Team Sank is off on a new adventure these days; the placement of our oldest heir in an accredited institution of higher learning. I could wax on for a long time about “where did the time go” and ” seems like just yesterday…” Which it does seem like just the other day that the Jock came walking down the jet way when we first moved to Minnesota, 4 years old and pushing his brothers stroller with Mom.
sniff
yeah. Now were off looking at schools… I’m actually not all that melancholy to be honest, we do have two more on deck and don’t officially enter the empty nest phase for another 7 years or so. Next year we’ll still have one in elementary school after all, we do have a bit of a way to go.
I digress.
So the boy is off to the big world of college. As parents, we do get to make some decisions for the lad, since ultimately the finances flow through us.. and so far we’ve only put in a few.
1) Thou shall not attend any school within 100 miles of thy parents house. This rules out the University of Minnesota. Not a bad thing frankly. Mrs S and I both feel pretty strongly that the college experience includes leaving home and living on your own. The “U” would not afford that. The lad hates the Gophers hockey team so this wasn’t much of an issue anyway except with a few or neighbors who can’t believe we would eliminate such a grand institution.
2) Thou shall not attend any public university, college, trade school or vocational institute funded by the State of Minnesota. In other words no Mankato State, no U of M Duluth, Moorehead and Morris we can negotiate but no St. Cloud etc. In our research, corroborated with our friends and other parents also shopping schools.. not where we want the lad to go.
Seems to be the general consensus that Minnesota has OK state schools and some really great private schools. Wisconsin has some really great state school and, other than a few high profile (sports) schools like Marquette, smaller less known private schools.
We’re lucky, the dude can be picky at least a little. He should be coming out of high school with about a 3.8 GPA, not the best but good enough to select from several options, and hes got strong ACT scores. He’s also the Eagle Scout, the Varsity Letter in sports, the French club geek and so forth.
3) Thou shall not go to any school sponsored or run by a fundamentalist religious institution. This won’t be a problem, but no school with “bible college” in the name.
That’s it. Three easy criteria.
There was a 4th but Mrs S and Grandpa struck it from the list against my wishes. If thou decideist to pursue a major in business, finance, accounting, or management, and if thou thinkist that thou wants to get an MBA.. I ain’t paying for it.. no business majors..
Bitter Dad syndrome but after 20 years in this gig.. do something rewarding.
Among the schools that are “good”, most of the State Universities in Wisconsin where we get reciprocity. Schools like UW Eau Claire and UW Lacrosse have really good academic reputations, fine faculty and small classes that make them comparable to many of the outstanding private schools in Minnesota.
So for those of you interested in making book on the lads decision, here’s the front runners…
1st of all know that they lad has sort of decided that he wants to go into geology. After listening to his father talk about his career (sic) in the world of business, he wants none of it. He’s decided the wants something where he can be out doors. A good choice for him.
So in his school search, here’s what we’ve come up with.
As of July 1, 2008 the front runner is..
The Colorado School of Mines.
Funny, 30 years ago I was in Colorado with my high school. We went to Golden to see the mountains and Coors and there on the hill was a sign for Mines. “School of Mines” I thought, “Who would go to a school of mines..” Well.. turns out it’s a top notch institution. Good luck getting in dude. One down note on my side.. I’m not sure I could get excited about being an “Oredigger” to be honest.
Close second… Michigan Tech
Houghten Michigan is a great environment for this kid and I’m hopeful for this one. While both schools are small, which I believe he needs, and both are in outdoor wonderlands, which this kid loves, and both are excellent, especially in his field of choice, Tech has a the ski hill on campus and is an 8 hour drive, not insurmountable. Go for Tech… BTW a Husky is much more approachable than an Oredigger.
The long shot school.. Cornell.
I’m not sure he has the grades or the activities for Cornell, but if should get in there how can you tell him no. He’s never visited the school so we’ll have to figure out that one..
Last on the current active list… Missouri School of Science and Technology. Formally known as Missouri School of Mines in Rolla Missouri. This one is comparable to Tech and Mines, only in Missouri. I’m not sure rural Missouri is where this kid would want to be.. but who knows. It is a good school and small and has all the other good things Tech and Mines have.. except it’s in… Missouri. No skiing, no mountains.. Ozarks? Who knows, we’re visiting in 4 weeks.
