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<p>Sufficient compensation and reasonable commuting distance sound like two very good “fit” characteristics. Seeking a “good” fit is pragmatic, seeking a “perfect” fit is probably unrealistic.</p>
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<p>Not that they shouldn’t if they have a choice, but the reality is that many people (including many of those graduating from university) have little choice in finding the perfect fit for a job. Also, the opaqueness of the job market means that even in better economics times, it is still risky to turn down a job offer in hopes of finding a better one that may never come.</p>
<p>There are many versions of job search.</p>
<ol>
<li> You have a job, you are looking for something better;</li>
<li> You have never had a job and are a fresh graduate looking to start a career;</li>
<li> You lost your job and are on unemployment;</li>
<li> You lost your job, ran out of unemployment benefits, and desperately seeking income;</li>
<li> You have a job that is part time and need a fulltime job or a second job to make up the difference;</li>
<li> You inherited a big chunk of money (hit the lottery?) and never need to work again.</li>
</ol>
<p>If one is part of 3, 4, or 5, making money is their biggest concern. People in group 1 can look for a fit, for people in group 2 it depends on whether they normally get barely an offer at the time of graduation or get 10 offers to choose from.</p>
<p>We found this blog particularly helpful to establish “fit” for both our son and daughter. It’s a college of the day sort of thing but not the usual mush or meaningless data. This week I guess it’s Vandy but it changes all the time. We usd it to decide on where to actually visit in person. The other stuff was helpful too. [College</a> of the Day! | uraccepted.com blog featuring news and commentary from Joe College](<a href=“http://uraccepted.■■■■■■■■■■■■■/college-of-the-day/]College”>College of the Day! | uraccepted.com blog featuring news and commentary from Joe College)</p>
<p>I never would have dreamed that my bohemian folk-music-loving son would “fit” at a huge state university best known for its killer football program. But he loves it at Univ of Alabama. He probably would have hated it at the teeny hippie “alternative” LAC I attended back in the day. Just goes to show…you never can tell.</p>
<p>I think the search for a good fit is probably overrated–kids are adaptable, and for most kids there are probably many schools that would provide a good fit.</p>
<p>On the other hand, I think that avoiding bad fit is pretty important, because I think that for most kids there are some colleges that would not be a good fit at all.</p>
<p>*
On the other hand, I think that avoiding bad fit is pretty important, because I think that for most kids there are some colleges that would not be a good fit at all. *</p>
<p>This is true, but I think it’s easier to avoid a “bad fit” than finding/affording a perfect fit. </p>
<p>Both of my kids would have hated some small school in the middle of nowhere. They tired of campus food quite quickly. lol They enjoy being able to wander occasionally to one of the many off-campus haunts or jog/bike along the bordering RiverWalk. </p>
<p>That said, some kids hate a school for unfounded reasons…and the reasons are more personal than anything related to the school.<br>
The student may be suffering from depression and wouldn’t do well anywhere at this time of life.<br>
Or the student may have had his heart set on Dream U, so any other school became “unacceptable” (which is why the whole 'dream school" issue should be discouraged by parents.)<br>
Or the student thinks that “everyone” is getting to go away to their first choice school except for him, so he feels like he got the booby prize.<br>
Or the student only had one safety (and not one that he really liked) so going there has been a huge let down (like having to take your cousin to a 4-year-long Prom after your BF/GF dumped you). </p>
<p>I think the search for a good fit is probably overrated–kids are adaptable, and for most kids there are probably many schools that would provide a good fit.</p>
<p>This is very true otherwise many kids wouldn’t be able to succeed at their local schools where most kids attend.</p>
<p>A couple of observations . . .</p>
<p>1- no such thing as perfect fit . … nor an “optimal” fit
2- but a good fit is an attainable goal, to the extent you know yourself
3- many adolescents do not know themselves well enough to go too deeply into hwta a good fit would look like
4- another way of asking “what would be a good fit” would be asking this: “in what kind of place do you think you’d thrive” . . . that leads into a discussion of preferences that end up defining fit that can yield some pretty sophisticated results. Example: agreeing with “I think I do better when I’m one of the smarter people in the room” or " I like to hang around with geniuses; I like my classes better when I feel challenged" can lead one to use SAT scores and GPAs to find schools that fit the preference
5- concentrating on what the elements of fit are can lead one to consider schools that aren’t one of your “usual suspects”
6- what Hunt said: avoiding places that would be anathema is much more important than finding the optimal fit </p>
<p>Just re-read Cat’s Cradle . … last time was in the 8th grade (a long time ago) . . . Vonnegut expresses a concept of fit with other humans called “sinooka” (the “tangling tendrils of one’s life”) . … maybe you get 83% with one person and 47% with another and 78% with a third . . the trick is NOT to look for the 100% match and not to worry so much about the minor difference between 83% and 78%, but to work with those with whom one has a fairly high connection and stay away from the lower numbers</p>
<p>i agree with kei-o-lei… i really dont think kids have been exposed to enough to really know what is a “fit”… they tend to react to the marketing literature, the one day tour, happy emails or personal attention during recruitment… my son loved the personalized postcards, scarf etc from one school, and suddenly that became his favorite 
You see all over these threads recommendations that a shy student would do better at a small school, then very next thread a shy student would do better at a big school, that a prestigous school helps for grad school or a job, next post says it doesnt make any difference. Personally i feel that the quality of the programs the kid is interested in may be the important factor combined with a childs ability to take advantage of whatever resources are at the school both academically and socially.</p>
