<p>My kid chose the moslt selective and difficult school on his list, and I had doubts he could hack it. I was right, but he learned so much from stumbling and is completely on track starting grad school in Sept. It’s impossible to know their paths. Some have twists and turns. Some don’t. I fel for you because you are letting go of your own dream for her. It’s hard.</p>
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<p>Our stories are very similiar! We live in south Texas and our son turned down UT Austin to attend Northeastern. He’s attending on the National Merit scholarship as well. Northeastern is a great school (of course, so are Rice and Vandy) and Boston is a fantastic college city. </p>
<p>It’s been two years now and I can say with confidence that he made the right choice. Some kids just need to get away from where they grew up and try a new landscape. Only you can decide if you feel that is a valid reason for your child but it was for mine. </p>
<p>I wish you and your daughter the very best of luck. Go, Huskies!</p>
<p>We were very unhappy with S1’s choice. We thought he should be more local and the state school he chose was 5 hours away. He knew nothing about it other than it had his major. The appeal for him was “It gets me away from YOU!”. </p>
<p>I’m embarrassed to say it but we offered to PAY him to stay home and go to a local cc instead. That’s how much we disagreed with his choice. He declined. </p>
<p>He loves it there, has matured beautifully, and has stunned us with his academic and personal success. He was right.</p>
<p>Great stories, parents. I understand the meltdowns, the bribes, the hesitancy to let them go, etc., and it’s comforting to read that many of us face these situations at various points. One of my colleagues at work has a daughter who is my son’s age, so we became the support team for each other when we knew we were getting too intrusive with our children throughout this year. Up until only about 2 weeks ago, my son would not get serious about making his decision and then there just was this tipping point and he gained clarity. Not certain just what did it, but suddenly he was actually engaging with me in convos regarding FA, the relative merits of one university versus another, and in the end, when he said, “Here’s my choice and here’s why,” it was the most mature and thoughtful thing I’ve heard issue from him mouth just about ever. Sigh of relief until today, when in the mail, arrived an announcement for Princeton Review SAT Prep Courses and I realized I’ve a sophomore and am far from out of the woods yet!</p>
<p>Both of my kids attend college in the Northeast from the deep South. Has she considered the weather? In addition to the cold, it can be dreary for long periods of time. S was never great with change and has not adapted as well as D. She’s in Boston and loves it. Both say they won’t choose to settle in the NE because of the weather and son is adamant that anyone who willingly lives north of Atlanta is just crazy.</p>
<p>I’m sorry this is so difficult for you right now. It sounds like she worked really hard to earn these options in front of her. I think she did chose right for her major interest, and you will see that after freshman year you may not see her that much regardless of what state she is located. Northeastern has a great reputation for her major, and if she goes the engineering route, NEU is extremely well connected to many internships that could be in Boston or other cities. As a female, she will find other science oriented females at Northeastern like herself, and that may be a huge draw. </p>
<p>What I can suggest for you is that you continue to support her decision; start looking now for ways that you can fill the gap for when she leaves. If you don’t already feel comfortable with Skype or Facetime or other video phone technology, now is the time to learn so you can communicate better with her when she does want to talk from far away.</p>
<p>One of my D’s friends (EE major) chose NEU, good financial pkg. A bit of adjustment to the East Coast Boston culture initially, but has made alot of friends and doing well. The co-op/internships are a plus to getting students exposed to practical work experience.</p>
<p>Thanks for your advice and suggestions. </p>
<p>At this point, she’s in love with Northeastern. She wants out of the South, in a vibrant city that has lots of cultural diversity. She wants to travel the world and thinks this is her highway to do this. I don’t agree but have to respect her decision.</p>
<p>To answer some questions, we are in DFW not in Rice’s backyard and definitely not in a rural area. We’ve visited all the schools. She is incredibly mature, responsible and trustworthy. Is she decisive—NO! She hopes that co-ops will give her real world experience and help her select what she truly wants to do. We’ve visited all the schools but not for an extended time. She should be able to shine at Northeastern- honors housing, NM scholarship & study abroad stipend. </p>
<p>I’m accepting her decision and have several of your posts on my mirror to remind me every morning. Thank you!</p>
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<p>Congratulations! You have raised a fabulous daughter whose confidence has given her the strength to take a risk and choose the road less travelled.</p>
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<p>That’s true only for certain professional grad schools like law and med. </p>
<p>For academic grad programs, the name of the school and the perceived strengths of the department would weigh more. </p>
<p>If the former, going to NEU won’t make too much of a difference.</p>
<p>If the latter…unless she stays in Engineering, she’s going to need to really max out her undergrad GPA, pursue excellent undergrad research and excel, and get killer Professorial recommendations…and even then, it isn’t guaranteed.</p>
<p>I’m sure she will excel at Northeastern, but I can not imagine a rational person choosing Northeastern over Rice or Vanderbilt. Those are my two favorite schools in the whole world. I guess you just have to trust her to know what she wants and needs.</p>
<p>Northeastern is a fine school. Boston is an awesome college town! I totally understand…your kid is going to LIVE there for four years and needs to like the location. College is a great time to go to a different part of the country. Congratulations to your daughter…hope she loves Boston as much as one of my kids did!</p>
<p>It’s all about fit. I am sure your daughter is not only a “rational person” but also someone confident enough to know what she wants. It’s not always about the name on the rear window of the minivan. (That’s an issue for the parents, not the kids.:)</p>
<p>Apart from the colleges themselves, if I had to choose one of those three cities to live in it would be no contest–Boston is amazing, especially for young people. Good luck to her.</p>
<p>You’ll have to give us an update sometime next fall! Rice and Vanderbilt are both more prestigious than Northeastern for sure, but I think your daughter is being rather brave in taking the less obvious choice because it speaks to her. I bet she will love it and will grow tremendously from this experience!
