Hello everyone! I have been deeply engrossed in family affairs of late. Being a hobbit mom can sometimes be hard! Hopefully this will come to an end in about a month and my life will resume.
Son is in 12th grade and trying to figure out where he'd like to go to college. Back in the ancient days, applying to college was easy. You picked out three reasonable choices, sent in your application, and generally got back acceptances. For those blessed with younger hobbits, let me tell you things are not so easy! (Poor Pio has already heard an earful of this.) Perhaps this state of affairs is only in the U.S. and other countries haven't gone beserk. But, in the U.S., if you have a student who loves academics and has his or her sights set on competitive schools, or is trying to win a merit scholarship, be prepared to fork out generous amounts of dollars on SATI's, SATII's, AP's, and applications and then get set for some large headaches.
After endless visits to schools, applications too numerous to count, and a hefty number of rejections, son has actually gotten in to a few colleges. (This description is only a slight exaggeration.) Moreover, son takes after his mom and and has decided to study something utterly useless (maybe philosophy or ancient studies
), which delights me no end. Tomorrow I push him onto a plane at 6 a.m., and he flies up to Chicago to look at the university and see if it's a "match" so that we can send in a deposit. I hope it works out.
What tickled me is that son checked to make sure that U Chicago had a Tolkien course. It does - jointly sponsored by the university and the divinity school. He was also brave enough to give a link on his resume to the RPG forums on the Downs, listed boldly along with his student literary magazines, as indication of his writing expertise! (Maybe that explains the rejections?) One of his essays on his application to Chicago talked about his affection for Lord of the Rings. He posts on a college admissions website and is always telling me how many of the other students tell him they've included an essay related to Lord of the Rings on one or more of their college applications.
For better or worse, I guess things are changing. That just wouldn't have happened in the ancient days when I applied to undergrad.