<p>My son is a member of the class of 2012. He is an all state cross country and track runner. He was a member of a few team state championships and he won two individual state championships in track as well. He was recruited by several D1 schools but decided academics were more important. Besides running, he attended every football and basketball game and he unfortunately is into the party scene. However, he is not your typical "jock." He scored a 36 on the ACT and has a 4.0 GPA. He was accepted into Vanderbilt, Michigan, Duke, Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. In the end, he decided that Vanderbilt was the best fit in terms of social, location, and academics.</p>
<p>I wonder, how many other parents have experienced this with their children? Is it common for students to turn down HYP for schools like Vanderbilt and Duke just for D1 sports and parties. I know that Vandy is a top 20 school; however would you let your child give up a Harvard education just for social fit?</p>
<p>It is not obvious that this was a huge compromise. A big compromise from the academic standpoint would be attending a school where one’s intended or likely major is significantly weaker or non-existent, compared to other affordable schools, and it is not a concentration which can be “built” from course offerings in another major (or combination of another major and other subjects) that is available. Was this actually the case?</p>
<p>All of the schools you name are in NCAA Division I.</p>
<p>(Yes, I can see the prestige warriors coming into this thread…)</p>
<p>It depends how you define “common.” Harvard announced an 81% yield rate this year, so 19% of those admitted chose another college. Does 19% constitute “common?” It is certainly not rare. We don’t know how many of the 19% chose Vandy or Duke instead.</p>
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<p>Whether I would <em>try</em> to talk my child out of giving up Harvard for Vandy would depend upon whether I felt he could adapt and be happy at Harvard. I’d try pretty hard unless I felt he would be unhappy there. Harvard has Div 1 sports and an active social scene but it is most likely different than Vandy’s (but not necessarily worse).</p>
<p>If you are the parent, and admit that “he unfortunately is into the party scene” - is your concern that Vanderbilt will provide partying the other schools don’t? Not to worry. I suggest an honest conversation about your expectations and the potential pitfalls of freshman year, though. You should have your own CC account, btw.</p>
<p>If you’re the student, I don’t see the point of the question.</p>
<p>Yes, you identified yourself as the student on another thread which is a violation of the TOS. In answer to your question, I’ve heard of people turning down Harvard for a variety of reasons. I suspect many people visit and decide they aren’t interested and so turn it down by not applying. I’ve also known people who attended Harvard and weren’t happy there. If you or your son think you would be happier at Vanderbilt then you’re probably right. What difference does it make what anyone else would do in your circumstances?</p>
<p>The proportion of people who turn down Harvard is low, but that’s probably because most people who apply to Harvard actually want to go there. The OP’s kid evidently does not. One wonders why he applied in the first place.</p>
<p>Given the choices and the student’s priorities, I probably would have picked Duke. But that just proves that the OP and I are different people.</p>
<p>If one of my kids had been in this situation, I wouldn’t have tried to talk the kid into or out of anything, unless one of the schools on the list had a dramatically better – or dramatically worse – program in the kid’s intended major. This is a choice among six excellent alternatives. There’s no way to make a bad decision.</p>
<p>Vanderbilt is a fine university. I don’t see a problem here.</p>
<p>Two of my kids turned down Cornell U. My husband still smarts over it, since they were both State land grant schools. Though I was not happy about the second one eliminating it, I took a look at his face, and in an instant I could feel to my marrow exactly why. Yes, he was a spoiled brat in many ways to have turned it down and it did put more of a financial strain on us when he did. But he had struggled socially; he really had not fit in well at his high school, and he had found a more relaxed, laid back school out west that he felt had kindred spirits. So,yes, social atmosphere does play a role and with our kids, it can play a big role.</p>
<p>The 13% that turned Harvard down this year represents around 300 people, and from everything we know the vast majority of them turned down Harvard to attend another Ivy League college, Stanford, or MIT. A few will have turned Harvard down to accept a prestigious full-ride merit scholarship at a place like Duke, Michigan, or UNC, the kind of scholarship that comes with tangible academic and career benefits, as well. Apart from that, I would be surprised if there was more than one or two people per any particular college, top 20 or no, who turned down an actual Harvard acceptance, much less Harvard, Yale, and Princeton.</p>
<p>So if the OP’s story is real, no, it is not common at all. He’s certainly likely to be the only one at Vanderbilt in that position. That doesn’t make his decision wrong, of course, just unusual.</p>
