<p>Ok, we are good. We are pretty fast with our words. My apology also.:)</p>
<p>placido…I am not a resident of VA; however, since D started UVa, I’ve learned much about the school and state. Sevmom hit the nail on the head When she said,
What I’ve discovered is that more than half if UVa’s IS student body is from NoVa. This area of the state has some of the wealthiest counties in the nation. Furthermore, it also boasts the largest concentration (within a relatively small area) of top-performing private and public high schools. The #1 public school in the nation, TJHSST’s, performance records actually surpass most private preps/boarding schools. But I suppose these brilliant, high-achieving kids at UVa are riff-raff and not worthy of your child’s time. Our family’s financial situation probably does classify us as the right kind of “traffic” according to you; however, I’m shocked at how different our philosophies are. I personally don’t care one iota what kind of background my D’s future mate comes from as long as he himself is hard-working, ambitious, and treats her with the utmost respect.</p>
<p>Well it looks like the OP is right about that UK vs Harvard thing. Here’s an article that discusses Harvard’s declining yield. No mention of UK being the cause of the decline … but I’m sure that the reason.</p>
<p>[Yield</a> Holds Steady For 2013 | News | The Harvard Crimson](<a href=“http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2009/5/8/yield-holds-steady-for-2013-seventy/]Yield”>Yield Holds Steady For 2013 | News | The Harvard Crimson)</p>
<p>I personally don’t care one iota what kind of background my D’s future mate comes from as long as he himself is hard-working, ambitious, and treats her with the utmost respect. </p>
<p>I couldnt agree more. Of all the different issues I have considered while helping my daughter make a good college choice, husband shopping never occurred to me. There are good and bad people everywhere and I have no doubt that when the time comes that my daughter will make a good choice regardless of where she goes to college. (As an aside, I think that I can speak for many, if not most, fathers when I say that whoever she chooses will not good enough for her, regardless of their background.)</p>
<p>I have considered the increased likelihood that my daughter may relocate to another part of the country should she attend college outside California, and while the thought of not seeing her much is distressing, I have to let her make those choices and live with the consequences.</p>
<p>We live in East Bumblebutt and have three equally-qualified and equally-credentialed kids. The first two have gone to Harvard and my bet is that the third will choose a flagship Honors program. I’ll resurrect this thread in five years and tell you all how things worked out.</p>
<p>I’m a poor boy from Appalachia, and I’d have a hard time even paying for the community college. Ever since the 7th of March, I thank God every day for Dartmouth’s generosity.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>The friends my son made at the Ivy he attended were NOT from modest backgrounds. He felt “poor” in comparison, which might have been a good thing since he got a really great off-campus job to help fund his social life. When I say “not from modest backgrounds” I mean the families were the richest people in their respective countries. Very diverse- yes. Very talented and very interesting. My son got to experience some things that I would have never imagined at the large state university I attended.<br>
My daughter’s experience at Rice was totally different. Her friends were not from wealthy families and while they were just as bright, were more in her league.</p>
<p>I find it odd that placido places more importance on where his child’s future spouse came from than on where that person is going in life.</p>
<p>If I thought all my child’s classmates at the Ivy-league school to which she applied felt that way, I would have discouraged her from applying. Fortunately, I believe that not everyone is so insular.</p>
<p>“We live in East Bumblebutt …”</p>
<p>gadad - No way you live in East Bumblebutt unless you can answer “TRUE” to all of the following statements:</p>
<p>(1) There are no traffic lights in town
(2) K-12 is all in one building
(3) The HS graduating class is under 50 students
(4) … none of whom will be attending a private university
(5) The town doctor speaks english as a second language
(6) You can still buy lard in the Economy 3-gallon tub</p>
<p>One of my daughter’s good girlfriend, an engineering major, has 200k+ loans. D1 asked her why she was willing to take on so much loan and how she was going to pay it off. She told D1 that she was hoping she would be able find a husband at the school. Because of her, I started a thread few years back to see if parents would “let” their kids marry someone with such a high debt. Of course, she is just one of D1’s many friends. Not all of them are like that, but people like that still do exist out there. It maybe more acceptable prior to the 70’s to say it out loud than today.</p>
<p>This has always been interesting topic for me. When I applied for undergrad schools I only applied to three schools: two in-state Utah state schools and MIT. I was shocked when I got into MIT EA. Not a lot of people from my suburban Utah community venture out of state for school, so for me getting into MIT was a biggish deal. The issue was the cost. The folks at MIT were generous enough to give me $700 financial aid package, which was more insulting than anything. My dad was pretty chapped so I went to the state flagship on full merit scholarship.</p>
<p>Coming into college, I always heard the line that if we want an Ivy League experience, we could create it for ourselves at Utah. I really didn’t believe it. That was especially true when I met the #2 VP at the school’s top scholarship banquet. He asked me what other schools I got into. I told him I had gotten into MIT. He told me I was crazy not to go and he sent his daughter there. He was the guy who had given the speech about creating the Ivy League experience. So for the last few years I’ve had a good chunk of professors told me that I shouldn’t be at Utah and I was crazy to turn down MIT. </p>
