Did Your Child Choose a Lesser Ranked School for Reasons Other Than Financial?

[kolijma]

<p>Bopambo, you and I share that path not taken. My D also goes to Whitman and turned down Berkeley to do so. The money would have been the same either way. She just wanted a smaller undergrad environment and loved Whitman from the moment she stepped foot on campus. She felt great getting into Cal, but unlike your son, her close friends completely understood her choice. We also talked with some Cal students who weren’t all loving it, especially the class sizes and registering. She has a friend at Whitman who turned down an Ivy, and another who turned down Stanford, so we shouldn’t indulge our wistfulness.</p>

[bopambo]

<p>kolijma, no wonder there are so many bright kids there, thanks for sharing that. From now on I’ll just smile and say my son goes to Whitman College, period.</p>

[OlympicLady]

<p>Guys: Not sure the Cal/Whitman scenario is that remarkable. Out here, all agree Cal is top’s, but it is also true that there is the love to go to Cal/would never go to Cal, and those that only apply because of their parents. In N. Cal, UCB is not desirable to many students, especially in the Bay Area. Still has the rep. for a “weird vibe” or a grinder, cut throat school. Just putting it out there.</p>

<p>Now, Whitman, that’s one of the West Coast’s Amherst, Williams etc. - only a bit more of a hidden Gem than say Pamona or Cal Tech. </p>

<p>You can hold your head high with the Whitman choice. (and just wait until the grad school results come in- your kid will rule!) Whitman offer’s auto admit to Yale Law as one of their programs. Who beats that if it fits?</p>

[Pizzagirl]

<p>

I know someone who works in recruiting for a financial firm and they basically don’t look at resumes that don’t have Ivies on them. I think this is sick…but it’s true. So, you’re giving up something tangible when you give up a name. You also give up a certain glamour, in a society that values names and logos partly because its so enormous that there’s not a lot of time to judge people for who they really are.

</p>

<p>This is silly. You’re giving up the ability to impress the sort of people who are only impresed by certain names on resumes. Why do I want to bother to “impress” those types in the first place? Who cares? Financial firms aren’t the only or best sources of jobs in this world. Big world, think broadly. So you won’t get to a certain handful of firms. Big whoops. That’s only important if your world is so narrow that you think that success can only be had / found in a handful of firms / jobs. It’s so naive and wannabe.</p>

<p>(Gwen, not directed at you, just using your post as a jumping off point.)</p>

[Pizzagirl]

<p>

kolijma, no wonder there are so many bright kids there, thanks for sharing that. From now on I’ll just smile and say my son goes to Whitman College, period.

</p>

<p>For your son’s sake, I hope that’s all you’ve ever said in the first place.</p>

[vonlost]

<p>Cal (and Stanford) are famous because of their world-class graduate schools.</p>

[Pizzagirl]

<p>

This is just such a classic CC thread, incorporating obsession with college ranking, bashing of so-called ‘lesser’ Ivies, mixed with a little elitism and helicoptering.</p>

<p>Many kids do not view attending a lower-ranked college as necessarily a negative action. They are much more concerned with ‘fit’, specifically particular departments relative to intended majors. There are so many reasons why a student selects a particular school, and only one aspect is perceived ranking.

</p>

<p>Very well said. There is this perception on CC that every hs kid (and his / her parents) treats the USNWR as a Bible, and that their decision as to where they want to go is predicated upon where a given school stands. Nothing could be further from the truth.</p>

[MiamiDAP]

<p>“no wonder there are so many bright kids there”</p>

<p>-"there are so many bright kids " absolutely EVERYWHERE.
In particular, kids who are planning to go to Grad. School (I know Med. School better than others) would love to avoid paying huge tuitions in UG. Why? It is better to safe family resources for Grad. School (again, ALL Med. Schools are extremely expensive, the diff. in tuition is not that great, so students do not have choice of price there). At same time, science and more so engineering classes are very challenging EVERYWHERE. The top kids survive only if they have great work ethic and are very commited, otherwise they fall out of pre-med track, engineering,…some other science related majors EVERYWHERE, including some off charts, lowest ranked schools. So, to think that your bright child will not be challenged at some state off charts school is very incorrect.</p>

[vonlost]

<p>A side question: Don’t all medical students automatically get loans (in their own names) to cover the costs, without their families’ involvement, because the great majority do become doctors, and can pay back the loans on their own?</p>

[Keilexandra]

<p>^^ Med school (and law school) is not grad school, it’s professional school. Also, I have to put in the usual plea for equity here, no offense to you because you’re just extrapolating from your D’s experience–what about all the humanities and social science students out there? Don’t they deserve to have classmates who are all very committed with a great work ethic, producing high-level discussion in seminar? Unfortunately, it’s hard for me to believe that this is the case; I think a disproportionate number of the “top” students who choose state Us over “better” acceptances end up in math/science/engineering.</p>