FSU. Not happening

I know my husband and I will say absolutely NO to UNC lol! We both went to NCSU, so our house will not be divided.

I cannot also have my child going to the University of Arizona either...

Started a Sun Devil, graduated as a member of the Wolfpack!

CURSE YOU, IL!!!!!!!!!!! :p

I live in a divided house- my husband went to a rival school of mine. In fact, the first time I met him, he had something on that had his school emblem on it and I made fun of him relentlessly. :) Strange way to charm a guy!

But in all honesty, having a divided house is fun! That being said, if our kid decided to go to his alma mater, I have to admit that I'd be a bit crushed. And would show up at campus events with my own school's symbol on my shirt. :)

I know. :) I'm surprised at how many people are like "My kids won't go to Michigan because it sucks!" when it's one of the top state universities in the country and anyone who'd get in was pretty smart.

Does UOPX have a mascot?

University of Southwestern Fill-in-the-Blank. Those schools tend to play second fiddle to the flagship universities. I still can't get behind UCF--luckily, neither can my rising HS sophomore niece.

(SWTXBelle can follow up on this one.) :)

It is for just this reason that Southwest Texas State University had an uprising and over the arguments of the faculty changed the name of the school which had grown from a small college to a school of more than 25000 students. (It turns out that the alumni had raised something like $2million to change the name and the state found out that it would only cost about $400K to change the name and then they could re-license everything, so they did.)

Also - U. Central Michigan, Western Michigan and Northern Michigan are all good schools and like Texas State rated as good educational value for the cost schools.

Those schools are excellent examples of what I was saying...while they might be "good schools" for the people who thrive there, they still play second fiddle to the flagships. :)

I would string my daughter up by her toenails if she declared that she was staying in our town to go to college. The main reason being, I think that you should have to 'get away' some to truly experience living on your own and experiencing new environments. (I say that as someone who only travelled 30 minutes "away" to school).

My current city has several private high schools that can run upwards of $20K per year. The academics are truly outstanding, so I can see where it could be somewhat of an investment. Graduates of those schools consistently go on to succeed at the nation's highest rated universities.

However, I am shocked at how many families pay that tuition, only to have their children stay in town and attend the local branch of the state's university system. While the state flagship university isn't exactly on par with UVA, Michigan or Texas, it is still much better than the branch one here, which is consistently rated the lowest university in the system. I absolutely do not get the mentality behind that, but then again, I live in a town where when someone asks "Where did you go to school?" they don't mean college. :rolleyes:

Most of the rest of the state would be glad to give the southeast corner away.

I hope you don't base your dislike of the state of Michigan on Detroit and/or U of M. If you've never been here, there are some pretty gorgeous areas along Lake Michigan, especially the NW corner of the state. Parts of the Upper Peninsula are spectacular as well. :)

FYP




WATCH YOURSELF

Charlevoix is quite lovely! I grew up not far from Michigan and spent a lot of time there. I have actually never been to Ann Arbor except for one afternoon for a college visit- not enough to get a good impression of the area, I will concede, but even though I didn't go to OSU, I guess I still am a Buckeye at heart. ;)

Reading GC would probably cause me to feel the same way and it has nothing to do with the quality of the schools. After reading so many threads about recruitment, campus life, and life after college in the south, I feel like I would be setting my child up for failure by encouraging her to attend a southern school. We're Midwesterners through and through. She would be a complete outsider in every sense of the word with the teeny, tiny exception that she is a legacy (which will matter even less in another thirteen years). College is a challenging enough time without also needing to navigate an entirely different social paradigm.

So, great school or not, I wouldn't actively encourage her to explore a southern school, especially if she is really interested in Greek life. I would encourage her to stay in the Midwest. There are plenty of great schools to choose from in all shapes and sizes. Would I tell her she couldn't go to a southern school? Of course not. But I'd make sure she fully understood how much of the deck was stacked against her, especially if she wanted to be Greek at some of the schools down there.

That said, if for some insane reason she did end up Greek in the South, hubby and I would take a long working vacation down there and visit all the big southern schools around recruitment time. I'd truly like to see it all in action. ;)

I'm right there on the no for profit colleges bandwagon. I work in HR, and I hear the snickers whenever a resume comes in with Univeristy of Phoenix/Strayer/ ITT et. all listed for college.

Don't think an overly conservative relgious school would work either- so no BYU, Liberty, Oral Roberts, etc. We are catholic, but there are even some ultra-conservative catholic schools that I wouldn't be happy about either- Ave Maria and Stubenville come to mind.

And my kids COULD go to a Michigan or Miami U or another big rival school to either Ohio State or Ohio University - however I WON'T be sitting in the stands cheering on their school's teams! (and if my kids are playing sports for them, I'll cheer on individual accomplishment, but I don't think I could ever yell Go Blue! and the only Miami cheer I know is Muck Fiami...)

Oh the crazies I know who went to Fransiscan in the Steub.... lol.