Did anyone ever attend their SAFETY or MATCH over their reach/dream schools for NON FINANCIAL REASONS?
Someone whose first choice is a safety may not bother applying anywhere else.
im not saying its there first choice, but is there any ppl here on CC that did this
No my D, but her friend. Turned down an Ivy for a safety school because at the end of the day she just didn’t see herself fitting in. And she is loving it - no regrets. She isn’t slacking either - has a lot more leadership opportunities helping with research and being a T.A. which usually is set aside for grad students.
One of my collegekids. We had emphasized finding a good fit over rank & put a lot of time into finding one safety and several matches that she genuinely liked as well as some easy-to-love reaches. She went to revisit days at several colleges she had particularly liked when applying (regardless of the tier). I knew by 11am on the revisit day at her ultimate choice that she would choose it- everything just clicked. She has never regretted her choice.
can u guys specify the schools chosen over the reaches (which reaches?)
One of my daughters picked Carleton over Pomona, Middlebury, and Amherst. I think she was satisfied with her choice.
^Very little difference among those four regarding selectivity; all are reaches for any student.
True that; but she felt that P, A, and M were higher-prestige schools. In her opinion, because of her stats, she felt that getting into Carleton was more likely than getting into the others. P offered better financial aid; A’s was at least as good as Carleton’s.
When I was in high school, there were good students who were observant LDS church members whose first choice was BYU, which was a safety for them. I don’t think they bothered to apply anywhere else.
BYU is @ 5K a year for LDS. That IS a financial decision.
Well, not necessarily. We don’t know these kids; in some situations their families may have had enough to pay for them to go somewhere else - or maybe Utah State or University of Utah were comparably priced.
Also, decisions are not always black and white. A Mormon student might choose BYU partially because of the lower cost but also partially because she’s looking forward to attending a university with lots of other students who share her faith and her values. That’s a decision that’s partially financially driven, but not wholly.
The latter reflects my college choice - which was a long time ago but still. I decided to attend Spelman College over a couple of other schools - including Georgia Tech and Emory. Spelman was a safety; Georgia Tech and Emory were matches (this was 2004; Emory had a 40% acceptance rate at the time. In fact, for a smart Georgia kid GT actually was a low match/high safety). It was definitely partially financially driven, as I got a full scholarship to go, but it was also for a variety of other factors: I actually just liked Spelman better than all the other schools I had visited. I felt at home basically from the moment I stepped on campus. I loved the vibe, I loved the students, I loved the social life, I loved the class I sat in on, I loved that it was a women’s college and an HBCU, I loved the traditions and history.
My youngest D chose her safety, Ohio University over 3 higher ranked schools, Ohio State, Purdue, and Miami of Ohio. After scholarships it wasn’t even the cheapest. It’s where she felt the most comfortable. It’s been a great experience for her.
My daughter chose Florida Tech over Smith, and was also contacted by Kenyon, Centre and several other LACs that are CC favorites. She wasn’t interested, and like the tech school better.
Don’the know why OP is interested in others decision based on individual circumstances, one may choose one school over the other by school size, location, intended major, family consideration, or even personal relationship. For instance, most I vies do not have great engineering as some state flagships particularly for specific major. For students got admitted by top schools, their safeties are often good schools as well. My D picked UMich, which is a match for her, over Northwestern simply because of her first impression of the latter campus.
is it wrong to ask such a question???
@SREE33 Sure you can ask. You may ask me what I had for dinner too, but what would you learn from it?
well its just that most people in my school always pick the “highest ranked school”
I mean there was a guy who got into Berkely and not UCLA and UCSD, and when someone asked him why he chose Berkely he said “its BERKELEY” even though he didn’t like any part of the school except prestige
anyways, I just wanted to know what reasons someone has to go to safety or something over their dream school , and I know that money is the best reason but are there any other reasons?
also @billcsho what did u have for dinner?
You need to focus on you though. YOU won’t have to choose between UCB and another school. And people at school tell fairy stories. I (a parent) went to an assembly where a kid was rolled out on stage, and they said how he has turned down princeton for local school, and another who had turned down 30K a year at georgetown for the local school. This is why you play your cards close to your chest. Local school here for those kids mean pretty much close to free tuition/no more than 5K a year tuition.
Best way to do it is to focus on what suits you in a college- rather than starting with ‘what is the fanciest name I have a hope of getting into’ start with ‘what do I want from my college experience? what college path will take me the direction or open the opportunities that I am interested in?’.
Don’t forget the value of being a big fish: often it is better to be the star at a solid name than to be below average at a fancy name (stronger recommendations, profs more likely to be keen to help you succeed, more likely to get discretionary things/prizes that can open doors, etc.).