@mrs806 like I said, cognitive dissonance. I should have known better than to ask here.
https://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/2018
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/2018/world-ranking#survey-answer
I never said that UCONN wasn’t a good school, my daughter applied right? But clearly, on paper, Michigan is a better university notwithstanding personal preferences and individual experiences. This wasn’t supposed to be about parents justifying their own personal choices. It was merely a question about a comparison between honors in a safety school vis-a-vis regular program in a more prestigious university.
“This wasn’t supposed to be about parents justifying their own personal choices.”
Good to know (slapping my forehead as I write this)
Like I said earlier in the thread, byeretirement’s D will do just fine wherever she lands. Getting beyond the psychobabble and the endless lists that rank colleges/universities, I encourage everyone to take a look at a book like Frank Bruni’s Where You Go Is Not Who You’ll Be - https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2015/03/16/forget-harvard-and-stanford-it-really-doesnt-matter-where-you-go-to-college/?utm_term=.fff1c572ee41. Also, check out -http://www.businessinsider.com/where-you-go-to-college-doesnt-matter-2017-5
I read that a while ago, excellent book recommendation.
the irony here is that I wish my D would at least consider UCONN. I do believe it could be a wonderful option for her and am uneasy about how she apparently dismissed it with prejudice (as she did with similar offer from Miami). This is why I was seeking facts about the STEM honors program.
Another irony not lost on me is that Frank Bruni, a wonderful journalist whom I follow on a regular basis via my NY Times subscription, got his journalism degree at the best journalism school on the planet, Columbia University. To continue with the ironic theme, I was in graduate school there at the same time as him.
The kids I’ve seen or heard about having poor experiences in college are a tiny minority. We are all adaptive in nature and we make the best of any situation we are in. I agree that one shouldn’t get hung up about names, but try telling that to a kid who worked hard, really hard, for 4 years. They’re kids and still immature, and no matter the level of parenting we provide it’s not abnormal for them to seek validation and reward in a brand. But beyond that, some schools are just significantly better and it’s easy to understand why when one has $9 billion in endowment and another $421 million, right? Especially when it comes to research opportunities, that disparity matters.
In my professional life, I have hired a significant amount of people. I have never given weight to the university they attended I have used other factors to guide me in the hiring process. Once hired, the candidates that are always the most successful are the ones who work hard, not the ones who may feel they are owed the job because of their pedigree.
Anyway, whatever, I had both my kids apply to UCONN because I liked the campus and the distance. Both feel they had better options and it’s not like our teens are going to listen to us.I know she would have thrived at UCONN bit that was never the point of my initial question.
Bruni went to UNC many years ago (back when it was almost insulting for a Connecticut prep school brat to do such a thing…) for his undergraduate degree.
“But beyond that, some schools are just significantly better and it’s easy to understand why when one has $9 billion in endowment and another $421 million, right? Especially when it comes to research opportunities, that disparity matters.”
Broadlly speaking research opportunities for undergraduates tend to be inversely proportional to what you are citing. As an example LACs tend to set the gold standard in undergraduate education and hit well above their weight in eventual advanced degree STEM output even though their research budget is insignificant. For obvious and numerous reasons the uber expensive labs in humongous research universities tend to be off limits to undergraduates…
@byeretirement I was a little put down by your earlier response so I held back on giving my opinion on your particular situation. If it was my kid and my money I would be more inclined towards any of the three LACs you cite over both UCONN and Michigan. That said I know kids… I have one starting college next year also and I tried (always disclosing my bias) to steer him towards a LAC, he ended up choosing (well, it’s the other way around really…) Stanford.
@notigering UNC out of State is not easy. I think my point on Bruni and the irony of his book are quite clear. UNC followed by Columbia in a department notoriously impossible to get accepted too is noting to snicker about. Of course your kid picked Stanford, it’s an amazing elite school, perhaps the best all around choice there is. Congratulations on that.
At the Michigan accepted students day they discussed research opportunities at length and the picture they painted differed significantly from your analysis and they did bring up their endowment and research facilities. Maybe they lied to us.
Well, regarding LAC, as a parent I feel my D would benefit from one. She has a choice of some nice ones and I actually had to force her to even apply and getting her to agree to go to Colgate’s accepted day required parental skills I didn’t know I had. My daughter knows everything and I not only know nothing, but she also frowns on being seen in public with me. I like LAC colleges because they can help bring out the bohemian in an otherwise super intense kid who thinks she knows exactly what she is going to do in the next 10-15 years of her academic career. I also like the idea of her being in a smaller environment that I perceive as safer even though send a D to college is far more daunting than sending my S. She says they’re too small. Who knows, maybe she’ll experience some diving intervention when we visit Colgate. I do see her thriving at Michigan though, Ann Arbor is a great college town.
https://lsa.umich.edu/urop
https://medicine.umich.edu/medschool/education/non-degree-programs/undergrad-summer-research
http://www.research.umich.edu/student-involvement
I doubt that UNC was that hard to get into in the early 80s but I could be wrong.
My kid ending up in Stanford was almost a coin toss, school was not even on his radar until literally the last minute, never even visited it. He wanted to go to Pomona but his interest in engineering and CS grew when he visited Swarthmore. That sort of indirectly pushed Stanford up and I told him that from a practical perspective Palo Alto maybe had an advantage in that specific field (CS) plus that since Stanford EA is non-binding he could win some time. A week after he thought Swarthmore should have been first so he completed the ed2 application as he was also expecting a rejection or deferral from Stanford. When he was accepted however he decided to stop the process right there. Hopefully he will like it when admit day arrives because he has no backups really…
Public schools were on the radar depending on the outcome (did not expected it would earn so early…) but only the honors program and New College of Florida. I would recommend the honors program of almost any flagship over regular regardless of prestige. I am probably biased because I’ve seen too many dreams being crushed by the weed out process. Plenty at UConn as I said before but also my cousin who went to Michigan (dropped out of engineering) and now my nephew that currently attends Michigan (after turning down the honors program at other “lesser” flagships) who recently dropped out of premed. My nephew was valedictorian in high school BTW… The thing is that paradoxically oftentimes the honors program is less grueling than regular, at least that was the case at UConn back in the day…
I am NOT suggesting your daughter will go through that. Focused kid’s with good preparation go through it with flying colors all the time. But I still remember the look to your left, then right blah blah… intro they gave us back on the day at UConn and thinking it didn’t apply to me (lol…). Maybe things have changed?