@Mom2aphysicsgeek I’m in agreement with you about school choice. I would also add that most of the top 2-300 schools in whatever ranking you look at will offer lots of opportunities.
One of the main opportunities my D is looking for now is the opportunity to be at a place that is warm in March. 
@carachel2, Pitt does have some guaranteed OT slots, but not all of them. They seem competitive. https://oafa.pitt.edu/explore/guaranteed-admissions-programs/ot-gap/
@2muchquan Well, our AC has been on multiple times already, though the past couple of days we opened our windows. I have no idea how dd will manage winter in Russia!
Keep the tour reports coming - they are so interesting!
@2muchquan My ds also uses google scholar. A good use of it – before meeting with a professor whether it is when visiting a university if you’re thinking about admissions or in my ds’s case, interviewing for a summer research position – read that professor’s scholarly work. Then in the interview, you can speak intelligently to the areas of the professor’s interest and make mention of reading his work. This makes the conversations/interviews go so much more smoothly - b/c what professor doesn’t love to hear about his own work. ha
My D goes to a big (mega) high school and one of the things they do to help the juniors prepare for the college admissions cycle is to have them spend class time learning about selecting colleges, applying (including good essay writing), financial aid etc. As part of this process, my D’s teacher had everyone interview 3-5 adults about their college experiences and outcomes. My daughter found this very enlightening. I connected her with some of my good friends, all who have advanced degrees, some of whom went to elite schools and some that didn’t. The big takeaway was that it does not matter where you go to college, but what you did while there, and you should avoid debt for undergrad. These are all things I have been telling her from Day 1, but its great that she is hearing it from others as well. I think this is why she gets it.
The obsession with prestige is a significant contributor to the country’s student loans crises. Prestige is great if you can afford it, but its not worth getting into crazy debt just to attend a more prestigious school. I often think that most of those who really can’t afford the prestigious schools but are willing to go into a lot of debt to attend those schools do not know anyone who attended a prestigious school. Having attended two of those schools and being friends with people who went to similar schools and those who didn’t, I can honestly say that in the long run, there is no significant advantage. Sure, the experience will be different in some ways, but unless a family can comfortably afford to pay for that “experience,” its all overblown.
I also agree that fit is overblown as well. While I think its important, it is not a good reason to go into overwhelming debt. For us, the big fit question is large university v. small LAC. Small LAC wouldn’t be a good fit for my D. But would that mean that if she had to attend a small LAC, she wouldn’t be successful? No. She probably wouldn’t have her ideal college experience, but I know she’d make the most of the opportunities and get a good education. Thankfully, with the abundance of good options in this country, her choices won’t come down to small LAC or large university. All the schools on her list…though not elite, they all offer a good overall college experience, lots of opportunities, and a good education.
Semi-rant over. 
Thanks to all for the wonderful school visit reports! Lots of them are on my D’s list so those were especially helpful. Hope everyone enjoyed the time with their kids.
@itsgettingreal17 Great post and one I definitely agree with.
Our current college sophomore graduated from high school with courses and accomplishments that put him in a very, very small percentage of students. He had completed university physics 1&2, modern physics, and classical mechanics 1&2, multivariable, diffEQ, and linear alg. (All with close to the highest, if not the highest, grade in the classes.) He attend SSP and different math camps. Based on CC philosophy, you would think that he would never be able to find “intellectual peers” on a state university campuses and that only tippy top schools have students with his level of abilities. You would also think that his classes would be pablum.
Guess what? He has a great group of friends and both those kids and he are found on a public non-elite campus. Lots of really great students can’t afford to attend tippy top schools and they end up at state schools. His opportunities at Bama are fabulous. Same goes for his friends. His profs are great (and his classes are only taught by profs).
we did not have to mortgage our future for a great UG experience.
Just another ‘fit’ anecdote that I thought was interesting and happened during our spring tour. I was introduced to “Vineyard Vines”. My D commented at how many guys were wearing Vineyard Vines at Furman (which I now fondly refer to as FU). My casual/comfy-clothes daughter said, after a little while, that she could see herself there. Everyone was nice…almost to a fault! I’ve never seen so many people fighting to hold the door for each other. So, while there IS probably a tipping point for ‘too preppy’ for her, we haven’t seen it yet…and it helped her realize that, and will basically let her drop that as a filter.
@2muchquan… Just give her a realistic view of some southern areas. Here in Texas we are basically prisoners of the AC from May-October. Outdoor activities when it is 100+ are severely limited and even a backyard pool feels like bath water. UGH!!!
