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22 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

No disdain for the major itself.  But I think it's one of those things that's driven not by serious interest, but because the kiddo has Flipper or Sea Hunt or Free Willy fantasies and wants to live by the ocean and feed dolphins.  I tend to think it might often be the result of "pin the tail on the major."

 

Mostly wanted to elaborate that I didn't want to slag Pepperdine too hard, because I know next to nothing about it.  But it does have attractions that have little to do with serious academics.

Had a high school classmate who went to Pepperdine (had family money).  He was smart, but a totally aimless type.  Drank beer, smoked weed, chased tail, but none of it with much passion.

Meet up at our 10th class reunion.  He had just been promoted to the youngest Captain in the USMC.  Got into the Marines ROTC in Pepperdine, and skyrocketed through the ranks -- had combat deployments, a stint at Gitmo, and ran the Marine detachment at Annapolis.  I asked him "so, dude....WTF?  How did this happen?"  He answered "well, I just kind of stumbled into ROTC, and then found that there was something I was really, really good at." 

"And what was that?" 

"Killing people." 

"Well.  Okay then.  Glad you're doing it for our team."

He's the only Pepperdine grad I know.  Others are likely quite different.

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36 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

I thought about editing to explain this.  I'm sure Pepperdine is a fine school and probably really excels in some areas.  Nevertheless, if your kid wants to go there because of the beach setting and to major in Marine BIology! or underwater basketweaving or some such nonsensical major (or even a sensible major for which they have shown no aptitude or interest), I think it would be legitimate as a parent to say, no, not gonna indulge that.

 

And, although I have many issues with the way Baylor runs some shit, it has always been a pretty half-decent school, or better, academically.

A lot of kids of Baylor profs end up at Pepperdine with the free tuition exchange program they have going on. It actually put my brother and I through Baylor for free and my sister (no pics) through Howard Payne (lulz) for free.

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There is no evidence Brisket is being held hostage by his daughter.  He wants her to have the optimal experience for her chosen field -- oh, the horror!
Surly gonna surly.


I think some of us are just a little nervous about the following:

Georgetown is $50k a year (gulp).  And we make enough money that I'm betting the scholarship dollars she could get would be minimal.  Mom and dad would have to take on some debt to make that happen.


Paying $200k for your child’s undergrad education is very generous, but for people with the means to do it, have at it. Taking on debt to finance a $200k linguistics degree seems ill advised. But I’m not Brisket so carry on.
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19 minutes ago, wild_turkey said:

 


I think some of us are just a little nervous about the following:



Paying $200k for your child’s undergrad education is very generous, but for people with the means to do it, have at it. Taking on debt to finance a $200k linguistics degree seems ill advised. But I’m not Brisket so carry on.

 

Brisket is VERY nervous about what you highlighted.  And without more info (outside scholarships, inside tracks on work programs, etc.), would lay that out for all of us to look at on the table.

I'd like her to be involved in the decision making, and to have her looped in on real-world cost-benefit analysis at her current age.  No better time to start.

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25 minutes ago, wild_turkey said:

 


I think some of us are just a little nervous about the following:



Paying $200k for your child’s undergrad education is very generous, but for people with the means to do it, have at it. Taking on debt to finance a $200k linguistics degree seems ill advised. But I’m not Brisket so carry on.

Can't really argue with this either.  I did see somewhere that average financial aid at GT was like $42k,  oops, shit no, wiki says 23k, so the net is almost within reason (but that's only tuition, not living in foggy bottom).

Hopefully, young briskette will take that into account with her final decision.

Edited by TwiceHorn
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I hung out a lot in Ann Arbor both when I was in school up the road (had a lot of HS friends there), and in my early to mid 20s. This was 15-20 years ago so ymmv, take it fwiw.

Positives - Great school. Ann Arbor is a really cool town. Close to major airport. Beautiful fall and summer seasons. Extremely diverse demographics on campus. Cool old buildings. Tradition. Fall Saturdays. Liberal environment. 