<p>I could have just gotten lucky. I ran into a professor who had very similar philosophies on school and engineering education as I do. I have TAed for him a few times (for graduate/senior level classes), done research with him, etc. He has been an incredible mentor. He also had some pretty good connections such that his LOR for grad school applications carried a bit of weight. </p>
<p>During the last month or so I have been interviewing for PhD programs. I have gotten in to pretty much everywhere I wanted, and I’m going to go to Stanford next fall. I have noticed that at most schools the majority of the interviewees were from state flagships. I also noticed that my education hasn’t really been better or worse than those from top tier private schools. Granted, I believe I had to create many of those opportunities for myself, but it was doable.</p>
<p>So, in retrospect, I’m glad MIT didn’t work out for me. I saved a lot of money. </p>
<p>That said, I figure that if your family can reasonably swing the finances, an HYPSM college experience would be fun, but probably not fun enough to justify the $50k+/year price tag.</p>
<p>I would not go to an Ivy for engineering, with a few limited exceptions in specific fields. I also would not have paid what MIT would have cost ^^^^. Congrats on the good choice and great grad school acceptance!</p>
<p>
% of full-time, first-time undergrads receiving any financial aid (08/09):
Brown University - 61
Columbia University in the City of New York - 57
Cornell University - 54
Dartmouth College - 63
Harvard University - 81
Princeton University - 58
University of Pennsylvania - 61
Yale University - 63</p>
<p>% of first-time undergrads from foreign countries (08):
Brown University - 12
Columbia University in the City of New York - 11
Cornell University - 10
Dartmouth College - 7
Harvard University - 10
Princeton University - 12
University of Pennsylvania - 10
Yale University - 11</p>
<p>% of undergrads receiving Pell grants (08/09):
Brown University - 12
Columbia University in the City of New York - 15
Cornell University - 13
Dartmouth College - 13
Harvard University - 13
Princeton University - 10
University of Pennsylvania - 9
Yale University - 10</p>
<p>All data are from IPEDS. I think your daughter’s experience was rather unusual to say the least.</p>
<p>oldfort, There is no reason in this day and age for any child to have to come out of school in engineering with $200,000 in debt. I would hope neither of my sons would end up with someone like her- moreso for lack of common sense as for the massive debt.
utah, my husband says that when he was at CMU in the 70’s, one of his professors made it pretty clear to his students that the guys at Pitt and Penn State were just as capable of learning the material as they were at the pricier,private school.</p>
<p>MomofWildChild: Does that mean everyone should forgo the MIT experience? If “utahengineer” is so contended with Utah’s experience then what’s the need to go to Stanford for Phd. Why not just get the Phd there. It has worked for him till now and will work for him in future too.</p>
<p>Why it has suddenly become so important to go to Stanford? Also the measure of his Utah experience is in terms of his Phd acceptances. Had he not accepted to Stanford for Phd would it make his Utah experience equally successful?</p>
<p>Think if the measure of a successful experience itself is the acceptance at a school, then how come going to that school itself is not success to begin with.</p>
<p>I really have problem with people contradicting in the same post. I’m glad it worked out for utahengineer but there is certainly something lacking in the education as it’s not fun to go to MIT. It’s lots and lots of hard work and yes it’s an experience you can’t just measure in terms of money.</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s limited to engineering. Across a range of disciplines, top students at many public universities can obtain an education as good as or better than he/she would get at “elite” private universities. At a public university it might be necessary to find ways to mitigate factors that work against this and a student may have to work harder to create his/her own opportunities, but it can be done.</p>
<p>sevmom:
</p>
<p>I didn’t want to repeat what I said in a different thread but your husband missed the point. </p>
<p>The content of the subject at MIT is no different from other colleges and that is why MIT puts all the course content online. If learning the content is the important thing then yes go to any college or don’t go at all and learn online sitting right in your bed room.</p>
<p>But MIT doesn’t teach course content. It stimulate your brain with Problem Solving. The most important part of the MIT courses are their Problem Sets, which not only stimulate the child brain to think analytically and mathematically but also creatively too.</p>
<p>This charging of brain is what makes experience at MIT different from any other college.</p>
<p>It’s not fun to be at MIT.</p>
<p>POIH,I guess all the engineering students then at other colleges are a bunch of dunces who can’t think creatively or analytically.You win.You say MIT is not fun to be at. I’ll bet it’s a barrel of laughs to be an engineering student at Utah .</p>
<p>I do think MIT is a great school and offers an experience not obtainable at a state school. However, the above-poster saved the money and it is not at all uncommon to strive for a more prestigious grad (or law, med whatever) school after going for the best financial choice for undergrad.</p>
<p>I wonder how many of the “legacy” admits at the “elite” schools go to graduate school in the Arts and Sciences as opposed to business, law, medical school or just “going into the family business” or living off their trust funds?</p>
<p>Maybe there is a good reason top schools recruit grad students from lower ranked state schools.</p>
<p>It also gives them another pass at skimming the creme of the gene pool.</p>