@carachel2 Ha! Yeah, I think she gets that. We have close family in Scottsdale, AZ that we frequently visit. Pretty brutal. NC/SC is not too bad, and I think if she had to pick one, 100 degrees with A/C would beat -10 degrees and snow. A happy medium, even better! UCSD would be optimal…if it wasn’t OOS and in CA.
ETA: And, yes, we took Rice off the list.
@carachel2 …I agree 100%. Texas is HOT! We are looking at Texas A&M, UNT, and Texas Tech in Texas then OU and OSU in Oklahoma. @itsgettingreal17…I agree with you about the money part. Thankfully my S is tight as bark on a tree so his college fund is fairly safe. He wants to look at each college actual cost…out of pocket and then make a decision. I told him a degree is a degree it is what you do with it after the fact that makes you. He plans on getting his masters after undergraduate school so I hope that his college fund will help with the masters. Right now we are trying to figure out which schools will let you stack scholarships. For example Texas A&M will only give you $40,000 for national merit finalists according to the website but if he has that and valedictorian will that stack. Makes a huge difference.
Love hearing the school trip reviews even if S isn’t interested in those parts of the country. It is interesting how differently my kids view what they want(ed) from a college. D15 wanted a small school environments where most classes were discussion based. S17 emphatically DOES NOT want the small LAC environment and is looking mainly at state schools with good honors colleges. We’re happy that he is engaged and beginning to “drive the bus” rather than just sitting in a seat. I have a friend with a D17 (her oldest) who is freaking out about the whole college process (kid, not parent). We have offered to take her on some of our college visit trips, but the thought of it is stressing her out too much for her to deal with. She may just end up at the local U because it is the least stressful choice. It would save her parents some bucks!!
Regarding fit and stress and so on, I have mixed feelings.
D11 ended up at big flagship, which was her last (financial safety) choice. She very much wanted to go to a small LAC and I do think that would have been her best fit. She was pretty miserable freshman year. The stars aligned sophomore year and the top one professor in the country she wanted to work with just happened to transfer to her U (now her senior thesis adviser and with whom she has a great relationship). She is happy now (5th year senior…), but I really don’t know if she would be if not for that very random occurrence.
D17 would also highly prefer to attend a small school (LAC or more “techy”). She is autistic with some serious social issues, and I feel that for a kid like her fit really is more important. Partly for this reason, I do feel pretty stressed about our search.
S18, however, will probably be able to fit in anywhere. He has zero interest in college stuff right now, but he’s an easy-going charismatic kid who adapts well. The main problem I foresee with him is getting him to actually be interested before deadlines are looming!
@Dave_N, great trip report. My in-laws live just outside St. Louis and would have loved for D to attend WUSTL or SLU. Unfortunately for them, neither school would work for various reasons. I love your avatar – one of my favorite xkcd’s ever!
@2muchquan, google scholar is now bookmarked in my “college” folder. D is pretty focused about what she wants to do, so we’ll definitely look up the profs she’s most interested in. And it just looks like a fun site overall!
So many great visit reports! Not any on S17’s list but hearing the Berkeley reports are very helpful for me to file away for S19.
I have a question regarding the comments on it not mattering where they go. In my limited CC experience is seems most folks are either looking at tippy top, or competitive/selective LAC’s and state flagships. How far does the “not mattering” really extend? How low is too low? I can look at stats like graduation rates and loan defaults and combine that with the rankings to get a pretty decent picture of where our list might stack up, in a stack ranked scenario. Are we really saying there is no difference? Or is there a tipping point in people’s opinion.
There is one school S17’s list that frankly we aren’t crazy about. (Actually we aren’t in love with most of his list but that’s a whole different issue. It’s fine, just not “in love” with it, hopefully that will change) We don’t like the overall statistics or the reputation of this school in many ways or frankly where he would fall academically…I don’t know that top of the heap is the best fit for my kid. Maybe it is but… And yet, it is ABET accredited if he goes that route. It is known for his program area but not much else (other than a lot of stoners). I’m not worried about that part. He’s not a partier at all but is a pretty liberal hippy kid and can handle that environment (plus really, it will be anywhere). But I don’t love the idea of the entire school having that rep.
I’m just not sure what that means for future employment and I really worry about what happens if he wants ot change majors. It would seem to me that at a certain level, even within B schools there is a bit of hierarchy. Yet, in concept, S17 is completely in love with this school and is basically humoring us by looking at anything else. My H wants me to simply say that it can’t be on the list at all but I don’t think that’s the right answer either. I don’t personally think it’s the best program fit but…I am not him.
