Onwards!

After several campus visits, scholarship offers and tons of junk mail from affiliates of each university, I'm finally getting around to letting you know where Joshua decided to go to college.

He chose the University of Texas at Arlington
and their School of Architecture.


Over the last several years Joshua has cultivated an interest in art and architecture. He's looked at buildings with awe since we lived in DFW. He wanted to take pictures of every building we saw in England. Serving as the President for his newly-formed chapter of National Art Honor Society at school has been one way that he has honed his skills and interest. So when the applications needed to be filled out for college, he had a pretty clear idea of what he wanted to study and with encouragement from us to stay within the Lone Star State he knew where he'd be studying it. (Have you SEEN what out-of-state tuition can run you lately?!? Forget an arm and a leg, you'd have to throw in both sets AND a first-born!)

We looked at the University of Texas (in Austin), but J was capped because of the 10% rule. That's where a state university is required by law to accept a student that places in the top ten percent of their graduating class. Joshua is in the top twenty percent, but not the top ten. Still quite an achievement for a class of 400+ students.

We visited the University of A & M, about a 90-minute drive up the road in College Station. He was accepted into the university, but the Architecture program was full for the fall semester. His options were to a) start at A & M as a general studies major (where he wouldn't be able to begin taking any of the freshman level architecture and studio courses), keep a 3.5 GPA or higher, and then change his major and hope he could still get in to the College of Architecture which would in essence put him "behind" about a year as far as coursework is concerned; or b) go to another university that HAD accepted him into their School/College of Architecture, begin taking freshman classes that were degree-specific, maintain a GPA of 3.0 or higher, then TRANSFER in to their college. We all agreed the TRANSFER option seemed the most logical.

We then visited my alma mater of Texas Tech University in his birthplace of Lubbock. I encouraged him to go to Tech even though it was the furthest from home and would be harder for me to visit or for him to come home as often. Honestly, I thought that would be seen as a "plus" for him. I had a great time at Tech and enjoyed college even if it wasn't conventional since I was a single mom at the time; a rarity, I'm sure or at least I didn't meet many others, back then. He liked the program and everything else about Tech, but I think the deal-breaker was the dorms. I tried to get him to look past that, but to no avail. To be honest, I really don't know what else changed his mind against Tech.

Then, lastly, we were off to Arlington, minutes from our previous "home" in Euless. I had no idea about UTA, had driven through campus many times when we lived in the area, but never really gave it a second thought. I liked the idea of a smaller college and how smaller, more intimate classes could better serve J's education, where he wouldn't feel lost in the shuffle which can happen at larger universities. But were the opportunities as plentiful there as they were at a "major university"?

We did the same thing we had done at the other colleges: toured the campus, visited the dorms, and talked with people in the architecture department. I didn't see any vast difference, other than the size of the campus itself. Facilities seemed appropriate to its size. There were newer buildings that proved money was coming in and there was growth. (Student body population is right around 25,000 and according to their respective websites Tech's is listed at about 28,000, A&M's at 48,000+ and UT's at 50,000+.) On the surface, it seemed comparable. However, something happened in Joshua that set off a spark. He seemed to be more excited about going to college, looked forward to the fact he was going to finally be able to study something he was interested it, wanted to get to it. Something happened and he was "sold"...and that was all I needed.

The final selling point was definitely the financial aid. Joshua was awarded an Outstanding Freshman scholarship for $6,000 that was renewable for up to four years depending on grades and such. That won't pay for everything, but it'll take a nice chunk out of the bills.

His plan is to utilize the scholarship, study hard, work diligently at creating a damn fine portfolio and then look at transferring as a sophomore into UT or A&M, a little closer to home. His dream of studying at Rice hasn't completely faded so I may still have to sell an arm or a leg at some point. I'm just glad that he's got a bit of focus and a goal set.

Now if I can just come to terms with the whole empty nest thing that's facing me...