Negatives - Campus is kind of segregated from town. Hard to explain. They overlap in some areas but it doesn't "flow". IMO it's a much better "town" than it is a "college town" if that makes sense. A lot of the social life is Greek so she should have an open mind to that. I found the attitude of a lot of students there off putting/not friendly (and I wasn't running around wearing my green and white). Lots of rich East coast kids. Michigan winters. Even for those of us who are used to them, they are long, and depressing. Extremely liberal environment. Like I'm talking I'm-gonna-grow-my-bush-out-until-it-is-one-with-my-armpit-hair liberal. 

Overall if I didn't have the personal bias, and I thought they could hack the winters, I wouldn't hesitate to send my kid there. 

 

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not gonna read all this thread, but here are my .02

If she is interested in learning languages, she should study in or near the places that speak those languages.   Based on what you said above I definitely think she should study in main land Europe.   Immersion is the key and being exposed constantly to a variety of languages will help immeasurably.

Hell, studying in Milan, easy train ride to Germany, France, Switzerland, Spain, cheap travel to Greece, etc....  throw in access to middle eastern, African language speakers.  Shit she could learn a lot more about the world and the languages in a year studying abroad than 4 years sitting in any US classroom.  Would be incredible if that was her thing.

also If you were worried about the Scots, good luck with the Italian guys

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Just to piggyback on this thread:

My daughter is a junior in HS, she's currently taking AP Spanish IV. She likes spanish and does well in the class. We were talking last night about college and she's unsure about what she wants to pursue as a career. She's intrigued about getting a spanish degree but isn't sure what sort of job opportunities there are for that degree (other than teaching spanish). We looked at some stuff on a college website but I thought I'd ask here as well.

I thought it was funny to see Indiana listed as a good language school, as my dad is from Bloomington and she loves it up there. But we live in Oklahoma and she's pretty leery about moving away by herself. Her twin sister is pretty dead set on going to Oklahoma State for nursing school and I think she'll just go with her so she can avoid being alone.

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3 hours ago, Sandman said:

My daughter is a junior in HS, she's currently taking AP Spanish IV. She likes spanish and does well in the class. We were talking last night about college and she's unsure about what she wants to pursue as a career. She's intrigued about getting a spanish degree but isn't sure what sort of job opportunities there are for that degree (other than teaching spanish).

A long time ago I read that you don't want to just know a second language, you want to know a second language + some other skill.

As for teaching Spanish, that's a bleak field right now. Way too many people who "could" teach it, competing for a declining number of good jobs. The bean-counters are replacing full-timers with adjuncts, and offering a bunch of "Online Learning" courses where people allegedly do their own work for a professor who never sees them to grade remotely, all of it driven by stacking more paying students on fewer paid profs. Look for schools to just straight up go to pre-recorded lectures from some central source. Or just drop it like Latin.

(This is coming from a guy who agreed to teach a part-time Spanish course starting next week, because the hourly wage is great "found money." But I'd be SOL if it was my only job.)

Now, get her to learn Spanish AND be a cartel Hit-Woman, and you've got her a career.

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Clearly her list implies a lot of aspiration and confidence.  Well done, so far, Mr and Mrs Brisket.  

I would reverse the cold weather, dark as problems perspective.  Why not learn how to cope with that reality?  Just one more adversity to master.

I have met some really great engineers from all the schools except Amherst.   Yet I'm surprised at their low ranking, but these things say nothing about individual programs.

Let here visit and choose.  Relax, and pay.

 

I don't understand the bolding shit.

 

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On ‎8‎/‎17‎/‎2018 at 6:50 AM, RiceOwl said:

My only comment (that hasn’t been said yet) is the following: don’t let weather influence where she goes to college. 

So many people say “winters are a bitch in XXX.” Yeah, maybe if you’re 40 years old and have to shovel your driveway/pay for a plow, find childcare for your kids because school cancelled and work didn’t, etc, etc. 

