Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Help... My son wants to move out west and be a ski bum!
He has a life plan - attend a college out west (where he can ski), and then start a business at a location where he can ski. He wants to make good money and ski - that's about it... LOL. For awhile he wanted to be an orthopedic surgeon (because he talked to one while riding up on a chair lift, and learned business is good for orthopedic surgeons in ski towns), but now he is leaning towards engineering and business.
He has identified some colleges he wants to look at. How would you rank/describe (academics, environment, student body, vibe, etc.) any of the following colleges which are on his list (because they have freestyle ski teams he could join)? Which have well-regarded engineering programs?
- University of Colorado Boulder
- Western State Colorado
- University of Southern California
- University of California, Berkeley
- University of California, Davis
- University of California, Irvine
- University of California, Santa Barbara
- University of California, Los Angeles
- University of California, San Diego
- California State, LA
- California State, Sacramento
- California State, Fresno
- California State, Fullerton
- California State, Long Beach
- California Polytechnic U
- San Diego State U
- College of Idaho
Some more background -
He is an honors/AP student with 3.5 (unweighted) GPA, and exceptionally strong at math. He currently competes nationally in freestyle skiing, in Slopestyle and SkiCross events. He is ranked nationally (USASA) and will be competing with his team at nationals in CO this winter.
I know next to nothing about western schools, so would appreciate any insights. Thanks!
**Also, do you think his skill/ranking in freestyle skiing (a relatively new club, non-NCAA sport - but it is an Olympic sport), would have any bearing on his admittance? And how would being an out-of-state student affect his admittance to some of these schools?
I think his freestyle skiing skills will be given more weight if he applies to private colleges and universities, at least here in Cali. They take a more holistic approach than large public institutions which have to weed out tens of thousands of applicants in a short amount of time. If he wants to be in SoCal near the mountains (where top snowboarders train) he should look at Cal Poly Pomona (public) or Harvey Mudd (private) for engineering. Both have top-notch programs with good internship opportunities since they're situated close to LA. There are other UC schools with even stronger engineering programs but your son may not have the GPA or SAT's to get in, plus they're located far away from ski areas.
Help... My son wants to move out west and be a ski bum!
He has a life plan - attend a college out west (where he can ski), and then start a business at a location where he can ski. He wants to make good money and ski - that's about it... LOL. For awhile he wanted to be an orthopedic surgeon (because he talked to one while riding up on a chair lift, and learned business is good for orthopedic surgeons in ski towns), but now he is leaning towards engineering and business.
He has identified some colleges he wants to look at. How would you rank/describe (academics, environment, student body, vibe, etc.) any of the following colleges which are on his list (because they have freestyle ski teams he could join)? Which have well-regarded engineering programs?
- University of Colorado Boulder
- Western State Colorado
- University of Southern California
- University of California, Berkeley
- University of California, Davis
- University of California, Irvine
- University of California, Santa Barbara
- University of California, Los Angeles
- University of California, San Diego
- California State, LA
- California State, Sacramento
- California State, Fresno
- California State, Fullerton
- California State, Long Beach
- California Polytechnic U
- San Diego State U
- College of Idaho
Some more background -
He is an honors/AP student with 3.5 (unweighted) GPA, and exceptionally strong at math. He currently competes nationally in freestyle skiing, in Slopestyle and SkiCross events. He is ranked nationally (USASA) and will be competing with his team at nationals in CO this winter.
I know next to nothing about western schools, so would appreciate any insights. Thanks!
**Also, do you think his skill/ranking in freestyle skiing (a relatively new club, non-NCAA sport - but it is an Olympic sport), would have any bearing on his admittance? And how would being an out-of-state student affect his admittance to some of these schools?
Even with his grades I doubt he could get in to Cal, UCLA, UCSB or UCSD Engineering programs.
Maybe USC
Probably the rest.
Engineering and a weekend life of skiing are mutually exclusive. If he is a full time engineering student he won't have much time for skiing. He'll be in labs, at workstations, in the library, in study groups just about the whole weekend. I earned my MS in Engineering at UCSB. I had no time for anything. Even my undergrad was rough (probably rougher since I was more distracted being a younger man).
