Mistake to not apply to any Ivies?

Parent Cafe
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<p>sybbie719… LOL…you want logic from a teen girl when it comes to loooovvveee? LOL…she is just over the stars with him. They have been together almost 2 years.</p>

<p>She was not the only one who mentioned it. There are other people who wanted to know why no Ivies. </p>

<p>Honestly, her list of seriously considered schools are as follows… Rice, Austin College, and Baylor, Carleton (these 4 she is definitely applying to), also still to look at schools are Rhodes, Grinnell, South Dakota school of Mines. I know SD school of mines does not have the music life, but, she will be looking at it and likely won’t apply (my guess, but maybe she will, she loves the Black Hills). There are others she is looking at, but it will likely just end up the first four schools I listed. I asked her to get me a list before summer so we can plan some summer road trips. I suggested she look in VA too. But, her current list, has a lot of variety, and is a good start, I think. It will be interesting to see what she comes up with.</p>

<p>I have been tossing all the college mailings in to an empty diaper box. It is over full and she took it to her room and I put another by the door. </p>

<p>Oh, and I don’t “want” her to apply to any specific school. It is just, sometimes, people act like if you don’t go Ivy League, you won’t get in to a good grad school. If she is thinking grad school, does she NEED to open up her net? Plus, personality wise, it seems so hard to find a good fit for her. She is religious, no nonsense, down to earth, conservative, type-A, intelligent, and hardworking. (likes to camp as much as she likes to RPG, but would never like to LARP) Now, is it even possible to get half of those in 1 place? LOL…I don’t know. We will see what she comes back with.</p>

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<p>Here is one way to deal with this issue. Your daughter and you can stop discussing her application list…with everyone! Our kids were very polite…“we will let you know about our college choice when we make a decision about where to attend”. Repeat as often as necessary. That way your daughter can craft her application list without hearing the endless opinions of others…which quite frankly don’t matter.</p>

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<p>I agree. Apply to a given school because it offers to kinds of programs, opportunities, intellectual environment, and financial aid you are looking for, or don’t apply because it doesn’t offer them. But do not apply or avoid applying simply because it belongs to a certain conference.</p>

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<p>And what does boyfriend going to a prestigious private high school have to do with his wish to go to Yale? Both Yale and Harvard are full of students who went to public schools. About 70% at Harvard these days.</p>

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<p>I agree.I will definitely not going to any Ivies</p>

<p>Sent from my LG-VM696 using CC</p>

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<p>“You always make this point, but I don’t think it is it correct. It has more to do with the fact that some people consider NYC to be the center of the universe. The ivies are within the NYC intellectual/geographic/cultural realm and comfort zone. Very simple, really. Nothing to do with travel or worldliness.”</p>

<p>No, it has <em>everything</em> to do with travel and worldliness. People who consider NYC to be the center of the universe are just as provincial as the people who say “why would I ever leave Kansas.” </p>

<p>My D, who goes to school in Boston, has met girls from Boston and NYC who seriously think that she must live in the midst of cornfields bevause she’s from suburban Chicago. They truly think that the “landscape” of suburban Boston must look soooo different from where she’s from. It’s all the same. I agree Manhattan is like nowhere else, but really, suburban Boston and suburban NYC and suburban Philly and suburban Baltimore and suburban Minneapolis and suburban Chicago and suburban St Louis and suburbsn Denver and suburban Atlanta and so on are pretty much the same. People who haven’t figured that out ARE provincial.</p>

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<p>And just because your house is planted in the woods doesn’t mean you are “provincial”. Ask anyone from CT where there are many more trees than people.</p>

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<p>Provincialism is a mindset, thumper. Being in the woods does not MAKE someone provincial, any more than living in a city (even an EAST COAST city) makes people open-minded. There are plenty of provincial people in suburban Connecticut, just as there are in suburban or northwoods Wisconsin. There are also incredibly tolerant and open-minded people in both places. And sorry, but there are plenty of closed-minded people in New York–even Manhattan (perish the thought!).</p>

<p>My kids have had the same experience Pizzagirl describes–with my son, over two years that he and a friend went to a camp in northern California, and with my daughter, the summer she went to a ballet intensive in Philadelphia. Neither of them could believe the kinds of comments they got from kids from the coasts–often, but not limited to, “do you live on a dairy farm?” “how many cows do you have?” “why would you wear those sandals?” “do you have shopping malls?” and so on. Thankfully, both of them had enough self-esteem (and good manners) to just “smile and nod,” as they say on this site. :)</p>

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<p>That’s exactly what people thought when I moved from Chicago to Long Island. And for some reason, everyone was anxious to take me out for a bagel, assuming I’d never had one. Yes, we have bagels in Chicago… and traffic lights and running water, too! :)</p>

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<p>Right. Because they’re provincial people. Doesn’t matter if they live on Long Island or in Manhattan.</p>

