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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]"My son is shy and a mama's boy. He went to Stanford. His strategy was to let the extroverted kids pull him into their orbit, and he dipped a toe in until he found the kids he liked, and then made friends with them. He also found study groups to be a great way to make friends."

This works at a place like Stanford, at least when the kid is willing to be lured out. (I'm a grad.) The freshman houses are set up with a high staff: resident ratio to make sure that this happens. And many of the majors become social spaces too. Kids used to hang out in the office of my major and socialized a lot through that circle. You really don't need to join a formal club to have a social life in that setting, especially since so much social stuff happens in your house. (A house is about 60-90 students within a larger dorm of several hundred students.) They take residential life VERY seriously there. Everything is set up to make sure you succeed. After they've selected somebody out of the thousands who applied, they're extremely invested in making sure you do well. I have very close friends who worked in admissions there, and they definitely screen for people who want to be a part of the community, so the openness described by PP of her son to being pulled "into their orbit" was key to him getting admitted. They don't want people who aren't open to that.

I definitely think this is not the case at the large public schools like Michigan or UT Austin. When my brother was preparing to be a freshman at UT, I had to help him find an apartment near campus. It was clear that he'd be totally on his own without anybody from the school making him their priority. We visited various group houses and apartment buildings that we found out about on various community bulletin boards. (This was pre-internet.) It seemed so lonely and cold-hearted to me, given what I'd experienced as a freshman at Stanford. [/quote]

Well an earlier poster described a negative report from MICHIGAN. Their experiences are just as valid as yours. Sorry if it does not comport with what you believe/want to hear.

Why is Michigan almost always brought into the conversation when a negative comment is raised about large public universities?  Michigan is not Texas.  I suggest you leave your advise for what you know, and not what you suspect. [/quote][/quote]

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