But as a college kid, it’s a blast! A couple bonus days off are nearly guaranteed for snow days, scheduling all your classes in the afternoon so you can ski 4 mornings a week at Tremblant (if she went to McGill), etc. Montreal isn’t really any colder than Boston or other northern U.S. cities. Head up the road to Quebec City-Yes, lots colder. Montreal, not so much. 

I completely disagree.  I don't know how I made it through grad school in Seattle without slitting my wrists.  

And, FUCKIN' A, go spend four years in a place you'd like to live.  There's a good chance your first job will be in the same area.

Edited by Beau Vine
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20 minutes ago, Beau Vine said:

I completely disagree.  I don't know how I made it through grad school in Seattle without slitting my wrists. 

A buddy who went to school in upstate New York said once it rained so long, that he volunteered for the Peace Corps in Afghanistan because it didn't rain there. This was pre-Soviet invasion, so after he fell in love with the place, he wasn't able to go back.

Rain, serious bidness.

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Whatever. I grew up in Massachusetts (15 miles inland where we received 66% more snow than Boston), a place where it’s cold and snowy in the winter and went to school in Houston (which is a weather hell hole in its own right), and it didn’t phase me. I now live in Dallas, which IMO is slightly better than Houston weather wise, but hardly great. 

I guess I’m just less affected by weather than others. 

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17 hours ago, RiceOwl said:

I guess I’m just less affected by weather than others. 

That's a real thing.  I could live just about anywhere.  I got out of the midwest because I didn't very much like ignorant rednecks + slushy dirty snow, especially if there isn't good skiing nearby, but I could live in Portland or Seattle.  For the most part I tend to stay inside and play music or work or whatever, and my outdoors activity is mostly exercise, because death sucks.  Gray skies and rain don't bother me a bit.

My wife?  She'd kill herself within weeks.  I am trying to see my way clear to an exit plan where I either retire or work remotely from a beach.  Probably Naples FL or at least on the Gulf, but really, a beach + sunshine so my wife doesn't kill herself.  (I gotta admit, I like beach + sunshine a lot myself, but it's hardly a requirement.)

Edited by jimmyjazz
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On 8/15/2018 at 9:58 PM, Shmitty said:

the absolutely best school for linguistics and studying foreign languages is BYU (Brigham Young) and for good reason.   Plus tuition, housing, etc will be cheaper by a mile compared to those schools.    But, hands down, BYU has the best foreign language department in the nation and one of the best in the world.  

Are you really suggesting a non-Mormon should go to  BYU?  

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Got a grad degree from Georgetown.  It's expensive, DC is expensive, and especially the area around Georgetown is expensive.  Flip side is that she's probably in the best place to be for a linguist since all of the embassy's are there as are all of the foreign policy/international think tanks/organizations.  If that's her cup of tea, nothing beats being in DC.  Also, Ivy league degree always looks nice to the prude elites. 

I went to Georgetown over U of Florida for my Tax LLM, primarily because DC is the tax haven and Florida is a swamp.  They are academically equal in Tax law (only NYU is better), but the 1 year in DC pretty much opened a multitude of doors for me that would have been harder to open from Florida. Still paying Georgetown off.

If that's not what she's gunning for, then she should save the tuition money and go somewhere cheaper with a good linguistics department.  If she has a good GPA and some hustle, she can still nab summer internships.  I'd pick whichever of Michigan or UMas gives the best financial benefit and/or has the better linguistics program.  I hear that some state schools give money/scholarships/tuition discounts to out of state kids to go there.  Not sure how accurate that is.

My cousin got into Georgetown and Ohio State.  Went to Ohio State and studied finance because she didn't want to have to compete with the yuppy kids at Georgetown. Made straight A's.  Had a summer internship in Madrid, and one at a big name investment bank in NYC.  Got an offer from said bank. So it can work out.

