More college stuff
Fourth college tour today. U Mass Dartmouth. First impression. BIG. They have a HUGE campus. 700 acres I think the guy said. (it just occurred to me that my icon for Himself is the fish he drew when he was little. Maybe time to update that. lol). Anyway, yeah, big. If you go on line you can find it and see it's a big ring of building ringed with parking and a road and then the housing and sports ring around that kind of.
I was quite thrilled to see it had it's very own wind turbine. They also have solar panels. You can read more about it here. http://www1.umassd.edu/communications/articles/showarticles.cfm?a_key=2866 Though I find it completely ironic that the entire facility is a virtual honeycomb of concrete. You never really have to leave the building, which giving that this is New England, that could be a good thing, but it's built in such a way that I found one area totally the same as the next. The inside is all poured concrete, textured to look like bamboo or something, and with other parts textured to look like (or try to look like) wood. Not as industrial as Umass Boston..but still a bit on the cold side. Of the 4 we've looked at, I think Himself put it at # 3. It's also not really near anything, kind of all on its own. On the plus side it has some kind of uber internet access, and the dorms are the biggest around.
We went to visit Salem State on Wed. which was fun. They are doing shiploads of construction there and it was icy as hell from the last few storms. But the campus was right in the middle of things in Salem, a short distance from down town and the heart of witch city. Great history, very similar although a little more developed to our own town… homey. And bonus we got the tour guide who was a drama major. That really went over well with Himself who is hoping to do both computer and theater of some kind. And now he's also mentioned an interest in psychology.. which is kind of funny. He took a class in it last semester and liked it. So hey, who knows.. it takes a crazy person to deal with crazy people.. or so it seems from what Ive seen in our own family. So maybe we are looking at an undeclared thingy or something.. Not sure. He actually seems to like Salem better than Bridgewater.. which is interesting because that's where his cousin goes and we though that that might be a big influence on him to go there. But since his cousin flunked out last term.. I'm wondering if that has changed his opinion of the school.
We have one more visit to do next week, and there is a school in western Mass to maybe see. He's been accepted but it's a mostly art school… no computer science if I recall correctly.. but I'm not even sure if that's what he's really interested in.
It's really shitty that you have to declare a major if you are going to college to FIND your passions. How do you do that when they are cramming theses stupid core classes down your throat? Why not let him take a bunch of different things and THEN decide which way to go, rather than asshole math, history and english classes which have filled his High School career already.I don't know, maybe it will work out, but I am getting the impression that these 'core' classes are going to dominate his time in the first year… sigh…. Yeah, I know, it's all about them making their freaking money.
At least our trip to Salem was rewarding in two ways. We realized we need to go back in the better weather to just bum around and see the sights and the Peabody Essex museum, and it showed him that he has to overcome his own anxiety because good things can come of it. He was totally resistant to going on the Salem visit for some reason. It was during the week, he didn't like that. We had already canceled out on it once before because he was 'sick' from overeating and Ryther was sick from a cold. So this time he started doing the 'I'm not feeling well" thing the night before… when there was nothing wrong with him outside of his head. So I told him if he didn't go, he would no longer be going to work with Dad on vacation days, which he likes to do. He was nearly beside himself that morning, but we went anyway, and once there, and with the tour guide who was also into drama, he was totally fine. And he enjoyed himself, to the point of wanting to go back. So now in the future, I can at least say "remember how you felt about X, but it all worked out?" I really think he needs some serious therapy for his anxiety, but he didn't like the guy we went to before. I wonder about yoga or some other relaxation thing. I had a friend who turned to that for his stress issues. But I cant see him going to some yoga class with a bunch of soccer mom types.. (is that even a thing anymore, soccer moms?)
So that's where we stand on that at the moment. and thats the most I've typed on here in ages. Moving over to the couch to be on the computer is a bit more conducive maybe.
In other news…. so sucked into the new season of House of Cards. it is however interrupting our catching up of Downton. lol