<p>But the reality is that you will not find Utopia at any school. Those who go into this thinking that a school is totally without some problems (as minor as they may be) </p>
<p>The other side of the coin is that we can always be royal citizens and ignore the fact that the emperor has no clothes?</p>
<p>I realize there is no utopia at any school. I just sometime questions whether all the hype about a particular college is truly worth it in view of the fact that you are spending alot of money on some very "prestigious" schools only to find out that your child cannot get the courses he wants or likes...if I wanted that, I would have sent him to a public institution where that is par for the course..not to a fancy IVY league...you need to read my earlier post. You don't always get what t you pay for..it's not like buying a new car.</p>
<p>Bioearthmom makes a good point - for factual information, go to the source! It amazes me that people ask things like, "What's the final deadline at Cornell for submitting a portfolio?" or "Do I have to include a tax return with my aid application at Duke?" Do you want to get this information from an anonymous CCer who may or may not have a clue, or do you want to get an answer from the official source?</p>
<p>I also agree that commentary on individual colleges has to be viewed with a skeptical eye. There are lots of starry-eyed fans and dyed-in-the-wool detractors for individual schools, and one really has to compare comments and read between the lines. Posts that indicate everything is fantastic or everything is awful are particularly suspect.</p>
<p>A particular school may be a terrific fit for the kid whose parent is posting. In order to put the comments in perspective and know whether they applied to one's own offspring, one would need to know a lot about the poster's kid's academic and social preferences and personal style (outgoing, timid, etc.). </p>
<p>I try not to make negative comments about particular schools, period. One man's meat and all that. There are a few we visited that didn't inspire me, particularly, but I know students who are very happy there. I think the more we avoid creating our own rankings here, the better. And if something looked dubious to me when I visited a campus, I would tend to want to ask a question about it rather than slam it.</p>
<p>Sgiovinc,</p>
<p>I totally understand where you are coming from which is why these forums are good because it does make us look beyond the suface of the sterling reputation. </p>
<p>With regards to the hype, you see that many people are advocates for public universities and can attest to the fact that you can get a better education there than you can at the private, and the reality is that you don't always get what you pay for. I am happy that these type of discussions can be had in a constructive manner .</p>
<p>At the potential cost of $160,000 it is a lot os money to be spending (or to be in debt ) for an education where there are a shortage of interesting courses or classes that your child cannot get into a course that they want or need. That is something that you definitely want to know befor writing your check. </p>
<p>However, we all know that this cannot be the single source of information. I am somtimes amazed at some of the questions asked which clearly show that a person has not done their homework in researching a particular school. As Emerald/Momsdream stated information gained here should be used as a jumping off point to do your own research based on what your child wants/needs.</p>
<br>
<p>"if my child was talking about me (giving, let's say personal information - perhaps my salary, or my measurements, or talking about my personal habits or something) on a forum..."</p>
<br>
<p>Yikes! That's a sobering thought.</p>
<p>I wish i could talk about my D's salary. She's unemployed!</p>
<p>In my experience, CC tops the research category. Prospective buyers would be neglectful if they didn't check the CC boards.</p>
<p>Case in point: S did all the research on SFS at Georgetown, visited, toured, met with distinguished alum, met with the Dean, etc etc.</p>
<p>After he applied, I found CC and discovered the unpublished SFS acceptance rates are as high or higher than the Ivies. </p>
<p>We shouldn't have bothered--and wouldn't have had we known. Big waste of an EA (although he did drop engineering and head towards IR/IL . A good thing).</p>
<p>Cheers, you made a great point!!! Those little tidbits of info are not well broadcasted. These are the types of things that are truly valuable to any prospective student!!</p>
<p>Cheers--I agree that CC is a great resource, but I don't understand why the SFS acceptance rate being higher than the Ivies makes it a bad choice and a big waste of an EA. What am I missing? Did he not like what he saw after visiting?</p>
<p>"if my child was talking about me (giving, let's say personal information - perhaps my salary, or my measurements, or talking about my personal habits or something) on a forum..."</p>