Other thoughts.. he believes he wants to live in Seattle for some reason. He’s never been there for heavens sake.. he likes rain and thinks that’s the bomb. Washington has come up as an option as well, but a loong shot as I think his other choices are better and his reasoning on that school isn’t so sound.
That’s it. The Future Sweepstakes for this kid are just getting started. You’ll be seeing more about this in this very space as the year goes on.
Good luck on the college search. If your boy is looking to get into Engineering/Mining of some kind, another school to consider is South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.
http://sdmines.sdsmt.edu/sdsmt
If you are making a roadtrip to Denver to have a look at Colorado School of Mines, make a stop off in Rapid City on the way out or back. Its a beautiful area, and a bit closer to home than Denver.
All that said, I think that its hard to beat CO for an outdoor wonderland, and Golden is an amazing place.
Good luck with the search.
Thanks for tip, I’ve not heard of SD Mines.. Engineering and Geology are his passions.
I am certainly not an expert on Engineering or Geology, and from the little reading I have done Colorado School of Mines is probably as good as any in the country.
I do know that SD School of Mines is supposed to be quite good though, and Rapid City/Black Hills/Badlands are all incredibly places to be if you like to spend time outdoors. Also considerably less expensive areas to live/work/play while going to college than the Denver/Golden area.
Basically, if you are driving to Denver for a campus visit, Rapid can be on the way, so might be worth a half day to take a look. Worst thing that can happen is you get to drive down through the black hills into CO instead of crossing Nebraska.
I like your basic rules. It’s a great framework for making choices, and a clear statement of values.
Having gone through the visitation and choice process with three kids, I think that once you’re all satisfied that the qualities of the institutions are roughly equilvalent, the individual kid’s impression of the place is most important.
All it took was a two-day visit during the school year to convince my oldest that what she thought was her first-choice was not a place she wanted to spend four years.
And rough equivalence is really a squishy category. We live in Northfield where there are two well-known colleges that struggle to point out their own distinguishing characteristics. I’m convinced that there are fewer differences between the colleges than either institution would like to admit. But the impressions that prospective students get are very different, and the choices are clear for most of them.
I’ve heard good things about CSM and SDSM. The only thing I know about Mich Tech is lake effect snow.
Good luck to you and Jock.
Engineering students have rigorous classwork and need as few distractions as possible. (Thou shalt not send your child to a party school.)Colorado School of Mines is a major party school, and because they have so many close-by activities, your son will either be tempted away from his studies or feel majorly deprived. Same with large state schools. If you send him somewhere where he will have “fun,” you might very likely get him back in a year, or have to leave him there for six.
The major thing to ask is the freshman and sophomore engineering student retention rate (some schools brag that they retain almost 50% of their freshman engineers), the amount of leadership opportunities (resume must-have), the research opportunities, the percent of students hired 6 months out of school, and their efforts at providing internship and co-op opportunities (definitely resume must-haves). Other concerns are cost and scholarships (especially the extra scholarships some schools have for geology, energy or petroleum engineers)(especially additional scholarships available in the soph-senior years), distance from home (gas prices), male-female ratio and are any of his friends going there (not that important actually).
The selfish “mom” thing to consider which now one warns you about is – do you want your child to return after they graduate. No one tells you that they usually get jobs through career fairs at school and those career fairs primarily attract cooperations with headquarters or branches in that part of the state. Also, if he is in Colorado, will he come home for Thanksgiving or even Christmas, or will he be with his friends in the mountains? But then again, it is more fun to visit the grandchildren in Denver than it is in St. Louis. Being a good mom, you will probably send your child to the best school for him, but I did warn you.
