Why did your kid turn down a clearly higher ranked college?

Parents Forum
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<p>Cangel quote >>> My son actually turned down Pitt for the Univ of Alabama. Money played a small role, he gets to bank his college money. His sister went to school 1300 miles from home, and I don’t think he wanted it to be so difficult to get home, so in that sense, fear was a reason. GF played a role. The incredible dorms at Alabama were a big selling point. He didn’t have the best grades in high school, and I think he was a little worried about how hard the academics would be at Pitt (fear again, of a different sort). UA does a tremendous selling job, I can only imagine what they would do for an OOS high stats candidate.</p>

<p>DH was a little disappointed that he turned down Pitt, and I was disappointed that he turned down LSU. All his life he said he wanted to go to college out of state, and that he wanted to go to an urban school. I think, though, when he was actually applying, other things became more important. I do think he made the best decision for him at the time, we’ll see if that holds up. </p>

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<p>My DS1 turned down several higher ranking schools for The University of Alabama. DS1 has awesome stats, NMF, Valedictorian, etc, but UA just really appealed to him - the people are friendly, the campus is gorgeous, the dorms are NICE, and the academics are strong. </p>

<p>We visited his junior year and met with the Director of the Computer-Based Honors Program (Dr. Sharpe), and when we visited again a year later, we were in line at a campus food venue, and Dr. Sharpe came up to us and actually remembered my son’s name. My son was very impressed. When son was selected for the Computer-Based Honors Program (elite group, only 40 students accepted) 2 months later, that sealed the deal. :)</p>

<p>Also, when visiting, DS had the opportunity to “sit-in” a Physics, a Cal III, and a fun honors fine arts class. He was very impressed with the academics. This was his first exposure to “clickers” :slight_smile: He lked the idea that profs could get instant feedback as to whether the students understood a newly-taught concept. </p>

<p>Oh, and UA’s awesome dorms made quite the impression, too. And, as I mentioned in an earlier post, the NMF full-ride scholarship means that we can help him with graduate school or law school costs. :)</p>

<p>The funny thing is…DS2 always said, “I’m not going to the same college as my brother!!!” But, after DS2 had several experiences on UA’s campus (helping with bro’s move in day, Family Weekend, etc), DS2 said he would ONLY apply to UA. I insisted that he apply to a few more schools, but he’s now at UA, too. LOL</p>

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<p>rmstmppr – Exactly right.</p>

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<p>So, did you negotiate? <<<<</p>

<p>Many of us have too high of EFC’s to negotiate a non-existing F/A package. </p>

<p>We never bothered to do a FAFSA, because we knew we wouldn’t qualify.</p>

<p>But, son still did receive one F/A package - student loans - so what’s to negotiate???</p>

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<p>D1 turned down Duke, Vandy, William&Mary, UVA,Wake, W & L(with full to partial scholarships) and all other acceptances to attend UGA’s Honors program. With UGA’s Honors program generous AP credit policy, she’ll graduate in 4 years with her Masters, not just a Bachelor’s. Very happy with decision.</p>

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<p>It is very interesting that while reading the mom2collegekids’s fine post on UA, I noticed the UA banner ad right above her post.</p>

<p>I suggest mom2collegekids quickly call UA and have them take a snapshot of the screen for future reference ;).</p>

<p>Good post, mom2collegekids.</p>

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<p>We gently tried to negociate with Brandeis and NYU. No dice. The UVA acceptance came with a minute one time merit award (2k). After he declined, there was a feeler email from the Jefferson Scholar program asking if 10k would have made a difference in his decision (this was sent to all the Jeff Scholar candidates who declined). He answered no.</p>

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<p>Went for scholarship for full tuition, R&B and supposedly perks; and with med school likely in the future. However, reversed decision and transferred soph year to school with excellent need based FA only.</p>

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<p>If I remember correctly, Rice-Baylor is a guaranteed med school acceptance and they only admitted 10 students to the program last year (my stats may not be exact, but close). It would not be a surprise if 3 of those 10 had the qualifications to be accepted to Harvard as well.</p>

