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smudubs wrote:I have been looking for a thread on which I could post this question, and this seems to be the best. I have two kids going into their sophomore and junior years of high school. Accordingly, we have been visiting schools this summer and will continue doing so next year. My son is near the top 10% of his class, was a member of the state champion academic decathlon team, placed third individually in academic decathlon, scored in the 97th percentile of all test takers on the PSAT as a sophomore, and is ranked in the top 30 in the nation in four track & field events in his age group. He has decided to focus on track and hopes to do decathlon in college, which the coaches on his club team believe he can do.

Against that backdrop, what schools would all you suggest we investigate? He visited Rice while we were in Houston for Junior Olympics last week and really enjoyed the visit. He has already told me that he will not consider following in our footsteps and going to SMU because a) it's too close to home and b) doesn't have a men's track program. Thoughts?

there are a lot of variables to consider that you have left out

1. what major.....lets be honest unless your son is going to The Olympics he will be one of the NCAA athletes "going pro" in something other than sports so his choice of majors matters

2. small school, large school, huge school, in state or out of state, public or private are any of those an issue or a consideration

3. here is probably what you do not want to hear......Texas A&M

but here is the reality

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NCAA_Men%2 ... mpionships

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Henry_ ... s_coach%29

other than that if close to home Arkansas and Arkansas is very aggressive in recruiting top Texas academic students as well......obviously USC is on the list as well, but it has been a long time since they were relevant

following that it is Texas or Texas Tech in the state of Texas.......yes that Texas Tech they have a great coach and great facilities, but like many things Texas Tech it is difficult for them to push past the larger and more established programs

of those choices obviously they are all public and Texas would be the leader in overall academics and the with the other three while A&M would be second overall as a university it will depend on the choice of major as well along with what they like or dislike about the school

obviously as an athlete they should have an easier time having a "clique" of friends so meeting the coach and team should be a priority and the reality is parents do not want to face this, but if a student is not enjoying themselves outside of class it will absolutely 100% lessen their academic performance period.....and I do not mean getting wasted every weekend, but just having a quality group of friends to hang out with

at UT for instance to have a group of friends you often need to live a "cause" like saving whales or going emo or waving your big freak flag or you live under water with the scuba club.......if you are not in a fraternity that is especially so.......everyone is "hard core" and wrapped up in some "thing" they are saving or doing or pretending to be.....obviously as an athlete you have a group to start

at A&M it is actually easier to just meet others that are "college students" from "wherever" and looking to be college students.....the same will be true for Arkansas

Tech is actually getting more of a frat life, but there are plenty of students still just being students......athletics there would probably really help

and again not just track as well.....as has been shown by past "incidents" at some of the schools mentioned athletes from different sports often end up interacting with each other and it is not always positive especially if you get cross wise with one of the more self control challenged football players....so if your son hates the attitude of the football team at a school and the "athletics life" starts off with "football" at the top well consider looking around unless it is clear that most in his sport of choice and the companion sport of women's track choose their associates more carefully and only the hanger-on-ers follow the football crowd.....and again even places with troubled athletes in any sport that does not man that ALL in that sport are an issue.....so perhaps trouble from all sports goes one way and the rest all go another......but it is a consideration since that will probably be your son's first social group to start

if in a program like engineering where the degree is in demand and your son can make top grades and be aggressive about an internship then any on the above list should be fine

or is in a program like education, nutrition, nursing ect where the pay is commensurate with having the degree for the most part and where that degree is from does not increase your pay and possibly only slightly increases your chance of getting the job over and above your interview/resume again the choice of school matters less

in something like business, liberal arts, humanities, arts ect where school rep matters and or jobs are less plentiful you will need to evaluate degree program/school/desire for top track program probably in that order

Williams is outstanding. High caliber students and quite liberal. Small, beautiful college town in upper Massachusetts. I had a friend from NY accept Davidson over Williams and her teachers/counselors thought she was crazy. I knew a couple bankers that went there and they are very loyal. Princeton/Tuck type loyal.

