<p>LINYMOM, just curious as I read another post where you said your daughter just fell in love with a school. What school grabbed her so?</p>
<p>Not shocked, surprised, and very, very proud. Our S decided to go to a college where he would have to deal with many core requirements (in subjects that he did not like at all). He could have made his life so much easier. Becoming an ‘all-rounder’ was quite a new challenge for a kid who had lived for math and sciences only when attending high school.</p>
<p>older son wanted to go to University of Delaware, we also visited University of Maryland college park, University of Fla-gainsville. After being accepted to all 3, he changed his mind about Delaware and said I need some place warmer - Univ. of Fla. Since Fla. was a couple plane rides, and I hadn’t seen the "Love’ during the visit, I put some pressure on him. I figured if he went to FLA he would never come home (NY). He ended up at UD (do to my pressure) it was a great experience for him but he graduated and moved to AZ for a job!</p>
<p>Lesson learned, if I had to do it over again I would Have let him go to FL. Note- this took place a few years after 9/11 and the idea of flying to a school was not appealing.</p>
<p>Older son went to a suburban LAC, which suited him fine both in location & size. At the time we were looking at schools with him, I remember saying that he wasn’t suited for an urban campus, but I wouldn’t have the same concerns about younger son going to an urban school when the time came for him to go. When we went on vacation to various cities, it was always younger son who read subway maps, paid attention to street signs, remembered landmarks, etc. Older son just followed wherever we were going, but was never as involved in the experience as his younger brother.</p>
<p>Fast forward 4 years & where is younger son going to college…an urban campus, of course.</p>
<p>My parents were shocked that I got in to my reach school, not that I chose to go when I had the opportunity.</p>
<p>My mother was also shocked that I was so successful and happy at the reach school. She thought that I wouldn’t be able to get into the activities I cared about, and that I’d be sad and lonely as a result. Luckily her worries did not come true!</p>
<p>Not shocking, but most unexpected in retrospect: My son, who was gung-ho MIT for years, and then Chicago for about a year, and who turned his nose up at anything less than a US News Tier 1 institution, now seems poised to choose the University of Mississippi. Good financial aid, good in the specific subjects he’s interested in, good personality fit, even though it’s the lowest-ranked school he applied to. (So much for rankings.) I wish that a year ago I could have showed him the future.</p>
<p>Early fall, S and I made separate college lists (just so I could participate in the process without hovering. lol) When we compared our lists, I was surprised to see that 4 out of 5 were the same. Later, we added a few more for good measure…</p>