If I was him (and I was), I'd go the least expensive route possible. No or minimal student loans. The theoretical higher starting salary a person could get attending an expensive school won't offset the extra costs of that school if the difference in cost was invested.
Boulder is probably the closest to the ski areas (I used to live near Colorado Springs.)
Also a very good school in that area is the Colorado School of Mines.
I think his freestyle skiing skills will be given more weight if he applies to private colleges and universities, at least here in Cali. They take a more holistic approach than large public institutions which have to weed out tens of thousands of applicants in a short amount of time. If he wants to be in SoCal near the mountains (where top snowboarders train) he should look at Cal Poly Pomona (public) or Harvey Mudd (private) for engineering. Both have top-notch programs with good internship opportunities since they're situated close to LA. There are other UC schools with even stronger engineering programs but your son may not have the GPA or SAT's to get in, plus they're located far away from ski areas.
Thanks for the response. It would be great if he could attend a good engineering school and also have the opportunity to ski on a team (as that makes him happy, and has been a motivator for doing well in school). Currently, he does train with a lot of snowboarders (e.g. in Mt. Hood Oregon) as freestyle skiers/snowboarders compete on the same courses.
My son is 14 (8th grade) and attends a well ranked public school, He plans on entering a pre-engineering program in H.S. next year (Project Lead the Way) and is on track to complete the highest level Math/Science courses (AP Calc, AP Physics, etc.) by junior year. He will also work part-time in the family mech. engineering business, so may also have some engineering work experience to bring to the application process - not sure how that is evaluated. His GPA is now unweighted, but with his AP course load it should improve in H.S. He has not taken the SAT's but his MAPS and EXPLORE tests put him in the top 99% in Math, Science top 95%, Reading/Language 80-85%. He is currently working hard on improving his reading/lang. testing results. That is a whole other issue....
Ideally, he could find a good engineering school where he could compete on their freestyle ski team. Not sure which colleges meet that criteria, or even how he will balance a tough engineering program with a travel sport. He may just ski Fresh/Soph year. We will look into Cal Poly and Harvey Mudd - Thanks.
Even with his grades I doubt he could get in to Cal, UCLA, UCSB or UCSD Engineering programs.
Maybe USC
Probably the rest.
Engineering and a weekend life of skiing are mutually exclusive. If he is a full time engineering student he won't have much time for skiing. He'll be in labs, at workstations, in the library, in study groups just about the whole weekend. I earned my MS in Engineering at UCSB. I had no time for anything. Even my undergrad was rough (probably rougher since I was more distracted being a younger man).
If I was him (and I was), I'd go the least expensive route possible. No or minimal student loans. The theoretical higher starting salary a person could get attending an expensive school won't offset the extra costs of that school if the difference in cost was invested.
Boulder is probably the closest to the ski areas (I used to live near Colorado Springs.)
Also a very good school in that area is the Colorado School of Mines.
Thanks for your response. He is still an 8th grader with unweighted GPA. I think he has received A's in all his core courses (but B's in cooking, art, etc.) - not even sure what his cumulative GPA is because it doesn't really matter yet (I think it is 3.5 -3.6). He is one of only a handful taking H.S. Honors Geometry A and H.S. Honors Biology, so he will enter the AP track earlier. Once he enters H.S., the Honors/AP coursework will be weighted to improve his GPA.
Do you think he would have time to ski on a team Fresh/Soph year while taking general reg. coursework? Can freestyle ski ranking be used as a "hook" for admittance to any of these colleges?
He has a college savings account and will not need loans. He plans on going to work for our family engineering business. He is thinking an engineering degree, followed by an MBA (this was also his Dad's path). He wants to open a satellite office in a ski town...This is his life's dream... LOL. And there is some growing market opportunity there - ski towns do buy our products.
Even with his grades I doubt he could get in to Cal, UCLA, UCSB or UCSD Engineering programs.
Maybe USC
Ok, so these CA engineering programs on his list are the best in your opinion?
- Cal (which one? sorry, no experience here)
- UCLA
- UCSB
- UCSD
- USC
Why do you doubt he would get into these programs?
Let's just say, hypothetically (as I am projecting into the future), he has:
- High GPA
- High SAT/ACT
- Attends a H.S. that is "heavily weighted" by colleges (was told this by our counselors) and has a good STEM program
- Is in the high/AP math/science track of that H.S.
