'Why I'm raising my son to be a nerd'

You know that old saw about "Everything I learned in life I learned in Kindergarten?"

Well, everything I learned in life I learned in either sports or Boy Scouts.

 

There's merit scholarship available but it's highly competitive. My daughter graduated at or near the top of her class in a high-end prep school a couple weeks ago. I thought I might get off the financial hook when she was quickly offered full scholarships at NYU and Syracuse (which also offered room and board) and she was offered some other pretty significant merit scholarship packages (U. Chicago, Washington University, couple others). But a couple weeks later she was also accepted at all four Ivies to which she applied and they only give need-based grants. So my daughter is now a happy member of Yale 2015 and I will need to work until 2045. Seriously, I can think of nothing in which I'd rather invest those dollars.

 

Stitch is a caveman!

In my public HS class of around 350 people, we had three go to Ivies (valedictorian went to Penn, others to Brown and Columbia). None of them played sports. All of them were close friends of mine. Hell, I slept with the two girls that went Ivy. (Not at the same time.)

 

Kids need skills. This article doesn't mention what skills are needed.

http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2011/06/30/skills_gap_leaves_firms_without_worker_pipeline/?page=full

I'd like to hear Kermit's viewpoints on this.

 

Having worked in financial aid for many years, this is an interesting conversation for me. Yes, academic scholarships are available. Truth is, they don't "cost" the school anything...it's just discounted from the student's bill. Yet schools are always a bit hesitant to "over award" the scholarships (merit based). At the end of each academic cycle, your discount rate (% of money actually discounted, as opposed to actually coming into the school coffers) has to make come out in the black. No reason to bring in a huge class, but have no one actually paying. You want the best students you can get.....but why give a big merit award to someone who's folks can afford to actually pay? You try and funnel endowed monies (that are actually sitting in a bank account, waiting to transfer into the general fund) into overall awards as much as possible, as it's "real" money.

Actually, at most of the private / competitive admit schools I've worked at, the FA office doesn't even have control of the academic (merit) scholarships. The admission office "controls" those funds, until the student deposits to the school (thus keeping the discount rate in balance). The student file then arrives in FA, already partially awarded (merit).

The Ivies (as well as the very top tier competitive schools....Stanford, ND, etc) are in an admirable position. They have a TON of endowed money, just sitting there. The very best students are coming to them anyways....so why "discount" them?? That (a merit award) just ends up costing them money, while the endowed money (targeted toward needy students) just sits. Not only does it work out best financially, but you can also sit on your pile of cash, feign moral superiority & talk about how everyone should only take need into account. It's a beautiful thing Worked great for you, Cran!

 

Wow. Congratulations. Please PM me everything you know about parenting. I dream of my child getting these opportunities, and it's for all the right reasons. Namely, I know how much education has done for me, but it took me a while to get there, because I just didn't come from a background where I was raised to believe these places were possibilities. If my child gets into Harvard or Yale or Princeton or a place like Virginia or Berkeley or Michigan, I don't care if anyone knows it, so it's not a keep-up-with-the-joneses thing. I don't have to live vicariously through him or her because I will have a degree from one of those kinds of places, as well. It's strictly, I solemnly swear, a father looking out for his children and wanting them to have every opportunity to position themselves to succeed in life.

Again, congrats. I can't imagine how proud you must be.

 

Thanks, DW. I am proud. She earned it herself, though. The only qualities I tried to impart were curiosity, compassion and open-mindedness. She ran with it. Like you, the idea of this type of education was never within the realm of possibility in my lower middle-class family. Dad worked at a factory and mom didn't go back to college until I was about 14. Just going to college was the goal.

 

Wow. We come from pretty much the same background. A lot of us here probably do. I definitely think that instilling curiosity is a big thing. I can recall my mother and father both being absolutely unable - to this day - to hide it when they didn't find something interesting. Particularly, with my mother, math and science and civics. To this day, my mom couldn't name a Cabinet member, but she could tell you every time Jennifer Aniston buys a house. Which is funny now, but growing up, it sends some unmistakable signals when you make a face or tune out every time your kid tells you something about science class.

 

I heard an amazing bit of information a couple of days ago...Oberlin College, a small liberal arts school in Northeast Ohio, is still operating on funds endowed to the school in the 1960's. That is how much money is sitting in their endowment fund. Oh, and the school pays Cleveland Hopkins International Airport in excess of $300,000 a year to make sure none of the holding patterns or routes in to the airport go over Oberlin. This is strange considering one of the biggest FAA instillations is in Oberlin.

Their athletics, by the way, are atrocious. One of the most inept DIII athletic departments in the nation. It's a big music school.