Posted on 09/16/2014 7:15:06 PM PDT by usconservative
Ok, I need some help here on a topic I know absolutely nothing about: how to evaluate colleges.
My oldest son is graduating high school this year and wants to pursue a career in Law Enforcement. He has an excellent GPA (3.7/4.0) and achieved a 32 on his ACT test and as a result we're getting solicitations from colleges all over the country from as far south as Tulane in Louisiana, Hofstra in New York, University of Southern California, Michigan State, Valparaiso University, Marquette and others.
We've narrowed down the list of colleges we're visiting based on his desire to obtain a degree in law enforcement (criminology, civil law, etc..) which are:
Western Illinois University in Macomb, IL (about 3.5 hours west of where we live); University of Indiana in Bloomington, IN (about 6 hours SE of where we live); Marquette University in Wisconson (about 3 hours north of us); Lewis University (10 miles away) and Northern Illinois University (which we've already ruled out.)
My question for those Freepers who've already been through this is: How do we evaluate these different universities? All have good programs in the Law Enforcement area with Western Illinois appearing to have the top Law Enforcement/Criminology program available. The sheriff of the county I live in is a Western Illinois University grad and has already spoken highly of the school to us.
Aside from the program & degree my oldest son wants to obtain, what should we ask about when visiting each of these universities?
I'm also baffled as to why my son wants a career in law enforcement and specifically the FBI or ATF. Not sure where he's getting it from given his father's absolute distrust of anything related to the U.S. Government.
Thanks in advance for any advice.
Last time I checked, you need a law degree to work for the FBI.
Michigan state is relatively conservative as far as major universities are concerned. FReeper Carry_Okie has a daughter attending MSU.
Really? Hmmm... going to have to look into that and let oldest son know. Thanks for that!
First of all, what can you afford? Are the schools offering scholarships? It makes no sense to got to Tulane at $40k per year for a low paying job in law enforcement.
Second, I would do a little research with key words like “worst colleges” and “party schools”.
Or an accounting degree.
That should tell you something bout their acceptance rate. IIRC it's something like 32%.
Hard Work University / College of the Ozarks is tuition free and has a Criminal Justice program
https://www.cofo.edu/Page/Academics/Academic-Programs.93.html
Excellent advice and I actually thought to do that. The schools on our list are highly rated in their tier and considered good values by Forbes Magazine and Bloomberg.
Since I'm paying likely full boat, the school's on our list are coming out to be about $25k/year including tuition, housing and food. The exception is Lewis University which is about $30 on the tuition, but we think we can negotiate that price down due to Lewis University granting educational scholarships to applicants with high ACT scores.
Thanks for your tip -- anything we should ask about during a campus visit? I'm concerned about safety on campus even though oldest son's a 3rd degree black belt and 6'4". Never know these days what's gonna happen on college campus'.
Thanks for that link, bookmarked!
For some reason, oldest son doesn't want to be "too far" from home. Any talk of going out of state was met with a loud "NO!" ... it was hard enough to get him to look at Indiana State University, 6 hours away.
Not any more. I know guys that went from State Police to the FBI. They needed some folks with street smarts—although they did not put it that way.
To be in the FBI you only need a Bachelor’s degree. Most favored are degrees in criminal justice, law enforcement, or homeland security,
Law or accounting.
Become a plumber or an electrician first. At least then he always has something useful and honorable to fall back on. Better money too.
Has he thought about being a Military Policeman/Air Policeman for 3 or 4 years? Many people do that before going into law enforcement since one has to be 21 to do that. He can take classes in the military for free, get some experience and see if he actually likes the field and see the world. Then he’d have the GI Bill to pay for college when he gets out. Another option would be military intelligence if he scores high enough. The FBI would appreciate that.
As I understand it, having a cyber-crime background also helps alot. Wish I could get oldest son more into computers and security rather than his building gaming rigs....
Not sure where you are located. Maybe your son is thinking about long-term job security and retirement bennies.
I know a fine young man, quite conservative who became a town constable [small village here]...wanted to get into the state police....went to Norwich. His excellent marksmanship abilities got him drafted to the AFT [argh! I know] but as far as I know, he hasn’t been laid-off from his job. And has a decent pension to retire on.
Norwich University, Northfield, VT
have you looked into Liberty University School of Law (in Virginia... definitely close to D.C.)... it ranks decently among law schools...
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