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On 8/14/2018 at 10:24 PM, millhouse said:

What about one of the service academies? Free school, guaranteed job and I'm sure they would be more than happy to teach her some other languages.

It isn't free...

 

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On 8/15/2018 at 9:04 AM, Brisketexan said:

 

Mostly, I'm nervous about her limiting her choices and options.

Most important thing you've posted.  That's your job as a dad... to remind her that options= better chance for finding what she wants.  Having choices doesn't mean she has to ignore her #1 pick either.

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Lulz.  I applied to Michigan (music full ride), U of C (business), and Indiana (NM scholarship business).  Plus Illinois, UT, and Missouri-Rolla (when I decided on engineering late).
Strange commonalities in these lists.

We get quite a few kids from Rolla as interns/entry level engineers. Smart kids, but the majority only stick around long enough to get experience and go back toward home.
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2 minutes ago, EE2B said:


We get quite a few kids from Rolla as interns/entry level engineers. Smart kids, but the majority only stick around long enough to get experience and go back toward home.

Is that in Texas?  I'd be curious to learn the field.  (Obviously they place a lot of PetE and GeoE kids in Texas, but most majors seem to stick to the midwest.)

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4 hours ago, Chewbacca said:

Are you really suggesting a non-Mormon should go to  BYU?  

Happens all the time up there.  I knew quite a few when I was a student.    And for a private-Christian school, it has quite a few muslim students from other countries as well.  

Edited by Shmitty
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14 hours ago, Shmitty said:

Happens all the time up there.  I knew quite a few when I was a student.    And for a private-Christian school, it has quite a few muslim students from other countries as well.  

So willingly go to a school where booze and sex (and even beards) are forbidden and the main group of students will never fully accept you because you're an outsider?  Why on earth would you do that to yourself?

 

Don't get me wrong, Mormons are very nice.  But if you're not one of them, you'll never really be accepted by them.  And the school is 98% Mormon.  I wouldn't say it has quite a few of anything except Mormons.

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1 minute ago, Chewbacca said:

So willingly go to a school where booze and sex (and even beards) are forbidden and the main group of students will never fully accept you because you're an outsider?  Why on earth would you do that to yourself?

 

Don't get me wrong, Mormons are very nice.  But if you're not one of them, you'll never really be accepted by them.  And the school is 98% Mormon.  I wouldn't say it has quite a few of anything except Mormons.

That is not true at all.  Talk about unfair and distorted stereotyping...

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1 minute ago, Shmitty said:

That is not true at all.  Talk about unfair and distorted stereotyping...

What part isn't true?  I took the booze, sex and beards straight out of the honor code (you can't have tobacco, caffeine or porn, either).   As for the non-acceptance, that is based on my experience growing up around a lot of Mormons.  They are very nice, but you, as an outsider, are always kept at arms length.  Not allowed to peek behind the curtain, so to speak.  HS friend of mine got married in the Mormon temple in Denver.  Non-Mormons were not allowed to attend the service as it took place in the temple.  We were allowed to wait outside.

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Is that in Texas?  I'd be curious to learn the field.  (Obviously they place a lot of PetE and GeoE kids in Texas, but most majors seem to stick to the midwest.)

Northeast Texas/SouthWest Arkansas. All of the one we have hired are ChemE’s. I don’t think we have any EE or ME’s.
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  • 3 weeks later...

UC schools give no out of state scholarships.  we were really hoping to sent our kids out west.  daughter got a $35k scholarship to USC, but we still would've paid an arm and a leg. 

paying anything over $20k/year for a linguistics major is crazy.  there's a reason why student load debt is the next bubble to burst.  all those liberal arts degrees aint gonna pay off themselves.

go with a good state school who is offering her money.  your wallet will thank you.

