Anyone change their mind on a school based on too many kids from HS attending?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC turned down UMD-CS with merits For this reason, I think it is stupid

You were stupid for permitting this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I told my kid that was a dumb reason to reject a school. There are over 20,000 kids at one of the schools he likes. Even if 20 kids from his high school class went, it would be a minuscule amount of his total class and the total number of students. It would be silly for him to not go to a school that he really liked just because of such a small number.

+1 they are too immature to understand this. Their entire world is just their HS, and so they cannot fathom what a 20k school would be like. They probably think they would see the same HS kids everyday, in every class, in the dining halls.. And that is not the case.

[Anonymous]

Not pivoting, but I am concerned about the “13th grade” issue. My friends with kids at big schools and lots of HS peers say it isn’t an issue (they don’t really run into the other kids from their HS).

[Anonymous]

Me 30 years ago. Any school that attracted a lot of kids from my HS was off the list - Brown, Wesleyan, Vassar and Skidmore top among them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC turned down UMD-CS with merits For this reason, I think it is stupid

My MCPS kid flat-out refused to even apply. Honestly, I couldn't blame her. I wouldn't have wanted to go to school in the next suburb over when I was 18, either.

UMD CS is top 20. Thrown in merit aid, and it's a no brainer. If you didn't want to go to a T20 school because you might see some kids from your HS in a school that has like 40K students, then you were too immature to make that call.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not pivoting, but I am concerned about the “13th grade” issue. My friends with kids at big schools and lots of HS peers say it isn’t an issue (they don’t really run into the other kids from their HS).

This is what I tell my DD, a junior. We're at a big MCPS HS and she thinks UMD would be like 13th grade and that's she'll run into a bunch of her HS peers and kids from other MCPS high schools. I told her this is crazy. Going from 2500 kids to 20,000+ is a huge difference and besides, she'd be lucky to get into UMD anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC has a probable top choice (currently deferred) it's a large state school.

Besides a few kids already in, there are probably 20 others waiting to hear. Having 10 other kids from the school all together and dealing with rush etc doesn't seem super appealing.

Curious if anyone pivoted based on this.

What does this have to do with rush?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC has a probable top choice (currently deferred) it's a large state school.

Besides a few kids already in, there are probably 20 others waiting to hear. Having 10 other kids from the school all together and dealing with rush etc doesn't seem super appealing.

Curious if anyone pivoted based on this.

What does this have to do with rush?

dp.. guessing that they think they will see the same HS kids at rush, and greek orgs are not very big. So, it would truly be like HS 2.0 if the greek org is full of the same HS kids. And if they had social issues with those other kids, then that could be an issue.

But, I'm thinking those orgs don't have a whole lot of kids from the same HS.

[Anonymous]

My DC did not go to UMD-CP, but a large cohort from their MCPS high school did. My kid says many of them just hang out with their same friend group from HS and haven’t really branched out. It is too easy to stay in your comfort zone if you don’t have to put yourself out there and meet new people.

[Anonymous]

I went to Chapel Hill 20 years ago, as did about 50 kids from my gigantic high school in Charlotte.

It's a total non issue. As others have said, these are huge schools. It was nice to have a few friendly faces around to ease the transition at first, and everyone was so happy with their college experience.

[Anonymous]

UVA. I made this choice and was like you can't pay me to attend. I ran across the country to California for undergrad.

Hilariously, I was thrilled to attend medical school/PhD program there because it was the best of the two admissions I netted during that process.

Weirdly, I still ran into people I knew from home. Even weirder I was my little brother's friends TA. Life is strange that way, lol.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC has a probable top choice (currently deferred) it's a large state school.

Besides a few kids already in, there are probably 20 others waiting to hear. Having 10 other kids from the school all together and dealing with rush etc doesn't seem super appealing.

Curious if anyone pivoted based on this.

What does this have to do with rush?

dp.. guessing that they think they will see the same HS kids at rush, and greek orgs are not very big. So, it would truly be like HS 2.0 if the greek org is full of the same HS kids. And if they had social issues with those other kids, then that could be an issue.

But, I'm thinking those orgs don't have a whole lot of kids from the same HS.

This was my DD's issue with a couple schools she considered. They were generally smaller schools so it's not like a 30K+ university where you'd have to try to stay connected to HS friends. At these two schools (one LAC, one midsize) kids she knew from HS would be in the band with her and she really wanted a completely fresh start. These schools were also at the top of our budget and weren't her favorite in the major program so it was just one more reason to take them off the list. If they'd had a fabulous program for her major and were among the lower cost choices I'd have wanted her to give a lot more thought to a pretty trivial reason IMO. These were not kids she had any big issues with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC turned down UMD-CS with merits For this reason, I think it is stupid

You were stupid for permitting this.

Agree. At a big school you are not going to see anyone from HS unless you want to

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC turned down UMD-CS with merits For this reason, I think it is stupid

You were stupid for permitting this.

Agree. At a big school you are not going to see anyone from HS unless you want to

+1 DS is at a 30K+ university and is still very close with a couple friends from home (friends since 1st grade and they now live together off campus) but he never sees anyone else from high school. You have to make an effort to see people, unless you happen to be in the same extracurricular or a small major.

[Anonymous]

DS doesn't even know everyone from his own (large public) high school class. Other kids have been admitted to the same university as him, and he doesn't know them. It's just not an issue.