Where does one draw the line? Top 100 National Universities? Only “ranked” national universities"? What about the regionals and the LAC’s?
@eandesmom …I have talked with several people about different colleges. I got if it is ABET accredited then one is just as good as another. The real difference is the Alums helping kids get jobs after they graduate. Also, what the students GPA is when graduating. We are looking at colleges with the least amount out of pocket and best fit for my S personally. We are down to 5 schools and as parents we feel that 1 of those is out of the running. We will have to sway him into that fact. We are trying to give him all the tools and let him make the decision.
Loved the trip report @Dave_N. I’ve always been curious about Wash U and it was fabulous to read about it through another parent’s eyes. Somehow when our D started the process she got on Montana State’s radar. Over the course of 2 years they sent an endless stream of flyers and books. It became a joke in our house and we were slightly worried that they wouldn’t stop. Wash U has become our S’s Montana State. He can expect at least 2 missives a week. This isn’t counting the emails. Sadly for Wash U they never made the list as they don’t give merit aid.
@eandesmom - I subscribe to the philosophy that fit is more important than college prestige. I know many, many people who either didn’t finish college or went to a directional school or community college who are quite successful. What is important is that the school has the program your child “thinks” they want and that there are similar programs if and when he or she decides on a lateral move, a complete change or a minor.
ETA: and here’s another factor: you can always transfer if you’re miserable. This is what we told our D when she was having difficulty choosing between her last 2 schools. Your decision is not in stone. A good friend of our d’s is unhappy with her choice, mostly due to sports related issues. So she’s transferring.
@Agentninetynine, WashU (Washington University in St. Louis) does give merit, albeit very competitive. @Dave_N’s awesome trip report refered to that WashU.
Back in the early 80s, WashU mailed something to me at least once a week! I attended a rural-ish northeastern PA high school and must have gotten on their list after doing quite well on the PSAT junior year.
I tend to agree with Agentninetynine’s view that fit is more important than prestige. But I was kind of relieved when one of the schools S liked initially and I wasn’t thrilled with came off the list after visiting some other schools. All were ABET accredited (he will be a CS major). As for transferring, that is fine unless you are on a scholarship that will not transfer with you. Because S looks to be in line for National Merit, if he ended up not liking his choice and he was there on a NMF scholarship, the only option would be our state schools. He currently isn’t thrilled with them, so he better choose wisely next year!
@eandesmom, I know your S and my D have some overlap in schools and interests. Our only absolute is that the engineering program is ABET accredited. After that, for D the only academic requirement is that they offer something (minor, concentration, faculty research…) in her focus area. She’s looking at schools whose mid-50 percentiles begin anywhere from the 400’s to the 600’s.
I wouldn’t worry about the “stoner school” rep. Companies know that not all (or probably most) kids are going to fit into that category. Major and grades will be an excellent indicator of whether any particular student was going to class high every day.
My dad and my husband are both engineers who have been pretty heavily involved in hiring other engineers. They’ve both said that the school and even the grades (if they aren’t really bad) don’t matter that much. They want to know the potential hire’s knowledge areas, problem solving ability, etc. The interviews (at least in my dad and husband’s opinion) were much more of a deciding factor.
Our very first school visit was to Wash U (WUSTL), about a year ago. In retrospect I wish I had done my homework prior to visiting. I was not a member of CC yet. A friend had visited and said: “They told us not to worry about cost. They give lots of money. You’ll be able to work it out!” I figured: “My kid is awesome! She is so smart, she will surely get a scholarship!” So, D visited and LOVED it. So did I. Then, as I learned more about WashU, I also learned my D is a ‘very strong’ student, but she’s probably a fairly average applicant at WashU. While they DO have some merit scholarships, as @4beardolls mentioned, it is competitive. VERY competitive. At least, that’s my impression from my research/Googling and the CC boards. It’s remaining on our list for now as the reachiest of reaches. Love the school, though.
@eandesmom As far as “how low is too low”…that’s a good question. For us it’s just kind of a ‘feel’. A school might be ‘low’ in test scores, but have a particularly good department. Or a good honors program. And, it has to be affordable. I think, for us, it needs to have an honors program if the high-end of the mid-50% is more than 4-5 points below D’s ACT.
I’m of the opinion to keep expectations low, and be pleasantly surprised.