<p>I'd love to hear your thoughts about this. Everyone usually posts how school XYZ was their dream school and how their impressions changed/became stronger upon arrival on campus. But what about the kids who went to their last choice school? How are you getting along? Surprised, just as bad as expected, etc? I'd love to hear that perspective, too.</p>
<p>I didn’t go to my last choice, but it’s not something I would worry about. I’ve never seen a remotely effective method for choosing a college, so realistically you have no idea where you’ll do best.</p>
<p>80% of kids get into their first or second choice</p>
<p>so you might have a small sample</p>
<p>last choice means you get denied everywhere and stay home</p>
<p>Most people overestimate the importance of “fit,” in reality most students would be happy anywhere they go. There are lots of exceptions, but also keep in mind that you really don’t know exactly where you’ll best fit just by looking at schools. That’s why people transfer - the school that seems the best at the time isn’t so great when they actually get there.</p>
<p>I’m sure lots of people who wind up at their last choice are fine. I only fully applied to one school which was a bit of a reach for me, but I didn’t want to go anywhere else. I got in and am now very happy :)</p>
<p>Ironically, I’m a little surprised so many people are happy. I guess for me, the last choice would be the college you applied to against your will and then having to go there because you had no other options (i.e. applying to HYPSM and a safety and going to the latter).</p>
<p>I only applied to one school and got in.</p>
<p>But your last choice is still YOUR choice, isn’t it? Surely you wouldn’t apply to a school that didn’t even remotely interest you.</p>
<p>For example, I applied to Iowa State, and even though I would consider it my “last choice”, the reason that I applied to it and not somewhere else is because there were a lot of things to like–a lot of things to love–about ISU such that I could see myself enjoying it there.</p>
<p>Really, there are plenty of schools I would’ve loved to attend. Stanford and UChicago would’ve been dream schools for me, but they are extremely expensive and I probably wouldn’t have gotten in (didn’t apply). I’m sure there are probably a hundred schools where I could’ve enjoyed myself and gotten a good education. </p>
<p>For the HS student, the “top choice” is often the “top choice” for the wrong reasons–or for reasons that are not exclusive to that school. </p>
<p>The reason I CHOSE Wisconsin is because it was the most reasonable choice in terms of cost and relative prestige, and it had the opportunities I was looking for. Obviously, I could do a pro/con list but at the end of the day, one has to make the choice that makes the most sense.</p>
<p>I guess I don’t understand how you could absolutely HATE a school that you chose to apply to. Maybe you prefer one over the other, but geesh, DON’T APPLY TO IT IF YOU DON’T LIKE IT. Find a safety that you might actually want to go to.</p>
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<p>I know for a lot of my friends, their parents forced them to apply to second/third in-state schools, and some of them are there as a result.</p>
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<p>That implies that they did not get in anywhere else (or did not get enough financial aid at the higher choices). Of course, that also implies that they’d rather be there than at the default safety that they would go to if they did not apply there (default safety = community college).</p>
<p>If they hate the school that they are at, then that likely means that they failed to do the most important part of their college application list, which is selecting a safety that they know that they will get into, know that they can afford, and will like attending.</p>
<p>My D is at the school that was her last choice. She got into other schools but the financial package this school offered made it difficult to turn down. In her 3rd year, she loves her school and may not even study abroad because she doesn’t want to miss a semester there.</p>
<p>I, OTOH, went to my last choice college as well because of financial reasons and only stuck it out because I couldn’t go to law school (my ultimate goal) without graduating college. I would probably have quit had I not had that ultimate goal.</p>
<p>My point is that by choosing to apply to one school among countless others, you’re demonstrating that you have some intention of potentially attending.</p>
<p>If you have your heart set on Northwestern, you should only apply to Northwestern.</p>
<p>Except that we all know it doesn’t work that way. You need safeties. So what makes you choose to apply to DePaul over University of Illinois-Chicago? </p>
<p>There must be something more appealing about the one over the other that leads you to choose it, or do people seriously just designate a random lower-tier school as their safety and move on? If this is the case, you’re awfully dumb. Dumb enough perhaps that I can see why NU wouldn’t want you. Lol</p>
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<p>That’s true. It seems hard to convince kids that a cheaper, easier to get into school may be as likable as the dream school, though.</p>
<p>My daughter ended up attending her “last choice” school - the one that was on the list because it was a pretty much guaranteed acceptance - even though she got into several more prestigious places. Scholarship money was a big factor, but she went in fully expecting to hate it and transfer after the first year. There’s still stuff she despises about the school, but it turned out there’s other stuff she loves, and the current plan is she will graduate there (she’s a soph). </p>
<p>Are there times when she (or I) would like to be able to insert the name of a more prestigious school into a conversation? Sure. But when she graduates debt free and has the freedom to pursue her chosen field (music) without having to take a second job at Starbucks to pay off those loans…</p>
<p>If you think you’re only going to get into your last choice school (and you don’t like the thought), take this opportunity to give your college list a critical look and add a match/safety that you really like.</p>
<p>I don’t apply to schools I cannot genuinely see myself attending. If I wound up at my last choice (of 9) I would still be extremely happy. In all honesty, I can’t even really list them in order I want. I’m waiting for a few acceptances, and then hopefully the answer will become obvious. But at every school, there are positives and negatives. Wherever I end up I will make the most of it and work my ass off.</p>
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Well, my point is that you have no good way of deciding where to go to school and your preferences are therefore pretty poor predictors of what you will get.</p>
<p>I got into the 3 schools that I applied to in Canada but got rejected by the ones in the States. In the end, I decided to attend my safety (because I wouldn’t need to pay any tuition) if that’s what you mean by last choice. </p>
<p>Also, my school, like most other Canadian ones, is a commuter school, so I can’t say much about school spirit and etc.</p>
<p>Our school had a general first year program, so I felt first year student body was kind of lacking; however, now that I’m in EE, most of the weaker students are weeded out, and I really enjoy the peers and friends who are in my major.</p>
<p>I only applied to schools I would be happy at, but in the end I ended up at what was at one point my last choice. That’s really only because I hadn’t given it a chance, though, and ultimately I ended up picking my “last” choice over my dream school (and not for financial reasons.)</p>
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<p>What prompted the turnaround?</p>
<p>I was pretty hellbent on going to UCSD, so I really didn’t give my current school (or any other school) a chance. I decided after SIRing to UCSD that I should still give my other schools a chance, so I visited UC Davis and it was a much better fit than I had previously thought. If you had asked me in March what my last choice was, I would have probably said UC Davis.</p>