Spent the weekend in St Louis, dropped Melen off at college to start her summer session at Washington University. There are some other high school kids there too, but this is just a regular summer semester for WashU students and they allow selected high school kids to take the classes, for full college credit. So it should be interesting to see how the summer goes.
We got there Saturday afternoon, walked the campus and found the dorm where Melen will be spending the summer. *The dorms here look like hotels at Disney World with little cafes, bike rental shops, exercise facilities, and even some student run shops. *Oh, and lots of flowers, nifty architecture, and other things that make this an other-worldly experience. *Yup, WashU sure knows how to pamper the kids. *Their dorms are rated "Top 5" in the world. *Did I mention they have TWICE A WEEK MAID SERVICE in their Air-Conditioned dorm rooms? Or they have Tempur-Pedic mattresses on their beds? Or that each floor has multiple study lounges, plus each floor has a social/TV lounge, plus each floor has a kitchen? Or how about the fact that the main floor has a music room (sound proofed) with a baby grand piano, a kitchen, multiple lounge areas, mock-classrooms complete with computer white boards so students can practice their presentations, etc, etc, etc.
Classes begin today, 5 hours per day (that is 2 classes) unfortunately with Melen's particular schedule, she has NO lunch break, just 15 minutes bewteen her classes. *The literature tells the kids that they will have 2 to 3 hours of studying for each hour they are in class. *That means they could have up to 15 hours of homework in addition to the 5 hours of class time. *4 hours of sleeping and eating. *Something tells me they are a bit over zealous about their claims???
Oh, and this place is sickeningly politically correct. *There are signs all over campus proclaiming it is a Tobacco Free campus, but nothing I can find says it is Drug Free. *And there is their No Firearm policy, big bold notices say that guns are not even allowed to be transported in vehicles, or stored in your trunk in the parking lots. *Apparently they don't have a Trap & Skeet club on this campus? *Even Purdue and I.U. have target ranges on campus! *Oh, lets not forget the water bottle ban. *No plastic water bottles are allowed on campus. *You have to carry plastic cups or aluminum cans. *Apparently plastic bottles fill the recycling bins too fast? *But aluminum cans do not? *
I'm all in favor of recycling, I have no problem with being tobacco free and if they don't want guns on campus that is their choice, but I'm not a fan of having people live in an unrealistic bubble. *This campus, while beautiful, is NOTHING like any other campus we have ever visited. *The kids here are coddled and pampered and exist in a space that is divorced from the real world. *Don't get me wrong, I love this campus for what it is, but I suspect it is also a hotbed of abject stupidity and unrealistic societal ignorance mixed in with an amazing education.
So will my daughter come home with a ball of mush upon her shoulders? Time will tell. But at least for the summer I think she will be generally fairly safe. She's take a biology class in human genetics and an English class discussing banned books.
Given the prices of college I see no way that a child can earn enough money after graduating with a no-skills degree to pay back this school (tuition/housing is nearly $60K per year).
We got there Saturday afternoon, walked the campus and found the dorm where Melen will be spending the summer. *The dorms here look like hotels at Disney World with little cafes, bike rental shops, exercise facilities, and even some student run shops. *Oh, and lots of flowers, nifty architecture, and other things that make this an other-worldly experience. *Yup, WashU sure knows how to pamper the kids. *Their dorms are rated "Top 5" in the world. *Did I mention they have TWICE A WEEK MAID SERVICE in their Air-Conditioned dorm rooms? Or they have Tempur-Pedic mattresses on their beds? Or that each floor has multiple study lounges, plus each floor has a social/TV lounge, plus each floor has a kitchen? Or how about the fact that the main floor has a music room (sound proofed) with a baby grand piano, a kitchen, multiple lounge areas, mock-classrooms complete with computer white boards so students can practice their presentations, etc, etc, etc.
Classes begin today, 5 hours per day (that is 2 classes) unfortunately with Melen's particular schedule, she has NO lunch break, just 15 minutes bewteen her classes. *The literature tells the kids that they will have 2 to 3 hours of studying for each hour they are in class. *That means they could have up to 15 hours of homework in addition to the 5 hours of class time. *4 hours of sleeping and eating. *Something tells me they are a bit over zealous about their claims???
Oh, and this place is sickeningly politically correct. *There are signs all over campus proclaiming it is a Tobacco Free campus, but nothing I can find says it is Drug Free. *And there is their No Firearm policy, big bold notices say that guns are not even allowed to be transported in vehicles, or stored in your trunk in the parking lots. *Apparently they don't have a Trap & Skeet club on this campus? *Even Purdue and I.U. have target ranges on campus! *Oh, lets not forget the water bottle ban. *No plastic water bottles are allowed on campus. *You have to carry plastic cups or aluminum cans. *Apparently plastic bottles fill the recycling bins too fast? *But aluminum cans do not? *
I'm all in favor of recycling, I have no problem with being tobacco free and if they don't want guns on campus that is their choice, but I'm not a fan of having people live in an unrealistic bubble. *This campus, while beautiful, is NOTHING like any other campus we have ever visited. *The kids here are coddled and pampered and exist in a space that is divorced from the real world. *Don't get me wrong, I love this campus for what it is, but I suspect it is also a hotbed of abject stupidity and unrealistic societal ignorance mixed in with an amazing education.
So will my daughter come home with a ball of mush upon her shoulders? Time will tell. But at least for the summer I think she will be generally fairly safe. She's take a biology class in human genetics and an English class discussing banned books.
Given the prices of college I see no way that a child can earn enough money after graduating with a no-skills degree to pay back this school (tuition/housing is nearly $60K per year).