<p>That “prestige” issue seems to loom so large among a certain catagory of high school seniors. It gets pretty ooky. Once liberated from high school, it diminishes considerably! I have a kid at a prestig-y school and one at the honors college of the state flagship. They have friends running the gamut from HYP to the local regional public univ. and at this point the issue is nearly meaningless. I’m sure your daughter will have a great experience at her school!</p>
<p>First son, not a surprise since junior year. Second one, total surprise. Third one, somewhat a surprise.</p>
<p>@'rentof2: thanks - good to know that the name factor will loom less significantly soon!</p>
<p>My son fell for his “safety school.” He had applied ED to Whitman but was rejected. Shortly afterward, he was admitted Early Action to Willamette U. in Salem OR, and so we both visited; both of us were very pleasantly surprised by the students, faculty, and the overall quality of the school. He had a particularly good experience on an overnight with his host and stayed up talking “with about 30 people.” Willamette had offered him a pretty good merit scholarship, around $10,000 per year. At the time, I thought, “Great, this is a good safety, now let’s see where he’s admitted.” He was admitted to some higher-ranked match schools, including Trinity College CT, UC San Diego, and Emory U (via Oxford College), and he was waitlisted at Grinnell and Emory College. But he never seemed enthusiastic about any other place. In the meantime, Willamette kept in touch, increased his merit offer by 60% on the basis of his senior mid-year report, and generally did a good job of making him feel very much wanted. On a final visit east, to Boston University and Trinity, he suddenly announced, “I want to go to Willamette.” He took himself off the waitlists at other places. We didn’t see it coming, but we completely understand it.</p>
<p>My best friend’s son visited widely – schools on a pretty broad spectrum of types of schools, differently ranked schools, geographically disbursed schools, and also for him something just clicked at Willamette. I have not been there, but my boss’s daughter also attends there and is really happy with her decision.</p>
<p>I think my final choice was a surprise for many in my life.
When I started getting college mailings, I got one from Wellesley and went “women’s college? yuck!” and threw it away…A few months later I started quietly looking seriously at women’s colleges. When I applied, Smith was near the top of my list, but I told everyone Union was…flash forward to march, as soon as I got into smith, I knew I was going there. So everyone in my life went…“wait? A women’s college?” and I proudly responded YES!</p>
<p>Not even slightly.</p>
<p>Son #1 - Only about three programs in our whole state for what he wants to major in. We visited two of the schools. I knew that visit #2 wasn’t going to fly, but we went just for the experience of that particular campus. Just finished his first year and he loved the whole experience.</p>
<p>Son #2 - No brainer. Again, only about 3 options for his interests. He only applied to the one school (although he made noise about applying to a second school.) He ended up at the school he’d been taking Saturday classes from for about six years and, as with his brother, just finished his first year and loved the whole experience. (And he’s taking a summer class too.)</p>
<p>D1 was highly sucessful in HS, president of the class , many other leadership roles. she owned her school. very nice kid not cliquish mature. anyway she said she wanted a small Lac, I thought “this is where she is comfortable and sucessful” In the end she got a large merit scholarship to a large Urban University, that I made her apply to. She visited loved it, and had a great freshman year. she was also accepted at more highly ranked schools, and since she was a more visable student people looked to see where she was going and she felt that presure, but now she could care less and is happy with her decision. I have a rising junior in HS now and am not looking forward to it but I hope I will have more wisdom this time and worry less.</p>
<p>Sometimes parents are much less surprised than high school counselors as to the students’ decisions, even when unconventional.</p>