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Honors College tour
Aug. 28th, 2017 11:52 pmThis afternoon D. and i finally did the "tour" of the honors college within the University of Oregon. It's a full semi-separate liberal arts college. Students take about a third of their classes in the honors college, a third in their major (there are also honors programs within majors, which is different), and a third in electives or a second major or a minor or such. The honors college classes are limited to about 15 students and focused on discussions rather than lectures.
D. had been grumbling about my insistence on us doing the "tour," because he was already sure he just wants to go to the regular university. And that could be a fine thing to do, and he's welcome to make that decision, but I wanted him to have the actual information first, rather than just a vague impression. He was extra grumbly today because he woke up with a headache, probably due to the appalling level of wildfire smoke in the air. But he humored me, and we went. Other people there were our friends C&S, whom I'd invited, and two families with three students between them. After the presentation, while we were walking over to the building where most of the honors college students live as freshmen, D. said he still wasn't interested, but this time he articulated an actual reason: He thinks he does better with a "listen to a lecture" learning style than the discussion style they prefer. So I'm glad he thought about it in a more mature fashion. I was also glad to be there as he got his first introduction to actually thinking about college classes, and a taste of the breadth of what they offer at the university, and thinking about dorm life, and the fancy rec center. (I hope he won't want to be in a dorm and that he can be excused from the new requirement that all freshmen live in a dorm, because it would add about $10K to his first year of college, urgh.)
Afterwards, we walked several blocks with C&S and learned their big news - in less than two months, their family plans to open a Lego store! They think they have an agreement to lease a space near Sweet Life bakery. Very exciting!
Then we came home and shut ourselves indoors (at least until D. went off to visit his girlfriend). Remember early in August when I was complaining about how the wildfire smoke had made the air so hazy? The peak particulate level then was about 110, which is pretty high. Today was much worse. D. had a headache, he and I had stomach aches, and J. had a sore throat. Probably everybody in Eugene was sickish. At 10 a.m. the peak level was 216!
D. had been grumbling about my insistence on us doing the "tour," because he was already sure he just wants to go to the regular university. And that could be a fine thing to do, and he's welcome to make that decision, but I wanted him to have the actual information first, rather than just a vague impression. He was extra grumbly today because he woke up with a headache, probably due to the appalling level of wildfire smoke in the air. But he humored me, and we went. Other people there were our friends C&S, whom I'd invited, and two families with three students between them. After the presentation, while we were walking over to the building where most of the honors college students live as freshmen, D. said he still wasn't interested, but this time he articulated an actual reason: He thinks he does better with a "listen to a lecture" learning style than the discussion style they prefer. So I'm glad he thought about it in a more mature fashion. I was also glad to be there as he got his first introduction to actually thinking about college classes, and a taste of the breadth of what they offer at the university, and thinking about dorm life, and the fancy rec center. (I hope he won't want to be in a dorm and that he can be excused from the new requirement that all freshmen live in a dorm, because it would add about $10K to his first year of college, urgh.)
Afterwards, we walked several blocks with C&S and learned their big news - in less than two months, their family plans to open a Lego store! They think they have an agreement to lease a space near Sweet Life bakery. Very exciting!
Then we came home and shut ourselves indoors (at least until D. went off to visit his girlfriend). Remember early in August when I was complaining about how the wildfire smoke had made the air so hazy? The peak particulate level then was about 110, which is pretty high. Today was much worse. D. had a headache, he and I had stomach aches, and J. had a sore throat. Probably everybody in Eugene was sickish. At 10 a.m. the peak level was 216!