<p>jvtDad…you are joking…right?? (If not it might be nice if you elaborated on your daughter’s dire circumstances.)</p>
<p>Sally, my D has always wanted to live in Chicago (why, I don’t know) so WashU is perfect for her. That plays a big part in her decision. But if she wants to come back here (which we, her parents, would prefer) I think Stanford is much better. My analogy is bad in that WashU is not regional but it is less national than Stanford from where I live. So my point is geography should be a factor.</p>
<p>jvtDad, I see what you are saying. But rest assured that if she was smart enough to get into WashU, she will have many, many options wherever she goes–even where you are from, I’m sure. It’s all what she makes of her college experience and how she positions herself for life afterwards.</p>
<p>As for “why Chicago”–I had a similar experience to your D’s. I was also from the south (Florida) and fell in love with Chicago when I visited Northwestern. It’s a fantastic city for young people, especially. But give her a few years…she might surprise you and come back home. By then it won’t matter where she went to college, but rather what she has done since graduation.</p>
<p>"I would probably call admissions at this point and have a frank talk with them about why …</p>
<p>I don’t think any of these schools would say anything about why any student was accepted, waitlisted or rejected. There is a generic answer in this case: he was waitlisted because he was qualified, but there were other applicants the school wanted more. Selective schools accept those they want the most; those selected best meet the schools’ needs.</p>
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<p>No college is going to tell you why he was waitlisted, or why he came off the waitlist, other than a meaningless platitude. This is one of the frustrating things about the whole process: It’s opaque. Johnny was rejected while Sally was admitted with identical stats? Joey came off the waitlist while Suzy with identical stats did not? It happens all the time, especially at the top colleges. The truth is, unless the student has a really remarkable hook, most kids will never know for sure why they got the Admission decision they did.</p>
<p>I can’t imagine why it would be a good idea to call admissions to find out why he was waitlisted. What would be the point in that conversation?</p>
<p>The schools have different personalities and perhaps some are better known. However the bottom line right now is…where does this student want to go. Presumably he stayed on the waitlist in hopes of being accepted.</p>
<p>He was on the waitlist because the college only had a limited number of spots to offer, so they had to pick and choose among highly qualified applicants.</p>
<p>The students who were seen by the ad com as lacking sufficient academic qualifications or potential were rejected. </p>
<p>Or to use a time worn cliche, maybe he was waitlisted because he plays the oboe but this year they needed a bassoonist.</p>
<p>sally305, very true. Around here, Penn State and Villanova are the bomb. Dickinson, Franklin and Marshall and Gettysburg are also known as awesome schools. Swarthmore? Haverford? “Those are the little colleges down by the Main Line, right?” Even Penn is always confused with Penn State. </p>
<p>My son was accepted to Haverford and Dickinson; Dickinson was the school everyone was excited about.</p>
<p>Well, that’s the whole point. Haverford and Dickinson are on entirely different planes, and the fact that everyone in PA knows Dickinson isn’t the point; people who matter will know that Haverford is better. Carleton and Grinnell are equivalent to Haverford. They are top 10 LACs.</p>
<p>There are a lot of people in Iowa (including hiring people) that have no clue that Grinnell is ‘better’ than say, Coe College. Their national reputation seems to be more in academic circles. </p>
<p>In fact, I know lot of employers that would be very wary of hiring any Of those ‘freaks’ from Grinnell or Carleton.</p>
<p>“people who matter will know that Haverford is better”</p>
<p>This kind of generalization always makes me cringe. Better for whom? The non-existent generic applicant without a major? I might go along with it if every Dickinson student says that Haverford is better!</p>
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<p>I must be traveling in the wrong circles. I NEVER heard of Grinnell or Carleton until I started reading CC. The only reason I know about Haverford is that a friend’s son went there.</p>
<p>Why did the student stay on the waitlist? Does the student want to attend the “better known school”? If not, time to move on…the student is going to college,.</p>
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<p>On what criteria? Based on what evidence?</p>
<p>Some people know of Haverford, especially folks from the mid Atlantic and New England areas…and folks who are looking into the school in the greater Philly area. It is a great school. </p>
<p>BUT the bottom line for THIS student is what the student wants to do. There must be some reason he stayed on the waitlist…or perhaps there is some reason why he doesn’t now want to go to the school that is ranked higher.</p>
<p>At this point, I really think it is student choice. The parents already let the kid deposit to the lesser known school. They also knew the student was on the waitlist. I say…let the KID decide. There are likely pros/cons to all of the schools and only the student really can weigh these at this point. It’s not like he is choosing between taking online courses through the local community college and going to Yale. Any of the choices the OP listed are good schools.</p>
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<p>Absolutely.</p>
<p>The suggestion to let the kid decide has been constant since the OP started the thread. She merely asked about the “prestige” (a word that raises the hair up on the back of many posters necks) and leads to 100 posts, many well after the OP seems to have left the building.</p>
<p>Jym sums it up well.</p>
<h2>“Well, that’s the whole point. Haverford and Dickinson are on entirely different planes, and the fact that everyone in PA knows Dickinson isn’t the point; people who matter will know that Haverford is better. Carleton and Grinnell are equivalent to Haverford. They are top 10 LACs.”</h2>
<p>Pizzagirl, who are “people who matter”? Only people who live outside PA? The number crunchers who compile the rankings at USNWR? The hiring managers at Fortune 500 companies? Who??</p>
<p>In the end, every market is “local,” except perhaps for finance or certain types of medical research or the arts–and even then, there is a local component to hiring decisions. What Haystack said has been true in my experience as well. Heck, the two-year community college where I live has a stronger reputation for training students in graphic design, illustration and photography than the flagship state university with a full BFA/MFA art department in the same city. A well-known university on a resume might get someone a first look, but that’s about it. Again, it’s what people MAKE of the opportunities they have been afforded that counts.</p>
<p>At this point I agree that the kid should decide…but he should not decide based on some silly idea that he is somehow going to be viewed as inferior by the better school because he was on the waitlist. There has been sufficient nonsense to that effect on this thread to make me worry about what he is being told.</p>
<p>And he should also NOT choose because his parents are telling him that the waitlist school has better prestige value, in my opinion.</p>