This is not always the case if a given directional public or lower-tiered private university practices open admissions to the point they are admitting a large number of remedial students who haven’t mastered HS* or in some cases, even elementary school material**.
An ex-GF of a friend was on her way to failing for the third time a 9th grade level Algebra course she was taking in a 4-year NE public U to fulfill the math requirement for her Elementary Ed major. I was called in to tutor her despite her woeful underpreparation due mostly to her not taking academics seriously enough to put in the requisite effort during her HS years up to that point. It was a miracle I was able to help her to the point she could get close enough to engage the pity of the math instructor to pass her by the skin of her teeth. I'm still stunned a 4-year undergraduate program meant to prepare future elementary school teachers would allow their students to get away with taking HS level math to fulfill one of their core academic requirements.
** Some of the remedial students at a friend’s Boston area U in the top 70 were struggling with math courses covering multiplying and dividing fractions.
You are making a lot of assumptions here. Just look at towns like Millburn, NJ - 95+% students go on to higher education. You can’t tell me every student at that high school is college material. I would say many wealthy towns in the NE have 70+% students go on to college. Number of students go to college has nothing to do with ability, but has everything to do with wealth. As long as you are willing to pay, there is a school out there for you.
If academic ability and motivation is so much narrower in college then why do so many public schools offer honors? Why not just offer same courses to everyone.
Well, this thread just proves to me that when someone doesn’t do what they themselves would do in the same circumstances, people question that someone’s sanity. Why not just have the grace to assume that the people making the decision you don’t agree with are rational adults?
We pulled our kids out of a “top” school, moved to another “top” school district, and put our kids in a small private school with a less stellar reputation. And we paid a lot of money, both for the house, and the private school. People openly questioned our decision to do this. We declined to answer, but both of our kids were better off because of this decision.
“Number of students go to college has nothing to do with ability, but has everything to do with wealth. As long as you are willing to pay, there is a school out there for you.”
And this family apparently did not have unlimited wealth with which to support their child’s decision. You and I are very lucky. We were able to let our kids pick without cost constraints.
Rockstar, schmockstar The top two “Rockstars” in my graduating upper middle class suburban HS never even ended up graduating from college. One precisely because he couldn’t handle playing in a band full of “frontmen”. I was the exact middle of my 700 student class attended a respectable university and went on to earn a grad degree. Just because you are a rockstar in HS doesn’t necessarily make you a rockstar forever. I am tired of the assumption that the top 10 percent somehow inherently deserve a higher level of education and than those middle kids should just move over and let them have at it. Wishful thinking that maybe she just recognized that she doesn’t want to be the frontman and she moved over to let the back up singer have a shot.
What does it mean to "commit’ at this stage? it’s only Dec. 1. Maybe other acceptances will come in. Or maybe the student is happy with her choice. Many directionals offer pre-professional programs that LACs and research-oriented flagships don’t, and maybe she chose her school for that reason.
That said, I don’t think it’s odd to wonder when a truly excellent student picks an option that is not popular with other excellent students. But there are many considerations. I know a local family, successful small business owners, whose son went OOS for big bucks to Berkeley and whose daughter (equally smart and talented) went to a local private where she got huge merit aid and is at the very top of the class. This family is also of an ethnicity/cultural tradition where girls are not as encouraged as boys to pursue higher ed. The girl lives at home while the boy was allowed to go away. That is not what we would do, but there are families that do not share our values.
With all due respect, p-girl, with 33k posts, you (and I guess I) don’t even rate a whole numeral. “1”% is way too generous - more like the tail of the tail: 0.00000001%.
Apparently about 42% of high schoolers go to 4-year colleges. There is a tremendous attrition rate for both 4- and 2-year colleges. College completion still hovers around 30-35% of all adults.
I bet there were also people at my kids’ hs who “didn’t understand” why one of my kids went 1000 miles away because isn’t everything you’d ever want here in the Midwest? And what if she stayed there - the world would implode! (She didn’t, but that was her choice.) Oh well. They’re not owed any explanation.
