University Open Houses

Saturday, November 12/16

So the past two weekends have been spent at the open houses run by Carleton University and University of Ottawa with my son, his girlfriend, and my ex as we try and determine the entrance requirements, costs, and which programs he would like to attend.

I think back to my own senior year in high school and what I went through and it was so different from what I'm seeing with my son.

First off, growing up in Southern California offered me a much larger pool of schools from which to consider than my son has now in Ontario. There were four universities, two college's, and close to 6 community colleges in San Diego alone to choose from, whereas my son is looking at 2 universities and 2 colleges here in Ottawa. If I add in those located in Los Angeles and San Francisco I probably had more schools to choose from than he does in all of Canada.

Guess size does matter sometimes depending on the subject matter :-)

I never really went through the process he is going through as I knew from my early teens I would end up at San Diego State University and pursue a business degree as my parents had their own real estate based business and their goal was to eventually retire and I would take it over. My father saw me following in his footsteps and earning my degree in marketing and possibly participating in debate as well. But like they say a funny thing happened on the way to the show and I fell in love with accounting and finance. Now this might not sound all that odd but you'd have to have a little background and understand how much I loathed numbers. I dreaded math and am pretty sure I did my utmost best to take the bare minimum in high school to meet my degree requirements. I'm also confident that neither of my parents could have told you in any one high school semester what I was taking or how I was doing. Those two simple statements have resonated with me since my high school years and have been the foundation for my own interest in both my children's education.

Now don't get me wrong and think my parents didn't care as I know they did, it's just they were running a new business that they saw as a future for the family. I don't begrudge them that lack of knowledge and in some ways thank them for it now as it helped shape the parent I was to my daughter and am to my son. Sometimes we get lucky and are able to use something that wasn't all that great for us to improve ourselves for those who are important to us later in life.

I've enjoyed the campus visits with my son and his mother. We went in thinking his degree objective was one thing and have come out of the process with him making a change that should help him in the end achieve his career aspirations. I've also come to realize I need to start adding more to his RESP so as to cover off my half of his costs. His mother and I are completely focused on paying for this from our own resources and helping him avoid having to take on any student debt as we don't want him starting of his post university with student loans to repay while settling into his new career.

We'll be heading back to one campus over the next couple of weeks and taking a walk around it so he can feel the pulse and know if it really is the one for him. I'm sure it is but I'm not the one who is going to be spending the next four years walking the paths between buildings, making new friends, finding out just how far I can be pushed in a class or while working in a group on a grade critical project. No, I've had my time doing those things and now it's his turn, something I'm really excited to witness as I watch the continual transformation of my son into a man in his own right.

Marcus is my name and not a nom de plume as some have thought.