So, apparently I have raised a "geography snob".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

For a school in Iowa his objection was "corn".

Ha, this will be good in a couple of years for a laugh. Right now he is immature & not very sophisticated.

With his mindset the following states are also out.
Nebraska - he has already expressed a dislike of corn, the book "Children of the Corn" in Nebraska
Georgia - movie Deliverance
West Virginia - well, come on it is West Virginia

Interestingly enough he's got WVU on his list. I really wanted to say "You'll look at WV and not Kentucky?" Except I was afraid that would make his dislike WV, not the other way around.

I think the difference between WV and Kentucky is simply that he's been to WV so in his mind it's not strange. Which makes me think that if he actually went to Kentucky he'd come back and say "I could live there!"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wait until he finds out that southern Ohio and northern Kentucky are identical

This is what I was going to say. I would be more worried about him thinking that southern Ohio is OK than that northern Kentucky is terrible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I must ask if you are just trolling? Another poster linked an article about preconceived stereotypes of the Midwest and your post plays into that rather conveniently. Too many times on this forum some troll from the Post tries tying in a fake posting to a recent article. If this is the case, could you please hone your skills to a finer degree. You do no service to the newspaper nor this forum by hiding your true intent. If this is a real posting, please accept my sincerest apology for assuming ill intent.

I'm not a troll, but seeing the other article reminded me of how much this has been annoying me recently, and prompted me to post this here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I ask this sincerely, Op. What does it matter the reasons he doesn't like a school? After all, he is the one who has to live there four years. As long as you can afford it and he gets in what is the problem? At least he knows where he doesn't want to be. As for the snobbish part...he is young and perhaps he will grow out of it. But, there are plenty of people who agree with him, unfortunately.

I guess the problem is that it's clear that his ideas of different parts of the country are often based on stereotypes, rather than on actual information, and it's making me aware how limited his experiences are. I don't care if he likes or rejects a school because of something accurate about the school. For example, he told me he didn't want to look at a school in central Florida because of the heat. He's excited about a school in Denver because he likes to snowboard. I'm fine with that, because those feelings are based on real information. It really is hot in central Florida, and there really are snowy mountains near Denver. He also wants a more urban environment. I'm fine with that, and there are schools I won't even suggest because of that. But his rejection of other schools is based on stereotype, and not on fact, and that bothers me, because if it isn't addressed with accurate information, I can imagine the same stereotypes impacting his interactions with people he meets from Kentucky or Wisconsin or Iowa in the future. So whether or not he actually ends up going to Kentucky for school, I'd like him to be open to the idea that Kentucky is more than just his stereotypes.

I think the answer is one you won't like. The only way to change his views it to give him real experience in the parts of the country he is making negative assumptions about. I grew up in a flyover state (until age 15) married a Californian and settled in Bethesda. My son wants to move to flyover state because we visit relatives there and he has declared (there is more open space and the people are nicer and parking and traffic are easier). Cracks me up that my east coast kid says this "hillbilly state" is his favorite place to vacation! They only know what they know . . .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wait until he finds out that southern Ohio and northern Kentucky are identical

This

[Anonymous]

At the end of the day its his decision. I didn't look at southern schools because I didn't want to look in the south. Instead I froze my butt off at a northern school. And yet I managed to graduate and do ok regardless. Taking a long weekend to visit the schools might help him either like the school or rule it out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why would you be paying for these schools out of state, anyway, particularly if he's not that interested? I would say "Great, College Park [or JMU] is a lot cheaper."

1) Because his major's not offered in any state schools in MD, which is where we live.

2) Because financial aid packages, and differences in tuition, often end up meaning that out of state or private options are as affordable as in state options.

[Anonymous]

Remind him of an important advantage of a rural campus:

There's pretty much nothing else to do but drink.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We're beginning the college search for my rising college junior, and I'm embarrassed to say that it's revealing some biases that I didn't realize he had.

