OT Our son picking his college OT

YukonRon

tarheelmatt said:

YukonRon said:

tarheelmatt said:

Out of the list, I'd go with GT.  

Dook has a great bio engineering school.  

Mother is a grad of Louisville, I graduated from Kentucky. No way in hell will he be allowed to breathe Dookie Air. Just sayin'.
JKOC.

Haha.. That's a lot of hate. Hell, I'd send my little girl there is it were free to us. That's coming from a UNC fan. 

I know, great school, no doubt, and if he truly wished to go there, we would be thrilled to send him. This is coming from a UK grad. His mother may never get over it..........

YukonRon

Foghorn said:

Your son sounds somewhat similar to mine.  He was interested in engineering and music.  We had told him that he can't major in just music - but that he could double major or minor in it.  He got in to UT Austin for electrical engineering and was very happy to be going there.  Decided to not even apply anywhere else.

And then....

A letter came in the mail from the Peabody Conservatory at Johns Hopkins...

They have a program in Recording Arts with a double major in music performance.  With Engineering/math/physics classes with the regular Johns Hopkins undergrads.  It spoke to him.  Over 400 kids applied.  Application included a music audition DVD that was loaded onto Dropbox for them to view.  And a Skype interview.  He was one of 10 accepted.  After a semester in the program he realized that it was more narrow (would only give him job opportunities in the music industry and he would only learn engineering that is pertinent to music and sound physics).  He wants a broader engineering education.  The only problem is that now he is a "transfer" applicant.  Even at Johns Hopkins.  They are evaluated differently.  After the high school kids applying for freshman spots.  And with different criteria.  UT Austin rejected him.   He ended up on his feet at Tulane studying Biomedical Engineering and is very happy - as are we.  But it was a real struggle with a lot of months of uncertainty and it could have ended up a lot worse.  We even talked about him living at home and going to junior college.  Wouldn't have been the end of the world and would have been a good live lesson. 

I don't know much about SCAD, but if your son decides to go some place like that (great school, but with a narrow education focus) he needs to be very sure of what he wants to do.  It is hard to get from there to another institution.  It worked out for my son because he earned a 3.6 average at Johns Hopkins/Peabody, but again, there was a lot of angst.

If he really wants to do Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Tech is ranked #2 behind Johns Hopkins (where by the way my son was ultimately accepted as a "transfer" student, but he was told the only major he couldn't do was Biomedical Engineering because they are oversubscribed).  Tulane is also excellent and they have an incredible program where they start them very early getting involved in their own projects with mentors from the medical school.   I could put you in touch with one of their PhDs who met with my son and provided him the best mentoring I've ever seen for a student at any level (I'm on a med school faculty and have won over a dozen teaching awards - many of them for mentoring - and I'm president of a national surgical education organization.  After that meeting I decided I needed to step up my game).

Good luck with this.  It is an exciting time.  We've enjoyed the journey and hopefully your family will as well.  PM me if I can help.

There is a tremendous amount of insight you have shared, which will be an integral part of our discussions as we move forward. Fortunately, we have his aunt visiting from her post in Ghana, who is a Law School Grad of Tulane. She has close connections there as well, and should he be interested, no doubt, I would be thrilled to reach out to you, with your offer.
Thank you so much for sharing, and the willingness to help. At this stage it is our job to help him make the best decision for his next step, yet, it remains his to make.
Your story is awesome, and I am glad for your child, especially now he is where he wants to be.

YukonRon

DoubleEgger said:

That's the great thing about Tech. All of the engineering programs are excellent so changing your mind on a career path doesn't mean you've got to transfer. Even the Mgt and Econ schools are really good. 

He is leaning very hard towards downtown Atlanta as of right now. Michael, this has taken some wild, unexpected swings, but, he may just end up there. Appreciate your help, so very much.

Foghorn

"At this stage it is our job to help him make the best decision for his next step, yet, it remains his to make."

Yep.  We sent our son off to Baltimore knowing there was probably a 50% chance he would find that it was not the right path for him.  But I'm convinced that because we allowed him to do it (vs mandating that he couldn't go to a music school - which we considered) he will not have any regrets or resentment when he ultimately finds his way to a place of professional happiness - and that ultimately, he will probably find his way sooner because he was able to get immersed in it last year.

YukonRon

Foghorn said:

"At this stage it is our job to help him make the best decision for his next step, yet, it remains his to make."

Yep.  We sent our son off to Baltimore knowing there was probably a 50% chance he would find that it was not the right path for him.  But I'm convinced that because we allowed him to do it (vs mandating that he couldn't go to a music school - which we considered) he will not have any regrets or resentment when he ultimately finds his way to a place of professional happiness - and that ultimately, he will probably find his way sooner because he was able to get immersed in it last year.

"he will not have any regrets or resentment when he ultimately finds his way to a place of professional happiness"

It is all about them making that decision, and finding their way. Totally agreed. Not too hard to "Want to be" however "getting to be" has got to be well planned.
Great point. Thank you.