The other night PoS and I attended a college fair sponsored by the good people at
Colleges That Change Lives. I highly recommend it to anyone with a student trying to find a school that fits them. The initial speakers were funny and informative and then they turned a room of 450 people loose on a group of about admissions counselors representing approximately forty schools.
PoS and I had scanned the list before arriving and five of the ten schools on her list were going to be in attendance. Before going in I told her I wasn't going to do any question asking for her. If she wanted to know something about a school, it would be up to her to ask. I have no desire to be a
helicopter or lawnmower parent. I can't take any tests for her, speak in interviews for her, etc. I thought this would be the perfect time to let her take charge. So while the well mannered PoS is trying to be respectful of those around her, the parents of others were pushing her out of the way to grill the counselors for their kid. I was hot, I was sick, I was hopped up on TheraFlu, I stepped back and let her do her thing.
An enthusiastic recent grad of
Knox College earned them a rating of 7 out of 10 when she informed PoS that while their school didn't have a criminology program, they do work closely with the local police department and students have been known to intern with them. (
In case you're joining us late, she wants to eventually be a criminal profiler and wants to double major in psychology and criminology).
The representative from
Ohio Wesleyan was very blah in my opinion. While other schools had other kids crowding around them, this table had just PoS. The lady couldn't muster up enough enthusiasm for me to justify a visit, but PoS gave them a 6.
We stopped by the
Rhodes table long enough for PoS to discern that it was not the school for her. Why, you may ask. "It's all Harry Potter castle like. And Memphis is the big city. I'm not ready for the big city." The way she talks, you would think we live on a farm. We live in
a big city! But whatever. I crossed it off the list and kept it moving. At this point I was working my way through my second bag of cough drops so whatever got us out of there sooner worked for me.
The next stop was
Beloit. I've been talking to a recent grad of the school on Twitter and she gushes about the greatness of Beloit. This is a school that wasn't on PoS' list until I added it as something she might want to look into. The admissions director was lively, regaling the kids with stories of the football team's recent win. I didn't even think the school had a football team, but I'm a Big 10 snob.
Anyway, it's weird what impresses people. PoS was excited about the various student clubs, including the DJ Club and other things. It wasn't so much that she wanted to join the clubs listed, she was excited that the school allowed them to exist. She was also a big fan of the "create your major" approach the school takes. Beloit scored the highest of the night with an 8.
Our last stop was at the
Lawrence table. I was disappointed for various reasons. My cousin is a graduate of the university and has been talking it up for years. However, the representative only seemed to light up when she talked about their music program. Yes, their music program is renowned, but the three kids standing in front of her were all interested in psychology, which happens to be a popular major at Lawrence. She couldn't muster up enough enthusiasm to talk about it for more than a minute before drifting back to the music program. PoS gave them a 5.
Right after that we decided to make a run for it. PoS said, and I agreed, that there was no need to add any additional schools to the list. It took long enough to get the list down to a manageable number, no need in heading in the opposite direction. By the way, I reminded her that Northeastern and Boston University are both in the big city of Boston. Her reply? "Yeah, but Boston is full of schools. Whatever. I'm weird, I know."
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