I'll mention a school that I heard good things about, and he'll immediately veto it based on location and his stereotype of that location. For example, I brought up 2 schools, 10 miles apart. One is in Southern Ohio. That was fine by him. He's open to exploring and learning more about this school. The other is in Northern Kentucky, and he told me flat out "no". When I asked why, all he could say was "I can't live in Kentucky"! He vetoed a great school in Wisconsin, and told me his reason "I've seen 'How to Make a Murderer'". For a school in Iowa his objection was "corn".

I suspect that if he actually visited some of these schools, he'd either discover that he likes them, or find a more legitimate reason to turn them down. But I can't afford to fly him all over the country to look at schools. Our plan is to look at every option within about 2 hours of home, or close to places we're already visiting (e.g. Grandma's house) and once we have a really good sense of what he likes, fly him out to see a carefully selected handful of schools in other areas.

How do I help him learn about areas of the country he hasn't had an opportunity to visit, to get him to be more open to the idea?

Miami University and Berea are both great schools. Is Berea still tuition-free?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're beginning the college search for my rising college junior, and I'm embarrassed to say that it's revealing some biases that I didn't realize he had.

I'll mention a school that I heard good things about, and he'll immediately veto it based on location and his stereotype of that location. For example, I brought up 2 schools, 10 miles apart. One is in Southern Ohio. That was fine by him. He's open to exploring and learning more about this school. The other is in Northern Kentucky, and he told me flat out "no". When I asked why, all he could say was "I can't live in Kentucky"! He vetoed a great school in Wisconsin, and told me his reason "I've seen 'How to Make a Murderer'". For a school in Iowa his objection was "corn".

I suspect that if he actually visited some of these schools, he'd either discover that he likes them, or find a more legitimate reason to turn them down. But I can't afford to fly him all over the country to look at schools. Our plan is to look at every option within about 2 hours of home, or close to places we're already visiting (e.g. Grandma's house) and once we have a really good sense of what he likes, fly him out to see a carefully selected handful of schools in other areas.

How do I help him learn about areas of the country he hasn't had an opportunity to visit, to get him to be more open to the idea?

Miami University and Berea are both great schools. Is Berea still tuition-free?

OP here, I've heard great things about both of those schools. Neither happens to be the Ohio school we're looking at.

[Anonymous]

You're the parent. You pick the school he goes to or he can move out and be on his own. Children deciding what college they go to is disgusting.

[Anonymous]

I would just relax Op. He is only a rising Junior so you have plenty of time to visit these places and show him how wonderful they are ( or not in his opinion) At least he will make a decision on actually facts as you put it.

[Anonymous]

Well, Berea is in Kentucky, not Ohio...

(Sorry, as a former Kentucky resident it just slipped out...)

I wanted a specific major as well, and wound up at the University of Kentucky of all places to get it. When I first started looking I didn't even know what city it was in (Lexington, for the record...)

If you want your kid to reconsider the Northern Kentucky school try to sell it as being in the Cincinnati suburbs. That's all true "Northern Kentucky" is anyway

[Anonymous]

You have not raised a geography snob. Stop trying to put a positive "Oh, we are so elite" spin on this.

You have raised someone with a sheltered, limited world view and you obviously have failed to widen his horizons. Parenting fail.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, Berea is in Kentucky, not Ohio...

(Sorry, as a former Kentucky resident it just slipped out...)

I wanted a specific major as well, and wound up at the University of Kentucky of all places to get it. When I first started looking I didn't even know what city it was in (Lexington, for the record...)

If you want your kid to reconsider the Northern Kentucky school try to sell it as being in the Cincinnati suburbs. That's all true "Northern Kentucky" is anyway

I realized that as soon as I hit submit!

The schools are both in the Cincinnati metro area.

This isn't really about the specific schools. The Kentucky school is easy, because if we go to see the Cincinnati school, I can justify driving across the river for a tour, even if he's never taken the time to look at the viewbook and make an unbiased decision about whether it's worth seeing. It's harder to justify flying to Iowa. My bigger issue is the fact that he's letting prejudice make the decision, rather than being open minded.