This may sound rude, but how middle class is your son's upbringing?

Job Corps is tough. Regimented -- early to bed, early to rise. Except for weekends.

And the kids who succeed -- based on what I have seen -- are the stronger kids from the hood. That means that they were surely strong kids IN the hood, some of them doing the things that keep one on top of the heap.

Some not. I had a female student, who went because she was tired of the streets. She was a take no shit person, tall and kind of andro looking, but straight. Basically, she didn't fit in and therefore was a target. She got tired of fighting over nothing and wanted out. She did fine.

I have found that the kids who stay and finish are the tougher kids (with some shitty experiences behind them) who want out.

It's not easy at all. You have to want it. Kids who are made to go there usually don't make it. And I wouldn't put a middle class kid in the Treasure Island one for money. Blows my mind a little to think about it. But they are different everywhere. You should check the one out that you are contemplating.

I am all for shaking a kid up, but if this is a fairly sheltered child, I personally would not risk it.

My whole thing is to be careful not to set a kid up for another failure. Failure after failure in those transitional years can be paralyzing.