When a boy enters first grade at the age of 4 and high school at the age of 12, it's a foregone conclusion that the child will end up at a Harvard or a Stanford or a Cornell. Right? Not if the boy is Ralph Jones Jr., a 16-year-old freshman at Florida A&M University who has received national attention in recent days for passing up opportunities at the 45 other schools that accepted him -- including the prestigious institutions listed above -- to attend the Tallahassee, Fla., HBCU.
Jones said that for him it wasn't about whether or not a school was an Ivy League -- he thought about location, scholarship offers, campus atmosphere and the institution's engineering program in making his decision. "Entering college at the age of 16," Jones told The Root, "I think that my motives behind choosing were a little bit different than other people's. One, I looked at distance from home. Florida A&M is about 300 miles away from my hometown of Atlanta, so that was something that was really important to me, whereas if I had gone somewhere that was considered an Ivy, that would have been a good 2,000."
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I think this young man made the right choice, I believe had he chose an Ivy League school, he would have been placed under alot of pressure because of his age and race. He will stil be able to be a child at FAMU. Most important of all, he as smart enough to think about his family. It probably would have been a strain on his parents if they had to commute so far away to check on him and his needs.
ReplyDeleteI would also say that this young man made the right choice. It appears that he did alot of research on the prospective schools that were interested in him. He also visited a good many of the campuses. With the guidance of his parents him being so young, shows me that he values and respects their opinions and he wanted them to have a major part with his decission making process. He also took into account his historical background which probably aided in his decission. I think he made the right chose for him and any outside sources that critized him for his chose is irrelevant.
ReplyDeleteI think young man made the best decision for him. he made the decisions that best fit him. He made his decision based on what it was he wanted to do and be surrounded by. He would have been looked at as if he was were this odd ball out had he chosen to attend an ivy league school and I dont think that what he wanted. I think he wanted to do what we all want to do in college. Get away from home but not to far, meet new people, have new experiences, learn new things and have a good time while we are doing it
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