<p>I'm with taking the most challenging as well! To heck with the credits...listen, that is all you have to show if nothing else for your senior year: that you took the hardest classes. By the time grades come out it's too late except maybe for you to lose a place with bad ones. My son is supposed to get close to a full year of credit, but he doesn't care if it works like that. He wants to take German, follow politics, and take all sorts of classes that will eat up any "credits" he may have earned. He kept with his ECs but he adored them...all music this and that. One music group he kind of out grew but he stuck with it and in the end, got an all expense paid trip to France for a month this summer because of it. I'd say do what you need to do....and don't forget to love your kids and realize you are helping them to fly away and it won't be long.</p>
<p>I was faced with the decision of a "dream school" or one where the finances were friendlier when I was in high school. I got a full ride at a state university versus a sizeable scholarship offer at a LAC that would have only covered about half of the huge expenses. After logically thinking through the options, I went with the state school. Some would argue my choice. However, I am now 28 years old. I have a bachelor's, master's, and Ph.D. in my field and not one cent of debt. (I had assistantships that covered tuition for my graduate degrees.) I still feel I got a great education and would do the same thing all over again. It may not be the best choice for your child, but don't count out a sizeable money offer.</p>
<p>OK, full pay or merit, and what to do senior year about schedule. Hmmm.</p>
<p>Well, I have known since D was in kindergarten that I wanted my kids to be able to go to the equivalent of Princeton - since I went there and to this day have never forgotten the intellectual excitement. So I planned. My father gave money every year that we put into for a college fund. We bought a house we could afford on one salary so I could stay home for a while with the kids. I drive a 13 year old minivan. Of course, I am fortunate to have the family resources that allowed my father to give what he did, but it's also true that I could have taken that money to spend on improving my life and I did not want to.</p>
<p>So, D could have gone to UCSB full ride, Cal with a Regent's, or Princeton full freight. She started at Princeton this fall. That's just my value set. It's not the future career success at all. In the business world frankly I see many more people at the top who went to their local city college than HYP. It's just that contact with the brilliant that you don't find much after college. I wanted her to have it.</p>
<p>So senior year? By senior year my D was so ready to be elsewhere academically. However, her favorite classes were BC Calc and, funnily enough, an English class on theater. She also did all kinds of performing arts stuff, kept on editing the paper, and hung out. Princeton accepts her AP scores for Spanish and Math, so for her taking the courses in college would have been a mistake. Now, granted, she went to a private high school with some really good teachers. I don't think she would have had the same experience taking classes at the community college. I suppose we could have tried to get her into classes at Stanford, but frankly, senior year was a time to A) suffer through applications B) enjoy acceptances.</p>
<p>I think the key is that D is not yet on a pre-professional track. I expect her to figure that out in the next two years. So school for her at this point is still about exploration, whether in high school or freshman year of college. So extra credits etc. just weren't the key issue.</p>
<p>Should we have done things differently? Time will tell.</p>
<p>Well, S had a dozen APs and another dozen CC courses. Smartest thing would have been to go to state U, tuition free, and graduate in 2 years. However, as he thinks about grad school, I doubt that route would have taken him where he wants to go. Instead, he's at a 4-y program that accepts no APs or CC credits, and strives to expand each student's mind. There were choices inbetween where he got merit money.
Its just impossible to know which path could lead to best place, and if the money spent on his education where he is is worth it. I have no idea if time will tell. More like gambling--memorizing cards, figuring percentages, and knowing one is still making best guess</p>
<p>Alumother - "It's just that contact with the brilliant that you don't find much after college."</p>
<p>That's it in a nutshell, and why for some of us, paying full freight is a decision we have accepted, because we believe that our child's first choice provides an opportunity for priceless experiences.</p>
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That's it in a nutshell, and why for some of us, paying full freight is a decision we have accepted, because we believe that our child's first choice provides an opportunity for priceless experiences
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<p>I've been struggling with the same decision and came to the same conclusion. My daughter will probably be applying ED to an Ivy, so we'll see.</p>
<p>I turned down my dream school, Chicago, where I'd wanted to go since 6th grade, for a full-tuition scholarship at Brandeis. At times I question my decision, but, in the end, I think it was the right one. There are amazingly brilliant people here. Brandeis is certainly no slacker school. I don't think it's an all or nothing choice: either a 40 k/year school filled with brilliant people or a chaotic party environment filled with people who couldn't care less about academics. There are plenty of schools that give plenty of money/cost less and still have rigorous academics. I also looked seriously at Rice and McGill.</p>
<p>So far my Son's decision to go to the state university over the LAC's he was accepted to ,was a good one. His only regret, if he has any at all, is that he should have researched (and his parents also) so called merit-aid LAC's or the more generous merit schools.....He also said that he should have focused and reduced his list by junior year so that he could apply ED to a school he really liked. Several of his friends did so and were accepted to schools whereby their RD peers were not.</p>
<p>This is why we are "full-freight" at UChicago, turning down merit $$ elsewhere: <a href="http://magazine.uchicago.edu/0310/features/zen.shtml%5B/url%5D">http://magazine.uchicago.edu/0310/features/zen.shtml</a></p>
<p>I guess it all comes down to individual value judgments, no rights or wrongs.</p>