@greeninohio, you have definitely been on a rollercoaster ride!
^^^ With her heart sinking as they plunged to the very Bottom of the coaster towerâŠ
Just kidding. Itâs cool that the S got so much scholarship money. The NMS scholarship adds a nice touch! (Still waiting to see if I get one.)
"Does it matter a flying fart what anyone else thinks of where your kid goes or doesnât go to school? Are the opinion-holders paying for it? "
Of course it doesnât. Itâs perfectly possible that one could be dismayed by oneâs own childâs choice but really not be concerned with âjudgingâ other kids. Didnât I say upthread that a friend of mine âallowedâ her kid to turn down U of Chicago for a far âlesserâ school? I can say âthat likely wouldnât fly in my household unless there was something else compellingâ but that doesnât mean I would tell my friend that - not my kid, not my worry. They donât need to justify anything to me.
The thread deteriorated into the CC trope of what kind of school (and student body) is âbetterâ, which led to all manner of responses. That is what I was speaking to.
@momof2eagles, Ross, McIntire, and Goizueta (as well as Haas) is what I meant to say. Though I believe that Ross and McIntire are 3 year programs (Goizueta, like Haas, is a 2 year program). For that matter, he could try Cornell AEM as well.
McIntire is a two year program.
i agree about advantages of big public schools talked about on this thread over smaller private schools but now will have to âsweat it outâ with him next yr at the same time my now junior HS student is getting his college decisions back. He also got into UVA and Univ of michigan both like CAL amazing undergraduate business schools but much like HAAS the ability to get into those schools is about 50 percent. Goizueta we were told as long as he was a good student at emory he would get in. Not so at the big flagship schools like UVA, Michigan and CAL. plenty of disappointed good students getting rejected. Coming from being an Emory graduate , I donât understand the concept of not being able to be the major you want at your schools and see this as a big negative of big public schools.
again he loves CAL but everything and i mean everything he has to fight for including housing,getting inoto club/activities(he told me most clubs/activities requires applications and only about 10 percent of kids get into these clubs), and now applying for majors in sophmore year. He is definitely not an under the rador kid and usually finds a way to get what he wants including opp. at CAL freshmen year (he is a DJ and found a way to be in student government entertainment board and dance marathon)but his younger brother hearing about this now wants a small LAC where he can be guaranteed housing, be a member of club/activities, be the major he wants to be without fear he wonât get in, etc and I donât blame him. Advising has been ânillâ but again he has had a very successful academic, social freshmen year full of many opps but definitely not for the âfaint of heartâ
Iâm nominating Berkeley as the number one school on the dimension of âits loyalists always find a way to turn any thread into one about Berkeley.â Is it a California thing?
âComing from being an Emory graduate,I donât understand the concept of not being able to be the major you want at your schools and see this as a big negative of big public schools.â With UVa at least, some of that has to do with traditions and philosophy of education and emphasis on the liberal arts. And of course, the spirit of Thomas Jefferson is invoked in terms of how the Commerce school is set up. https://www.commerce.virginia.edu/undergrad/undergraduate-admissions
âThe spirit of Thomas Jeffersonâ? Why would one base a business school off impracticality, long stretches of ignoring commerce to pursue public affairs, and dying heavily in debt?
SomeOldGuy,Did you read the link? The SCHOOL is in no way ignoring commerce. Thomas Jefferson is brought into most everything , whether or not you think much of him or that that is a good idea. He founded UVa. It is a bit of a running joke that he is brought into most things but is somewhat of an endearing thing and part of UVaâs traditions and history.
And making fun of UVAâs veneration of Jefferson even in walks of life in which he never demonstrated much of an interest is a long-standing tradition in the rest of the ACC. 
Haha. Well, Jefferson did have many thoughts on commerce and enterprise. As he did on most things. But this thread is not about UVa OR Jefferson anyway!
@HeliMom74 ânobody is selling heroin to pay the bursarâ!!! LOL!
I can certainly understand the disappointment â Iâd be disappointed myself â but Iâll also concede that it will likely not matter much at all in the long run. MSU is a terrific school, and so much of our later success in the world is tied to our drive and ambition. Yes, the school matters but probably not too much.
âThe thread deteriorated into the CC trope of what kind of school (and student body) is âbetterâ, which led to all manner of responses.â
My kids went to public schools, but Iâd be lying if I tried to pretend that the math/science magnet school in our area, or some of the elite private schools in our area, werenât âbetter.â That âbetterâ wasnât enough to justify the cost / inconvenience to send them there, but that doesnât mean I canât acknowledge that they are âbetter.â Philips Exeter is âbetterâ too than our local public school.
