Is 'fit' overrated?

[Anonymous]

I think it's overrated once you have narrowed your college choice down to a size/general location/has your major/D1 sports (as a spectator).

There is another thread about how a kid has decided Berkeley is their "dream" school...when in fact I bet that kid will have a grand old time at UCLA, University of Washington, UC Boulder, etc.

The other issue I have is there are plenty of people who pick a college based on fit and then are looking to transfer after 1 year because your decision on a "fit" school is made with such incomplete information.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it's overrated once you have narrowed your college choice down to a size/general location/has your major/D1 sports (as a spectator).

There is another thread about how a kid has decided Berkeley is their "dream" school...when in fact I bet that kid will have a grand old time at UCLA, University of Washington, UC Boulder, etc.

The other issue I have is there are plenty of people who pick a college based on fit and then are looking to transfer after 1 year because your decision on a "fit" school is made with such incomplete information.

I think in statistics they call that 'overfitting.'

[Anonymous]

Visited more than a dozen schools with child 1 and five with number 2. Will they accept you? Does the school have your program? Can you see yourself here? Can mom and dad afford it? Honestly don't recall the term "fit" ever coming up. Don't want to be miserable, but it's only 4 (hopefully) years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Fit certainly matters if you go somewhere small. A pre professional kid is not going to fit in at Hampshire, nor a pot smoking hippie kid at Washington and Lee.

I get that. But at bigger places, with classes even in the low thousands? The law of large numbers takes over. Your tribe will be somewhere to be found. Ranking, affordability, availability of majors, and location matter much more than fit for medium and large sized institutions, because they're big enough to fit many different types of kid.

In short, fit matters for SLACs, but not normal sized schools.

Thoughts?

I agree! I came to the same conclusion. And this is exclusively an American phenomenon. Rest of the world there is no such thing as a fit.

This is more like marketing to deflect from the pressure to get into top schools. This is more a calming technique to soothe anxious families that there is a college that uniquely suits their child.

If there really is a "fit", then we should be able to define it clearly, provide that criteria and publish it. So that any student can check it and have a ready list of "fit" colleges.

Now, every family is supposed to be on a journey of self exploration and find its own list of "fit" colleges.




People start foaming at the mouth if someone applies to two seemingly different schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would have hated a big school. I found my comfort zone at a school that was under just 4K kids. I now call it "Goldilocks size" - not too big, not too small.

Would I have done fine at a state school? Most likely. But it wasn't the college experience I personally wanted.

My own child would be absolutely lost at a big school. She is headed to a small college with about 1200 students.

Can you find your crowd at a large school? Sure, but I think it would take a lot more work for certain kids. Again, I likely would have been fine as I have always been an extrovert - my child ISN'T me, though, and struggles a bit in that area.

Huge eye roll here. You didn’t create the term Goldilocks school. 90% of college counselors use this term all the time to refer to schools with around 7,0000 to 9,000 students.

You assume everyone talked to these people. It would have been pointless in our particular case.

Sorry I didn’t realize it was common vernacular, but you don’t need to be a complete snot about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fit certainly matters if you go somewhere small. A pre professional kid is not going to fit in at Hampshire, nor a pot smoking hippie kid at Washington and Lee.

I get that. But at bigger places, with classes even in the low thousands? The law of large numbers takes over. Your tribe will be somewhere to be found. Ranking, affordability, availability of majors, and location matter much more than fit for medium and large sized institutions, because they're big enough to fit many different types of kid.

In short, fit matters for SLACs, but not normal sized schools.

Thoughts?

I agree! I came to the same conclusion. And this is exclusively an American phenomenon. Rest of the world there is no such thing as a fit.

This is more like marketing to deflect from the pressure to get into top schools. This is more a calming technique to soothe anxious families that there is a college that uniquely suits their child.

If there really is a "fit", then we should be able to define it clearly, provide that criteria and publish it. So that any student can check it and have a ready list of "fit" colleges.

Now, every family is supposed to be on a journey of self exploration and find its own list of "fit" colleges.

True, and not every family can afford the college that “fits” if it’s out of their budget and they have to be content with a “looser" fit at a more affordable college.




People start foaming at the mouth if someone applies to two seemingly different schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's overrated once you have narrowed your college choice down to a size/general location/has your major/D1 sports (as a spectator).

There is another thread about how a kid has decided Berkeley is their "dream" school...when in fact I bet that kid will have a grand old time at UCLA, University of Washington, UC Boulder, etc.

The other issue I have is there are plenty of people who pick a college based on fit and then are looking to transfer after 1 year because your decision on a "fit" school is made with such incomplete information.

I think in statistics they call that 'overfitting.'

😆 underrated comment

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it's overrated once you have narrowed your college choice down to a size/general location/has your major/D1 sports (as a spectator).

There is another thread about how a kid has decided Berkeley is their "dream" school...when in fact I bet that kid will have a grand old time at UCLA, University of Washington, UC Boulder, etc.

The other issue I have is there are plenty of people who pick a college based on fit and then are looking to transfer after 1 year because your decision on a "fit" school is made with such incomplete information.

It depends on the student. Some really care about campus environment (rural vs city), or weather. Some really care about finding a school where a large % of peers care about classes and have intellectual discussions in their free time. Some care about sports culture. Some do not care about any of this, hence fit is not as important.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it's overrated once you have narrowed your college choice down to a size/general location/has your major/D1 sports (as a spectator).