- Is in the "pre-engineering" program of that H.S.
- Has leadership experience in extracurriculars (e.g. student govt., math/science team)
- Founded a H.S. club (he is in the process of doing this)
- Has some internship/work experience in the engineering field he wants to study (either at family firm or as an intern at a large engineering corp). He luckily has connections for this.
- Has natl. success/ranking in a sport fielded by that university (skiing)
- Has the ability to pay full, out-of-state, tuition without financial aid (are they need-blind schools?)
Is this not enough for possible acceptance into the top schools you listed? If not, why? Is he not qualified enough? Is it just that the application #'s of qualified students are so high? Does he not have enough of a "hook" (e.g. not minority or legacy student)? Is it because he is out-of-state? All of the above?
Thanks for any insight you Cali posters can provide on this.
- University of Colorado Boulder
- Western State Colorado
- University of Southern California
- University of California, Berkeley
- University of California, Davis
- University of California, Irvine
- University of California, Santa Barbara
- University of California, Los Angeles
- University of California, San Diego
- California State, LA
- California State, Sacramento
- California State, Fresno
- California State, Fullerton
- California State, Long Beach
- California Polytechnic U
- San Diego State U
- College of Idaho
With a 3.5 UW gpa, he will not be accepted to:
- University of California, Berkeley
- University of California, Davis
- University of California, Santa Barbara
- University of California, Los Angeles
- University of California, San Diego
- California Polytechnic U (did you mean Cal Poly SLO?)
It's very competitive and for the colleges that admit by major the GPA required for engineering is quite high.
I just noticed your son is only in 8th grade! Anyhoo, you can look up the profile of UC admitted students for 2013 at this link (click on the particular college, then profile information) -
I just noticed your son is only in 8th grade! Anyhoo, you can look up the profile of UC admitted students for 2013 at this link (click on the particular college, then profile information) -
Thanks, yes he is an 8th grader. Sorry if that was not clear. He is starting to think about colleges/majors and has been looking online at schools (which is how he came up with his "list"). He also talked to a lot of college kids this summer (many from Cali) at various ski camps. As I mentioned, he wants to head west to ski and study engineering at this point - he is very driven by this idea.
I should not even have mentioned his GPA as it doesn't matter yet, and confuses the issue. However, all your responses show how extremely important H.S. GPA is, and I will show him the GPA stats for some of the colleges. His GPA in H.S. will likely be higher, as it is weighted on the accelerated track.
He is the type of kid who, if I show him the GPA requirements for the school he dreams of attending, will do everything in his power to try to get there. He is very driven and hard-working and goal-oriented.
My questions are: Which schools from his "skier's dream" list also have good engineering programs? How would you rank/describe these schools? What are their admission profiles? Could he be a good fit?
Thank you for the great links to help answer these questions.
Even with his grades I doubt he could get in to Cal, UCLA, UCSB or UCSD Engineering programs.
Maybe USC
Probably the rest.
Engineering and a weekend life of skiing are mutually exclusive. If he is a full time engineering student he won't have much time for skiing. He'll be in labs, at workstations, in the library, in study groups just about the whole weekend. I earned my MS in Engineering at UCSB. I had no time for anything. Even my undergrad was rough (probably rougher since I was more distracted being a younger man).
If I was him (and I was), I'd go the least expensive route possible. No or minimal student loans. The theoretical higher starting salary a person could get attending an expensive school won't offset the extra costs of that school if the difference in cost was invested.
Boulder is probably the closest to the ski areas (I used to live near Colorado Springs.)
Also a very good school in that area is the Colorado School of Mines.
The U of CO is known as a ski bum school and also as a good engineering school. It'd be tough to do both, but one could certainly spend ONE day a weekend skiing. It only takes a couple hours to get to the big-time slopes, and Eldora is about a half-hour away.
My friend's sons majored in engineering at another Colorado school that is not on the OP's list but is highly rated, Colorado School of Mines. Several years, they managed to arrange their schedules so that they had no classes one day a week, and went skiing then. Weekday skiing is much better, far less crowded.
I think CU's main requirement for out of state students is ability to pay the bill.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
