<p>It’s not that I would turn down Harvard just for another school, but because I would question my academic ability there. Even if I did get into a school of that caliber, I would have to go somewhere else or accept inevitable As and Bs.</p>
<p>Assuming that Harvard is not my top/definite choice (I love all the schools I applied to and think that I will be happy in any one), I would have to consider Yale (for its excellent Residential College system and recent emphasis on STEM fields), Dartmouth (for excellent undergraduate education and the D-Plan), and Brown (for the Open Curriculum).</p>
<p>But truth be told, stupiddorkyidiot is right when the poster said that it will eventually come down to the financial aid offer. It’s true for me and many others as paying for college is a HUGE financial commitment/burden on the family.</p>
<p>I failed to consider finances in my point. Well said notjoe and stupiddorkyidiot (appears you are none of the 3). I see your logic and it makes a good bit of sense, especially the part about applying to schools that fit certain categories of wants/needs, rather than judging schools solely on prestige. </p>
<p>Regarding the Brown/Harvard financial aid difference, I have been under the impression that at all of the Ivies need is met fully. Am I wrong? Say the unthinkable happens and I am forced to make that decision, would that be a significant difference?</p>
<p>If everything checked out finicially then possibly only Stanford (maybe). However with poor aid I would be tempted for a full ride to somewhere like Alabama.</p>
<p>My local cc</p>
<p>Und3rC0ver,</p>
<p>There are a lot of schools that say that they meet 100% of need. It’s all in how they define “need.” My son’s first choice claimed to meet 100% of “need,” but they believed we needed about $10K less than Harvard believed we needed, and in years 2 - 4, had loans as part of fulfilling our need. Another school to which he was accepted thought we needed more than the first school thought, but much less than Harvard thought. Still another school very nearly thought we needed almost as much as Harvard thought. But there were loans in the package.</p>
<p>So, my son’s first choice school would have meant about $50K+ in loans over four years. He didn’t go to his first choice school. All things being equal, he would have turned down Harvard for this school. But all things just weren’t equal. Not even close. School #1 fell to #3 quickly.</p>
<p>The next least generous school would have run around $30 - $40K in loans over four years. The next school would have run about $20K or so in loans. </p>
<p>I think we’ll get through four years of Harvard with $0 loans.</p>
<p>Yet, all four schools claimed to meet 100% of need. </p>
<p>A fifth school, our state flagship, offered a free education. That, ultimately, was the school that my son almost chose over Harvard, and the offer of a completely-free education was a very big factor.</p>
<p>My understanding is that the most generous Ivies are Harvard, Yale and Princeton, but that some of the others will match what HYP offer, should you be accepted at one of HYP and their schools.</p>
<p>I think I would take Yale…I think I would fit there better, and the education is probably indistinguishable between the two schools. What an incredible dilemma to have though, where you are considering turning down Harvard!</p>
<p>Schools that give better financial aid.</p>
<p>South Harmon institute of technology.</p>
<p>^Yes.</p>
<p>10 char</p>
<p>South Harmon is excellent</p>
<p>one of the few schools that can rival harvard in prestige :)</p>
<p>South Harmon Institute of Technology is the s h * t… ;)</p>
<p>Stanford hands down. Not that I’m going to get into either, lol. I find it interesting that Uchic was one of the earlier schools that people suggested though. I like the school, but there’s a general back up school for ivies label here in CA for UChic.</p>
<p>A real school, Oxford</p>
<p>Yale. Atmosphere > prestige in my book, since they’re both incredible schools with high achieving students.</p>
<p>@Wendeli
That is quickly becoming an anachronistic impression. Maybe a few years back, when UChicago had an accepance rate of more than 20%, could it be considered a “backup”, but with an expected acceptance rate of ~9% this year (and falling), UChicago is more selective than most ivies atm. But labels are hard to shrug off…</p>
<p>If $ wasn’t a factor and I actually got into all the schools I applied to, Columbia. Not gonna lie, Harvard Square is not appealing AT ALL.</p>
<p>@jak321 #217 - UC is obviously a great school - but the ‘safety school for the Ivies’ rep is hard to shake. I think their yield is still sub-40%.</p>
<p>I would rather go to Stanford or MIT than Harvard. I got rejected from Stanford SCEA so I am sad 
and I actually didn’t apply to MIT because I didn’t think I could handle the academic rigor there.</p>
<p>@danstearns
Absolutely! Hence I said:
</p>
<p>Also, UChicago’s yield isn’t quite “sub-40%”. While historically, UChicago did have it’s yield firmly planted in the low-30s, it has made substantial gains in the same over the last few years.
Class of 2009: 33%
Class of 2010: 34%
Class of 2011: 36%
Class of 2012: 38%
Class of 2013: 36%
Class of 2014: 39%
Class of 2015: 40%
Class of 2016: 47% ([Admissions</a> yield for College grows to 47 percent, with greater diversity | UChicago News](<a href=“http://news.uchicago.edu/article/2012/05/18/admissions-yield-college-grows-47-percent-greater-diversity]Admissions”>Admissions yield for College grows to 47 percent, with greater diversity))
Class of 2017: 45-50% (predicted)
And don’t forget that it accepts half of its students from a nonrestrictive EA pool, which doesn’t help it’s yield much. It’s FA is also not the best, just sayin’…</p>
<p>Parchment, which ranks colleges based on cross admit data (not sure how reliable it is; [Parchment</a> Student Choice College Rankings 2013 | Parchment - College admissions predictions.](<a href=“http://www.parchment.com/c/college/college-rankings.php?thisYear=2012&thisCategory=National]Parchment”>http://www.parchment.com/c/college/college-rankings.php?thisYear=2012&thisCategory=National)) also ranks UChicago favorably, and places it at a solid #6 (ahead of every ivy but HYP, with P at #5). The same source shows that 47% of cross admits at UChicago and Princeton chose the former. In fact, UChicago splits cross admits fairly evenly (within 40-60 against UChicago at worst) with every top institution except Harvard (30-70 against UChicago) and Yale (28-72 against UChicago). Until last year, it was behind every ivy except Cornell on the same list.</p>