<p>Now that you sages have been through the college admissions process twice (as a student yourself and as a doting parent), where would you apply now? If you had known then what you know now, how have your perspectives changed?</p>
<p>Pretty much the same thread already exists: <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=293357%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=293357</a></p>
<p>^^ not really, that thread is more about which colleges ended up fulfilling what you had originally expected and which ones didn't. </p>
<p>abiste is asking a different question, which college would be your dream college after all that you've gone through</p>
<p>I probably would have gone to Reed or UC Santa Cruz. For a couple of years, anyway. And lived in a dorm.</p>
<p>Oh, sorry, my eyes must have skipped to the last part of the question!</p>
<p>There are days I wish I had studied illustration at the Rhode Island School of Design, but if I'd done that I'd probably be sitting around wishing I hadn't missed out on going to a more intellectual place.</p>
<p>What I learned was to not send your only daughter all the way across the country to college where she ended up marrying and settling to raise her family! But then again, her husband is a nice guy, she has a beautiful home, and an adorable baby.I'm happy for her. I just wish we could go to lunch and shopping together more often.Gues there is an up and down side to every choice.</p>
<p>I ended up with a BSBA which served me well, but another option that I could see working out better would have been something in the health field- ultrasound tech or something like that. I would have had more flexibility, probably ended up better off financially because I could have worked more part time while my kids were young.</p>
<p>BHG, I have a relative who did what your D did. Now that she has 3 kids, she told me that they will all attend college near her home so that they won't move too far away after college.</p>
<p>A friend of my sister's had a Mom who wanted to keep her close to home. When it came time for study abroad, she went to India and married a local guy. It can backfire.</p>
<p>I kind of think that we end up where we need to, in order to meet the people and have the life experiences we need to have.</p>
<p>agree with bethievt. I was a very focused student in high school and college. Headed carefully down a long chosen career path. Finished some grad school, went to work in my dream job. Loved it.
Fast forward three years..married someone who wanted to move across country. Changed careers several times since then. Now not doing anything remotely connected to what I was so focused on back then.<br>
So for me the lesson is that everyone is where they are supposed to be. No second guessing the past or predicting the future.</p>
<p>I went to a top college, but did not attend grad school at one of the top programs where I was accepted, because I wanted to be near my boyfriend (now husband of 28 years). I chose to go to a local grad school instead, which was fine but does not have the name that the others have, and I got married at 22, after one year of grad school. I have a professional career in a less all-consuming setting (time-wise) than many others in my field, but I am also paid less. On the other hand, I had the flexibility to spend more time with my kids than if I had taken a more demanding job. I agree with bethievt that I ended up where I should be.</p>
<p>However, I think young people now, on average, do not expect to settle down and constrain their grad school or career moves right after college as often as in my time. (Of course there were exceptions then and there are now.) When I recently told my college sophomore daughter the same thing I posted above, she was shocked and said that we would kill her or her brother if they gave up great opportunities for a boyfriend or girlfriend!</p>
<p>I went to a State U - great school, don't get me wrong, but I should have gone to a smaller college. I just didn't have the maturity to concentrate on studies and no one at the school was really paying attention. In retrospect I would have been more focused and successful elsewhere. So when it came down to the cheaper State U or the considerably more expensive private college for my S, my own exerience was a major factor.</p>
<p>After going through the process with my S, I really wish we had the kinds of info available then as now - I didn't really even think about other options at the time, just knew it was a really good school and so cheap! But as a NMF I probably could have gotten some good scholarships. Also, my parents didn't want to fill out any financial forms - thought it was their own business. It didn't really matter at U of M since state tuition was about $400 a semester at the time!</p>
<p>Knowing what I know now, even if I still went the state U, I would have majored in business instead of anthropology, which was a lot of fun but only good for a government job in the end. As a business major, I would have graduated from U of M as a female MBA in the mid-70's - probably could have written my own ticket!</p>
<p>It's hard to say, for myself. I was a bad fit at my college and at a bad time (the height of the Viet Nam War), but I excelled, and learned heaps perhaps because rather than despite the fact that it was a bad fit. And the college was very good to me and rewarded me for my efforts, for which I am very grateful to this day.</p>
<p>But if I had to do it today, I'd have gone to Earlham.</p>
<p>Back then girls couldn't go to so many of the top schools; there was no way I was going to apply to Radcliff instead of Harvard! Also, there was no financial aid like there is now so most, if not all, private schools were not at all on my lists. A third factor was living in the midwest; now a lot more kids look outside their region. We had to do everything by snail mail, even requesting college catalogs and application forms (long distance phone requests- not in my house). I'll never know if I would have gotten more NMS money if I had listed the school I attended as my first choice. The internet has made such a difference in the college application process!</p>
<p>I went to a Big 10 school far away from home (I lived in NJ at the time) and was absolutely lost all four years. I rushed a sorority because that's just what you DID -- and realized two years in that Greek Life was just not for me. I started out majoring in biology (which I still love) but I would have had to take o-chem and physics, and I decided that would be too hard. I got no support, no assistance, no encouragement to stick with it. So I wound up majoring in literature (duh --). </p>
<p>In retrospect: I should have gone to a small school, majored in bio, and gone to med school. This experience very much lead me to encourage my relatively introspective older son to go to a small LAC. I think it's served him well --- he's very close to his professors -- but he's cranky with me because he claims he should have gone somewhere larger. You can't win!!</p>
<p>
[quote]
Back then girls couldn't go to so many of the top schools; there was no way I was going to apply to Radcliff instead of Harvard!
[/quote]
I was actually the last class that applied to Radcliffe. I graduated from Harvard.</p>
<p>I graduated a year ahead of my boyfriend (now husband) and went to Columbia for grad. school. He tried really, really hard to like Rockefeller for me, but he ended up going to grad school at Caltech. Though it certainly made my time at Columbia less enjoyable than it could have been, I'm glad he went to Caltech because I loved Pasadena.</p>
<p>Through a series of moves I've been across the country from my parents, to across the Atlantic Ocean, to a seven plus hour drive, and now (thanks to a move on their part) finally a four hour drive. I see them a lot more now.</p>
<p>I probably wouldn't have listened to my parents so much and would have looked at larger schools...for the first three of us kids, we weren't allowed to look at state schools, only LACs and could not apply outside of PA. I picked the school where I felt the most comfortable that didn't already have one of my siblings as a student. (Then my younger sisters' turns came, #4 was accepted only to one of the rural PA state schools. The youngest--#5--then went to an urban state school). In the end, I didn't feel like it was really my decision, because I was limited as to what schools I could apply to.</p>
<p>Now that we're about 3/4ths of the way done the admissions process for DD, I'm so glad we let her have free rein and she went and looked at larger schools, out of state, publics as well as small LACs. In fact, even now she's still not sure what type of environment she likes the best...she's probably just going to go to the school that's the best value for our out-of-pocket expense. It will be a family decision.</p>
<p>If given a do-over, I would choose a small liberal arts school rather than the big private university I attended. I was lost and never found...Major would be English Lit rather than business admin!</p>
<p>I agree with those who say they are where they should be. I really enjoyed my time in college, learned so much, made life-long friends, and met/married my husband of almost 24 years. I have never regretted any of the choices I have made in life.</p>
<p>However, if I could just fantasize & say where I think it would be pretty cool to go to school: Wash U or Northwestern. I could see myself having a darn good time at the school & in the city! But there are so MANY great schools --- sure would be fun to have a do-over.</p>
<p>Well, not really, because those years are not without the pains of growing up ... but it's fun to forget the realities & think about the fantasy!!</p>