<p>What was your son’s first choice school and how does he like Harvard now that he is there?</p>
<p>Oh, and my son seems to prefer University of Chicago to Harvard, although he has yet to apply to either. If he were lucky enough to get one of those fancy Duke scholarships, I would encourage that over Harvard.</p>
<p>MIT, UChicago, Yale, Caltech</p>
<p>mom421,</p>
<p>Johns Hopkins. We live in Maryland, and Johns Hopkins isn’t very far from our front door. Apparently, we haven’t been such horrible parents for 18 years, and my son likes us and didn’t want to go too far away. As well, he’d initially wanted to do civil engineering and classics. Hopkins has a very good civil engineering program, and also a top-notch classics program. Harvard is stronger in classics, but not in engineering, and doesn’t have a civil engineering program, meaning to go to Harvard, he had to do mechanical.</p>
<p>My son also liked the feel of the Hopkins campus, and had met several professors who took a real interest in him.</p>
<p>But Harvard came through with MUCH BIGGER BUCKS. It’s the difference between me being able to pay the tuition bill every month out of current income, and me (or him) having to borrow $10K per year.</p>
<p>I told the financial aid guy at Hopkins that I wasn’t going to feel guilty or lose sleep if my kid had to go to Harvard because of the money. He said, “I understand, enjoy Harvard.”</p>
<p>As well, he almost went to the University of Maryland, College Park. Really great engineering, okay classics. Full scholarship, room, board, educational stipend for travel, etc., and a National Merit Scholarship that would have been nice walking-around money. Very, very tempting. Could have lived on campus and come home for dinner any night of the week. The folks there were very eager to have him there.</p>
<p>How does my son like it? He loves it. He hates it. He loves the challenge, the classes, his roommates, the folks he hangs out with, St. Paul’s Catholic Church, the social things with which he’s become involved, the professors, the teaching fellows, the available resources. He loves that, within certain broad boundaries, he can pretty much do what he wants, as long as he can do it. </p>
<p>He hates how hard he has to work, all the time, sometimes to very, very late (or rather, very early) hours. He was up to 4:30 am this morning finishing his CS50 problem set. Ouch. This is a guy who used to turn in by 10 pm every night except New Year’s Eve. He hates the weather many days (a lot of cold, rainy, dreary days). He hates aspects of the social scene, the ubiquitous drunkenness on weekends, the casual “hook-up” thing. He hates how boring the food is in the freshman dining hall. He hates being over 400 miles from home.</p>
<p>Sounds like my cup of tea, except I prefer non-alcoholic.</p>
<p>great post, notjoe. Just goes to show there are so many little factors that make up the college experience beyond brand names. Sounds like you have a great kid with a good head on his shoulders. </p>
<p>Another school my son visited was Claremont McKenna, great school and the kids seem to live really happy, warm, sunny lives. (Although, debauchery may be the primary weekend past time.)</p>
<p>So, would anyone choose Claremont McKenna over Harvard?</p>
<p>At a certain point, there’s no clear advantage to attending one top 5 or 10 school versus another; it just depends on what best fits you looking at a lot of different factors (location, programs, environment, etc.) But Harvard is definitely tops for overall reputation and name recognition. If I got into Harvard (sending in tomorrow hopefully!) I would realistically only consider Columbia over it, just because of its location. I love NYC. and the academics are very comparable. My dad/brother think I’m crazy for not just wanting to go to Harvard no matter what…oh well.</p>
<p>Stanford, Cambridge, or the Columbia-Sciences Po program.</p>
<p>Both my cousins turned down Harvard…one for MIT and the other Princeton. Hard to go wrong in any of those choices.</p>
<p>University of Chicago, Stanford & Yale.</p>
<p>MIT, Rice, Stanford</p>
<p>Sent from my SGH-T989 using CC</p>
<p>Hmmm…99% of the participants on this thread say they would join the 19% of those offered admission to Harvard who chose not to enroll there.</p>
<p>This is a very select group, indeed.</p>
<p>Nothing.
H forever.</p>
<p>UChicago and Yale for the same price and any top 10 if it is substantially cheaper…</p>
<p>I would turn it down for Deep Springs College, but I’ve already been rejected from there, so…</p>
<p>tortoise: I’m an alum, and my children do not even plan to apply. They are looking for schools that fit their needs and interests.</p>
<p>And for what it’s worth, I knew people who were at Harvard because they did not get in anywhere else; they would have turned down H for their dream school without a second thought.</p>
<p>Yeah, I’m in this camp too. I’d turn H down for Brown, no questions asked. Probably Yale or UChicago, too.</p>
<p>Notre Dame over Harvard, anyday.</p>
<p>UChicago, Georgetown.</p>
<p>Boston and Cambridge are more for the 20 something set than the college set. That being said, they are still incredible if you are in college</p>
<p>A student may turn down Harvard for a combined degree program for medicine (BS/MD) so they won’t have to worry about applying to medical school anymore. Although Harvard admissions are definitely gifts from God.</p>
<p>Remember that Harvard has about 80% yield (meaning that 20 percent of people who are accepted don’t go to Harvard.)</p>