Edited by crash_davis
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Yeah, she no habla the espanol (oh, the irony).  She knows some, just by virtue of her family, but she long ago decided to focus on German (although she's now starting to work on French as well -- her goal is to be genuinely fluent in German by the end of sophomore year of college, and be strongly conversant to fluent in French by graduation, and then maybe work on a fourth language).
And as to the weather -- we're just making her aware.  Odds are, here life and career will take her any number of different places. Honestly, at this point, I'm going to be milldy surprised if she lives out her adult life in the US.  Some places she might be are cold, some not.  She might as well learn how to deal with different climates.
And I totally understand why she wants to leave the only town she's ever lived in.  Hell, I wasn't nearly as worldly a kid as she is, and I never even considered any of my hometown Houston schools.  I could have gotten a full ride to UH easily, and probably could have gotten into Rice with some money thrown in, but I wanted to get away from home.  Even if it was just 160 miles up the road, it was far enough away to be someplace different, where I could be on my own and make my own way.
Oh, and Macanudo, you recall correctly.  This is a kid who had anxiety about EVERYTHING when she was younger.  We've pushed her a great deal, and helped to put her in places where she could develop some confidence in herself.  She just got home a few weeks ago from a trip to Germany and Scotland, which she navigated entirely on her own.  She flew to Frankfurt, took the train to Cologne to meet her family.  Spent three weeks with them.  Then hopped the train to Berlin to visit her friend for a week.  Then flew from Berlin to Edinburgh to check out the university, and the city environs around it.  Then, she had to get up at before the asscrack of dawn to hop in an Uber, get to the airport, fly to Manchester, and connect to a flight to Vegas.  She cleared customs there, hopped a SWA flight to LAX (we had arrived there for our vacation), where I picked her up.  I was pretty damned proud of her -- still am, actually.  I couldn't have handled that at 17.  At 17, I was focused on beer and tail (I may have the order wrong).
I know a little German.
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Have a guera niece who after undergrad went to work in Puebla, MX and just left for Edinburgh to get some languagy post graduate degree.  She seems excited.  We plan to visit her but fuck visiting a place that cold for more than a couple of weeks.

She went to Hendrix in Ark for undergrad.

I think if you love languages you travel and work in those foreign countries.  But would pick a domestic school that you like and makes $$$ sense.

Kids these days with their random college lists...

Assuming Harvard is her safety school.

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17 hours ago, tantric superman said:

Have a guera niece who after undergrad went to work in Puebla, MX and just left for Edinburgh to get some languagy post graduate degree.  She seems excited.  We plan to visit her but fuck visiting a place that cold for more than a couple of weeks.

She went to Hendrix in Ark for undergrad.

I think if you love languages you travel and work in those foreign countries.  But would pick a domestic school that you like and makes $$$ sense.

Kids these days with their random college lists...

Assuming Harvard is her safety school.

She's so Harvard-hostile it isn't even funny -- "They just want my application fee."

She's been doing deeper-dives into costs.  It has bumped Georgetown down her list....considerably.  She visited UMass last week -- she actually liked it, got to spend some significant time visiting with one of the linguistics profs.  The point was, she realized "I could be happy here."  And, I think they'll throw some money at her.  She's realizing that "I could be happy here, and get a fine education" is a perfectly good benchmark for undergrad....and cost damn well needs to be laid on top of that to make a final decision.

She visits Michigan next weekend, and in late October we're going to Montreal to visit McGill.  Right now, McGill is near the top for her, and I like it too -- the cost ain't much more than UT, when you figure in room and board and all that jazz.  But, it's really competitive, and it's ALL numbers-based - no consideration of the broader candidate, writing, etc.(where she shines -- her grades are plenty strong, and her ACT is strong, but still...she looks better as a whole package).  We'll see.  She'll end up someplace, and she'll make a go of it.

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7 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

She's so Harvard-hostile it isn't even funny -- "They just want my application fee."

She's been doing deeper-dives into costs.  It has bumped Georgetown down her list....considerably.  She visited UMass last week -- she actually liked it, got to spend some significant time visiting with one of the linguistics profs.  The point was, she realized "I could be happy here."  And, I think they'll throw some money at her.  She's realizing that "I could be happy here, and get a fine education" is a perfectly good benchmark for undergrad....and cost damn well needs to be laid on top of that to make a final decision.

