<p>There were a few possible safeties where I wasn't too impressed with the freshman retention rate or the 4 or 6 yr grad rate.</p>
<p>i don't know if we outright discouraged our daughter from applying to columbia and nyu but we definitely did not encourage her to apply to either school. we live about 50 miles north of new york city and we felt there was a good chance she would eventually wind up working and living in or around new york city and that her college years should be spent in a different environment.</p>
<p>One of my older daughters wanted to apply to the Citadel and VMI. I said no.</p>
<p>I discouraged DD from applying to Reed. I think very highly of Reed, but the tuition is very high and we are on the east coast, and I just felt the cost would be prohibitive.</p>
<p>Other than that I think very highly of Reed.</p>
<p>Had she really insisted, I would have allowed it, but she was just casually choosing schools.</p>
<p>If we lived on the West Coast? Top of the list, probably.</p>
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<blockquote> <p>If Georgia Tech had been on DS's radar, I would have strongly encouraged him not to apply. I know too many people who were chewed up and spit out of that place.<<</p> </blockquote>
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<p>All programs at Ga Tech, or just the engineering?</p>
<p>As University of Maryland graduates, my wife and I discouraged our daughter from applying to any other ACC schools, though we could have possibly lived with Clemson. </p>
<p>Not that it was a realistic option but Duke would have been out of the question. </p>
<p>We have no rational reason for this other than rivalries.</p>
<p>Never discouraged my kids from any school in particular but did try to impress upon them that they couldn't apply to every school in the country which seemed to be their initial goal.</p>
<p>I had them sit down and make a list of priorities such as size of the school, location, particular majors, etc. That started to make things pretty easy as my son quickly decided he only wanted to be at a smallish school on the east or west coast and daughter soon decided on wanting a large university in the mid-west or east coast and they took it from there.</p>
<p>I don't get why parents would discourage their children from going to a school with an odd name. That sounds unbelievably selfish.</p>
<p>ellemenope,
The folks I know were in various flavors of engineering, CS and physics.</p>
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<blockquote> <p>I don't get why parents would discourage their children from going to a school with an odd name. That sounds unbelievably selfish.<<</p> </blockquote>
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<p>Certainly no more selfish than discouraging them from applying to a cross town rival. Fact is, if the kids insisted on applying to XXX School, I'm guessing that the parents would not have blocked the way.</p>
<p>Thanks for the imput, CountingDown, re Georgia Tech.</p>
<p>ellemenope: My nephew is at Georgia Tech and really suffering. He is absolutely brilliant in his field, CS, but struggling with other required courses. And the atmosphere does not seem to support him at all.</p>
<p>His parents live in Atlanta does he does get a break. He lives cross town with friends. I don't know how he'd manage if they weren't there.</p>
<p>Perhaps Georgia Tech subscribes to the weed-out approach in the early years and supports the upperclassmen who make it through the gauntlet. Sorry to hear that your nephew is suffering, MM.</p>
<p>GT has a giant reputation as a miserable place to go. I have NO idea why people don't listen. There are plenty of good engineering schools.</p>
<p>We discouraged S from applying to UNC-CH. We started in on that shortly after his birth,lol.</p>
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<blockquote> <p>GT has a giant reputation as a miserable place to go. I have NO idea why people don't listen.<<</p> </blockquote>
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<p>Are the engineering graduate programs as notoriously miserable? I ask because my D is interested in robotics and GT has just started a PhD program in the field.</p>
<p>I had a friend who went to Berkeley who started to actively promote Berkeley and denigrate Stanford (where I went to law school) when my kids were little...bought them Berkeley tshirts, sweatshirts, etc. </p>
<p>D1 showed us both up by getting into both and going to neither!</p>
<p>kinda like the opposite.
I wanted to have a safety state school. Got eye roll from S and MYOB from W who was heavily involved.</p>
<p>For those who think distance is a factor for travel costs. Check your airline fares .</p>
<p>ellemenope: I think a woman has a better time at Tech than a man. And your daughter is past basic courses. My nephew struggled with the courses outside his discipline. Your daughter won't face that. Atlanta is a nice town. I wouldn't worry if that's where she ends up.</p>
<p>And thanks for the kind words. My nephew is a senior so he's getting close to the end, though he needs one more semester.</p>