<p>Oldest S did not apply to my alma mater. He wanted to study engineering and my alma mater did not offer it so the decision was fairly easy.</p>
<p>Mootmom: interesting. When S applied to Columbia last year, it asked parents only (so we didn't mention grandfather). On the other hand, Cornell, which grandfather also went to for grad school, asked for any relative, any school. Columbia only wanted to know parents, and undergrad. I'm kind of glad, so he knew it didn't get him in (since it was his first choice.) But since your S got into MIT, he probably didn't need legacy to get into Columbia :).</p>
<p>DH & I met at Penn but also graduated UVM and Bryn Mawr with further training at GW, Harvard and Tufts. Son#1 was val and applied to Penn but accepted early at Harvard. Son #2 studying Film and at top university with strong program in this area; wasm't interested in applying to any of our alma maters. Son#3 now a high school senior and might apply to Penn. We
loved our time at Penn and would love for one S to attend but it really is up to the kid (and Admissions, of course!).</p>
<p>I still work at our alma mater--UCLA. And, there was never a question that D1 would be attending college elsewhere...it was just too close for comfort. ;) In fact, she moved to PA.</p>
<p>Tomorrow, we are meeting college friends for dimsum. We are alums of UCLA, UCB, UCSD, and JH. So far, we have kids attending UCLA, UCD, and Haverford.</p>
<p>Well, I went to a woman's college, and my only child is a boy. So it's a non-issue. His dad, however, is an alumnus of the U where I got my graduate degrees, so he could still be a "legacy" there.</p>
<p>I find myself wanting him to make the same kind of choice I did--a region very different from where I grew up, a small LAC. On the other hand, a more important "tradition" would be to let him have a wide variety of choices (my parents were great about letting me think broadly about my college search).</p>
<p>Son was accepted as an out of state legacy at UNC, which gives you a major boost. Both his mom and I went there for graduate school. Once he was accepted to film school there was never any question where he would go. He did say that he probably would have gone to Chapel Hill had the film thing not worked out.</p>
<p>Interesting reading these, especially the Purdue ones. My DH and I are Purdue alums and S1 had originally said growing up he had no interest. Then, his Junior year we visited campus and suddenly it was the ONLY school he applied to, dead set it was what he wanted, until he was there for a month. After one year he transferred back out here to the east coast, much happier. As a proud alumni, it was a tough pill for me to swallow that he didn't want to go there, but in the end, he was right, it was not for him. He admitted that he had taken the easy way out of choosing a college, picking one that he knew he could get into with the legacy connection, plus at the time wanting computer scieince, but after getting there realizing he didn't really want that but instead computer technology. Flash forward to happy ending - he transferred and just graduated a full year early with an IT degree and an obnoxiously good entry salary with a large company. He also saved us three years of out of state tuition. Now, S2 is going to a small public school, U. of Mary Washington. He had no interest at all in anything that far away or that big, and I agreed with him completely.</p>
<p>Between undergrad & law school, my kids' dad & I have studied at 4 UC campuses -- doesn't leave a lot of room for alternatives for our California kids. My son chose not to attend a UC - though he applied to and was accepted at 3 on the alma mater list. But for financial reasons, it is imperative that both kids apply to UC's... private, out of state schools are a possibility only with financial aid. However, daughter will include an app to UC Santa Barbara, one of the campuses that we parents managed not to attend. </p>
<p>I do think its a different question when you are talking about in-state public universities. It's not a sentimental question under those circumstances - it is often just a matter of family finances. Assuming mom or dad went to flagship State U, kid might not really have a better choice.</p>
<p>Both my husband and I went to Yale, and our daughter recently finished her freshman year there. When she started visiting schools her junior year, she was flatly disinterested in Yale; it was too close to home (about an hour), in New Haven, and worst of all, her parents' college. By the time she visited--sometime in the summer between junior and senior year--she'd seen at least a dozen other schools, and was pretty set on applying early to Brown or Penn. On the tour, although I honestly believed I didn't care whether she was interested or not, I disgraced myself by starting to cry when we got to the dining hall where my husband and I had met. Anyway, in spite of that--and in spite of some miserable weather that day--she fell in love with the place (I think because of some combination of the architecture and the residential college system; and it didn't hurt that the tour guide was funny and charming).</p>
<p>How much does it matter to me to have her at my alma mater? On the one hand, neither my daughter nor I likes the casual assumption that being a legacy made admission easy. On the other hand, in spite of a number of changes in the 30 years since I graduated, I like the sense that I have a pretty good picture of her life there. In the end, though, I continue to believe that what I really wanted for her was to go to a school that she loves as much as I loved Yale. So far that seems to be working out, but I do think, my sentimental moment on the tour notwithstanding, I would have been just as happy to see her somewhere else if it suited her better.</p>
<p>I used to joke around our house saying to my S, "You may attend any college you like, but I'm only paying for (almamater)." I relented, and finally said, okay, just choose and I'll pay. He ended up choosing "correctly," and I can maintain my refrain with his younger brother.</p>
<p>3boysnjmom: It seems like every Penn alum I've ever talked to met their spouse at penn. :)</p>