I committed to University of San Diego (47% acceptance) over Georgia Teach (14% acceptance OOS).
Making the decision was one of the hardest things I had to do. I was so conflicted. No one else from my school (620 students class of 2019) got into GT. I was the only one, and somehow that made the decision even harder.
Ultimately, USD gave me 9X as much merit aid, a place in the honors program, and the opportunity to earn an engineering degree within a liberal arts institution.
While GT is one of the best engineering schools in the world, I knew that I wanted to do more than just STEM, and that was going to be harder at a tech school. Not to mention, GT wasn’t nearly as pretty of a campus as USD (lol).
At GT, I would be a smaller fish. I would have to fight for internships and other opportunities that at USD, I would just be handed. I would be more valued and noticed at USD, and I know that it was going to be the best place for me to thrive not just as a student, but as a person.
The hardest part is that I felt like I would impress more people if I went to GT. I thought somehow it would better validate my accomplishments in high school and more people would care. What I HAD to do was stop caring about what other people would think of me wherever I went. It had to be a decision for me and only me.
College is more than just an acceptance rate or a more well known name… it’s where you belong. Where you feel the most appreciated and where you feel like you can thrive the best. USD is the right school for me. It always was. I just had to ignore the fact that less people will care about me going to USD as opposed to GT, and that’s ok because it’s not going to hold me back from being successful and being happy.
Fantastic! So many students are finding themselves in this situation (prestige, acceptance rate, peer perceptions, etc…) so thank you for speaking up!
Congratulations!!!
@kjoneno You show good insight and maturity in your decisionmaking process. Your reasoning makes sense. IMO if you are not wealthy or poor it is difficult to afford top tier private colleges and out-of-state public universities these days without large merit aid. In your case, USD is ranked #41 versus Georgia Instititute of Technology is ranked #35 in the National Universities in the 2019 edition of USNews&World Report. So you are fortunate your safety is a top tier school. Always best to go to the school you can afford and that offers the best fit. After all the hoopla surrounding college decision day dies down and after the seemingly large microscope of interest on Your decision (among peers, guidance counselor, friends and family) subsides, it will be you just living your life, going to college, paying the college bills which likely you will be able to afford without taking on a whole lot of debt, due to “9x” the amount of merit aid you received from USD versus GT. In 6 months or a year from now nobody except you will really care where you decided to go.
I don’t your personal finances but I think you made the right decision. You should go where you want as long as you can truly afford it.
Worrying about what others think is so not worth it. Plus most of those people you will hardly ever see again.
As you age you care less and less about what other people think. Eventually you are old person in the gym locker room that walks around naked. That’s when you really don’t care.
@kjoneno thanks so much for your post. I can relate as a parent - your words voiced my internal voice perfectly. “The hardest part is that I felt like I would impress more people if I went to GT. I thought somehow it would better validate my accomplishments in high school and more people would care. What I HAD to do was stop caring about what other people would think of me wherever I went. It had to be a decision for me and only me. College is more than just an acceptance rate or a more well known name… it’s where you belong.”
Thanks for helping me be totally at peace (and even be excited) with my DD’s decision. Best of luck to you- lucky school to have you in the mix.
I love this!!! My daughter had the hardest time with this. She was deciding between University of Delaware (her safety), UW Madison, University of Illinois, and Boston University for Biomedical Engineering. She worked SO HARD to get into U of I, Madison and BU and was so over the moon about being accepted. It was very hard to let that prestige go. But UD offered her the most money, the honors program, and an engineering fellowship. It was hard when some of her schoolmates were choosing big names like Northwestern and Brown. She wanted to have that prestige too. But in the end she knew she was making the best call for her. She will be a big fish in a smaller engineering pond with access to a lot of perks, and our family won’t go broke. Heck, we can probably even afford to put her through grad school now.
Good for you, but I know it can be hard, but you have to do what is right for you. My D15 did the same, and loved her Honors College, she too worried about the small fish big pond - she just graduated, loved her 4 years at her school, and is debt free, employed and has 529 money left for grad school.
Congratulations. We love posts like this. You made a great and mature decision and will do well!
My son did it a little differently and early on he only applied to safeties. He chose his schools based on the programs that they had, the honors colleges, the study abroad programs, the cost and ease of moving on to vet school when he was done. He didn’t look at ratings etc. Once he had his list it turned out they all were rolling admissions and he was just about guaranteed admission to all of them. He had some people ask “Why not XYZ college?” and he would answer with the opportunities he was being given. I turned down MIT for SMU and my husband turned down Rice for SMU due to scholarships offered. We have done fine. Son will be entering vet school in a year and we are very happy with his decision and so is he!
Congratulations on making a decision you are happy with, and enjoy this experience!
My D18 received 12/12 acceptances, including some that were, like Georgia Tech, tougher admits. What to do?
One admitted student visit to USD in April made that decision easy. What a gorgeous, mellow, upbeat environment. A chance to spend four years there? Sold! All of her choices had solid academics and wonderful opportunities, but the vibe at USD could not be beat.
OP, I think the critical factor here is that you wanted a school with Engineering and more and not one that was purely STEM. Hence, your choice fit your needs best.
In terms of being a big fish or a small fish, things can change in college. Many people believe they are smarter than the norm and find that in college there are many people with more talent and drive.
Be happy with your choices. Carrying a large financial burden would have been tough.
Like many here, we faced the same problem in our household. Our s20, who researched Engineering programs (including GT) within an inch of their lives, absolutely could not make an distinction among the final 3 winners in his long list. They were indistinguishable using the criteria he used. (His spreadsheet was impressive).
So, he went to more subjective things, and factoring those and the $50k a year price differential, our state flagship was the clear winner. He hasn’t looked back for a single second. His parents? We were way more wobbly…regularly prodding towards considering the others. He literally never listened to us for a single second. Fingers in ears.
Good for you. Head down, finish strong, head up and walk through that next door. Wonderful things await you. Congrats.