The thing not to ask is the mascot name. Few people get a job based on that. At real engineering schools, sports takes a back seat to nationally competitive design teams (solar car team, formula SAE car team, human powered vehicle team, and even concrete canoe, robotics, Baja vehicle, and solar house teams, and Engineers Without Borders which provides experience in other countries without having to waste a semester doing it.) These teams offer all the camaraderie, leadership, social activity and travel that a sports team has, but it also gives real experience for the resume. Going skiing with your buddies – not a resume item – building a formula car with your buddies – priceless.
Successful engineering students might not party as much as others, but with minimum $75,000 starting salaries, your twenties really rock. You can take your new sports car to the best ski lodge and have them carry-in your personal top line ski equipment to the suites that you and your life-long former study buddies have rented and talk about all the fabulous accomplishments you and your companies have made in the world, the additions you have put on your new homes or next year’s trip to the islands.
All that being said as impartially as possible, the Missouri S&T Geological Engineering Department is ranked number two in the nation. 100% of their graduates have been placed in industry or have chosen to attend graduate school (and I have dug into the statistics to find that this was a choice, not because of bad grades). This school has a phenomenal scholarship program, but the additional perks for geology majors is mind-boggling. Female enrollment in MST Geological Engineering is about 50%. Among all Missouri S&T graduates, petroleum engineers enjoy some of the highest salaries. Last year’s graduates earned starting salaries of up to $85,000, not including bonuses and perks. Most of their national design teams come in first and second (I think). They have a winning “mucking” team that might also interest your son and instead of skiing, they spelunk, take float trips, go to field camps, and blow things up!
That’s where you probably should start looking. But just in case it still matters, their mascot is Joe Miner – how cool is that for a geology major! In his tool belt he carries a slide rule, but also, some kids like the t-shirt that says – Our Mascot Carries a Gun. Which means to me that no matter how fierce another team’s mascot is our practical mascot wins. The same thing can be said of this school – no matter how fancy another school is – no matter how much social life their town provides – our kids win – they succeed. I only wish the school was closer to our home…
My daughter is a sophomore at MST in mechanical engineering. The opportunities that this school has provided her have been out of this world. She already has a full resume. The town is sad, but college kids’ social life is where their friends are – and MST goes way out of its way to see that its kids do get connected to others. If MST gets in your top 3, email me and we can talk specifics and maybe we can find a geology major for your son to email.
Good luck in your search!
Get the kid to come to Duke……
Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences.
We can adopt him and then Jim can finally get some use out of that benefit where they pay almost all the tuition for dependents of Duke employees. Eleanor is just never going to go to college, you know!
Linwood- hmmm I wonder if he could get into Duke, I also wonder if you’d be ready for a “dude” living in the house. That would be a change alright! In all seriousness thats certainly an idea. Someone would have to reach out and convince him..
Mom- Thanks a ton for the great input! Hadn’t heard that Mines was a “party” school, but at some point you hear that about almost every school. I’m reasonably confident, (Please G-d) that he’ll manage distractions well, as he’s certainly done a magnificent job managing a sports, scouts and club career here and a great academic performance. My middle kid.. no F’n way.. he’s bound for trouble in school I know.
Trust me, we woudn’t pick a team based on mascot. I do think he’s going to want some activities to get involved in. I forgot to mention that Mrs S has added “Join a Greek, the money ENDS” Apparently her experience as PanHellenic President and my being Pres of the Chico State Lambda Chi house has soured her on Greeks and shes sincere that they’re not to get involved with one.
One of the things he likes about Michigan Tech is hockey. Tech is a D1 school and they have a big intermural puck program there. He spent 12 years playing hockey in Minnesota and would like to continue. We’ve agreed to buy him a set of gear (expensive as he’s a goalie) if he wants to play.
Mrs S expects all the kids to scatter to the winds after college. That’s what we did, actually her parents scattered first, mine are in California and I haven’t seen them since 2003. Extreme but another story.
We’re going assume that he’s gone when he leaves. I’m not OK with it, but we got Grandpa telling him as a geologist he gets to live anywhere in the world.. He suggest a few years in Australia.
So.. we have an appointment to visit the school the first week in August. .We’ll see how he likes it..
Do they have ANY hockey down there?
For the best education my vote would be Michigan Tech. For the best “experience” the kid needs to head to Colorado.