No one ought to question you whatever you decide. These are hard decisions and the right answer by definition is the one you decide. I personally learn the most from grappling. Sounds like you’ve done that and reached a conclusion. Excellent. I certainly meant no offense. Good luck to you and your kids.
just figured I’d check in and see if any decisions have been made. I Admit I’m happy to NOT be in the college selection process this year.
Not yet, they are torturing us. They both have a horrific case of senioritis too. They will be lucky to graduate at this rate! Should have a decision by the end of the week, but only because May 1st is the deadline.
Best of luck to your daughters. I know I am late to this thread, but wanted to say that this was a fascinating read. I did want to add my .02 cents in favor of the more well known options for what it is worth. I think that in the most tangible sense what more well regarded schools buy undergrads is options. As we all know, many, many kids start as freshman believing their interests lie in one direction and then end up on a completely different path. That is, in my opinion, one of the great things about college. You learn to let your mind grow, and sometimes that leads you to places you hadn’t considered. For that reason, I think the truly elite colleges offer a sort of safety zone. Cornell, as an example, is going to offer a world class education over a wide range of disciplines, and if your kid decides not to head to law school because she fell in love with astronomy say, Cornell will still provide her access to research and grad options which may not be available at Pitt. So, to me it comes down to how confident are your kids that they know their career path right now, and do you think they are right? I also wouldn’t dismiss the idea that the general strength of the student body is important. I know that I learned far more from my peers in college than I ever learned in class. In that sense too, I think a Wellsley or a Cornell will, top to bottom, provide a more interesting intellectual cohort. Maybe some of that is blunted by the honors college experience at Pitt, but I think that would depend on how the honors college is structured and how pervasive the experience is. My wife was an honors college student at a large state school and loved it. She lived in the honors college dorm and had a lot of her classes within the honors college itself. We have friends with children in honors colleges now at big schools who are having a different, less positive experience.
One down, one to go. Oldest took the Pitt Chancellor’s Scholarship and seems very happy with her decision.
^^^That’s a very prestigious award. Congrats to your daughter!!!
Just curious – is that the kid who had the option of Wellesley, or Cornell?
They were both accepted at Wellesley and Cornell. The one who chose Pitt has a full ride. The other has full tuition there but hasn’t decided yet.
Are they identical twins or fraternal? From what I’ve heard from the parents of twins, it’s identical twins who have a harder time separating from each other. Do your daughters have a preference for attending college together, @OffTheyGo?
@LucieTheLakie We never had them tested actually. They look very similar and many people confuse them. They certainly have their own personalities, but have always been very close in academic rank and performance, usually within tenths. They were 9th and 10th in their class as of the end of Junior year. They were born five minutes apart, ten weeks early, and were only three pounds at birth. Pretty terrifying when they told us all the things that could go wrong at that stage of development. They were in the NICU for five weeks but then grew like weeds once we brought them home. They have excelled every since. They were very close companions at play in the early years but became rather fiercely competitive academically in junior high onward. As a result, they have never been very huggy or close, despite sharing almost all of their friends and doing most activities together with that group. They have about zero desire to attend the same school, though I have noticed a bit of the ice melting as they have matured a bit this year, and gone through the college selection process. I think the distance they created between them was more about wanting to be viewed as individuals instead of as “the twins”. I expect and hope they will become even closer as the physical distance of different colleges allows them to more fully establish their own unique identities.
I know a set of twins just like that, @OffTheyGo! I can’t imagine not knowing if they were identical or fraternal, but their parents never wanted to know, nor did the twins.They attended different high schools and different universities and are still very close, but quite different in their interests.
Well that’s a wrap. Daughter 2 committed to Richmond. Very excited for both girls. I think they will have wonderful experiences at their respective schools. Thanks to all of you for your input!
Seems like really smart choices for both Ds. They really liked both colleges, both colleges are very solid in terms of reputations on their own (yes, I know not Cornell and Wellesley perhaps but really great institutions) and they got great scholarships. What could be better!
Thank you for this thread, and for the updates-I’m thrilled for both your daughters!
Congrats to the kids. I’m sure you’re glad to get this part over with. I know how you feel , been through it three times and one of mine is re-living the whole thing now with grad school.
My friends had twins who looked alike and also didn’t bother to have them tested. When they went to a new dentist when they were about 10, she said there was no doubt as their xrays were identical and that doesn’t happen with mere siblings but only with identical twins.
One of these twins just had her gall bladder removed, so they are no longer identical.
Congrats to all. I hope things work out well for both of them. Congrats to your bank account too.
“My belief is that because they are so motivated and such thoughtful kids, they will do very well, wherever they go.”
- Correct. My D. actually had this comments: " I will do fine anywhere". She decided to focus on looking for the place that would fit her the best and none of us even checked any rankings. She did very well as expected, while being on full tuition Merit ascholarship at in-state public. She had a choice of great Med. Schools at the end and graduating in 10 days debt free (we paid for Med. School since we did not pay tuition for college) with her first choice of residency in her pocket.
It is up to a student to reach their goal, no place will do it for them. For the reference, D. graduated #1 from HS that is #2 among privates in our state (we did not know that, we learned it later)
Best wishes to your hard working kids, OP.
Congratulations @OffTheyGo Great choices by both!
BTW, my W was a three-pounder as well. Every now and again MIL mentions how tiny she was in the NICU, and how stressful those first weeks were.
Thanks guys. AP Exam time. Daughter #1 is taking the BC Calc AP Exam today. That class has kicked her butt like no other, primarily because she fell behind on homework early on and was always in catch up mode, but her teacher had the philosophy to make the class impossibly hard so that the AP exam seems easy in comparison. Not a lot of love for him in our house, but we’ll see how the AP goes. She took AP Chem yesterday. Four more AP exams to go for her, and I think three more for Daughter #2, and then the school year is essentially done, even though they don’t get out until the end of June!