1st generation students which has greatly reduced tuition.  Son could be thought of as that, he wasn't born here  and immigrated here....

And today, as if my right leg muscles haven't been punished enough for the past 3 days, I drive up to my college for a job fair.

Am still thinking about those textbooks (and the prices) I saw while on that college visit.  Besides the sticker shock, the other thing that stood out was their size; they were big, like 8 by 10 inches and a good 3 inches thick.  Again, much like the textbooks son and other public school students are afflicted with thesedays.

Granted its been a while since I was in college and I did grouse then about how much I had to spend on textbooks, especially for the freshman/sophomore prerequisites that everybody had to take.  At the same time, taking  a trip on the Way Back machine,  with the exception of my business law textbook, which was 5 by 7 inches perhaps and 3 or so inches thick, and my Lit. textbook, slightly larger in size and equally as thick,  my other textbooks were of a more manageable/reasonable size.

Wonder if in higher education, somehow textbook size is now somehow, equated with better course content, instruction?

The same university son was in for the summer Japanese program, only this time, a formal open house for the school of engineering. Was 1,300 miles round trip; out Friday pm and back Sunday pm.  I am exhausted.

Thought/expected he, to ask some questions but almost all of the questions came from parents.  Am not sure how much sunk in either, but its now all up to him.

The school's message was, yeah we're small, (Total student pop 3,400 something), but we have no grad students, so you'll not have to go into a holding pattern during your freshman/sophomore years and then apply - and hope you are accepted to the school of engineering, as you'd have to do in a big university, you'll be taught by the professors, not grad students or TA's; in short, we'll look after you. 

I suppose an opposing argument is that the programs at larger, more renown universities are geared for 'the survival of the fittest' and this truly outstanding talent will thrive there and go on to bigger and better things in life; not to mention their facilities are probably far more advanced (natch as they have more $$$$).  

Son mentioned another school, about 20 minutes drive from the house he is interested in. Sure its in-state, but I told him part of going to college is leaving home, growing and dealing with a level of independence you'll never have once you leave college and staying that close to home is really not a step in that direction.

One comment which stood out was made by a panel member of grads who when asked about what there is to do there besides study (the town is small, reaaaaal small), she said "If you want it, you can find it" (!!!). Looked quickly at son, but his face showed no reaction/comprehension.

Took a peek in the bookstore and Jesus Christ, Mary and all the Saints!  Could not believe the textbook prices.  Don't recall seeing any that were for under $130 dollars!!!  And these textbooks were at least in outward appearance, no different from the tomes son has to lug around right now.  No wonder I've read articles of late about students fed up with the prices and doing something about it.

Very apt way this morning to start September; temperatures right now around a nice 60 degrees (that's 14 or so for those unfortunate to be stuck with Celsius), have the sliding door in the family room left open to let the cooler outside air in, and some neighbor's dogs are barking their heads off which mine has just now gone out to 'investigate' (and roll around on the wet grass while she's at it).

One more week and son will be back in school!  I think he's in denial; as I have periodically asked him if he needs to go shopping for clothing or if there are any school supplies he needs, like an upgraded calculator for pre-calculus/Trig.  His answer has been 'no' and today I'm going to let him know that he will not have me dragging him along for last minute back-to-school shopping.

He's also not made any progress about what he intends to do after June of 2010, when he graduates.  Have told him numerous times he needs to look into colleges, for I am not going to send him off to any college without him first visiting one. Nor am I going to stand for him going to the community college 10 a 10 minute walk away simply because its there.  He needs too to address his testing scores, either by signing up again for the SAT, or take a practice ACT test and then decide which of the 2 test he's more comfortable with.

And, he's also been told that with no plan, and no college lined up by June, he'd better have a plan to get a full-time job somewhere as a.) he sure as hell won't be allowed to  lie about the house, and b.), at his age, if he's not a student he can't be covered under the health insurance we have, so he'll have to find, and pay for his own coverage.  All this seems to be just background noise to him and for me it is hard to watch him piss valuable time away on his Xbox.

Had a start the other day.  Was taking son of son's leftover laundry back into his closet and when finished putting it away, was startled for a very brief moment as someone was sleeping in his bed and he of course is not here at the moment.

Wife was sound asleep there.  Why?  Perhaps its a latent maternal thing with the son's scent somehow playing into it. Could also be she's bored with sleeping on the floor on one of the Japanese futons we have too.

Son BTW, seems to be doing well in the どう田舎. Figgered he was out, away from the school yesterday, and in an area covered by AT&T and called.  He and his group were at a Japanese market and he was getting ready to buy some お餅　he said, but I'll bet it was really　だんご.   Had thought/hoped they'd be taken to Cedar Point, which I am told has some wicked roller coasters, but I guessed wrong.

Son is now settled at Ohio Northern University for his 2-week camp.   It was a loooong drive to get there  especially for me.  I like driving and would think it nothing to hop into the car and drive for about an hour to Fredericksburg for some of Carl's ice cream, but  towards the end, this trip had me between 'no mas' and 'Are we there yet?'

The campus is truly out in the middle of nowhere; even our cell phones (AT&T) did not work.  But being out there in the middle of nowhere does force one I guess to focus, since there are no other distractions. Perhaps son will like the college- it has a good engineering school, or perhaps he won't.

Did not give him 'the talk' or made sure he got some condoms; the total number of kids in this camp is under twenty and of that, the boy-girl mix is overwhelmingly girls, so I judged the possibility  of a hormone torrent to be very small.

