<p>H.S. students don’t randomly choose a college. I think most consider finances, location, intended major and something about the college itself and the student body. Most everyone going to college will be living away from home for the first time in their lives so there is also the element of adapting/making new friends…etc. as mentioned above.</p>
<p>Could someone please show me how to create a thread? Im new to the website…please??? thank you</p>
<p>To the college seniors out there: Financial aid will play more of a role in your decision for you and your friends than you might think. If Yale’s your first choice but Columbia wins up being $20,000 a year cheaper, then you’re going to choose Columbia.</p>
<p>^Assuming you can get into either one at 7-8% acceptance rate.</p>
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<p>I have to agree. And sometimes the parts that make a good fit are self-contradictory: a small LAC offers a more-nurturing environment, while the larger school offers a broader range of classes in one’s intended major. For a kid who wants a smaller, more nurturing environment AND a wide selection of classes, two very different schools can offer different fits.</p>
<p>In today’s ultra-competitive environment, it doesn’t make sense to fall in love with a single elite college. It’s better to consider “fit” as a combination of attractive attributes and to choose the best package of these attributes available from the schools you have already decided to choose you.</p>
<p>This article has way more to do with the fallacy of guidance counselors - the golden ideal they present as the unattainable Quixotic goal is not the right choice for a great number of people. As the author states it’s “simultaneously one-size-fits-all and highly customized”. This does NOT mean that fit is unimportant…just that students need to really examine what they actually want. Knowing one’s self, avoiding the marketing ploys (particularly the one about small class size), and having parents who will support and facilitate that decision making process are far more important than finding some unique school that is unlike any other.</p>
<p>Bigredmed - “avoiding the marketing ploys (particularly the one about small class size)”</p>
<p>Gee, from my own experiences I always found smaller classes to be beneficial. If a college has a low student/faculty ratio (and the faculty isn’t involved in either research of the work of graduate students - a typical situation at many LACs), what is the ploy?</p>
<p>I think Moody was just looking for a clever way to use whole Impossible Dream/Don Quixote idea, and should have chosen a topic that was a better fit.</p>
<p>As adults, when we seek jobs, we look for fit – is this a corporate culture that resonates with us? I don’t think it’s unreasonable for an 18 yo to seek it. The only issue is if said 18 yo thinks it can only be had at one or two schools instead of a range.</p>
<p>I too think “fit” is important. But I actually believe it means different things to different people. Underneath the term fit are probably a series of specific wants or desires that vary from person to person. When I visited colleges with my S he would often form a quick opinion and it could have been positive or negative. S would say the school “just didn’t feel right” or the opposite. Over time, we worked together to define some of his components of fit such as size of the school, location of the school, characteristics of the surrounding area, perception of competitiveness versus cooperation, available sports and activities, etc. These things were separate from overall level of excellence, availablity of specific majors, and other more traditional things we could determine from a website. For him, the combination of these other components was simply fit.</p>
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<p>An apparently low student/faculty ratio does not necessarily mean that students will be able to avoid large classes. Also, if average class size is taken by averaging over all of the classes, instead of weighting it by the class size (since the latter is more reflective of the probability of the student getting a small or large class), then the average class size may be deceptively small.</p>
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<p>Student/faculty ratios are averages that hide huge differences in class size. The tiny senior seminar is averaged in with the huge first-year lecture survey. So it’s hard to tell what kind of experience an individual student would be having based on the ratio alone. If you don’t want your freshman in huge lecture sections, you have to dig deeper than the student/faculty ratio the college puts out.</p>
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<p>A lot of adults today will be happy to take any job with sufficient compensation and within reasonable commuting distance.</p>
<p>Fit in college choice certainly is important…but just like the wardrobe in your closet, a lot of colleges (outfits) can fit just fine…you just need to decide which one to choose. </p>
<p>When you think about it, most people have general style that defines them, but it’s the other pieces in their wardrobe that set them apart. Colleges are sort of the same way…someone might be a big, rah-rah state campus type of person, and just about any one of them would be ok…but it’s the individual quirks of an individual campus that give it its own vibe, like the personal accents to an outfit.</p>
<p>It’s what differentiates the serviceable from the superb.</p>
<p>Fit is the quintessential college search question/issue. What is “fit?” Its highly subjective. Its not one size fits all. Its what fits for YOU, based on many factors, including financial considerations. And for that matter, its not one fit factor for all your college choices. It has many shades of gray so to speak…</p>
<p>bottom line:</p>
<p>Plan A
Plan B
Plan C, </p>
<p>etc. </p>
<p>Picking on the basis of prestige and ranking is not inherently wrong…its only a mistake if its the ONLY factor you examine/select. It is one factor among many.</p>
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<p>Are you trying to say that because many people cannot afford to hold out for a job they really like, those who can shouldn’t?</p>
<p>An apparently low student/faculty ratio does not necessarily mean that students will be able to avoid large classes.</p>
<p>Very true. and, there often is a wrong assumption that small schools only have small classes. At many small schools, Intro lecture, Gen Ed, Bio, Chem, etc, can be large. </p>
<p>For many schools (large and small), the classes shrink drastically once you’re beyond those intro classes and into upper division classes. </p>
<p>My grad school son is taking an undergrad class for fun at his private univ (a top 20 school). The class has so many students that for the first week, about 25-30 students had to sit on the floor until a larger lecture hall was provided. I was shocked that this class had so many students in it. </p>
<p>I’m sure many of these kids and their families thought their classes would be 20-25 kids in them. Ha!</p>
<p>*Originally Posted by Pizzagirl
As adults, when we seek jobs, we look for fit – is this a corporate culture that resonates with us? </p>
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<p>UCB response: A lot of adults today will be happy to take any job with sufficient compensation and within reasonable commuting distance. *</p>
<p>When the economy is strong and jobs are plentiful in our fields, then choice is an option. When people are out of work and/or the pickins’ are slim, many have to take what they can otherwise the family goes without food or shelter. </p>
<p>It’s nice to have options and seek a perfect fit, but they’re sometimes a luxury.</p>
<p>^ A corollary to economy being strong - the parents feel more comfortable in signing up for those big loans or payments if they feel the need to accommodate a more expensive FIT for their kid.</p>
<p>True…</p>
<p>But we also see lowish income folks naively signing Parent Plus loans because they’re easy to get and they think their kids will be able to help pay them off once they get their “big jobs.”</p>