Best Colleges for Skiing?

JasonWx wrote

My daughter's engineering adviser recommended that she applies to MIT for her ME. She likes the Boston so this would work out nice for her. It's also a one year program, that saves some money..

Yeah Masters in Engineering is typically one year.  Masters in Science is typically two, although it can be done in one or concurrent with a PhD.

Difference is what you want to get out of it.  ME is just advanced courses, no thesis, so if you work in a non-research environment, this is a better option.  If she wants to be more on the research end, or have a better chance at that, do the MS.

Research in industry is changing.  It's been cut back quite a bit in the last 10 years.  It's still there, and PhD and MS degrees are still desirable, but maybe not as much as they were then.  Things will change though, nothing is set in stone with these type of things... it's really where people are investing the money and how the CEOs are driving companies.

Again my two cents would be this:

Apply for jobs at that juncture.  See what she can land.  If it's looking tough and the MIT thing isn't going to cost a fortune, go for it.  If she can land a job and they will pay for her Masters, or at least a good portion of it, go for that.  Go to whatever Uni is closest to her employer.

This is much like what Coach said with the MBA.  I'd suggest the same if a student was looking into that.  If you can get a job and work and have them pay, then do it.  Don't worry about where.

Sure MIT will be better than RIT.  But when it comes down to gaining job experience and getting most of the financials covered, it's far better IMO.

Put it this way, if I was hiring a new person on Monday to work in my group and everything else was equal and I had a student with a Masters from MIT with no job experience or one with a Masters from UB with two years work experience, I'd definitely go for the latter.  It's that simple.  No one is going to be perfectly equal from those scenarios, but work experience is worth a lot.

Sno,
 You are on the right path and you are realistic about admissions. There is excellent advise in this thread. If any of you have college bound high school students, I would suggest that you have them take a look at this.

Might go to college early, which would be next year.  I visited Clarkson University back in December and they have a program called The Clarkson School where you get to do your senior year of high school in college.  This typically means that you graduate a year early as well.  I applied today.  Closest ski options are Whiteface and Titus, so that's definitely an upgrade over Mountain Creek.  They better upgrade their snowmaking to get it up to "sno standards" .  Or we just get a decent winter next year and they do well.

Sno

I say this for your own good and never having met you in person but we have interacted quite a bit here

you are not mature enough to go to college at this point.  wait and enjoy being a kid a bit longer

Well there's not much to really enjoy if you're in my situation.  I have very good grades that are well within the top 10% of my class, and my school is pretty big.  I haven't had many friends for years.  The middle school that I was in had these things called "teams" where the school was divided into these harshly segregated groups that were basically to never interact with each other in school.  Basically, each group would have the same teachers and they thought it was easier for the students.  The effect on me is that I lost nearly all of my elementary school friends as they got on different teams, and we were banned from ever interacting with them.  It was like being in prison and I hated it.  I had a good number of friends way back when and I lost them all.  These very exclusive clique groups formed and I never was able to fit in since I didn't know that I had to find all new friends till it was too late.

High school hasn't sucked as much as middle school, but it's not far behind.  My district has only one middle school and one high school, so all the same clique groups that had excommunicated me still existed, as strong as ever.  Freshman year (2 years ago), I did pretty well and made some new friends, but they all plateaued and I never got very close with them.  Sophomore year started out great, and then death spiraled near the end, so I lost some of my (already few) friends again.  Junior year (this year) started out better than last year and I was able to find some people to hang out with, but has sucked lately with "prom season" upon me.  Prom in my school district isn't a formal dance, it's hyped up so much that it's like a frickin wedding, and I have no date and have about zero chance of finding one, so I won't be able to go and they're going to rub it in my face for not going.  Does that sound like an enjoyable situation to be in?  I don't think so.

I could stay for one more year and hope that senior year doesn't suck as much as junior year, but all the other years have sucked and I want out.  I have a clean slate in college and if I try, I could likely reverse all or most of my problems that I've got in high school.  If I go, I'll be a Whiteface passholder, so maybe I will end up meeting you in person.  My actual personality and screen personality are two different things.  I can assure anyone that I come off as a whole lot more mature in person than I do as NYSB screenname snoloco.

Sno, I am familiar with the Clarkson program you mentioned. It might be a great option for you.

Maybe there should be a thread called "Sno Standards".

Hey sno
I twice started writing a response to this and deleted it because, truthfully, I know nothing about you in real life. This is the kind of thing you need to just talk to death with your parents and figure out. It's true that a lot of people who have trouble in high school really blossom in college but being less mature then most of your classmates , might hinder that process (not a knock on you; it's just a fact of life). Your folks most likely can be more helpful then anybody here.

The Clarkson School is all high school seniors doing college level course work as a cohort. This program was designed for people like Sno. He is going to be the same age as the people in his cohort.

