How large are the sets of acceptable fit colleges for most students?

Parents Forum
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How large are the sets of acceptable fit colleges for most students?

I.e. not the best fit or perfect fit colleges that some posters on these forums are looking for, but colleges where the student can attend, study what they want, and graduate without excessive debt, while not finding the experience unpleasant.

It is fairly obvious that smaller money constraints and lower student admission credentials will make the set of colleges that can be acceptable fits smaller. However, for a given amount of money and student admission credentials, will most students find most colleges available to them to be acceptable fits, or find only a few or possibly none to be acceptable fits?

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Imo most students will be a reasonable fit at most colleges. Some colleges really are “fit” schools, but they are the minority. A reasonable student with reasonable expectations will certainly be able to find an “acceptable” fit.

IMO sometimes the whole thing of getting the right ‘fit’ for a student sometimes gets out of hand- like first time homebuyers list of “essentials” (stainless steel appliances and granite countertops anyone?). The process of discerning what is important (and the relative importance of those things!) to any given student is a useful process, as long as the realities of the students options are kept to the forefront.

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I think a lot of it is “it depends.” In terms of economics, as you mentioned, smaller budgets = fewer options, but a $15,000 budget is going to have significantly fewer options than $25,000. But you bump up to $50,000 and you have more than double the options at $25k, and options just continue to expand from there.

Or what is the student interested in studying? An English, history, or biology major could probably study anywhere. But if someone wants to study landscape architecture or cognitive science or industrial design, and there are much fewer options to consider.

Does the child want to go to school within a certain radius of their home? For instance, if a student wanted to go to school within a 5-hr drive of their family, someone who lives in the northeast would have tons of options. But a person living in Utah would have very few.

So even with the same budget, a student wanting to study psychology within 5 hours of his/her home in the northeast might have 50 acceptable schools while a student wanting to study petrochemical engineering within 5-hours of his/her home in Wyoming might not have any options.

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The student in Wyoming, if they can afford and get admitted to University of Wyoming, probably has at least one choice, since University of Wyoming has chemical and petroleum engineering.

But yes, putting a distance-from-home limit can be much more restrictive in sparsely populated (with colleges) areas than it is in densely populated (with colleges) areas.

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As said above, most students will find their tribe and get a good education at a wide variety of schools. I think “fit” is most important at a very small college. At a large university a student may not get as much attention in the early years, but will have a huge universe of people and classes to forge their path. At a very small school, if the student does not fit in it can be difficult to find friends. If they decide to change their major, they may find their options limited.

Fit to a HS senior may also be very different than to a college sophomore.

Cost, academic excellence, major, opportunities for research, distance and class offerings were more important than “fit” for my kids.

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Finances aside, I think pickiness is the enemy of “fit.” When students are too narrowly focused, they miss a ton of programs that could work. I also think there is an idealized image of college being this super amazing utopia. As parents we can manage that message a lot better.

My D had 8 schools on her list, of varying levels of competitiveness, and all of them were good fits. Did she like some better than others? Of course, but she would have gotten a good education and been happy at any of them.

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Aren’t those are all part of “fit”?

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IME it really depends upon the student. Some students can go anywhere and thrive anywhere making the best of whatever is tossed at them, enjoying themselves along the way.

Others are X or bust. If not X, they aren’t happy no matter how close Y could fit what they want.

Then there are those who need X for financial, commute, or major reasons.

At our school the majority end up applying to between 3-6 colleges I’d say. More could “fit,” but few want to put the effort into applying to more. There are also a fair number of single application schools though. They’re more common than those who apply to 8 or more.

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The set is large, but imperfect.

One school is the best fit for size and distance from home.
One school is the best fit for cost (acceptable program at huge discount over others).
One school is the best fit for playing a sport at the collegiate level.
One school is the best fit for reputation/prestige and access to employers.
Etc.

In our case, no one school is at the top of all categories, but there are about 8 that are “acceptable.” There’s no one obvious right choice and likewise no wrong choice. Juggling the trade offs is making the decision tough. I imagine many other students are in the same boat.

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Are the other schools in a price range you are comfortable paying?
If they are figure out what school out of the other 3 best fit criteria listed is most important and rank them

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The ability to consider “fit” is a luxury that most students can’t afford. Most have to choose the most financially viable option and that is often an in-state public school of some kind. For those of us whose kids are lucky enough to consider fit, I think the range of acceptable choices is much bigger than you would think. Will they all be ideal . . . no. But most will offer kids a good education and good experience. On CC, a fair number of kids (and their parents) are laser focused on super prestigious schools and disappointment is sky high when junior “only” gets accepted to a GW or a Fordham instead of Georgetown or NYU.

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For many students, affordability is the most important part of “fit”, and affordability issues can be very limiting to students who have little money.

For such students, prestige / exclusivity / selectivity is the most important part of “fit”.

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My D22 is very very focused on “fit” and “vibe”, but what is “fit” for her is definitely not “fit” for everyone else. She has applied to 5 schools and that will be all. They are all safeties with maybe one match. No reaches.

One is teeny, tiny and it is her first choice and passes her personal vibe check the best. She should get some merit there so it should be affordable for us.

Then she has two other small women’s colleges. She is guaranteed merit at both and has already been accepted at one. Both should be affordable.

Then she has two in-state publics, one small-medium sized, and one large. Neither are prestigious, but they both come closest to having the vibe she wants. She ruled out several other in state publics because the vibes were off for her there. Both the ones she chose would be affordable.

She would definitely NOT find the other in-state publics to be acceptable fits. She ruled out most of them early on, including some that get a lot of love here on CC.

BUT, I think the average applicant would not find her #1 school to be a “fit” for them. It’s tiny, kinda isolated, no big time sports. Just not your average college, so your average college student would probably not be happy there.