College #1- Rock Star Treatment

I love the upper echelon of academia. Today Mac and I visited the first of his college choices. For those of you who are not familiar with the States post secondary school system, we have 4 year Universities which are, for the most part, the same as a college. You can get a 4 year professional degree from both types of schools.

Mac wants to go to law school, but he has to do a 4 year program before he can go to law school. He's looking at 1 state university and then 4 private colleges. He's thinking of an undergraduate degree with a double major in international politics and pre-law.

He was treated like a rock star today at College #1. When we arrived we were warmly greeted and offered continental breakfast and he was given a college t-shirt. A student ambassador took us to chapel (this is a religious based school) and then we were able to sit in on a political science class. After class we had lunch and a campus tour. Mac and I then met with the Pre-Law/ Political Science Department Chair and capped the day with a meeting with financial aid.

I was very impressed and they should be applauded at how they sell their school. It has everything Mac is looking for in a school so it's a top choice. He also wonders if the other schools will "wow" him like this one did.

As a parent, I was impressed with everything, but I know that's the job. But here's what the admissions departments can't control: the student body. They can't tell them all what to say and how to behave. And I was impressed with the students: how they interacted with each other, with professors, and their own personal behavior. This school has an emphasis on faith and learning and then carrying the both ideas into the community and work place. From what I observed, it seems to actually "take." This is a campus for a Christian. There is no room for non-believers here. And I certainly have no qualms about this. It's a choice and if it makes Mac happy, then I'm happy. I can see him fitting there, and being quite happy.

Because it's a small school, he will have an opportunity to be a "big fish in a little pond". There are opportunities for internships at the local, state and federal level in politics. He could be hired to be a Teaching Assistant or a Research Assistant for the Political Science Department- and this is as an undergrad. He could be an active participant in the Student Senate. He could realistically be a real mover and shaker. He also knows he wants to immerse himself into politics but he knows he wants a stress reliever like theater or band or vocal, which he would have a chance to do.

Today, Mac held his own in a conversation with the department chair and the man told Mac he would certainly remember him and hopes to see him on campus in the fall because his department can "certainly use people" of his "caliber". Mac and this guy ended up talking about imperialism in Burma as well as the historical importance of literature like Frankenstein. Yeah. This was supposed to be a causal meet and greet, let the dept., chair "sell" his program and he and MY kid get into an intellectual discussion, which ran over the allotted 20 minutes, into an hour, to the point where the Financial Aid department called the Prof to see if we were still there. My kid WOWed them right back. I was so proud of him I about burst. Not kidding, there were almost bloody pieces of Maggie all over the place...

I'm so proud of the person he's become and the one he's continuing to evolve into. I'm honored to be his mother.

This post was really going to be about me waxing poetic about my love of the atmosphere of colleges and I was going to parallel Rock Stars to our treatment today. I like the direction this post took instead. I can do the other stuff later.

Mac's Mom,
Maggie