There is another thread about how a kid has decided Berkeley is their "dream" school...when in fact I bet that kid will have a grand old time at UCLA, University of Washington, UC Boulder, etc.

The other issue I have is there are plenty of people who pick a college based on fit and then are looking to transfer after 1 year because your decision on a "fit" school is made with such incomplete information.

If someone can see the class sizes and here about the horrible student culture at Berkeley and decide that's their dream school, I believe it. UC Boulder is not similar to Berkeley at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fit certainly matters if you go somewhere small. A pre professional kid is not going to fit in at Hampshire, nor a pot smoking hippie kid at Washington and Lee.

I get that. But at bigger places, with classes even in the low thousands? The law of large numbers takes over. Your tribe will be somewhere to be found. Ranking, affordability, availability of majors, and location matter much more than fit for medium and large sized institutions, because they're big enough to fit many different types of kid.

In short, fit matters for SLACs, but not normal sized schools.

Thoughts?

I agree! I came to the same conclusion. And this is exclusively an American phenomenon. Rest of the world there is no such thing as a fit.

This is more like marketing to deflect from the pressure to get into top schools. This is more a calming technique to soothe anxious families that there is a college that uniquely suits their child.

If there really is a "fit", then we should be able to define it clearly, provide that criteria and publish it. So that any student can check it and have a ready list of "fit" colleges.

Now, every family is supposed to be on a journey of self exploration and find its own list of "fit" colleges.




People start foaming at the mouth if someone applies to two seemingly different schools.

I'm confused because we DO have these tools at our disposal.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/opinion/build-your-own-college-rankings.html
Add naviance and other resources I'm forgetting, these are all available assets for students. I do think many students are horrendous researchers and then incessantly complain about their college experiences. American students demand too much compared to other countries for a college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If anything is overrated, it’s rankings.

I agree. Having gone through the search process with several kids, rank is the least important factor. They really all do teach pretty much the same things, with a few schools having unique programs, and serious students have great outcomes at all of them. But the main the differentiator is fit: class size, location, activities and real opportunity for your child to participate, the feel/vibe/sense of the place, campus, and on the academic side the strength at the granular level of particular programs your child wants. That's fit. I think some people don't find fit an issue because they mostly care about rank, or they have average personality type kids who can find fit among the majority crowd of any college anywhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Visited more than a dozen schools with child 1 and five with number 2. Will they accept you? Does the school have your program? Can you see yourself here? Can mom and dad afford it? Honestly don't recall the term "fit" ever coming up. Don't want to be miserable, but it's only 4 (hopefully) years.

That is fit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fit certainly matters if you go somewhere small. A pre professional kid is not going to fit in at Hampshire, nor a pot smoking hippie kid at Washington and Lee.

I get that. But at bigger places, with classes even in the low thousands? The law of large numbers takes over. Your tribe will be somewhere to be found. Ranking, affordability, availability of majors, and location matter much more than fit for medium and large sized institutions, because they're big enough to fit many different types of kid.

In short, fit matters for SLACs, but not normal sized schools.

Thoughts?

I agree! I came to the same conclusion. And this is exclusively an American phenomenon. Rest of the world there is no such thing as a fit.

This is more like marketing to deflect from the pressure to get into top schools. This is more a calming technique to soothe anxious families that there is a college that uniquely suits their child.

If there really is a "fit", then we should be able to define it clearly, provide that criteria and publish it. So that any student can check it and have a ready list of "fit" colleges.

Now, every family is supposed to be on a journey of self exploration and find its own list of "fit" colleges.




People start foaming at the mouth if someone applies to two seemingly different schools.

I'm confused because we DO have these tools at our disposal.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/opinion/build-your-own-college-rankings.html
Add naviance and other resources I'm forgetting, these are all available assets for students. I do think many students are horrendous researchers and then incessantly complain about their college experiences. American students demand too much compared to other countries for a college.

I've never thought of it this way, but I agree. In other countries, you get buildings and classrooms. That's it, that's the experience. Some have more club cultures, but the emphasis is on education, not making a country club for you to have expensive dorms and the "perfect college experience." A lot of students come to college who aren't prepared. The amount of "this college doesn't give enough support" when colleges have massive writing centers, math centers, tutoring centers is ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Fit certainly matters if you go somewhere small. A pre professional kid is not going to fit in at Hampshire, nor a pot smoking hippie kid at Washington and Lee.

I get that. But at bigger places, with classes even in the low thousands? The law of large numbers takes over. Your tribe will be somewhere to be found. Ranking, affordability, availability of majors, and location matter much more than fit for medium and large sized institutions, because they're big enough to fit many different types of kid.

In short, fit matters for SLACs, but not normal sized schools.

Thoughts?

Largely. You don't really know as you never had that experience before. You might like the exact things you disliked on paper. Also you grow a lot between college tours and by end of freshman year.

[Anonymous]

Disagree. I found my friends at my large college, but I had a horrible experience because it was a cold, uncaring environment. I was really lost, and it was clear that no one cared. I think I’d have done much better at a smaller school where professors/ administrators had some knowledge of the students.

Fit is about more than just finding a good group of peers.