Yes, this is true and is a good way to think about it. I’d take it all the way to the end and say that they did all the work for the primary reason of doing the work: to learn the material, and to have the experiences! Valuing learning for the sake of learning is a transition that some people don’t make until grad school, or even later. The earlier that a person can have that as a primary motivator, the better.
We get so caught up in box-checking, we lose sight of the main purpose of education: to teach us useful stuff and to make us better people. With that purpose in mind, our kids’ educations and activities ideally are not wasted on anything. We’ve tried hard to teach our kids to primarily approach learning things for their inherent value, rather than as a means to an end, but it’s a struggle for sure! And it’s often not the way that K-12 education is framed.
Think of all the cool stuff your kids have learned, and all the great experiences they’ve had. Getting into whatever universities is merely the icing on the lovely cake!
If she goes to this likely school and does really well - it could help her in getting jobs or going to a great grad school. My daughter is also a senior and has 4.75 gpa and 1500+ Sats and 4/5 AP exams. One of her top choices is our flagship state school which is in the 50s in terms of rankings but has one of the best engineering and CS programs.
I wanted to track this thread down and report back some results. Kiddo looked at all New England/Midwestern SLACs and decided that Oberlin was the perfect fit. High stats kiddo who worked their butt off for their grades and scores, so my husband and I were hoping they would try for an Amherst or Swarthmore, which were also on their list. But kiddo loved Oberlin! It took a hot minute, but we finally came around to the idea that for kiddo to succeed, they should be “all in” on their college choice. And also, Oberlin is a great school that many would consider a reach! Fast forward to admissions where kiddo’s friends are all ED-ing to highly ranked schools and getting rejected/deferred. Kiddo gets admitted to Oberlin with a very nice merit package. Happy and Done! Glad they did the work in high school to make admittance to their first choice school a reailty!
For what it’s worth, I have a friend who attended and taught at a couple of Ivies whose kids went to Vassar, Cornell and Oberlin. They think that the Oberlin one had, by far, the most dedicated faculty and classroom experience.
The original post was about choosing a very non selective school over one that was a match for a high achieving student. I do think there is a huge difference in the classroom experience of attending a school with an average ACT of 21, for example, vs. a school with an average ACT of 32.
One of my kids attended a school with a 70% acceptance rate. She had a great time and in her experience, every employer ( yes, even consulting and IB) was happy to talk to her as she was at the top of the class. She landed her dream job as did many of her friends. Couldnt have have made a better choice.
Just an ironic update here…I’m the original poster and the “safety” school I was referring to was UTennessee which had a 70% admit rate last year. This year, for OOS, the admit rate was around 33%. Luckily she got in EA and committed but it wound up be more of a “target” than a safety after all! Admissions cycles are very hard to predict.
Congrats! I work with a guy who’s son is graduating from Tennessee this year and that was his first choice for nuclear engineering and going to get his PhD there s as well.
Mine was accepted to his safety and is still waiting on the rest coming out in March. He wasn’t really too interested after the tour because he thought he wanted to be at a school with big sports. Then he was offered a scholarship and then offered to apply for an honors scholarship. We went to the honors interview, and now he is much more interested. It’s not the highest ranked school, but it’s number one in undergraduate teaching, has a beautiful campus, has his major, and will allow him to pursue the minor he’s passionate about. If he gets the Honors Fellow spot, it may be hard to turn down.