<p>“Fit” was very important for my D1, and I think sensibly so. She had some very strong preferences: 1) small school with 2) outstanding, top-tier academics and 3) a strongly academic-oriented student culture, 4) especially strong in humanities (including Classics, something many small schools either don’t have or are not particularly strong in) and social sciences, 5) small classes, 6) easy opportunities for interaction with faculty, 7) campus social life not dominated by the Greek system (and preferably no Greek at all), 8) not a big alcohol/partying scene (Greek or non-Greek), 9) strong commitment to social justice on the part of at least a major segment of the student body, 10) excellent study abroad opportunities, 11) preferably in a major metropolitan area or at least with easy access to a major airport, 12) preferably in the Northeast where she had spent most of her childhood (though we now live in the Upper Midwest), and 13) ideally a beautiful, bucolic campus setting. I don’t think any one of those criteria is unreasonable, but taken together they ruled out well over 90% of the colleges in the nation for her. But this wasn’t a quixotic quest for an unattainable ideal, either. She settled on Haverford as her #1 choice; it easily met all criteria, and it has a distinctive, Quaker-inspired campus culture that she found uniquely appealing, although that was not one of her original criteria. But she had plenty of back-ups, with Wesleyan and Bryn Mawr vying for the #2 spot in her affections (and providing a range of degree-of-difficulty in admissions) and a list of another 8 or 9 colleges fitting most of her criteria, to which she would have applied had she not been accepted ED at Haverford. She wasn’t completely inflexible in her criteria: Brown made her expanded list even though a bit bigger than she preferred, as did Middlebury even though she wasn’t enamored of its remote location. She’s now in her second year at Haverford and she has not the least bit of buyer’s remorse; she reports it’s everything she was looking for in a college, and more. </p>
<p>I simply refuse to accept the blanket statements that 18-year-olds are too immature to know what they want, or that they’ll simply be suckered by the promotional literature; that may be true for some, but not for all. I also refuse to accept the idea that by having preferences and seeking them out you’re foreclosing opportunities for growth; my D1 is being challenged both academically and socially, meeting people from many different kinds of places, from different cultures and socioeconomic strata, with widely varying ideas and interests, yet she’s doing it at a place that is entirely within her comfort zone. No college is completely homogeneous in its student body composition or campus culture. </p>
<p>Could she have thrived elsewhere? Sure, she’d have excelled at a Midwestern LAC, or a medium-sized university in the Northeast, or a big public flagship just about anywhere. But that’s not the point. The point is, she had preferences, as we all do. I could live in a small town or in a lonely stretch of the countryside or in a suburb, but I prefer city life. I could do a lot of different jobs than the one I have now, which is what I chose to do because it’s what I love doing, and there’s nothing I’d rather be doing. I could live with someone other than my dear wife, but she’s the one I chose, and I’m happy with that choice; I wouldn’t trade her for anyone in the world. Sure, not everyone has the luxury of those choices, but if you do have choices, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with making them. And I think a thoughtful, sensitive, self-aware 18-year-old is capable of approaching those choices maturely and intelligently in selecting a college. Mine was. For her, fit mattered. A lot.</p>
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<p>If the kids do not really know, is there someone who knows better? Does this mean that everyone should simply buy a lottery ticket or look no further than the local school that everyone seems to know? </p>
<p>While there are no guarantees that the “fit” choice was the best one, I believe that most students ARE able to form a solid opinion on their college destination. For some the CHOICE might indeed be the big school where one can spend a fabulous half a decade --or more-- enjoying the supposedly unending selection of courses and multiple cafeterias. For others, as Clinton’s account demonstrate, it might be the result of a sound analysis and introspection.</p>
<p>Your points would be better without the mindless editorials.</p>
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<p>Thinking about such details also yields better essay results for the inevitable “Why Yale?” or “Why Northwestern?” questions that many top colleges ask. It seems they, too, consider fit when making an acceptance decision.</p>
<p>@bclintonk</p>
<p>Wow. My S developed his own set of eight criteria and it is remarkably similar to those you have described for your D1. It goes on. Like your D1 he selected and is attending Haverford (as a freshman). I guess it won’t come as much of a surprise that I agree with all of your other points as well.</p>
<p>maybe i wasnt concise or clear bclintock… i wasnt saying that was for everyone…just how i experienced it with my S2… if you look on some threads it is often common to see that kids liked the last college they visited best. When my son was choosing colleges, he had a wide variety…research, LAC, big schools, little schools, private, public but his primary reason for applying was the strength of the programs he was interested in… when i would go over things like size, or greek, he didnt seem to care… i will admit an honors college and research opportunities were very important to him though ., to him the most important thing was the program, he personally felt he could make any college work as long as he felt the academics in his program were strong. But he is the kind of kid you could plunk in the middle of a field and he would find a way to make it work. (he had to throw a kink in there at the end but thats another story ) Other kids, like yours had excellent criteria for their choices too…just a different method. As we all know each kid is so different.</p>
<p>Often the K-12 schools you are referring to are in exclusive suburbs or in draw areas with high income levels and such schools have very high standards that are being “paid for” by parents in the form of tax dollars!</p>
<p>1) A lot of people don’t go to college.
2) A lot of people don’t care which college they go to.</p>
<p>As for the rest of us, college isn’t made to model the real world. Why should it? That’s why it’s college. The fact that such a large part of the population doesn’t go to college alone makes that impossible.</p>
<p>It comes from quite a privileged (and limited) perspective to say that “Any kid can fit on any campus if they can academically cut it and can afford it.” No, actually, that Guatemalan girl wouldn’t develop as much as she can if she chose to go to a predominantly white school in Arizona where she had to prove she’s not an illegal immigrant constantly. That atheist gay guy’s intellectual growth would be hindered at a Catholic school that invalidates his experiences and where other students ostracize him. That really smart girl with social anxiety disorder would suffer constant breakdowns at Harvard due not to the rigorous academics but to the cut-throat environment. I could go on forever.</p>
<p>Some students can fit at a wide range of colleges. Others can’t.</p>