Anyone have any stories of students choosing a less prestigious school solely based on the fact that they liked it better (not financial reasons)?
My D2 did. Turned down UChicago & Swarthmore for Harvey Mudd. My D1 turned down higher ranked schools for Dickinson – partly because she got a nice merit award, but she genuinely liked it as well as the higher ranked schools she got into. Worked out great for both of them. Go where you will be happiest.
I am always a big proponent of fit over prestige - particularly in the case of two very good schools. If the gap is absolutely huge, it should be a factor, though.
The reality is that what you learn and do there matters more than the school’s name. You’re going to be living there for 4 years of your life or more - pick somewhere that you like AND has good enough resources / academics.
Once you graduate, excluding a few specific fields like Law etc, the name of the school you went to has very little effect on your life. Your college years, however, will affect you as a person in tons of ways.
PS to mods: This topic would be a great featured discussion, especially around this time of year. It would be interesting to discuss the particulars of this and differing viewpoints in depth.
I can’t get into the specific schools for privacy reasons, but My D1 did this.
She turned down a prize school to attend a school that at the time was considered lesser. On this board, there were parents who would have never allowed the specific choice that she made based on their posts. A lot of other parents in my town congratulated us when she got into the prize school. When she turned it down and went to her first choice, some people asked us if she won a scholarship (no she did not).2 years later, when the school she had selected had passed the prize school in the rankings and is now a prize school itself, people were asking how she knew.
I’ll just say that she is off to grad school for a PhD program this fall, and couldn’t be happier with the education she received.
Nobody knows you better than you, and just in case they do, you’d better learn about yourself PDQ.
Once you’ve identified your #1 college, it usually makes little sense to apply to a much more selective college (unless you think it might be cheaper.) The reason is that, if you’re admitted to the more selective school, you’ll probably also be admitted to the less selective school (which is the one you’d choose). So why even bother applying to the more selective school?
This is assuming you’ve done your research up front (enough to know your preferences when you apply.)