Just found this article and thought it would be nice to share it, especially at this difficult and emotionally (at times disappointing and heartbreaking) period when college decisions have come out: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/04/the-3-percent-crisis/389396/
Puts things into perspective…
Oops, just noticed this link was also included in another thread. Sorry about the redundancy folks
That article does not once use the word “fit”. So where do you see the connection?
The author suggests that most students who even apply to “elite” colleges are already “elite”. Assuming they are at least in the ballpark of what those schools expect, they probably have what it takes to succeed (even if they wind up at somewhat less selective schools). From the perspective of financial ROI alone, one could conclude it does not much matter which of many, reasonably selective schools one attends.
I think “fit” is important, but it’s not equally important to everyone. Some people just aren’t too sensitive to differences of location, weather, size, social atmosphere, etc. Or they lack the self-knowledge to be able to express any preferences. They just go with the cheapest or most prestigious offer without much hand-wringing over the Greek scene, campus politics, class sizes, or “vibe”.
I appreciate this sentence a lot:
A number of times in the last week I’ve read posts from high school seniors who suddenly believe that being rejected by the Ivies means that all their hard work was for nothing. That sentiment is only as true as you let it become. If you did a good job in high school, then you are a hard-working, curious problem-solver. Be happy about that.
Isn’t this article basically saying that rich kids will be okay even if they don’t get into Harvard? As a 19-year-old, my life has been shaped by external factors more than it’s been shaped by my own decisions (which basically amount to getting good grades and not getting in trouble).
Or … that ambitious, disciplined kids will be ok even if they don’t get into Harvard.
You decide to get good grades and not get into trouble.
Or, you decide to stay up all night every night smoking pot.
The difference between those two decisions is more momentous than whether you wind up at super exclusive college X or pretty good college Y.
The article contradicts itself. First it says that your success does rely on where you go to college (“It matters where you go to college, plain and simple.”) Then it says that “actually getting into Princeton isn’t as critical as being the type of person who could get into Princeton.” The latter is true, based on everything that I have seen and heard.
Ah, but it is about fit…
The title starts the soul searching: “It Doesn’t Matter Where You Go to College’: Inspirational, but Wrong.”
"This is starting to feel like a downer column for the thousands of families who will open skinny rejection letters from Harvard, Stanford, and their kin. But I promise there’s an inspirational message lurking here, and it starts with the question: Why is college, broadly speaking, a reliable indicator of earnings, employment, and success?
College acceptance and future success are both reflections of an obvious but often overlooked variable: the person you’re becoming in your late teens. After all, elite schools aren’t taking a random sample of high-school students and churning out success stories. They’re accepting people who are already on the road to success, connecting them with peers and alumni in successful jobs, giving them a degree that signals to employers that this person has the potential to be successful, and then basking in their eventual success. (The fact that networks and signals are enough to make elite schools valuable doesn’t prove that they don’t also offer a great education; it just makes it all the harder to study exactly how much better an elite education is.)
But let’s say you took a group of similarly gifted kids. Let’s say some were randomly accepted to super-duper-elite schools (like Yale) while others were rejected and attended less-elite schools (like Penn State). What if the results showed that both groups turned out nearly the same? Wouldn’t that offer sort of a nice message: that the habits you’ve built and the person you’re becoming at 18 matter more than the exact school you attend?
In fact, that was broadly the finding of one of my favorite studies, a 2002 paper from economists Stacy Berg Dale and Alan B. Krueger…
This finding isn’t just clarifying. It’s inspirational. It says that the college-admissions process, which millions of 18-year-olds consider the singular gateway of their young adulthood, is actually just one of thousands of gateways, the sum of which are far more important than any single one. While hundreds of thousands of 17- and 18-year-olds sit around worrying that a decision by a room of strangers is about to change their lives forever, the truer thing is that their lives have already been shaped decisively by the sum of their own past decisions—the habits developed, the friends made, and the challenges overcome. Where you go to college does matter, because it’s often an accurate measure of the person you’re becoming."
"Here’s an uplifting college meme that’s right: The person you’ve become by the time you’re 18 matters more than any decision by an admissions board you’ll never meet. "
And here is where “fit” comes into play.
In the comments section, Ruby Red opines:
" As an independent college counselor, I am constantly explaining to “elite” families that a good fit is better than a big name. Derek is right to imply that elite students will find success regardless of where their diploma comes from. I’ve found that personal qualities are the make-or-break for students post-college.
However, “elite” students who matriculate at prestigious universities without considering fit are foolish. I’ve seen too many cases where students go on to Ivies but absolutely fail to flourish: they completely miss their potential. All students, including the elite 3%, should always consider fit when deciding on a college. The environment has to be conducive to their personal learning style, and all of the opportunity in the world doesn’t mean a thing unless a student feels it is accessible to them. A good fit is where a student can learn effectively, be challenged on all levels, and expand the scope of their thinking. Elite students who choose a good fit over a great name (though the two may not be mutually exclusive) will excel in comparison to their peers."
Of course where you go matters a lot, but not because it is an elite college with a prestigious name, but rather for how much you can learn, grow, develop and extract from your years there. Just because someone goes to Yale doesn’t mean that this person will be successful and make a lot of money or land the “dream” job. Of course, going to an elite school gives an advantage to its graduates but only insofar as they fully make use of this. Just as someone who attends college X and takes full advantage of all the opportunities available (and this may mean making some opportunities themselves by visiting professors in office hours, going the extra miles to stand out , getting involved etc.) can be extremely successful.
Thousands of kids are not going to get into their top choices, the schools where they believe they “fit”. But “fit” is also a state of mind, isn’t it? Isn’t it also a “connection”, an environment where a student can thrive, find or make opportunities, connect with professors, mentors, join or establish clubs. With the right state of mind, many choose to make the schools fit, and in doing this, many learn an important life lesson. Make the most of what you have. Choose to make the most of the college you are going to attend. So, where you go to college matters if you choose to make it matter.
I’m saying that you can’t really separate personal merit from parental influence when you’re talking about eighteen-year-old kids (unless you’re in a situation where a kid is “good” despite having “bad” parents, or vice versa).
I think I speak for a lot of kids on here (definitely not all) when I say that I didn’t experience those as meaningful decisions. When I avoided drugs and got good grades, I was simply following the path of least resistance. I might have genuine ambition somewhere deep inside, but it hasn’t had very many opportunities to manifest itself.