SMUdubs, I suppose your son wants to participate in Division I athletics. How about Northwestern, Wake Forest, Tulane, Vandy or Duke if Rice doesn't float his boat? Any clue on a major? Big school, small school? Social scene or more into academics (e.g., UVa vs. Wm & Mary)? Applying for financial aid? Two keys: work on "near the top 10% of his class" and leadership.

dp

I would expand my field of interest to include California and east coast schools....

smudubs wrote:I have been looking for a thread on which I could post this question, and this seems to be the best. I have two kids going into their sophomore and junior years of high school. Accordingly, we have been visiting schools this summer and will continue doing so next year. My son is near the top 10% of his class, was a member of the state champion academic decathlon team, placed third individually in academic decathlon, scored in the 97th percentile of all test takers on the PSAT as a sophomore, and is ranked in the top 30 in the nation in four track & field events in his age group. He has decided to focus on track and hopes to do decathlon in college, which the coaches on his club team believe he can do.

Against that backdrop, what schools would all you suggest we investigate? He visited Rice while we were in Houston for Junior Olympics last week and really enjoyed the visit. He has already told me that he will not consider following in our footsteps and going to SMU because a) it's too close to home and b) doesn't have a men's track program. Thoughts?

Go to Rice. Good school in a pretty nice part of Houston. They have decent track and experienced decathlon coaches. Ryan Harlan, 8,000pts guy went there and his coach still coaches there.

Williams #1? That is all you need to dismiss this.

If he is in the Top 30 in the nation, I would think a number of schools with track programs are recruiting him for an athletic scholarship. I would think he would be looking at those schools. Forbes and USNews rankings would then only be relevant to the extent it helps decide between those.

Sounds like your son is pretty into the sport. I would watch out for the burn-out. I don't know if track makes you practice as much as swimming. Make sure he fits the school along with the program. I remember coming out of high school and being recruited for swimming I went to a bunch of schools in the northeast thinking that is where I wanted to be. It wasn't till I came and visited SMU on a non-sport trip that I met some students and felt like I fit. Also i know people from Dallas (HP) and plano that are always recommending the right sort of people to come to SMU, they never went home and had no problem being in the same city they went to high school in. Also I burned out and quite swimming as soon as I was done with school, going back I wish that I had swam at SMU, but I didn't

Few pay attention to Forbes as a real measure of much of anything when it comes to ranking colleges.

US News is the standard.

If you ask anyone working at McDonald's if they know what Williams is, they wouldn't have a clue. If you asked anyone working on Wall Street if they knew what Williams is, they would probably know.

Thanks for all the input. He is making it extremely difficult because he is adamant that he wants to run track. He's also adamant that he doesn't want to go to a huge university and wants to stay within about six hours from home. We're trying to get him to expand that distance, but mom wants him close.

As far as recruiting for track is concerned, it has not started because he just blew up this summer. He shaved two seconds off his 110m hurdles and added five feet to his triple jump. Six weeks ago he decided to "try" high jump and placed 11th at Junior Olympics last week. He would have finished 6th in triple jump. Track recruiting is also different from football and basketball. From what I've gathered it's all done through the club teams. For example, his high school failed to post any of his results to athletic.net, which is where the colleges go for results.

And someone commented that we needed to work on getting him into the top 10% of his class. He is in the top 12% now and refuses to turn in homework. I think that will change now that he has a plan and fell in love with RIce.

Arkansas has a great track program.

mrydel wrote:Arkansas has a great track program.

As do LSU and A&M. The problem is they are large state schools. And someone asked what he was considering as a major. Right now, he's thinking premed.

smudubs wrote:

mrydel wrote:Arkansas has a great track program.

As do LSU and A&M. The problem is they are large state schools. And someone asked what he was considering as a major. Right now, he's thinking premed.

well then Baylor it is

Baylor does really well with pre-med students and they are probably going to be the best small university track program in a 6 hour radius

some might disagree, but I would put pre-med into one of those majors where the university you went to matters less because overall grades/gpa and MCAT are going to matter as much or more than anything and Baylor is certainly respected enough to have a little weight as well and their pre-med has a high % acceptance rate

Rice might be a struggle since he is not in the top 10% even, but Rice will weigh a student on more than that and will especially consider the school they are coming out of

I hope the BOT is seriously evaluating how far Turner can really take us as an institution. He's been here so long, and has done some very good things, but his tenure here too just too long, here or any other univ. In fact, I can't think of a single top university with a University president with a tenure nearly as long. New ideas, thinking are needed to make sure we are moving in the right direction. Bring in a provost from a top academic institution who will use this new role (as a President of a Univ.) to take us to where we all feel we should be over the next 10 years.