@dolemite - Funny our kid is all about fit while immature grown ups haven’t given up on prestige!
Seriously, it’s possible to have both, but not in our case because the financials don’t work. The grandparents are probably the most perplexed that our high achieving D isn’t applying to top 20 schools. I (think) I finally got through to them that aside from the low odds, those schools aren’t really what D wants. Small fish in highly competitive pond is not for her. Also, although Vassar, and Brown were originally on her list, she ended up finding alternatives with less name recognition that are nonetheless fine schools and where she has a decent shot at merit aid. When asked recently “if we won the lottery tomorrow and money was no object, would you apply anywhere else?” She said no.
Fit vs. prestige: My D’s stats take prestige right out of the equation–it’s easy for me to say absolutely we’d pick fit over prestige (and I really would like to think we would)–but it’s not really anything we have to grapple with, fortunately or unfortunately, as the case may be. As it is, some of the schools on my D’s very carefully researched list definitely meet with blank stares. Considering that we’re looking at a few midwest LACs, and we live in the northeaset, I suppose it’s not terribly surprising.
Thanks for all the congrats everyone! Son17 would appreciate it. He is anxious to get upcoming results on EA apps. He is not seriously considering either of his safeties, UVM or UNH, and would lean towards UVM if he had to pick. He had to apply to a couple of safeties, and couldn’t find any smaller schools that fit his needs for safeties. He liked UVM a lot when we visited though. UNH he thought was OK. Umass, no. Uconn, no. UMaine and URI, nope. I made him apply to UMass too, just in case he didn’t get into some of his other choices, and maybe some of his friends will end up there. The biz school at UMass is pretty good actually, but son17 just thinks the school is too big, kind of ugly in places, and not “prestigious” enough, ha. But it’s WICKED CHEAP!!! So, app submitted there. Son17 is really hoping he gets accepted locally here in Boston area, but we’ll see. Next week!
Good luck to the kids who are chasing both fit and prestige! I know there are a lot of you in here with kids that have superior credentials and strong work and study habits, the killer combo!
I’m going to do some Rose Hulman research today, I guess I should know more about that school. We don’t have a lot of engineering folks in our family, so my knowledge in that area is quite low. i need to get up to speed on that for son19, so I may message some of you for info along the way. You all have been very helpful in son17’s search, I appreciate it a lot !!
Fit vs Prestige: for S17, it is both, but definitely fit is “king”. For high stats kids, it is possible to find both. There were a number of “sticker schools” that quickly fell off the list because of feeling bad fit at the time of visiting campus (Johns Hopkins, Princeton, Harvard, Columbia, to (drop) name but a few!).
All of this is counterbalanced somewhat by ensuring you have the right balance of reach and safety…and of course meets financial needs…and the total number of apps is not ridiculous. There are so many great schools, fit must be first. Even better if there’s fit, prestige, and merit!
Year end season is very busy at work. I have been browsing through comments whenever I get a quick chance. While lamb rack is being baked in the oven (volunteering a dish today at S20’s HS teachers appreciation luncheon), I want to drop a quick note here.
Congratulations to all new acceptances to schools, honor colleges and new offers of merit money <:-P
The busy work load is a good thing. It really distracts me from all the anxious waiting for the December EA results!
@carachel2 I am a terrible cook. This is the only thing presentable that I can make . At long as I buy the right materials, there is not much skills/time involved. All prepared and in the oven now. In 35 minutes, I will be on my way to school. Hope I won’t screw up :))
We definitely fall into the fit over prestige category. I think many people are surprised at the large OOS schools that ds has applied to and is excited about but they offer him things that the prestigious schools we went to see did not: affordability and opportunity. We definitely have budgetary constraints that had to be considered and although FAFSA thinks we make a bundle, living where we do we can’t come even close to affording our EFC. Ds also has been involved in a lot of EC activities and loves the many things he does. He wants a school where he gets a good education and still has the time and opportunity to pursue those fun things too. He also is pretty specific in his goals for a major and future career and he found that at the schools with prestige they were less flexible on how he could reach those goals. He loved the schools where they said, “of course you can do that” and helped plot out how it could work, rather than the schools where they said “well you might be able to do that but it will be very difficult.” He’s not afraid of hard work and he knows doing all he wants will require it but he wants to feel like they want it for him too and at many of the prestigious schools we visited he didn’t get that vibe. Some people wont understand but that’s ok, I just want him to end up where he’s happy. I truly believe that college is about so much more than just the education in the classrooms, it is about living away from home but with a safety net of a meal plan and housing, meeting people from other parts of the country and world, learning to plan and strategize to reach a goal, dealing with bad teachers, good teachers, bad roommates, balancing work and play without mom hovering and just becoming your own person outside of our family unit. I’ll be excited to see where he ends up.