<p>The decision is made. You joined here very recently. Why bother asking this question? That being said, the question was well-written with no obvious typos etc.<br>
I suspect this is a either a ■■■■■ or a parent/student who is second-guessing the decision (latter seems more likely to me).<br>
It is over and decision is made, move on, if the post is accurate, this student can likely bloom where planted (and once the semester starts, I would avoid any mention of schools rejected in favor of Vandy). So many reasons for that piece of advice.</p>
I did. My son turned down Harvard to study computer science at Carnegie Mellon. He graduated a year ago and is working at Google. I’m sure there would have been a happy ending at Harvard too, but we have no regrets.</p>
<p>At Oberlin, I knew several classmates who turned down admission to higher ranked schools. One dormmate turned down admission to an HYP solely for social fit reasons after going to their admitted students day and feeling that if the undergrads/fellow admitted students is a preview of the next 4 years…no thanks. </p>
<p>Then again, considering she fits the neo-hippie vibe of most Oberlin students pretty well at the time I attended…I wasn’t surprised and figured she only applied to Yale due to family pressure and her desire to see if they’d admit her.</p>
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<p>Among most hardcore CS techies at my HS…CMU is much more highly regarded than Harvard. </p>
<p>In fact…the jerky contingent among the MIT/Caltech/CMU admits at my HS would sometimes pick on the HYP admits for being “lower intellects”* than themselves. </p>
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<li>Intellect here being equated with hardcore STEM/CS coding/hacking skills.<br></li>
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<p>True. However, MIT has Harvard beat when it comes to good Boston area undergrad parties and IME…CMU kids on average have Harvard kids beat when it comes to serious partying.</p>
<p>From the Vanderbilt admissions blog regarding regular decision admits for the Class of 2016:
* Middle 50% SAT (CR + M): 1470 1590
* Middle 50% ACT: 33 35
* Percentage of students in the top ten percent of their graduating class: 96.35%*
* Average rank in class (% from the top): 2.77%*</p>
<p>I don’t know what Harvard’s stats are but they can’t be that much higher ;)</p>
<p>Ivy schools are need based aid only, although more generous than most. I agree with mini, there are lots of students who turn down ivies( although I don’t know any who preferred BYU). The schools they attended instead, were either private schools that offered merit aid or instate publics, like Univ Wash or TESC.</p>
<p>I would take Vanderbilt over Harvard in a heartbeat, but I think the OP is a student who is distorting facts. If the “son” was a good runner as claimed in the first post, he could have run at Harvard et al but not at Vanderbilt since they dropped men’s Track.</p>
<p>There’s a big difference among “turning down Ivies”, which thousands of people do every year, turning down Harvard, which no more than 300 students did this year, and turning down all of Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, which maybe a dozen or two people do, mostly to go to MIT or Stanford.</p>
<p>Sure, lots of people “turn down” those schools by not applying in the first place. But the notion that lots of people are turning down actual acceptances to go to Calvin College, BYU, Vanderbilt, or anywhere else besides a handful of schools, is pure folklore, The numbers don’t work. I’m sure it happens sometimes, but not in any kind of steady stream.</p>
<p>I’ve known kids who turned down Harvard for Indiana, Northwestern, and Deep Springs (and of course Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Penn). Each of them had really good reasons, much stronger than liking Division I sports. For instance, the kid who chose Indiana went into their dance conservatory, which he left after one year to turn pro with a top company. I’m sure there are some kids who choose religious colleges over Harvard, although I suspect most of the people who make that choice don’t apply to Harvard in the first place. But we can’t be talking about as many as dozens of kids each year, because the numbers aren’t there.</p>
<p>No folklore here. I know these folks personally. BYU offers much better financial aid - often free - to middle class families, and for Latter Day Saints, it IS Harvard. And the post-college opportunities are vast. BYU also helps facilitate mission years. Finally, BYU is also where most will find their spouses. I have never, ever heard students and parents talk of sending their kids to the Ivies for marital possibilities - but it is common talk for BYU families. BYU students also come back to our community; Ivy Leaguers never do. For students for whom close, lifetime family connections are considered important, Harvard (and the entire Ivy League) is fourth rate.</p>
<p>The Calvin College ones are always religious conservatives whom college counselors persuaded to apply to Harvard, but whose families decided they wanted their kids to have a rigorous conservative Christian education. </p>
<p>We get one, maybe two, a year in the area. And it always seems to be these two specific schools.</p>
<p>Sure. Any school in the top 20? Six of one, half a dozen of the other - pick based on personal preference and/or finances. No need to get super-precious about the whole thing. The difference between 7,000,000 opportunities and 6,900,000 is meaningless.</p>