<p>I have seen this rule said many times. Just throwing it out there at this time of decision.</p>
<p>How is 'best overall school' defined? USNR ranking?</p>
<p>I am assuming a typical HS sr --> UG freshman, btw. I suspect transfer students who have gone around the college block a bit will have significantly more and better self knowledge.</p>
<p>I have seen variations of this rule: one just came across my email,</p>
<p>
[quote]
unless you are sure of your major, you should go to the best overall school you can get into - looking at depts. within schools is risky for students that change majors
[/quote]
</p>
<p>My correspondent actually did have a caveat to this rule , unless you are sure of your major. How sure is sure? She , too , was speaking about typical incoming freshmen. </p>
<p>What is the national rate of major changing in UG ? Or, what is the pct of freshmen who are undecided?</p>
<p>“best overall” that can be interpreted in a lot of ways! Many people have their favorites:</p>
<p>USNWR’s Rankings
Princeton Review’s Best 373
Fiske Guide 2011 or similiar references! </p>
<p>OR there are those people on CC who have this mind set “If I have never heard of it, then it must be a bad school.” “If it is outside of my geographic area (Northeast, Mid Atlantic, South, MidWest, West Coast etc) then it must be a bad school.” “If it is not Ivy League then it must be a bad school.” etc etc. </p>
<p>Don’t go to the best school if it puts you and your child into deep debt & causes financial stress and your child is going to go to Grad School. It must be a good fit!</p>
You’ll get different figures, but most say somewhere between 60% and 70% of students change their majors at least once. That doesn’t mean 30-40% come in and remain firmly set in their majors, mind you – many of those students may simply have shopped around very carefully before finally settling on a major.</p>
<p>According to one school:
[ul][<em>]1/3 of freshmen enter as undecided
[</em>]On average, students change their majors three times
[li]2/3 of students change their majors at least once[/ul]</p>[/li]
<p>[Ohio</a> U advising faqs](<a href=“http://www.ohio.edu/advising/faqs.cfm]Ohio”>http://www.ohio.edu/advising/faqs.cfm)</p>
<p>As for the question posed by the thread title, yes, I would generally say it is a very good idea to attend the best overall affordable school to which one is admitted.</p>
<p>There is a lot to be said for that as a starting point. Being associated with the most talented and motivated group of peers that you can find is going to be a major asset for you. However, other factors can have an impact. I have two daughters who went to the best college that they could afford and have had great experiences. My HS son should also be competitive for highly selective colleges, but he’s an avid marching snare drummer and hopes to pursue marching percussion throughout his adult life. Limiting his college search to those schools that provide that opportunity rules out many, if not most of the top schools for which he may be qualified, but that’s a quality of life decision that he’s decided he wants to make.</p>
<p>Go to the school that is the best fit for you (academics, social life, athletics, campus, size, atmosphere, etc) that you can afford.</p>
<p>I didn’t go to the highest ranked school that accepted me, or even the best school for my intended major that accepted me. And I didn’t go to the school that gave me a full ride. I went to the school at which I felt I could be happiest, which was the right balance of everything I wanted. And I love it up here, even if its is 24 degrees out with 24 inches of snow, and a low of 0 at the moment. </p>
<p>Of course, I would argue there isn’t that much difference within the “top fifteen schools”…us news has to rearrange them every once in a while to keep people buying the thing. Is Yale less of a school when princeton gets ranked 1 instead? Is Chicago magically better for jumping over Brown? And then worse when Brown jumps it the next year? Seems unlikely. If the difference is b/w state school regional edition and “top twenty” private, that’s more significant, certainly. Within schools of similar quality of education though, go for fit, not number three over number 8 (or whatever) just because 3 is ranked higher.</p>
<p>I phrased my question as ‘best overall school’ since the email that prompted this general question phrased it this way. I have probably seen this directive more often phrased as 'the highest ranked ’ school, and more typically this means the biggest ranking svc out there, USNR. </p>
<p>As the above poster indicated, highest ranked does not fold in how well a student might fit into a school. Fit might include intangibles such as locale, student culture, proximity to home (if that happens to be important to the student), and strength of programs that the student might <em>likely</em> end up taking. I have already included $ fit in the question, (best college you can afford?).</p>