@collegecue I understand. When ds talked to schools like GT about UG research, he was told that their focus was really on their grad students and UGs worked for grad students. He was told as a high school student he had more direct research experience than their UGs. (He DE at a university w/o a grad physics program and he worked on research with a prof there.)
At UA, his research prof has told him that she treats him like a grad student. He has a lot of research responsibility and research is a big part of his UG experience. That is exactly what he wanted.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek – thank you for that post about U/G research opportunity (or lack thereof) at GT.
My son has been conducting CS research, and plans to continue, so once acceptances roll in (if…), he will have to confirm the actual research opportunities for U/G.
@ct1417 Ds spent over an hour talking to the dean (it has been a few yrs and we talked to a lot of depts, but I am pretty sure that I am remembering correctly that it was the dean. I know the conversation details are correct.) Ds really appreciated the honesty about how accessible UG research opportunities were since it was one of his top criteria (access to grad level classes being another.)
@Mom2aphysicsgeek – same here on access to grad-level classes, but he has asked about that when interviewing. I think he has just assumed he would be able to conduct research, and good to know otherwise. (Better now than after the fact!)
Fit vs prestige. D has mit on her list, but she applied there because she likes what they do. She didn’t apply to the other prestigious STEM schools (like cal tech, ga tech, cmu) because she doesn’t feel like they’d be a good fit for her.
We had MIL pushing for the ivies (I swear so she could brag on it at her bridge club), but once D17 took FIL and H to Northeastern (FIL’s alma mater), and they had a great time the pushy chatter about the ivies stopped. Culturally the only two I can see being a good fit CS program-wise for D is Brown and Cornell, and H does not like Brown, and D17 feels that Cornell is too isolated and too north.
She finished the UA CBHP essays and sent them in, and is working on the Blount scholar one. She also finished her Olin app and sent that in. Her bf is pushing her to apply to ga tech, but she said she’s going to wait and see what comes in with the EA stuff. She calls tech the grim trigger. Over dinner I did drop that the average ACT score of the UA kids is now 30, two points higher than UGA. Bf was very surprised (he’s been poo-pooing UA).
She felt a lot better about the SAT 2 this time, finished with 20 minutes to spare and went back to check her work. She said her best advice she could give on that test is to take it right after you finish precalculus. She did precalc in 10th grade and just didn’t remember the stuff the first time around. I’ll probably have D18 take it at the end of this year although I think her gpa will mean she’ll won’t be applying to colleges that ask for it.
Which reminds me, the tone of the 2018 parents thread is really different from this one. I’m struggling a bit over there because the whole prestige thing hasn’t been beaten out of some of the posters by reality yet. Who has Rice as a safety? Seriously.
@MotherOfDragons LOL. Yeah, the tone on the 2020 thread is similar. I stopped reading it altogether. My 9th grader isn’t thinking about college. She is thinking about music, drawing, writing stories, and being 14. She is my flighty, artsy, creative go with the flow kid.
@STEM2017 You have no idea just how serious my ds was (and is) about physics. When I chose momofaphysicsgeek back then, I wasn’t kidding. He eats, drinks, breathes the stuff. At 20 he has now completed all UG physics plus grad electro mag and dynamics. (Well, he finishes those 2 today bc he has those finals today.) He started contemplating physics research in 8th grade and filled reams of notebooks with thought experiments. My 12th grade Dd is equally serious about French and Russian. (It is going to be a shift in gears when she graduates and my oldest homeschoolers is my now 9th grader bc she is so incredibly different than these last 2.)
@MotherOfDragons D20 is in pre-calc honors this year, I’m thinking SAT Math2 in June? Might be best so it is fresh and because she has only one AP class this year and she can focus, AP class load will only go up from here. D17 definitely took it too late. (After IB SL Math which has a totally different focus)
GULP!
S17 just received an email from “Board of Admissions” for ED school confirming date and time decision will be released and asking him to confirm that he has access to the portal…hands sweaty…totally dreading already…I know it will be okay whatever the outcome, but boy would a yes be a lot nicer to deal with :-SS
@VickiSoCal – I would ask your D if she prefers May over June, based on her own workload. My son took Bio in June of 9th grade but Math II in May of 10th grade. His reasoning was that he wanted time to get through more of the Bio curriculum in 9th, but wanted the Math out of the way in 10th so he could focus on June’s final exams. Same thinking on taking Physics in June last year but USH in May. USH had a May AP, and material seems to have dovetailed fairly well, while he had to teach himself some Physics for that subject test.
We don’t have IB, but he took Math II after Honors Pre-calc, which then led to BC Calc in Jr year.
. At long as I buy the right materials, there is not much skills/time involved. All prepared and in the oven now. In 35 minutes, I will be on my way to school. Hope I won’t screw up :))