ryoder Wrote:I would ask that he consider getting an apartment right beside the school instead of a dorm.
Benefits include nobody asking questions when you bring girls home at any hour of the night and the cost is lower than a dorm if you have a roommate. I honestly don't know why anyone would want to live in a dorm where you don't get to choose your rommate and you have to share a small space with them. If these dorms were apartments nobody in their right mind would ever pay to live there, but since its part of the college experience, people think they have to do it.
I have been in dorms a few times and its really not cool. People act like children and make noise at all times of the day so its hard to study.
Its like living in the army barracks. I know because my friend was in the 82nd airborne and also lived in the dorms for his first semester of college.
Every time I spoke with him on the phone at the barracks I could barely hear him because people were hollering, cursing, coming in and out of rooms etc. As a quiet person I could never live in that environment.

Make sure he gets to see the dorms for real before choosing to live that way. He should make friends at the local state school and spend a little time in the dorms to see what I'm talking about.

cookderosa Wrote:I'm thinking out loud, and looking for ideas, so feel free to bounce suggestions at me. My son is still considering a military career upon high school graduation (he's a junior) but he does sometimes get wishy-washy, and I really (really) want him to focus on credit earning between now and then. I also am a type-A plan for all things mom. <cough>

I'm an old pro at the schools we talk about here, but what's going on in my mind is to find a state/public school that has dorms. If I can run him up into 30- 60-90 credits before he's done with high school, he can either head to the military or finish his degree. If he opts to finish his degree, I'd like him to get up into the 90 cr range and then head to the dorms for 1 year of "college" and he'd be done. I feel that this would give him the shared "experience" his peers are having (and let's not even go there, I know full well what it is/isn't) as well as saving tons of money using what I've learned here tempered with a good dose of online / butt in seat.

This brings me to a different kind of search. I'm going to try and build a good list of 2-3 schools (4 year only) that have amazing CLEP policy (going for 30cr.), possible ACE acceptance (to use ALEKS maths), and offer online options, and allow him to enroll as a special student without a high school degree. I'm not going to factor in cost just yet, because I think that will come later when the list is made.
I predict that my list will be short- very short. But, I'm still going to hunt for at least 2-3.

If you know of a school that you think I should look at, throw it out. Of course I'll share my findings here So, once again, the criteria:

1. 4-year state/public university
2. CLEP/DSST policy 30 or more credits
3. ACE acceptance
4. Online classes
5. Enroll before/without high school diploma
6. B&M Campus with dorms


...I'm off!