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Joined: Dec 1969
05-15-2013, 09:58 AM
(This post was last modified: 05-15-2013, 10:03 AM by
Robbie.)
Fortunately, my children are doing reasonably well academically, and have a variety of college choices available to them. I don't know if any of them could get in to Stanford, though, even though I own a sheepskin, but they are strong applicants. But they haven't wanted to go there.
My oldest really wanted to go to college in Manhattan, and she got in to her first choice. And she's happy there. So far so good.
My second child is very committed to both skiing and sailing, so he wants to be in a place where he can do both. Dartmouth and Amherst are high on his list, for example. He is a high school junior right now, so in a year we'll have an answer in hand.
My third - too young to say anything concrete - but he is a big Stanford football fan.
I spent six years on the MIT campus. I really enjoyed it, but I'm also happy I wasn't an undergraduate there - there is a culture of academic self-abuse that I found unhealthy. ("I have to tell everyone that I'm working really hard and complain about it.") I think that people worked as hard at Stanford, but the culture was more "In the afternoon let's go play ultimate, and then study after dinner" - I liked that much better.
But I did take advantage of the out-of-the-lab stuff that is at MIT. I learned to sail. I directed some plays. I danced on stage. My team won an intramural championship in volleyball. Not so many poets or painters that I was hanging around with, but there is more to The Institute than just its technical excellence.
There's lots of paths, and lots of good choices. It's a matter of finding yours.
"I have nothing to say and I am saying it."
--- John Cage