<p>Interesting editorial. I’m sure some students expect to find perfection when they visit or evaluate schools. As with most things in life, perfection is elusive and every choice has tradeoffs.</p>
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<p>Of course, given the choice between a “quest for fit” and “highest ranked,” I’d opt for the former!</p>
<p>Since most kids go to the local public K-12, I’ve often wonder why some of the same kids/parents anquish so much about fit for college, when fit was not a K-12 concern at all.</p>
<p>Fit is important, but many students will fit a large range of possible schools. I.e. many students won’t be too picky as long as the school is not completely inappropriate for them (e.g. does not have the courses/major(s) they are interested in).</p>
<p>Probably very few students will have such exacting requirements that they will only fit a small number of schools.</p>
<p>Reality is a college education is expensive. Most families from the public K-12 would rather spend their money for their children’s college education, especially in an economic recession. Also, depending on where they live, it’d be hard for parents to send their kids to a different school outside of their local district area unless they can prove that they live there, even if another public school maybe a better choice unless they go private.</p>
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<p>If that young person was me when I was looking at colleges, that environment would be the exact opposite of my ideal college environment. </p>
<p>In my view, college/university is a place to broaden one’s intellectual horizons and be challenged by those different from myself. If everyone had the same worldview/interests as myself at a given college…that would be a nightmare scenario…not an ideal place. What’s the challenge and point of that?</p>
<p>momto2collegekids, not everyone can afford private schools, so there isn’t always a choice. However, I tranfered two of our kids to another public elementary school (since K and drove them everyday for 6 yrs. since they couldn’t be bused outside of their neighborhood school), then we sold our house and moved to a better middle school district when oldest was heading to 6th grade. Our second got into a public magnet school (lottery) when she entered 6th grade and that school goes through 12th. So yes, we are concerned from K, whether public or private school parent.</p>
<p>For me, fit isn’t so much urban vs. rural, since there are so many on-campus activities. Fit is more of a personal thing – it’s looking at the type of students that go to a school and seeing if I fit in with them. If I love football and the majority of the school couldn’t care less and doesn’t even have a reputable sports team, it might get a bit boring. Likewise, if I’m interested in partying and all my peers care about are their grades, that may be an issue. There are nice kids and good professors everywhere; same goes for the opposite. Colleges, like people, have personalities. Think of it as finding a friend for the next four years: you’d better find one you like.</p>
<p>I’m constantly astounded at the prospective students on CC who are seeking fit. The premise of college is that one is going to learn new perspectives, to grow, and to have an opportunity to engage productive change. Toward that end, they all seem to declare at age 17 “I’m like this, I’m not like that. I like this type of people but not those. I want my education to be limited to one end or the other of the political spectrum. I believe in an open-minded quest for truth, but only so far as it doesn’t impinge on my commitment to predetermined religious doctrines. I prefer friends who wear polos rather than t-shirts, etc., etc.” If you’ve so tightly defined at 17 who and what you are and will always be, then much of your investment in a college experience is going to be squandered.</p>
<p>* not everyone can afford private schools, so there isn’t always a choice.*</p>
<p>Exactly!! Which is why in many cases families expect their kids to just “deal” with whatever their local public offers and make the best of it…which most do. Yet, when it comes to college, some will fret with worry that they need to find the perfect fit…even if it means considerable debt. That seems odd to me. </p>
<p>*many students will fit a large range of possible schools. I.e. many students won’t be too picky as long as the school is not completely inappropriate for them (e.g. does not have the courses/major(s) they are interested in).</p>
<p>Probably very few students will have such exacting requirements that they will only fit a small number of schools. *</p>
<p>Exactly!!!</p>
<p>Fit is very much important. I think the K-12 comparison is irrelevant because finding the right “fit” for that would mean everybody getting up and moving around to another school district. Not that feasible. </p>
<p>Whereas one’s college search can take them down the street or across the country. There’s much more flexibility.</p>
<p>I can speak from personal experience that being in a school that is a bad fit is a recipe for disaster. A lot of people hated high school because they had no say in where they went, they just kinda ended up there based on their ZIP code or their parent’s whims. One of the reasons I wanted to go to college was to finally get away from the ******** horrible environment of my high school, and I’m damn glad I found a place where I feel (mostly) comfortable.</p>
<p>I notice that the author is a private school counselor. In reality, most public school kids are happily signing up for State U.-- which claims to fit just about everybody.</p>
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<p>Most students will find that there is a very large number of good fit schools for them; only the pickiest or those with the most unusual academic needs will find the selection of good fit schools to be limiting.</p>
<p>Given the large numbers of students who attend the local state university (or the local community college followed by transfer to the local state university), a lot of students do not find their fit needs to be very constraining in the selection of schools.</p>
<p>“College Fit” means a lot of things to a lot of different people. Whether it’s a public or a private college, most people will still have to pay some sort of fees to attend except for those who get a full-ride. Therefore, depending on what they can afford. When people are looking for fit, they are looking for all aspects of fit, not just one ingredient, but other ingredients as well. Those who are concerned about costs, they wouldn’t want to pay extra OOS fee to attend an OOS school. Then, there are those who can’t afford on campus housing so they prefer to stay closer to home. Others may have different reasons, such as environment, or climate, or class sizes, etc. The larger the campus, or the farther distance it takes to reach the classes, then transportation will be involved, which means parking fees and gas money will be needed. So fitting is very important. Keep in mind that going to college is a lot different than going to K-12 because attending a college, only the student would move to the school, not involving the entire family. However, K-12 is different, since public K-12 is free to attend, people don’t really have a whole lot of choices, they just have to deal with it or the entire family would have to relocate or pay to go private.</p>
<p>Regarding public schools, some parents are also in professions where they are required to live in a certain area or it is important to be within X miles / X minutes of their employer.</p>
<p>“Fit” means just that - your child “fits” on that campus. We insisted that our kids only apply to schools that “fit” them. Why waste your time on schools where you wouldn’t feel comfortable? </p>
<p>I think fit is one of the most important things one should consider. My daughter, who is a sophomore at the school that “fit” her best, has quite a few friends from high school who transferred from their colleges after their freshman years. The schools were “too small”, “too conservative”, “too big” etc… well, they were that way when they visited them too. “Fit” wasn’t a consideration - reputation was, location was - but not fit.</p>
<p>One could “fit” in several different environments. Fit doesn’t imply exclusivity.</p>
<p>Fit was very important for my D. It’s not that she wanted everybody to be just like her (in fact on paper her college would be a very bad fit for her) but she did prefer certain tangibles/intangibles which helped narrow down the schools in which she was interested. In fact, fit was so important that almost every school we visited ended up being dropped off her list. Of course that is another thread- <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/705291-stupidest-reason-child-wont-look-college.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/705291-stupidest-reason-child-wont-look-college.html</a> or <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/790906-colleges-you-child-crossed-off-list-after-visiting.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/790906-colleges-you-child-crossed-off-list-after-visiting.html</a></p>
<p>Great article, thanks for the link!</p>