<p>personally i love all the schools their is no clear cut favorite</p>
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<p>Funny you should say that, since it's well known fact that Bush was later rejected by UT-Austin for law school, leading to him instead going to Harvard Business. And I doubt getting A's and B's is any easier at a large top-tier state school, where if anything it's easier to get weeded out as a freshman. Unlike many privates, public schools like UT tend to not do grade replacement/forgiveness if a student retakes a class after failing. And it's certainly possible to fail classes.</p>
<p>So had Bush gone to Texas for undergrad, it's more likely he would have failed out for partying too much, rather than getting "Gentleman's C's" at Yale with Kerry.</p>
<p>jeesh,</p>
<p>first off, when bush was at yale, a C was considered average--as opposed to B+.</p>
<p>Second off, I will say this 1 more time, you are likely to perform similarly wherever you choose to go to school. Don't think that if you go to X school you'll be at the top of your class whereas if you go to Y school you'll be in the middle. No matter where you go you're going to have to do ridiculous amounts of work to be at the very top of your class. Most of the time, the difference is how much work you have to do to be middle of the pack.</p>
<p>There is no guarantee you will do exceptionally well at what you consider to be the lesser school, and no guarantee that you will not shine at the more elite school. A very bright boy from an excellent private school here-straight A's 1550/1600, chose to go to Kelley at Indiana because of the wonderful merit money he was offered. He flunked out after three semesters--and it wasn't because he couldn't excell in the classroom.</p>
<p>You will do fine at whatever school you go to if you make school your priority. A school would not accept you if it didn't think you could handle the work and handle it well.</p>
<p>Statistically, with the same LSATs, no. 1 at U of Florida gets into the top Law schools much more often than mid range kid at Princeton. Make your own conclusions.</p>
<p>I think you would learn more and grow more by being average at a more selective school. Better to be a small fish in a big pond.</p>
<p>While the above has a point, I would argue anyone who uses words like "misunderestimate" "nukular" and "strategery" is going to be criticized no matter what.</p>
<p>That said, one can find a quality education anywhere, and even public professors will challenge a student who they know can handle a higher caliber, but private professors won't lower their standards to match an average student.</p>
<p>The only thing new I can add to this thread is my first hand experience of three campuses: the University of Colorado (Boulder), Northwestern University, and Harvard University. I took nearly two full years of classes at CU while I was in high school, attended Northwestern for two years, and then transferred to Harvard to graduate. I can say <em>for certain</em> that it became significantly more difficult to get A's every time I moved to a more selective school. Whether a school tells you this directly or not, the reality is that you are always being compared to your peers to some degree. I'd say that, to get an good grades at a decent state school, you need to be either hard-working and good at time management, or extremely smart, but you don't always need both. To get an A or A- average at a school like Harvard, you need both and sometimes just a little bit of luck. A school like Northwestern, of course, is somewhere in between those two extremes. </p>
<p>The second part of my reply here is basically just seconding what everyone has already said. I would say that this comes down partly to a decision about grad school. If you are serious about getting in to excellent programs, you should plan on doing better than a B+ average: you want to be more in the A/A- range, just like college. So I wouldn't plan on going to a school like Bowdoin and rocking a B+ average if you have a specific topflight grad program in mind. Like everyone else, I also think you need to sit down and think long and hard about the times in high school when you did your best and when you did your worst: what type of environment were you in, and how competitive was it? I need to feel like I'm working hard just to keep up with everyone; I like to be really challenged. My brother would prefer to be a big fish in a small pond. Our college choices reflected those preferences and I think we were both happy.</p>
<p>I would say being "average" at a selective college will benefit you more. This is because you hopefully will not settle for average and work very very hard to get to the top. You will ultimately face greater challenges at the more selective university and be a better person for it.</p>
<p>It is not just the overall college reputation but also the department reputation which affect grad school admission. I am not seeing postings regarding that factor, so am citing it. If the top-tier public has a highly ranked academic department and the private is not top-tier, it may be worth it to attend the public. Unlike undergraduate admissions, where decisions are made by admissions counselors, grad school admissions are frequently done by academic departments, who know the reputation of academic departments at other institutions. In addition, many top-tier publics have an honors program, which adds prestige to the undergraduate program.</p>
<p>My S is in the same quandary-W&M in state with no financial aid vs Honors College at U of So Carolina with $20-25,000 in scholarships, plus he will get instate tuition benefit. The HC is a true 4 year deal too, and only has about 1200 students in it, and they are comparable statistically to W&M kids.</p>