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<p>If your daughter is not in the top 10% of her class, she probably could not get in to any of the Ivies. But then, she’s not even interested in them. The only appealing feature you’ve mentioned is their excellent financial aid. For that, you have a lot of other choices.</p>

<p>About 40-50 schools are need-blind, “full-need” schools. This number includes all 8 Ivies, but that means quite a few non-Ivies commit to covering full need. Still more schools cover 90% or more of demonstrated need, or cover close to 100% (but consider need in some admission decisions.)<br>
[Need-blind</a> admission - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Need-blind_admission]Need-blind”>Need-blind admission - Wikipedia)</p>

<p>Then there are schools that are relatively generous with merit (non-need-based) aid. Look for these schools if you cannot cover your Expected Family Contribution (EFC, which you can estimate with an on-line calculator).
([FinAid</a> | Calculators | Expected Family Contribution (EFC) and Financial Aid](<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>Expected Family Contribution (EFC) Calculator - Finaid)) </p>

<p>Suggestion: if one of your main concerns is financial aid, then first estimate your EFC and whether you can cover it. Decide whether your strategy will emphasize need-based or merit-based aid. If need-based, then check out some of the relatively less selective schools on the wiki list above (e.g. Grinnell, Holy Cross, or Rochester - which are still quite selective). If merit, then search the forums for threads like this: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/696637-merit-aid-percentage-common-data-set-6.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/696637-merit-aid-percentage-common-data-set-6.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>The Kiplinger “best value” ranking site is another useful resource.
[Kiplinger’s</a> Best Values in Private Colleges-Kiplinger](<a href=“http://www.kiplinger.com/tool/college/T014-S001-kiplinger-s-best-values-in-private-colleges/index.php]Kiplinger’s”>http://www.kiplinger.com/tool/college/T014-S001-kiplinger-s-best-values-in-private-colleges/index.php)
[Kiplinger’s</a> Best Values in Public Colleges-Kiplinger](<a href=“http://www.kiplinger.com/tool/college/T014-S001-kiplinger-s-best-values-in-public-colleges/index.php]Kiplinger’s”>Best College Values, 2019 | Kiplinger)</p>

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<p>

I went to school with a very wealthy girl from Chicago. In my days, she was the most worldly person I have ever met. She said she was expected to go to school in the NE, like most students from her school. After college, she went to live in Chicago with her fancy degree from a NE LAC. </p>

<p>I have worked with many different people globally and also traveled to many parts of the world. People outside of US know (heard of) more schools from the NE than midwest or South. There are also a lot of expats living in those countries who graduated from those NE schools. Those alumni are very supportive of each other and their schools. My brother has randomly called people up from his alumni directory wherever he traveled. </p>

<p>Ivies are not the be all and end all, and there are other schools where one could probably get just as good/better education, but globally the names do carry a certain weight. There is an annual Ivy Ball in HKG, <a href=“https://secure.www.alumniconnections.com/olc/pub/COU/event/showEventForm.jsp?form_id=126553[/url]”>https://secure.www.alumniconnections.com/olc/pub/COU/event/showEventForm.jsp?form_id=126553&lt;/a&gt; . I see MIT is included too, maybe because it is in the NE. :)</p>

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<p>Jea828–cornfields are nothing—how about people seriously thinking there are still Indians in war paint running around on horses…got that one asked on a trip out East wondering if we were afraid when we went outside. Had a salesperson from NY, he lived in Manhatten but I probably didn’t know where that was you know, amazed at the office buildings because he didn’t think we had any out here…it’s pretty sad. My snarky reply was about how happy we were that we got electricity installed last week so we didn’t have to go to the ice house any more…</p>

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<p>Great post #51, tk21769.</p>

<p>The OP mentions that her daughter really liked Rice, a terrific school that is itself a high reach for almost every applicant. [Future</a> Owls](<a href=“Office of Admission | Rice University”>Office of Admission | Rice University) Of the admitted students from high schools that report rank, 77 percent were in the top 5 percent of their class. It had an overall acceptance rate of 17 percent last year. That’s already a big reach/dream school for an applicant in the top 12 percent of the hs class.</p>

<p>Certainly the Ivies and other schools that have no-loan finaid policies are more generous, but their admission rates are even more daunting. Vanderbilt’s admissions profile is similar to Rice’s for SAT/ACT distribution, though its acceptance rate is under 15 percent: [The</a> Vanderbilt Profile<em>|</em>Undergraduate Admissions<em>|</em>Vanderbilt University](<a href=“Vanderbilt At A Glance | Undergraduate Admissions | Vanderbilt University”>Vanderbilt At A Glance | Undergraduate Admissions | Vanderbilt University) Vandy does not include loans in its FA packages, so the OP’s d may want to look at it, as well.</p>