Parents of college students…

[Anonymous]

I think fit is feeling driven by a combo of:

Ranking
Location
Size
Strength in your major
Greek/ not Greek
Demographics

It’s how you feel about telling people you go there, and how much a part of the school you feel. That’s why there’s no magic school that fits everyone.

[Anonymous]

Yes amazingly all of my kids found the right fit.
Even though they have all graduated I'm still shocked no one transferred.

For all of my kids we started with how far away from home they wanted to go and the size of the campus. And obviously what major they wanted. But each of them had very specific, different criteria they wanted: big city, small town, small campus, rah rah school, warmer weather, etc.
For two of my kids who were Stem majors, getting into their major as a freshman was a HUGE part of what made the school they chose the right fit. Even though they didn't realize how important it was at the time, looking back it was so helpful. One chose a very inner city school. The other a more traditional campus in a rural community. Both decided not to go to a higher ranked, more prestigious school for different reasons. One because the inner city school was a better fit personality wise. The other because they could not apply to their major until after sophomore year.

My other kids were athletes and that had a lot to do with why it was a right fit. So all of them found their "people" and I think that had a lot to do with the right fit for them. That's what I always tell everyone-if they can find their group, it will usually end up a good fit.

[Anonymous]

My high stats kid is also an athlete. Being an athletic nerd is not all it’s cracked up to be, except when your dream school recruits you. Kid ended up at Hopkins and loves it there.

[Anonymous]

Fit for my kid meant being admitted to the honors college at a lower “ranked” public university, rather than squeaking into a higher status university. He is getting phenomenal resources and the benefits of the small program within a large school.

[Anonymous]

Good fit meant that it was the right size school and the people were very much another version of my DS. My DS was admitted to higher rank schools but ultimately picked the one that felt more in line with his future achievement goals

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe it would ruin the vibe of this post, but I would love it if folks would post the name of their perfect fit schools.

There is no perfect fit school. It's an individual thing. One student's perfect fit is hated by others. Depends on the kid.

[Anonymous]

My DD loved liberal arts type colleges for their focus on arts, humanities, social sciences and natural sciences. She also had strong preferences in weather, location, and campus vibes. Naturally she picked the Claremont colleges and it turned out perfect for her.

[Anonymous]

For my current freshman, we started with a list of schools that offered dance as a major or minor. We cross checked niche for chance of admissions (she was not the greatest student due to LDs) and availability of her second area of interest, exercise science/kinesiology.

She attended dance intensives at 3 of the schools she considered and we visited several other campuses.

In the end, she wound up at the perfect school for her. It’s a school well known for their supports for neurodivergent students, has a T30 Dance program (my child received a talent scholarship to attend) and amazing resources for their exercise science students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think fit is feeling driven by a combo of:

Ranking
Location
Size
Strength in your major
Greek/ not Greek
Demographics

It’s how you feel about telling people you go there, and how much a part of the school you feel. That’s why there’s no magic school that fits everyone.

Ranking has nothing to do with fit -- it's the opposite. You use ranking as a fall back when you can't figure out where you fit, or when you thing you could fit in anywhere, or when ranking is what really matters to you (fyi rankings change).

[Anonymous]

I went to a top 10 school on athletic scholarship. Incredibly poor. My mentors were union guys where I worked in the summer. They worked two jobs to send their kids to the local public university. No concerns about fit, just hustling to afford the local school.

A significant majority in this country are in this boat.

One hopes that with a family searching for fit, they realized just how fortunate they are. Concerns about the Greek system, campus environment and social factors are a relative luxury.

This is not to say that all families playing the admissions game are elitist - many are just looking out for their kids. But the elites set the rules and and many have no idea of the struggles of people who come from very little and break though.

[Anonymous]

Fit for my kids is where they can study what they want to study, be happy, and find ways to make friends and actually do the ECs they like. They are not party kids or spectator sports enthusiasts, so "anywhere will do" is not true. We also wanted a small school, so only listed schools smaller than 6K. We visited and narrowed schools this way and ended up with 5 admissions, and he'd have been happy at any of them. From there he went with the one that seemed to offer the best combination of courses for what he wanted to do (which was the middle one of the usual ranking system). Soon to graduate, and I've never known him to be happier all around. It was an excellent choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went to a top 10 school on athletic scholarship. Incredibly poor. My mentors were union guys where I worked in the summer. They worked two jobs to send their kids to the local public university. No concerns about fit, just hustling to afford the local school.

A significant majority in this country are in this boat.

One hopes that with a family searching for fit, they realized just how fortunate they are. Concerns about the Greek system, campus environment and social factors are a relative luxury.

This is not to say that all families playing the admissions game are elitist - many are just looking out for their kids. But the elites set the rules and and many have no idea of the struggles of people who come from very little and break though.

Of course they know, many of us were those kids once.

[Anonymous]

For us, we had priorities. Proximity to public transportation, proximity to a city with museums and cultural scene, less than 3 hrs drive to home. After acceptances came in, the offers of scholarships defined the final choices. Then we visited and determined if it was doable - nice dorms, nice food, etc.
it doesn’t really matter if they “find their people”, they are there for an education and it’s only a few years.
There were other schools we preferred but they didn’t offer as much money, so they were eliminated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went to a top 10 school on athletic scholarship. Incredibly poor. My mentors were union guys where I worked in the summer. They worked two jobs to send their kids to the local public university. No concerns about fit, just hustling to afford the local school.

A significant majority in this country are in this boat.

One hopes that with a family searching for fit, they realized just how fortunate they are. Concerns about the Greek system, campus environment and social factors are a relative luxury.

This is not to say that all families playing the admissions game are elitist - many are just looking out for their kids. But the elites set the rules and and many have no idea of the struggles of people who come from very little and break though.

Of course they know, many of us were those kids once.

Yes, many of us were those kids (nerd scholly for me, not athletic). And we escaped that socioeconomic/class level because of the top-10 education and offerings and 100% acknowledge it is a luxury to let your kids pick for fit and happily pay the 90k.

[Anonymous]

My DC is at their dream school (thank goodness it worked out!). Fit for DC was big city, lots of stuff to do on campus and off campus, weather, friendly happy students, smart social and driven but not totally introverted or geeky. They would have been fine at any of their safeties and targets as well bc we picked schools of similar profile. I’m not sure how a student applies to 20 schools because at some point I think you’re chasing prestige or a name over real fit.