<p>"Yikes! That's a sobering thought."</p>
<p>LOL. You get used to it. A couple of years ago, my daughter would discusss how awful her mom (me) was on-line with her buddies. How do I know this? She told me. She also said the response from her friends was "oh, that's not that bad. Let me tell you about MY mom. . ." Actually, it helped her put things in perspective. </p>
<p>Actually, now that I think about it, some of the kids on this forum do go into some detail about their parents. I haven't recognized any of it as being about ME . . . not so far, anyway!</p>
<p>Wouldn't it be ironic if your kid WAS on the forum telling people about you and you didn't know it?</p>
<p>LOL, Destinypath. Even worse, you end up giving advice to the poor kid with horrible parents. :)</p>
<p>Well I'm guilty. I was one of those parents who fiercely defended my son's school, but I think it had more to do with the nature of the posts. For those of you who don't know me , he attends Wash. U. I felt the posts were just negative pot shots aimed at the school because of it's rise in the rankings and it's aggressive marketing campaign. Most negative posters had no actual experience with the school other than it's mailings or the USNews report. And also I felt a little defensive because midwest schools on this forum don't get the attention that east or west coast schools do. I believe first hand accounts, negative and positive (either your own experience, your child's or someone you know) are much more valuable than someone who has a negative opinion and has no experience with the school. That comment is not meant to discount posters who give out helpful advice and information about a particular school yet may have no experience. </p>
<p>I'm also guilty of posting too much information about my son along with stats. I was naive enough and did not spend time lurking so I thought of it as anonymous. I did not realize that there was a community of people that knew each other. I guess some people may have thought I was bragging but I didn't intend it and I don't think most people here do. I like to get a picture of a poster and all that stuff helps on a forum where you can't see a persons face. Aren't the rules a little different in an online community? You don't have the everyday experience of being alongside your neighbor and knowing their story-so you have to create the experience differently and tell more about your story in a way you might not in person.</p>
<p>why does my post have a red dot at the end? Sorry, but I couldn't figure out how to e-mail the moderator.</p>
<p>Isn't it interesting how having a new forum has caused so much introspection.</p>
<p>As far as opinions on colleges, I'm always interested in what the prevailing image each school has to others who follow the college world in general. I take each opinion with a grain of salt, and I try to add that grain of salt when I give my impression of a school that I don't have personal contact with, couching it in terms of "well, this is my impression, it could well be wrong." The only schools I have deep negative feelings for are the ones which I and my D transfered away from; I've detailed the problems with the one I started at, but I have a policy of not naming the one my D went to, because I think its drawbacks are endemic to a certain class of schools, and at the same time, others have had better experiences there, which should not be discounted. So I warn against a certain type of parrty atmosphere, rather than the particular school.</p>
<p>And, it's true, I will gush about the school I ended up at, and my D's transfer school, and my S's school, because we had such goodd experiences there. But I'm fully aware that these are fit issues; my kids would not have liked it if they had switched the schools they went to: they each found an appropriate fit for each.</p>
<p>Bioearthmom; We're realists. S was not a candidate for <10% superstar acceptance rate-- for a whole bunch of reasons including the fact that he spent some years at a highly competitive superstar high school and did not like that atmosphere. </p>
<p>Might have spent that EA on something else.</p>
<p>But nevermind, he's good, we're all good. Just making the point.</p>
<p>cheers--I was just curious. I actually thought you were rejecting the school because it wasn't selective enough. I misunderstood. Glad it is working out.
This whole process is so stressful. My daughter is looking at musical theater programs where the acceptance rate can be 3-5%. The musical theater forum is huge, on thread 30. Lots of information and opinions.</p>
<p>Haha, rejecting a school because it's not selective enough--that does sound like a CC post, doesn't it?</p>
<p>Other way round--too selective for our blood.</p>
<p>lizzchup...I for one appreciated all your advice on Wash U.! He ended up not going there...but we were very impressed. Thanks for all those posts btw (belatedly)</p>