I’m from the Boston area, and everyone I know who went to B.U. or Northeastern LOVED being in the heart of the city. Your daughter can literally walk across the street into great museums (The Museum of Fine Arts and the Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum), and she is a mere five (maybe 10) minute walk from historic Fenway Park or Symphony Hall. The streetcar (Green Line) stops right at her door, so she can access everything else in a few minutes. Her nieghborhood includes many other colleges such as Wentworth Institute of Technology, Mass. College of Art and Design, Harvard Medical School, Simmons C., Emmanuel C., Wheelock C., etc. so there are TONS of students and businesses that cater to them such as stores and restaurants.
Good luck and keep us posted!</p>
<p>Buy stock in Ugg boots. 
Seriously, has she considered the Boston winters? We’re also in Texas and have friends who relocated to Boston a few years ago. They still hate the winters there.</p>
<p>There are all kinds of southerners at every northern school. I went from Miami to Chicago for college, and my freshman year at Northwestern there were many days where the temperature was 80 below zero with the wind chill off Lake Michigan. My dorm was at one end of campus and most of my classes at the other. Did I love it? No. But I bought the right outerwear and sucked it up like everyone else. We were all in it together. And it was totally worth it to have a great experience in a new city. Plus there is nothing like the first nice day in early spring, when everyone is outside playing frisbee and wearing shorts even if it’s only 50 degrees out.</p>
<p>*For academic grad programs, the name of the school and the perceived strengths of the department would weigh more. *</p>
<p>I wouldn’t say that’s true. The classmates of my son in his PhD program are from a variety of schools…top privates, flagships (including son), and lesser known privates/publics…heck, there is even a kid from a low-level directional public. My son, who went to a mid-tier flagship, got accepted to every PhD program he applied to…all fully funded. </p>
<p>Grad school acceptance is largely driven by courses taken, GPA, GRE scores, LORs, research done, ECs, etc.</p>
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<p>Yes, students from lower-tiered schools get accepted into topflight PhD programs do exist and GPA and GRE scores do matter. </p>
<p>However, from what I’ve heard from elite university Profs who do make decisions on candidates, the weighing from most to least important are:</p>
<ol>
<li>Passion for the field/LORs</li>
<li>Research accomplished/research potential & whether your research interests match those of at least one department faculty member.<br></li>
<li>Undergrad school name & perceived strength of department</li>
<li>GPA/GRE</li>
<li>ECs? Only if they’re directly/closely related to the academic field one hopes to get their PhD in. If anything, having too many non-relevant ECs may actually hurt one’s candidacy due to concerns the candidate lacks focus and “isn’t seriously committed” to the field.<br></li>
</ol>
<p>The above are reasons why there are cases where students who have plenty of the first 3, but were marginal/weak on #4 were accepted to topflight PhD programs whereas students with high GPAs/GREs with the lack of the first 3 were more likely to be rejected.</p>
<p>^^^I would love to see real data on this because I bet it shakes out that GPA and GRE scores outweigh undergrad school name in the aggregate. Your anecdotal experience, cobrat, is interesting as far as it goes but does not add up to a formula for how graduate admissions works across the board.</p>
<p>If your COA is comparable, giving up two top 20 schools to attend one in 60s is not a common choice. It usually comes down to a difficult financial decision. </p>
<p>Your D’s decision is understandable if it is based on why NEU is a great school for her rather than getting out of Dodge and assuming Boston is the place to go to. An example would be that there is a specific department with this professor(s?) that is so great with unbelievable research opportunities that it trumps anything Rice or Vanderbilt have to offer.</p>