<p>What a pickle? </p>
<p>At least he has to choose between two really good situations.</p>
<p>Part of me says W&M, just because you got in!</p>
<p>Part of me says USC, because you will have more fun!</p>
<p>If you want to go into business or law go to the selective private. Medicine or PhD go to the public.</p>
<p>Lemme just tell u wat I'm doing. I got a gauranteed transfer to Cornell University (which means I go to another University for a year and then go to Cornell for Sophomore year). Well my first year is almost over at Stonehill College (#1 Comprehensive College...not sure how that catagory goes lol, but it's not in the U catagory obviously) and I'm probably gonna get over a 3.8 this semester. I def still wanna go to Cornell even if I get lower there (hopefully I'll still do well around all those geniuses!!!!). The people here just aren't as passionate as I am about important issues (like politics and social issues) and just flat out about education. I love it here, but I can't wait to go to Cornell!!! (and I'm applying to Business School). I've asked myself ur question before and I think I'm choosing right. If everything goes great at Cornell maybe I can even get a good gpa there! Just one of the many great things...Cornell living alumni = almost a quarter of a million while Stonehill = just reached 20,000 .... lol ya. That's just one of the many benefits of Cornell! Can't wait to be around the passionate and intelligent people at Cornell!</p>
<p>"I think you would learn more and grow more by being average at a more selective school. Better to be a small fish in a big pond."</p>
<p>And guess what happens when u take the big fish from the small pond and make him the small fish in a big pond? By nature that fish would grow exponentially. Throw a gold fish in a lake and wat happens? It becomes huge. I'd like to think that would happen to a mind as well. I can tell u that being around less motivated peers does take a toll on me sometimes. It'll be a nice change next year (that is...if I get good grades! lol).</p>
<p>Also I know that I did best during the 2nd part of my highschool career when I had moved up to AP classes so I'm hoping that is an indicator :)</p>
<p>my little goldfish from the elementary school carnival 7 years ago grew to be over 6 inches in a 10-gallon tank... now he's a big, old fish. very happy.</p>
<p>just saying... everybody's different.</p>
<p>I'm in the same boat with the college descision thing...Tulane or Duke? I would love to go to New Orleans, and they are giving me a good scholarship, but Duke has always been my dream college. I read the other posts, but what should I do?</p>
<p>I agree with Itla_uno. I take a College Prep class at my high school, the lowest level possible as far as class levels are concerned. I take honors and AP classes otherwise, but I get A-/Bs in those classes, whereas my CP class is a straight 95%. Is it worth it, taking an easier class so that my GPA is a 3.9 instead of the 3.5 or 3.6 it would be in a more difficult math class? Who can say. But I do believe that I'm learning more in this slower math class than I ever have when I attempted to keep up in higher levels. </p>
<p>I too have been accepted to several less competitive state schools and a few more competitvive private universities (UVM/UMass/UConn vs Skidmore/Union/Richmond, for those who are detail-oriented) and the decision is really overwhelming. Another facet to examine is financial aid: I can basically go to UMass for the cost of books, but is it the right school?</p>
<p>I'm still grappling with this dilemma.</p>
<p>Not every private is better than a public. Of the three privates you mentioned, only Skidmore has a chance of being better than the three publics you cited, and that depends on whether or not you are leaning towards the humanities (for which Skidmore is better known). However, this is just for overall reputation. </p>
<p>The other factor which is just as essential is the reputation of the academic department in which you will be studying. If you go on to graduate study, faculty usually make the admission decisions, and they know their colleagues at other schools, and they know the reputation of the department at those other schools. For example, UMass Amherst has the #1 sport management program in the country. If you are interested in that major, your decision should be a no-brainer.</p>
<p>Finally, as long as all of the schools you are considering are comparable, two other factors emerge -- cost and "feel." Why pay more for the same wuality experience? Even more important, though, is how each school "feels" to you. Where do you feel most comfortable?</p>
<p>You have a big decision ahead of you and you have some good schools from which to choose, but go a step farther than overall reputation in making that decision, especially if the reputations of the six are so comparable. You won't regret it!</p>
<p>Speaking from personal experience in the DISTANT path, it is far better to be great at a good college than average at a great college. </p>
<p>The distinctions between good and great colleges are typically at the margin, i.e., you are more likely to have great students and faculty at a great college, but there plenty of those at good colleges, they are just mixed with more of the average crowd. If you stand out from the crowd you will:</p>
<p>(a) Get personal attention from the very best faculty, which are usually more or less indistinguishable from those at the top tier schools, see comment about differences at the margin above</p>
<p>(b) Get first crack at courses, internships, housing</p>
<p>(c) Pad up your resume with awards, meaningful experience, get excellent recs</p>
<p>(d) VERY few people will care where you graduated from when you interview for your second job</p>