You've Solved 21's Problem - Now I Could Use Your Help with Mine - UPDATED !!!

Re: You've Solved 21's Problem - Now I Could Use Your Help with Mine


Luggie,

It could be worse, you know. She could be a beauty school dropout.

 

Re: You've Solved 21's Problem - Now I Could Use Your Help with Mine

or ...

 

Re: You've Solved 21's Problem - Now I Could Use Your Help with Mine

The main thing you have to consider is this:

What's the best environment for her?

Like Frank said, not everyone would benefit from a Harvard education -- that's very true.

I attended a small, liberal arts school, which didn't offer journalism, then transferred to a large school for journalism.

However, if that small, liberal arts school would've had journalism, I would have stayed there because the classes were a lot more fulfilling. You had good professors and small class sizes, instead of overtaxed, not-as-articulate grad students running 300-student-plus classrooms. Quite frankly, I liked the small-town atmosphere a lot better, too.

Since you're talking about a "Michigan" and a "Michigan State", your niece is going to find some similarities comparing apples to apples in large universities. However, there are some distinctions she needs to determine.

Where I would fault her is she really can't make a decision based on kids wearing hats in a high school that will soon be in her rear-view mirror and irrelevant.

First and foremost, she needs to visit both schools. She needs to walk the campus. She needs to talk with people, including current students, teachers and counselors.

She needs to evaluate the culture, including:

-- Does she prefer a small-town atmosphere or urban?

-- How do the schools compare, specifically the departments in her area of study?

-- How large are the departments? ... I'm biased here, but the smaller the department, the better.

-- How do the reputations / accolades of the departments compare?

-- Does the departments have faculty-to-student ratios?

-- Are the faculties composed of graduate / adjunct staff or full-timers?

-- Is the campus culture harmonious or divisive?

-- After walking around campus and checking everything out, what's her gut feel? Does she fit in?

Tell her to do her homework before making the call.

 

Re: You've Solved 21's Problem - Now I Could Use Your Help with Mine

Sam, your mom had to realize that not everybody wants to be a dork in body paint that jumps up and down and does the little hand-wavy thingy while the ball is brought in bounds.


Anyway, on topic, when I was picking schools I had a friend that inexplicably decided he did not want to attend the "snooty flagship school." The campus was too hilly. The town was too liberal. I thought he was crazy, but in the end there usually isn't a whole lot of difference (depending on your major) between the top two public schools in most states. She seems to be a kid that makes the right choice most of the time, so she probably will do the same in this case.

 

Re: You've Solved 21's Problem - Now I Could Use Your Help with Mine

Then again, a lot of people also want to be this guy

 

Re: You've Solved 21's Problem - Now I Could Use Your Help with Mine

I'm likely in the minority here. But even if finances is such an issue for the parents, she can still go wherever she wants to go. There's always student loans. There's always grants. There's thousands of scholarships out there.

My parents didn't give me a red cent for college. I didn't ask for anything, and I didn't expect anything.

 

Re: You've Solved 21's Problem - Now I Could Use Your Help with Mine

Take her into downtown Detroit and introduce her to all of the homeless prostitutes and crack heads who graduated from Michigan State. And then take a photo of her boyfriend and her best friend and photoshop their faces into a hardcore porn photo.

If that doesn't work, explain to her that life isn't about spending Saturday at the park with the kids; it's about spending Sunday at the country club while wearing a smug expression that says you went to the best school and bought the best car and purchased the largest diamond necklace. Make sure she knows friendship is bullshit and life sucks; that her friends will leave her in the end and she'll only be able to keep from shooting herself in the face if she knows she can get a better job than those disgusting neighbors with the Michigan State license plate frame.

 

Re: You've Solved 21's Problem - Now I Could Use Your Help with Mine

Luggie,

Put aside which school is the better school and the financial aid situation. Which school do you think she would be happier at? You mentioned that your niece was put off by the kids at school who are going to "Michigan." I'm guessing that it isn't an aberration and that there will be a lot of kids like those girls at UM. Obviously not all of them will be like that, but those are the type of kids who set the atmosphere. The kids at MSU seem more grounded and like the type of kids she will be comfortable with.

She is never going to get these four years back. She might as well spend them around classmates she is going like at a school which she feels comfortable. I realize that going to Michigan opens up a ton of doors for her by being a world class public university. But if she goes there and ends up hating the students and the atmosphere, is it really going to be worth it? Kids get lonely that first year in college. Most of us never admit it to anyone, much less an adult, but almost all of us can remember times when we felt lonely and homesick. If she goes to MSU, she has a ready made network of friends.

And talk to her about playing UM and MSU off each other for financial aid. Tell her to call the MSU admissions department and say this, "Hi, my name is Luggie's Niece. I really like Michigan State and would like to go here. I have my choices narrowed down to Michigan and you guys. The biggest sticking point is that Michigan has offered me a full academic scholarship and you only offered me 80%. If you were able to match Michigan's offer, I am almost sure I would become a Spartan." Especially since they are in-state rivals who would like nothing more than to snatch up a student like her, I'm guessing they will move in a hurry. I had a friend who used that tactic on several law schools and ended up with a 75% scholarship as a result.

 

Re: You've Solved 21's Problem - Now I Could Use Your Help with Mine

That's really outstanding advice, although I don't know if it's necessary to play the schools against each other. When I was accepted early decision at Elite College, the acceptance letter came with my financial-aid package, which wasn't enough. This was 1977; it cost $7K at the time to go there ($46K now, I just looked) and I think they wanted about $2K more than my parents and I could pay. My parents called the school to tell them that. School said come on up, let's talk about it. We got the money. Now this was a school of about 3,000. I don't know if it would be as personal at a large state university.

 

Re: You've Solved 21's Problem - Now I Could Use Your Help with Mine

Great post. I would replace Michigan State with either Purdue, Illinois or Kentucky, but I love the sentiment.

 

Re: You've Solved 21's Problem - Now I Could Use Your Help with Mine

If she plays violin I am assuming she'll major in the fine arts, in which case she has no business going to the lesser of the schools. Violin usually isn't something people just do for fun.

 

Re: You've Solved 21's Problem - Now I Could Use Your Help with Mine

Some of you are possibly missing the fact that "Michigan" and "Michigan State" are representations of the two schools, not the actual schools under consideration.