There was one slight mishap; the morning he was to register, I was going to brush my teeth and spotted  a small tube  in son's kit bag and wondered where he got the traveler-sized tube of toothpaste.  Applied the contents to my toothbrush, started brushing and it tasted awful.  Pulled the small tube closer and discovered it was not toothpaste but a small tube of Clearasil!

Unfortunately an uncle in Columbus passed a few days earlier. He had a bad heart, elected for surgery and did not come out of it. Went for the viewing and learned more about my Janus-like background.  Unbeknownst to me was that this uncle, like the cousin on my father's side, was  also Yalie (post grad though) but unlike this cousin, did not  piss away the oppotuinity the experince gave him.  That the uncle was a commissioned officer in WWII (cryptology) while my father was a Marine grunt.  I have always wondered which side of my combined family make-up is more dominant.

I usually don't mix politics in my writing, but my uncle's passing is a good example why there should never, ever, ever be Obamacare in any shape or form.

As I said, this uncle had a bad heart and was told he had a choice (note the word, 'choice') of doing nothing and perhaps having a few more months to live, or take the risk of surgery, from which he might not come out of alive, but if successful, could help him.

He chose (note again He chose) surgery, from which he did not live through.  That is unfortunate and our loss, but he, not a government-run 'health care' program, had control over his fate. I suspect that  Obamacare would have denied my uncle the right to make his choice as he would be deemed to have been too much of a risk and thus not worth the physician's time and taxpayer money.

That smacks very much like eugenics to me.  Wonder why Democrats don't  understand that.

With no job prospects on the horizon, I've defaulted to the option of sending son away to a small college in Ohio, which is offering 2-week Japan language, cultural program/camp. 

Think I may have voiced some reservations earlier that the camp also invites Japanese high-schoolers to participate and that it all could turn out to be a 2-week babysitting/hand-holding exercise for the American kids. Still a son hasn't even thought about college visits, and this will give him a taste of a small college/small town environment and whether it suits him or whether a mega-school is more his speed. It'll also be a chance for him, if he's ambitious, to explore his roots as unbeknownst to me, this was the school my maternal grandparents graduated from.

The program is coed of course and though there are strict rules about allowing someone of the opposite sex in the dorm room. He's also going to be on his own for the very first time and while he has very good sense of what to and what not to do, but when it comes to hormones, anything could happen. So I am debating whether to slip into his things,  some 'protection' and a note telling  him I don't expect him to take this as lisence to go forth to soweth his wild oats, but at the same time he's also waay to young to be a father, and I don't look forward to being grandfather yet.  And STD's are one of the very last things he needs to deal with too.

Its over. Son thought it was not as bad as he had imagined it to be.  Told him to think of the experience as one of life's rites of passage, like going through the birth canal- to which he said 'Huuuuuh?'

  Over time I guess, he'll understand better what I tried to convey.

Celebrated in the evening with tacos and Sanarac beer.  No preconceptions on how well he did, but we're looking at taking it again in the fall.

Tomorrow morning, son takes the SAT.  Right now he's 'relaxing' with his xBox and on-line gaming.  In a wider perspective, guess it is 'whatever floats the boat' and if this is the way he relaxes, ok.

He's had to prep for this, one-on-one as his PSAT scores were, well not good. Part of  why he did poorly was being cowed by the test and also unfamiliarity and not knowing 'how' to take it.  And perhaps it is also the very nature of the test or tests like it.  Some absolutely suck at it and others, like my cousin's son, who had ho-hum grades, but could ace the SAT and LSAT.

And I'm not going to get into the argument about SAT being a fair indicator of future college performance,  far too many trees have fallen for that and besides from an admissions officer's point of view, how else would you decide who gets in and who doesn't.

It'll be great if he does well, but we both are set that he'll take it again in September and then think about (I hope) what school he wants to attend.

Our public school system holds in the fall,  a college fair at a large shopping mall. Its held on a Sunday night and is a win-win for every one. The school system; they get a large amount of space probably for very little money, if any.  The mall wins too. Some the the shops in the food court remain opened and do a brisk business. But  even for the main stores which are normally closed on Sunday evenings(as they were last night), its still free advertising; 'Oh, yeah, don't we need to check out Banana Republic (or what have you)  for a new shirt'.

Over 200 colleges and universities were there, from all over the country, but heavily weighted of course with Virginia universities. I went with our son around and it was me who wound up asking the reps. questions. This was irritating as I have told him many times now that at 17 and a half years old, he needs to start taking charge of HIS life. 

At the same time, he did surprise me a bit with things showing me he was thinking.  There was one school, local and a choice for many, and he said 'let's head for it before it get's crowded'. His other choices were the more famous/well-known schools, which were predictably crowded, so much so that he called them mosh pits.  He also stopped at a service academy as well.  Among  others Yale was there (a cousin graduated as a lit. major way back in the 50's), and when I pointed the booth out he said he'd never be able to be admitted there.  Perhaps he was being brutally realistic, but it really bothered/s me to see him imposing limits on what he can do with himself.

There were some surprises too.  U of Tenn has a program of study in which if the major is not offered at a Virgina school, a student from Virgina can attend at in-state tuition!  I noted Ohio State, which ironically was only a few tables away from Michigan, did not offer this.

My son's bus buddy annoyed the hell out of me.  We went separately and while we were listening to the U. of Tenn's rep., He comes along and gives my son a good shove as a greeting, interrupting the conversation.  What a dork.

For me though the facinating part was looking at the kids with their parent's, usually  walking behind and noticing just how much the children do resemble one of their parents.  The same could be said for my son too I think,  but is not as obvious.