I apologize if this point has already been brought up, I didn’t read through the entire thread! I just wanted to point out that maybe part of the motivation for this girl not go to the state flagship was because her brother goes/went there? Perhaps she wants to have a different experience that he did, or she wants to go off to a new university, rather than one she’s already seen before and be alone, rather than near with her brother?
I know I wouldn’t care if I went to the same school my sibling did, but I had friends who never wanted to go to the same school as their siblings. Perhaps she is one of those people.
My kids attend schools that are 2000 miles apart. Just close enough for them.
I went to one high school like Pizzagirl’s children did, with a community who didn’t understand why anyone couldn’t find a perfectly good school in the state. There are a few private schools, many public, big, small, big sports, no sports, Catholic - it’s all there, so why go elsewhere? In a typical graduating class of 500, about 1/2 went to college, and of those, about 1/2 went to the directional university in our town, and the rest went to the other state universities and the flagship. I think about 5 from my class went OOS, including 2 athletes. In my sister’s class, one went to Harvard, one MIT and my sister to Middlebury. These 3 were considered odd, brainiacs, and my sister did end up at the flagship after her first year. A guy I worked with years later (he was probably 15 years older than me) went to the in town directional for 2 years, then to MIT, then to Harvard law. No one said to him he was ‘too smart’ to go to the directional, but he was one of the smartest guys I ever met.
A girl I would consider the Rock Star of my daughter’s class made a choice I just didn’t understand, UCF. She won a lot of little scholarships for civics, band, art, NHS, and merit scholarships from several schools. Knowing this girl, I just didn’t get the choice. She would have been a great ‘big fish in a little pond.’ Know what? She’s a great tiny fish in a huge pond. She’s been the lead in several musicals, has a ton of friends, is close enough for her parents to visit often but too far to live at home,
OP’s friend of a friend may have always dreamed of this school. Maybe a favorite aunt went there, or a teacher suggested it.
Everyone has a right to their opinion, and if the OP was shocked that’s okay. When you see a kid work so hard you imagine great things for them. Maybe this girl is going where she wants to go or maybe she is getting jipped. We will never know.
The comment about Northeastern/Northwestern was hilarious.
What is the state in question, by the way?
If it’s Calif, then the whole prestige discussion is null.
If it’s Texas, and the student is considering UT Dallas, then the prestige is also negligible.
If it’s Pennsylvania, Illinois, or any state whose flagships costs well over $30k/year, that is also perfectly understandable as well.
This student will most likely be fine wherever she goes.
You may want to avoid using the last word, since its origin is that of an ethnic insult (against an ethnic group more common and well known in Europe than in the US).
I had no idea that “jipped” had a negative connontation. I had been hearing that word since childhood. Sorry if I offended anyone. Now, I’m going to go google it.
@Hunt I believe the third paragraph would have been better if I had said it. As someone who grew up in a wealthy NJ suburb just 25 miles outside of NYC, I would have been bewildered if any of the all-star students that I knew had chosen Kean University or New Jersey City University or Rider University.
As someone who lives in a wealthy suburban area about 25 miles outside of DC, I know several all- star students who chose James Madison, Mary Washington, Geaorge Mason. Not bewildered at all.
I guess that’s why many people around here (in IL) don’t think it’s academic suicide to go to a directional - UIUC is fairly selective and it has the more expensive price tag, even for in-state, to go with it. So we already understand why many bright kids choose the directionals instead of the flagship.
It is around 16k just for tuition and fees for UIUC’s LAS. It’s about 4k more for STEM programs, I believe.
Or a student could just go to Northern, Western, or one of the Southern IL campuses, and tuition/fees is about 4k cheaper. For some families, that is a significant difference.
AND - high-stats kids get very lucrative scholarships at the IL regionals.
Earlier, I mentioned my D’s friend who went to SIU-Edwardsville. She had very good grades and test scores. I’m sure she was admitted to many schools, and I also know, from speaking with her parents, that SIU-E was a safety and not her first or even second choice. But in the end, it’s about getting the same degree for less money.
Many kids in IL also go OOS to Midwest Student Exchange Program schools, and almost all of those are regional/directional publics. And they are ALL cheaper than in-state tuition at UIUC.
