Anonymous wrote:Why does the original question in no way consider what is a good academic fit?

Anonymous wrote:Try Dook. Your kid will fit right in with the rest of the douchebags.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like he could use a bigger school to find out that he really isn't all that special.

+1 I remember seeing the formerly popular, confident kids from my high school walking around UVA and being surprised at how completely unremarkable they seemed in a new environment.

DP. My son was part of the popular crowd in high school. When he came home for Thanksgiving freshman year and reconvened with his buddies, I noticed two distinct camps. The first camp, the one that included my son, consisted of kids who had pledged a house. They were loving college and dishing out story after story about all the fun they were having on campus, where they walked around like veritable gods. The kids in the second camp hadn't pledged, expecting, I guess, for their high school popularity to carry them through the college social scene, which is, of course, delusional. They were exactly as you describe: shellshocked by their sudden irrelevance to their peers. They spent the weekend wistfully dredging up stories from the good old days of high school. Before my son returned to campus on Sunday, he mentioned that he had noticed the difference, too, and told me what a great decision it had been to pledge.

How embarrassing that you felt the need to recount that.

Anonymous wrote:Apply to a range and see what fits.

Also your description of him is very cringy and boy mom coded but whatever.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like he could use a bigger school to find out that he really isn't all that special.

+1 I remember seeing the formerly popular, confident kids from my high school walking around UVA and being surprised at how completely unremarkable they seemed in a new environment.

DP. My son was part of the popular crowd in high school. When he came home for Thanksgiving freshman year and reconvened with his buddies, I noticed two distinct camps. The first camp, the one that included my son, consisted of kids who had pledged a house. They were loving college and dishing out story after story about all the fun they were having on campus, where they walked around like veritable gods. The kids in the second camp hadn't pledged, expecting, I guess, for their high school popularity to carry them through the college social scene, which is, of course, delusional. They were exactly as you describe: shellshocked by their sudden irrelevance to their peers. They spent the weekend wistfully dredging up stories from the good old days of high school. Before my son returned to campus on Sunday, he mentioned that he had noticed the difference, too, and told me what a great decision it had been to pledge.

Anonymous wrote:Try Dook. Your kid will fit right in with the rest of the douchebags.

Anonymous wrote:News flash, lots of popular kids go to college. So, your son may not be popular in college.

And going to a small school your DS is already behind since he isn't on a sports team.

Anonymous wrote:I have a rising senior DS with high stats who is, to borrow a term I've seen on this forum and heard his generation use, a "Chad": athletic, handsome, square-jawed, confident, magnetic, good with girls. He's working on his college list and torn between big rah-rah schools and smaller, more intimate residential colleges. We've been going back and forth on the pros and cons of each. At a big school he'd almost certainly join, to use another term that was heretofore unfamiliar to me, a "touse" fraternity and have an active social and dating life, but in day to day life, walking between classes, and so forth, he'd ultimately be just another face in a sea of thousands, which would be a major culture shock for him. At a smaller school he'd likely rise to the top of the social ladder fast and become a "BMOC," but what are the chances he'll outgrow it or that a more a limited environment will constrain someone with his kind of personality?

He's looking to study econ or finance. Some of the schools on his list right now:

UVA
UNC-CH
UF
W&L
Davidson
Richmond
Wake

I like Wake as a bigger small school, and I know Elon fits that category too, though I'm not sure he'd be challenged academically at the latter. He doesn't want to go north or deal with anything colder than the DMV, which rules out places like Bucknell/Lafayette/Lehigh/Colgate.

What does everyone think for a kid like mine? Small school or big? Any other mid-sized options worth considering, like maybe Tulane or UMiami? Thanks in advance, and please keep any nasty comments to yourselves.