Pizzagirl, youâre back at straw man. The endless arguments of âbetterâ schools make CC a toxic place.
Itâs not a parentâs job to approve or disapprove of our kidsâ college choices. (Once again, assuming cost is not a factor.) We wonât be attending the classes or living on campus. The kid will. If sheâs happy there, the book is closed.
We were in a somewhat similar situation last year, when our son was left with three viable options (in terms of affordability) to choose from. He had originally wanted a small selective (dare I say âeliteâ) LAC experience, where he could major in mathematics and possibly do a 3+2 engineering program. He also considered (and applied to) some of the good LACs that offered engineering. His safety schools were our very good big state flagship, Penn State, and Alabama for their automatic merit awards. He was not admitted to any LAC as rarefied as Amherst, but he did get into a very good one in the 20-30 range, which offered some very generous FA, making it affordable for our family. We visited all three schools within about three weeks of each other last April, and much to my shock my kid ended up choosing the âbest valueâ in his eyes and the place where he felt he would have the most flexibility, both academically and socially. He chose Bama.
I was not actually disappointed in his choice, but Iâm not gonna lie, I did grieve a little that he passed on the kind of school (the SLAC) where we had always imagined him excelling, and I felt bad for him that he was going to a âlesserâ school than a lot of his classmates, who were headed to Ivies and elite LACs. And as much as I was glad to pass on being a full-pay parent at Penn State, it was very hard to walk away from the tremendous career resources and national reputation that Penn State offers its engineers. (It was easier when he didnât get admitted to Schreyer, but we knew he still had a decent chance of gaining admission later if he applied as an upperclassman.)
By the end of his senior year, my son was pretty sure he wanted to pursue engineering but he wanted to study somewhere with a vibrant liberal arts presence as well. Heâd also realized he did NOT want a small LAC experience after all (four years of an intense college prep private high school had fulfilled that need and he was ready to move on). I never worried that he was taking the âeasierâ path by going to a less prestigious school. It is my opinion that any kid with enough drive and ambition to get admitted into a selective private college or a top-rated engineering program is no more likely to coast at a big flagship campus than anywhere else. (Itâs not like kids donât get into academic trouble at elite schools either.)
And, Iâm sorry, but engineering is not easy ANYWHERE. Even passing on Caltech or MIT for a different experience isnât necessarily crazy IMHO if a kid just canât see himself being happy in that kind of pressure-cooker environment. The head of Apple is an Auburn grad; the head of Lockheed Martin went to Alabama. There is more than one way to skin a cat.
My son had a great first year at Alabama. He made a terrific group of very smart friends living in the universityâs liberal arts honors living learning community, learned to enjoy big-time college sports (something he had no interest in before), took some great honors classes, ended the year with a 4.0+ GPA, and was offered a co-op position with a Fortune 1000 company he will begin this summerâa position that required a high GPA to even get an interview for. (And with the money we saved on tuition this past year we were able to help him buy a really nice car to get himself to the job.)
My son saw a lot of classmates at Bama flame out of engineering, just like they do everywhere, but for the kid willing to work hard and apply those âelite schoolâ skills to his college career, there will be plenty of opportunities, and Iâm guessing the situation is as good or better at Michigan State. If Michigan State is offering the OPâs son everything he wants for a better price, why would anybody question his work ethic or ambition?
"Itâs not a parentâs job to approve or disapprove of our kidsâ college choices. (Once again, assuming cost is not a factor.) We wonât be attending the classes or living on campus. "
Whoa. itâs one thing to say that itâs not my job to approve or disapprove of some OTHER kidâs college choices. Itâs quite another to say itâs not my job to approve or disapprove of my own kidâs college choices. I have twins who are seniors in college (and graduating shortly, yay!). $60K x 4 years x 2 kids - you do the math. I spent more on their college education than I did on any purchase in my life, including my house. Youâre darn right Iâm going to have a say.
There is a difference between having schools in the same general band of quality â there I think (assuming there are no financial issues or some other specific issue, like having to be near home for medical treatment) itâs about personal fit and preference. But go way out of the band of quality? Yeah, that needs some justification to me.
Just to pick on my sonâs list for a moment - Northwestern, Tufts, Georgetown, Kenyon, Brandeis. Same band. Uniformly high caliber student bodies. Go with where youâre most comfortable - thatâs a personal fit issue. Throw in Arizona State? Youâd better have a REALLY good reason, and wanting a good tan isnât enough.