<p>We loved them all! After each one we left thinking yeah, this place is great, it would be a great choice to go here. No deal breakers at any of them. One won the contest for best food. One won the contest for best dorms. One seemed more protective and seemed like it provided more hand-holding. One seemed more contemporary and forward thinking. One seemed like a normal average all around great choice. One was really close, one was a a couple hrs away and one was a day-long drive away. So what? The biggest difference was that one was a state school and we could get out of there with minimal debt. In fact, if #1 stays an extra year for a graduate degree, and if #2 went there as well, they would both graduate with degrees the same year, little debt, and we could probably buy ea. their own car if they wanted one. This would also leave more family money in the kitty for their use later on. </p>
<p>I would eliminate the food/dorm/ski club factors. they are really meaningless in the grand scheme of things. Would you not take a job because the bathroom was painted green instead of teal? Because the food in the cafeteria was just okay? No.</p>
<p>The finances are important, and if that’s what you can afford, your search is over. If you can afford any of them, have your daughter pick.</p>
<p>I was lucky. One school my son and I visited was about 5 hours away in the middle of nowhere. I could tell before we even got there, my son had crossed it off his list…and I was glad.</p>
<p>But, in general, when having difficulties choosing among alternatives, take the lower cost alternative. For example, when I buy Dijon mustard, I can’t discern any difference in taste between Grey Poupon and my store brand so I get the store brand and save a buck…now strawberry preserves is a different story!</p>
<p>Lucky you and student. All great choices, so what the hey, might as well get the least expensive. It hurts when a kid goes to one of these and glombs onto the unaffordable school so that at this point I don’t even recommend going to those schools that are unaffordable. No sense putting salt into the wounds. </p>
<p>You have done a good job of recognizing the differences between the schools. I agree that the food/dorm stuff is pretty inconsequential in the long run. I would first look at the finances. If one is affordable and the others aren’t your choice is made. If they are all comfortably do-able, then look at the traits – the differences between the schools – and think about if any provide a better fit than the cheaper option (ex. would a more nurturing environment be helpful? is there a value on being at a forward thinking type of place? is distance a factor to consider?)</p>
<p>What’s important to you, and what’s important to your son?</p>
<p>If I were the student, any school with bad food would be crossed right off my list.</p>
<p>If I were the parent and my child was choosing between acceptable alternatives, one of which was much cheaper, my child would be going to the cheaper one. I can’t fathom going tens of thousands of dollars into debt when the much cheaper alternative is rated just as good.</p>
<p>I had one son at a school with terrible food and one with great food. One advantage of great food is that students may stay on some version of the meal plan longer and there may be more socializing in the dining halls. If that great food is pricey or lots of students live off campus, that may not happen after the first couple of years anyway. Anyway, I sympathize, I and my kids liked all the schools they applied to. In the end you figure out what’s good and what’s not so good and make your choices based on what you think is important. My oldest son made it 100% on academics and in particular academics in his major. Younger son chose partly by anticipated major, but mostly just the place he felt most comfortable. It was not as far away as his second choice which may have played into the decision. I told my kids they did not have to consider money, but we were lucky to be able to say that. Neither kid picked the most highly ranked school on their list.</p>
<p>What I found helpful is to find reasons to kick them off the list rather than keep them on. More expensive than other great choices? Kick it off! That kind of thing …</p>
<p>Cost, % graduation in 4 years, % of graduate found job within 6 months, campus life, travel cost, etc. Rank the factors that are more important to you and go through the school list again. I actually put the cost factor up very high. At the end, we pick the school that is the second cheapest but with great reputation and closest to home. The cheapest one ended up last (not counting the other 2 got rejected right away due to lack of financial aid) due to the lower rank and distance from home (10hr driving).
If you still cannot decide after looking at all the factors again, then pick the cheaper one.</p>
<p>My son only made it to 1 accepted students’ weekend. He went to a few classes, gave me some to attend, but I found him later sitting with a few boys. Several of them were deciding between the same few colleges. At #2, he was given a tour by a CS major, and sat in on a class. He was invited back the next day to see more classes. He wasn’t with me that 2nd day, so I think he focused on classes and the students. </p>
<p>When you take away some of the superficial aspects of a school, then it is the Core or not, the depth in the major, if terms or classes offered P/F, how late into a semester can one drop a class, is there a senior thesis etc. These qualities are those that truly matter, IMHO.</p>
<p>My child is a junior, and on recent college trips, the food came up as a consideration too. While the food at one particular place wasn’t very good, it seemed kind of silly to me, but then I realized that perhaps D was relying on a feeling about the place that she couldn’t quite articulate, so she put that negativity into saying that she wouldn’t want to go there because of the food. OP, if you like them all, and finances are an issue, go with the lowest cost option. It will be a gift for your child to graduate with minimal debt.</p>
<p>If you’re looking at multiple tiers of schools, look at the salary statistics/recruiters between the schools. If the cheaper one is a lower tier of school, there may be a trade-off of how well they’ll be recruited and what it costs to go, and it may be worth it to go to a more expensive one. Between the same tier of schools (IE, Great Lakes State Flagships are all basically the same tier, though depending on the major you might substitute IU for Purdue or vice-versa), the difference is likely in the student themselves and that’s not worth worrying about.</p>
<p>The superficial aspects don’t matter, it’s 4 years done so for the 30-40 years after that you can do better for yourself. </p>
<p>After a few months at college, even the good food seems blah, but you will be paying back that debt for years if you choose the more expensive option. My daughter went from “the food here is great” to “I can’t wait to eat your cooking over break” in a matter of weeks. Really, it doesn’t matter. </p>
<p>When my D was agonizing over her decision, I told her that if the choices were so close that she couldn’t make a decision, she should go with the least expensive option. Which she did. </p>
<p>When we went college hunting with my S we ate in almost every school cafeteria. We jokingly had a pizza contest and said he;d go to the school with the best pizza (which was one of his main food groups!). But we never ate at the school he ended up at – a school that turned out to be a perfect fit --, great academics, great social fit etc. Then during his junior/senior year his school turned out to be on the top ten worst food list. But in the end the food really had no bearing on his college experience (except he did get a smaller meal plan and cook/eat out more). Turned out the food on campus was not important at all to my S’s college experience – had an absolutely phenomenal four years. And my D at a different school complains that the selections get boring.</p>
<p>I vote for mixing anyplace with bad food, but don’t spend gobs of money on a place only because it has great food. (Do the math: you could buy groceries and the occasional take-out at a cheaper place.) for me, personally, I turn into a stressed-out mess when I’m hungry, and spending four years of college in a constant state of hunger or cramming down gross food - um, why? What productive end does that serve? </p>
<p>Figure out what matters to you. Don’t worry too much about what matters to other people.</p>
<p>one school is not not crazy far away, less than 2 hrs, is the least expensive, has the best food, and has a brand new building for his major, complete with a new studio … not to mention a spring break program in Sicily … ;)</p>
<p>rumrunner, I had to chuckle. The school my son chose is less than 2 hours away, is the least expensive, has the best food, and is finishing construction on a new building for his major just in time for him to begin work in his major this fall.</p>
<p>@mathmom, re: the food and school meal plans, I agree. Skinny S2 greatly benefitted from the excellent/enticing food at his choice school. This year, as a soph, he’s out of the dorm and in an apartment but still on the school meal plan. He has very little “spare” time and grocery shopping/meal prep would definitely not have made his priority list. He would have starved to death. Thank goodness for the fabulous on-campus cafes!</p>