<blockquote>
<p>Do not succumb to prestige temptation; truly work to find the school that is the best choice for you.<<</p>
</blockquote>
<br>
<p>Mamacita, SO TRUE! My D (who just finished her first year at Harvard) said that she knew a number of unhappy kids at H after their freshman year. She asked them--Why did you come to Harvard? What were you looking for in a college that you thought you'd found at Harvard during the admissions process? Invariably, they would answer that they came to Harvard because it is Harvard, without a thought as to whether it would be a good fit for them.</p>
<p>She's So. Cal born and bred, so she wanted cold weather. Fell in love with Boston. She is science minded, so it came down to MIT and Harvard. (Hmm--like geography and weather are reasons to pick a college? But it actually was pretty important to her.)</p>
<p>She wanted a residential school that would be filled with really interesting people--also, she was mesmerized by the many interesting course offerings at H. Her concern with MIT was that if she didn't want the science intensive curriculum after all, she would be stuck.</p>
<p>She certainly hasn't been disappointed with the people. She says that everyone at H that she knows has something special about them, and once you find out what that special something is--everybody is really fascinating.</p>
<p>As for the classes, she's still in the beginning science classes and had to take 2 language classes and a writing class her freshman year, so hasn't taken any of those really interesting classes she was interested in. We'll see if H will live up to her expectations there.</p>
<p>Harvard doesn't have a small LAC feel to it--some of her friends came to H expecting professors to know your name, say hi to you when they see you crossing campus, invite you over for dinner, etc. Those people would have been better served at a small LAC--once again, the importance of fit over prestige. H is trying to improve the experience of undergrads with professors, but they have a long way to go.</p>
<p>My D chose a small LAC for those reasons. She does have dinner at profs' houses. She knows their children and their dogs by name. She knows the cooks and dorm matrons by name. She enjoys the sense of community and the small class Socratic instruction. However, small does not work for every student. Some students "need" a stadium filled with 100,000 cheering on the football team. Some students "need" an urban setting. Each applicant has a great deal of homework to do before making this decision.</p>
This made me laugh. Every week my son tells me a story involving a campus dog, like having a long talk with a professor while she walks her dog or having the seminar instructor's dog nose through backpacks. Must be an LAC thing. :)</p>
<p>Well, maybe its a thing at some LAC's - definitely not all. One of the first thing my son noticed about his LAC was the lack of dogs on campus. His LAC was in a suburban area where very few profs lived in the immediate community - other than the college president who had a house on campus, most faculty commuted from the surrounding areas. I'm sure this would be the case at most LACs located in or near urban/suburban areas - as far as getting to know the profs. My son knew his profs very well - it's just that they didn't live particularly close to campus. As far as dogs.... well, back in my day, there were always some dogs that were fixtures on the Berkeley campus - though I don't know what current Berkeley policy is toward canines.</p>