(no subject)

[geekchick]

As the product of 13 years (starting in kindergarten) of Catholic schools run by nuns and 4 years of university run by Jesuits, I approve this message:

Comments

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

How would laid-back, philosophical, California-boarder-dude son James fit in at Georgetown, do you think? He's looking at places like NYU and Brown and New College (Florida) currently... I'm encouraging him to look at East Coast schools.

[geekchick]

Depends on his tolerance for walking, talking, Young Republican, J. Crew catalog models. ;)

Seriously, I suspect he'd find some kindred spirits there easily enough. What's he interested in studying? If he wants to study foreign affairs and politics, it's a good place to be. Computer science, not so much.

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

Currently? He's interested in experimental music and audio production, philosophy, and poetry.

[geekchick]

I think they've beefed up their arts program significantly since I was there, which really isn't saying all *that* much. I took the minimum requirements in the English department and no philosophy other than what was covered in the required theology classes, so I have no idea what the state of those programs are. Eh, check the course catalog and see what the current offerings are; I suspect given his interests that Georgetown probably wouldn't be top of his list.

[dawnd.livejournal.com]

I am curious as to why you are encouraging him to look at East Coast schools in particular? The interests you've mentioned in the later comment would seem to be less East Coast and more West, to my eye. I also wouldn't put your son in an East Coast environment. I think he'll be too oppositional on the one hand, and too Ozark on the other. I think he will have a hard time figuring out how to fit in.

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

Going to, say, UC Santa Cruz would be *too easy* for him to fit in. I think he would grow more by having to learn how to learn in a different environment from the one he grew up in.

Also... given geographical distribution in admissions, it is easier for a California student to get into a higher-ranked East Coast college than one on the West Coast. NYU is probably doable, for example, but not Berkeley or UCLA with a 3.5 GPA and 600s-low 700s on his SATs, as the latter are overwhelmed with local applicants sporting 4.0s and 750s.

[geekchick]

One thing I'd strongly, STRONGLY recommend is that James goes to spend a weekend around any of the schools he's interested in. I know that (not school-related, but illustrating my point) I liked NYC quite a lot in theory, but in practice I was ready to run screaming after about 36 hours. When looking at schools, I was really interested in Stanford--until I spent some time on the campus and observing the student body.

I think he would grow more by having to learn how to learn in a different environment from the one he grew up in.

There are plenty of good arts programs on the East Coast, but if he's not interested in any of the schools, don't try to make him be. He's the one who has to live there for the next four years, after all.

[dawnd.livejournal.com]

And yet they claim to be a religion of LOVE.

I don't get it, really I don't.

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

Neither do I, often...

[geekchick]

Hey, in my 17 years in Catholic school, I don't know a single person who was ever beaten by a nun with a ruler. Pretty sure that stereotype came from back before my time, when corporal punishment in (any) schools was par for the course.

[scherzoid.livejournal.com]

I don't either. But then the Catholic school I attended for six years (K-5) was run by the Sisters of St. Joseph (Sr. Helen Prejean's order), and were about as pacifist/hippie/liberation theologyist as you could get. It was a bit of culture shock moving to public school (a nearly all-white, nearly all upper-middle-class Gifted and Talented program, placed inside a nearly all-black inner-city school by a desegregation judge) in 6th grade, where the assistant principal kept a large paddle hung on the wall of his office, and corporal punishment opt-out slips were sent to parents at the beginning of every year...