<p>Here’s a related question to consider: Should you always go to the best-fit college you can afford if there are cheaper options? How important is fit versus, let’s say, an extra 10-20k for summer study abroad or a paid-off car for your first job?</p>
<p>USNWR’s Rankings are the definitive source for undergraduate rankings. There are a lot of rankings out there, but few people use anything other than US News. </p>
<p>The question is usually how much can someone afford. I am in the camp of go to the best school you get into, in the geographic region you would like to live, that you can afford without taking out loans. So three parts
Highest ranked school
in the part of the country you want to live, now or future (either)
that you can afford without taking out loans</p>
<p>The last prong is what sends a lot of kids to state schools in middle or southern america, as they can’t afford to go to the prestigious private coastal schools. It is difficult, but I don’t think people should take out loans for UG. I think I am in the minority on this one though.</p>
Depends on what you mean. If you’re referencing fit as in “I could probably get into Georgetown but would never apply,” then yes, it could well be a bad idea to matriculate. If you’re referencing fit as Green99 did, in the context of choosing between schools to which one is admitted, I say fit is usually negligible as a factor because it should have been factored into the selection process. </p>
<p>My top choice in high school was Chicago, which unfortunately I was unable to afford due to its extremely stingy financial aid offer. Instead I chose Duke - in many ways Chicago’s exact opposite - and turned out perfectly well. Most students bloom well where they’re planted.</p>
<p>^If you were able to afford Chicago, you might have chosen it and also turned out perfectly well. But you still have to make a choice on some parameter. Which is the reasoning behind my prior question: let’s say that you are admitted to Chicago and Duke. After financial aid, you would pay 5k more per year at Chicago than at Duke. For “fit” reasons, you prefer Chicago. Should you go with fit or the extra 20k? Assume that both schools are *affordable without loans<a href=“or%20substitute%20your%20personal%20limit%20on%20borrowing”>/i</a>.</p>
<p>Fit was talked about above to be a pretty important consideration (perhaps even more important than ‘the highest ranked’, but I saw an article today that says fit is overrated.</p>
I personally believe that there are two kinds of fit. The first is subjective but can be measured by objective factors. For example, a student might hate cities. That student should not go to Pitt. Pitt is not a fit (ha!) for that student.</p>
<p>The second type is the completely subjective assessment of feelings or impressions. This is the one I think is bogus or at least overhyped. Visiting and feeling warm and fuzzy or falling in love with pictures on the school website or those kinds of things.</p>
<p>Seriously, I am trying to tease this out. Fit, Highest ranked, affordability. It is all clear as mud. You’d think affordability wd be pretty clear and objective and therefore helpful in making a decision, but Keli above made a a good point that affordability admits to degrees. 5k diff per yr = a new car when you graduate from that ‘higher ranked’ (or even ‘better fitting’) school.</p>
<p>In business, that word is NEVER used. Instead, the terms are Return on Investment, Return on Capital, Risk Adjusted Return, Opportunity Cost, concepts like that.</p>
<p>A better question would be: College A at $X, with Y cash freed up for investment, or Option B at $W, with Z cash freed up for investment, where cash can be negative (LOAN) or postive.</p>
<p>However, most of the time parents won’t give the student the saved cash but keep it themselves.</p>
<p>For example, if, inclusive of all merit and financial aid, a first preference private college will cost $130,000 total over four years, and a less preferred public flagship (or private college with a boatload of merit and/or financial aid) will cost $85,0000 for 4 years, but the parents will not put the $45,000 difference into the student’s bank account, then the discussion is over. The student takes their preferred choice since it doesn’t cost them anything, and they do not forego a cash gift. If however, the $45,000 savings for College B is given as a gift to use as the student sees fit, the discussion becomes much more interesting. College A with no money in the bank at graduation, or college B with $45,000 in the bank at graduation. Hmm…</p>
<p>“USNWR’s Rankings are the definitive source for undergraduate rankings. There are a lot of rankings out there, but few people use anything other than US News.”</p>
<p>Unless they are informed. Why anyone paying attention relies on magazine editors’ opinions is baffling. Schools think such one-size-fits-none rankings are to be ignored.</p>
<p>YAY, Vossron, & a magazine that is going down the toilet financially, why should we pay attention? Many other sources to look at: Princeton Review’s Best, Fiske Guide, Petersons’ books & website, Collegeboard books & website, Forbes & so on.</p>