<p>I'd been thinking of this a lot lately and don't think it's possible to overemphasize this point. I will use my S as a case study. He decided that "fit" for him would be a medium-size University, strong in Engineering, but with the full complement of arts, science and business programs should he change interests. He loved Tulane, which met all of his criteria, and headed there in fall 05. Most of you know what happened there.</p>
<p>Post-Katrina, he chose to attend Bates as a Visiting Student based on two lone factors - excellent school and in our backyard (not a factor we usually cared about, but certainly worked when you were choosing and moving to a school literally overnight). This tiny New England LAC has got to be on the opposite pole from Tulane on a host of dimensions. He loved it there, thrived academically and socially. Ditto now that he is back at Tulane.</p>
<p>Now that he has to transfer, he still has his preferences for "fit" and they still resemble his original criteria, but he has applied this time to yet other categories of schools, such as huge Big 10 Universities with strong Engineering programs. I'm sure he'll thrive at whatever type he chooses.</p>
<p>There are probably some students who are less adaptable than he. But I think we should be careful when we think about "fit" to realize that many (most?) kids can find fit in a variety of environments.</p>
<p>Sometimes, when we read a poster's College List we question outliers: "which of these things is not like the other?" It's a legitimate question, but often there is a legitimate answer to the eclectic nature of one kid's possibles.</p>