<p>I think "fit" is a good word and a good concept, regardless of whether it's simply like/dislike or something more complex. It means looking for what will work well for the kid in terms of all the variables - program, degree of challenge, comfort with surroundings and peers..... It's what we all should be looking for. If prestige is part of the fit, so be it. Some people, consciously or unconsciously, overtly or covertly, want the prestige. Some people want other characteristics (say, to be among top-performing students) for which prestige is a by-product.</p>
<p>Look at where I went to school (Wellesely, UCB, Stanford) and clearly I have/had the disease. I never thought to myself (and I was over 30 -gasp! - when I went to Stanford), "I want the prestige. I want people to be in awe of me." It was something innate - a kind of, hey, if-you're-gonna-go-for-it-go-for-the-best thought process. But it was a different world then. Playing loose with the numbers here, but in that world 90% of the kids here on cc would have gotten into HYPS/AWS if they wanted, not 12%.</p>
<p>All of that said, I think "fit" is often used here on cc as an explanation or rationale: we didn't go for HYPS, we were looking for "fit."</p>