She visits Michigan next weekend, and in late October we're going to Montreal to visit McGill.  Right now, McGill is near the top for her, and I like it too -- the cost ain't much more than UT, when you figure in room and board and all that jazz.  But, it's really competitive, and it's ALL numbers-based - no consideration of the broader candidate, writing, etc.(where she shines -- her grades are plenty strong, and her ACT is strong, but still...she looks better as a whole package).  We'll see.  She'll end up someplace, and she'll make a go of it.

Seems odd that it's so numbers based.  Is that the way Canada works?  Or is it they way they treat an American?  I know more about UK admissions than Canada.

 

I guess UK schools are, when it comes down to it, very numbers based also.  Or letters as it were. 

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13 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

Seems odd that it's so numbers based.  Is that the way Canada works?  Or is it they way they treat an American?  I know more about UK admissions than Canada.

 

I guess UK schools are, when it comes down to it, very numbers based also.  Or letters as it were. 

They apparently try to be very egalitarian -- no fancy essay where you talk about your grandpa who went there, donated a million bucks for the old library, etc.  Just straight up numerical "merit."  I do see the appeal.

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33 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

They apparently try to be very egalitarian -- no fancy essay where you talk about your grandpa who went there, donated a million bucks for the old library, etc.  Just straight up numerical "merit."  I do see the appeal.

Kinda like when we were admitted to UT (I'm assuming we were both in the top quarter and/or ______ SAT/ACT era).  Of course, I guess you were all subjectifying in that Plan II jive (actually so was I, but very half-heartedly).

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On 8/18/2018 at 10:41 AM, Sandman said:

Just to piggyback on this thread:

My daughter is a junior in HS, she's currently taking AP Spanish IV. She likes spanish and does well in the class. We were talking last night about college and she's unsure about what she wants to pursue as a career. She's intrigued about getting a spanish degree but isn't sure what sort of job opportunities there are for that degree (other than teaching spanish). We looked at some stuff on a college website but I thought I'd ask here as well.

I thought it was funny to see Indiana listed as a good language school, as my dad is from Bloomington and she loves it up there. But we live in Oklahoma and she's pretty leery about moving away by herself. Her twin sister is pretty dead set on going to Oklahoma State for nursing school and I think she'll just go with her so she can avoid being alone.

 

industrial technology degree with Spanish minor

She'll be making six figures 3 to 4 years out of college, if she plays her cards right 

Edited by tx 3 putt
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I sent my SAT scored to 3 schools (UT, Michigan, UNC).  I received an acceptance letter from UT about a month later that asked me to check a box for what I wanted to major in, and my choiced were not limited at all.  Before I pursued things any further with UM or UNC, I had a talk with my parents about the financial aspect of things, and I checked the box for the business school and mailed it back to UT that day.

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5 minutes ago, conVINCEd said:

I sent my SAT scored to 3 schools (UT, Michigan, UNC).  I received an acceptance letter from UT about a month later that asked me to check a box for what I wanted to major in, and my choiced were not limited at all.  Before I pursued things any further with UM or UNC, I had a talk with my parents about the financial aspect of things, and I checked the box for the business school and mailed it back to UT that day.

UNC is or used to be one of the hardest state supported schools to get into if you're not from NC...... or an athlete.

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2 hours ago, Onboard 2.0 said:

UNC is or used to be one of the hardest state supported schools to get into if you're not from NC...... or an athlete.

I’m sure it is.  I’m a really good test taker.  I’m guessing I probably could’ve gotten in.  Like a lot of folks, my parents made enough money to disqualify me from any need-based financial aid, but not enough to not give a fuck about a $100k difference in price for a comparable education.  That was 20+ years ago when tuition at UT was damn near free.  The math might be a little different today when factoring in increased tuition at UT, and the cost of living in Austin.  

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