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<p>My sister got turned down UC Berkeley (honors) and UCLA (honors and partial scholarship). She went to University of the Pacific (honors) instead. Her decision was based on her firm decision to become a pharmacist and UOP offered her a way to complete the program in 5 years instead of 7. UOP also covered all of her costs…so that was a factor as well. But I can’t help but think that she made a mistake - she’s not as happy at UOP as I think that she might have been at UCLA or Berkeley. But she is finishing up her last year right now so I guess it worked out ok.</p>

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<p>Kind of sneaky strategy on UVa’s part…offer a small amount and see who accepts, then offer more to those who decline. I don’t like that strategy because later the students might compare notes, and there might be some awfully angry parents. :(</p>

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<p>DS turned down MIT, Duke and UChicago for Emory Scholars program. Has met 2 who turned down Harvard for same.</p>

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<p>I can certainly understand the many kids who turned down Harvard for UC Berkeley. Berkeley is a top ranked school and I bet many of these students lived in California, so that Harvard was very expensive and UC Berkeley was inexpensive by comparison. </p>

<p>Most students who get accepted in any high ranked college go there because they worked hard and are bright, hence they will be successful. It’s not going to Harvard that makes you bright and hard working…it’s the other way around.</p>

<p>Anyone wanting to go to grad school may want to save the money and go to Berkeley over Harvard, since if you are going to go on to professional school, that’s all your future employer will care about (i.e. if you go to Harvard Law, no one cares where you went undergrad).</p>

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<p>S turned down Rice , Northwestern, Vanderbilt, and W&L where they offered him money ranging from 60% cost (Rice and NWU) to 95% cost (Vanderbilt) to full-ride (W&L) to go to University of Tulsa which offered him a full-ride scholarship as well.</p>

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<p>My husband “turned down” Harvard (so to speak) for Purdue…because his mother threw away his acceptance letter because SHE didn’t want him to go that far away (and likely because it was unaffordable, and she didn’t want to deal with that issue).</p>

<p>My husband ( a bit naive at the time) wondered why he didn’t get a response back; so he thought that maybe Harvard only sent acceptance letters. </p>

<p>My husband didn’t find out the truth until his sister “let the cat out of the bag” about 20 years ago.</p>

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<p>Not that simple…</p>

<p>I’m out side of the circle, so not care much. But I know few who failed to become executives/partners due to non (selected)-ivy undergraduate degrees. All have Harvard-, Yale-, Penn- law, or MBA degrees.</p>

<p>The firm I work for and few I know talk about candidates’ undergrad schools beside graduate schools.</p>

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<p>I can confirm that. I have even seen undergraduate colleges mentioned explicitly in help-wanted ads for positions that require professional degrees.</p>

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<p>A person by me turned down Stanford for here.</p>

<p>I think at a certain point, specific college choice doesn’t matter all that much… It’s really insignificant if a person goes to Northwestern over Cornell or Carnegie Mellon over Northwestern or whatever. </p>

<p>If someone went to, say, Bates College instead of Princeton, then it’d be worth discussing.</p>

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<p>Quote:
Anyone wanting to go to grad school may want to save the money and go to Berkeley over Harvard, since if you are going to go on to professional school, that’s all your future employer will care about (i.e. if you go to Harvard Law, no one cares where you went undergrad). </p>

<p>…
Not that simple…</p>

<p>I’m out side of the circle, so not care much. But I know few who failed to become executives/partners due to non (selected)-ivy undergraduate degrees. All have Harvard-, Yale-, Penn- law, or MBA degrees.
…</p>

<p>That sounds more like snobbery than evidence that the person lacked the qualities to make partner. Since when does one assume that someone who graduate from Harvard Law not merit a partnership because his undergrad was at Berkeley??? WTHeck???</p>

<p>I suspect that the senior partners who make such decisions would also cross off the name of a Harvard undergrad/law grad because his family didn’t have the right last name or his father wasn’t a senator or something. Jeez…</p>

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<p>What??? A person by you??? Where, in your pocket? Did a ferret turn down Stanford for Brown???</p>

<p>I’m sorry, that just made me laugh…</p>

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<p>
[QUOTE=mom2collegekids]

That sounds more like snobbery than evidence that the person lacked the qualities to make partner.

[/quote]

Well, one would assume so. Sadly, snobbery determines too many opportunities in life.</p>