Goreskimom wrote

The Clarkson School is all high school seniors doing college level course work as a cohort. This program was designed for people like Sno. He is going to be the same age as the people in his cohort.

That's exactly correct and why I decided to apply.

Sno popularity (and money) are overrated.  Happiness is what it is all about.  You need work or have some kind of avocation you enjoy, a few people who understand and love you and just enough money to take care of yours.

Easy for me to say now, but I didn't get it until I was well into my twenties.  Actually if you are really happy, happy people will seek you out. FWIW some of the happiest people I know are members of this forum.

Sno, talk with your parents, guidance counselors and others who know you best and I'm sure you'll make the decision that's best for you

Great program, go for it. You will be running in a smart and motivated crowd. You might not have so much time to be a ski bum because the competition will be stiff. In the end though, it will be worth it.

Thanks for the encouragement to those who posted here.  I'll update on whether I decide to go or not in the coming weeks.

I'm sure I'll find time for plenty of ski days.  Their website says that they make plenty of ski trips to Whiteface on weekends. They also have a yearly trip to Vermont, which I think last year was to Smuggler's Notch.  Not sure if they go there every year, or if they switch it up.  Clarkson School students can join any clubs on campus, one of which is a ski club.  I'm sure I'd get plenty of days in, and of higher quality than what I've got now.

Sno-

We've got your back, your six, your teenage angst. (Anybody remember "Angst In My Pants" from the Sex Pistols, so '70's)

As I've written before, if we didn't like you, we wouldn't pick on you.  Duh.

You're way smaaarttter they most of us, heck, I've learned more about skilift history, ropespeeds, PSI/Humidity Optimums et al; from reading your posts than any NSAA manuals I can beg, borrow or steal.  

Whatever Colleges with a Ski Industry Focus (fukus?) you choose to attend, please do not apply to Western State University, Gunnison, Co.   Until you're validated.

VALIDATION; Ski with myself and three recent Wasted State Dropouts ( All former Gore instructors/patrollers/racers) who went down that gardenpath and got bitten by Crested Butte and got better as a result.  How do you think you'd do?

Find Out.

High school, prom, popularity, etc. None of that matters in the grand scheme of things. Like at all. I had plenty of fun in high school but the real fun didn't start until I moved out west and became a ski bum.

Well their are people that never leave their home town and will forever talk about the "glory" days. I have facebook friends that use their high school photos for profile pics and always post up photos from then. Just so you know most of them were the "popular" kids!

Thank god I followed my path and didn't remain a townie.

that program sounds good but until you gain the skill of how to make friends you are just going to move from one set of potential friends to the next struggling.  Stepping up into a more mature environment does not seem to be a good answer for someone struggling socially.

Have you read the book "how to make friends and influence people" that several of us suggested last go around on this subject?  If you do this make sure you do read it before you start.  They used to actually have classes on this book where you also would learn how to speak in public which helps break the shyness issue which is what I suspect is the root cause here.

Sno.....good luck with the Clarkson program if you go that route.  Great school.  While Clarkson wasn't in my daughter's initial list of colleges, they have a great communications program and I encouraged my daughter to apply, especially after they gave her a fee waiver and expedited application option.  My wife thought it was too far away/north, so they didn't listen to me.  Sounds like a nice option.

While typical HS BS is small potatoes in the grand scheme, it's still tough when that is the only world you know and you don't have the bene of 20/20 hindsight!  But don't sweat it Sno, better days are ahead!

I recently found out that SUNY Geneseo has (had?) a ski team.  Wish I'd looked into that while I was there!  However, I wouldn't put it on a list of good skiing colleges.  If my daughter somehow ends up at our alma mater (still waiting on Emerson and her reach schools) it's a very good safety net to have.

Coach Z wrote

that program sounds good but until you gain the skill of how to make friends you are just going to move from one set of potential friends to the next struggling.  Stepping up into a more mature environment does not seem to be a good answer for someone struggling socially.

Have you read the book "how to make friends and influence people" that several of us suggested last go around on this subject?

I've read plenty of those books, bunch of false BS.  All have been equally useless.  I'm not shy at all, I couldn't work my way into any of these exclusive clique groups 5 years ago.  That's what caused all my problems.  Because I'm an only child, I tend to interact better with adults than kids my own age.  

Actually, when I spoke with people from the program, they get a bunch of kids that are in the exact situation that I am.   There's literally no way for me to fix my social problems in one more year of high school.  The only fix is a clean slate, and I'm trying to get that a year early.

I've told a couple of my (very limited) friends that I was thinking about going to college early.  Their response was always "What? You don't want to miss senior year!".  My response was "What is there to miss, I'm taking all college classes anyways, so why not take them at a college, hard to enjoy it with little to no friends".  Academically, it's a waste of time for me, and socially, it'll most likely be another shitshow just like this year, last year, and the 4 years before that.

You've got my vote!