If you could turn back time (college prep and choice)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you could turn the clock back a few years, what would you have done differently in prepping and choosing a college? Either for yourself or your child..

I chose a good, but easy school where I got a very large academic scholarship; I got into 2 IVYs but let money (my parents) decide. If I could do it again, I would have gone IVY and took out loans. The prestige would have helped me to land better jobs/grad school etc.

I wish I'd started in Calculus I instead of blithely assuming that the calculus class at my mediocre high school
had prepared me for Calculus II.

I also wish I'd spent more time exploring the town around my school.

HA! I did this too! I was very good in high school math and attended an Ivy. My 5 on the AP AB calc test allowed me to skip into a harder class with mostly sophomores. I think it was a combo the class difficulty and the transition from my small private where I knew all my teachers to large, anonymous lecture halls. I was so crushed by that class and the C+ grade I never took another math class in college. In grad school for policy I did stats and regression analysis and found my joy for math again.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I turned down Williams and went to an Ivy. I don’t really regret that decision but I wish I’d had the chance to experience Williams as well. A SLAC in a small town would have been a different experience.

I went to Middlebury and have had graduates of Duke, Stanford and Columnia all tell me they wished they went to Miss instead. I think they longed for the small SLAC experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I would have liked to have a done a gap year. I wasn't ready to go away from home at 18. I ended up going to school very close to home. It made it very easy to come home on the weekends or in the evening if I wanted. In hindsight, I wish I took a year off to go to cc and then went far away to college.

Good thing you didn't! Such a bad idea for most people! Unless a student has a specific task/goal in mind, like building houses for charity or working on a political campaign, there is a very real risk of losing momentum and the rhythm of being a student. I'm not sure why gap years are so constantly suggested on DCUM.

+1,000

[Anonymous]

Everything worked out pretty well for us. My personal do-overs wrt HS were inflicted on DC. Three worked well — more/better/earlier science and foreign language instruction and ECs that could realistically be lifelong interests. One I regret — more challenging HS.

Re college. Process ended up being very easy on us. Key thing I think we did right from a peace of mind/lower the stakes perspective was identified safety schools DC would have been delighted to attend. The toughest thing was the EA/ED decision, especially after lots of rhetoric re “the one” is a really stupid way to approach college admissions.

[Anonymous]

I didn't study for my SATs but did well enough to get into a top 25 university. My dad refused to pay anything for it even though he had the means (since women just end up SAHMs) so I ended up at a tier 3 university. I was a big fish in a small pond at that university and did really well. I got lots of opportunities because I was a stand out student with a 4.0, student body prez, board of trustee member, and did tons of research with good peer reviewed publications. This propelled me forward with a full fellowship for my PhD and then a law degree from a top school. I'm very happy with where I landed.

I do, however, look back and wonder what would have happened if I'd gone to a better school for undergrad. I was a finalist for a Rhodes Scholarship coming out of undergrad, but lost out in the final round. It would have been a first for my university, so I was navigating the highly competitive Rhodes process with zero guidance. I think I would have been more competitive with a bit of advice about what I was supposed to know and do. Candidates from other schools had beem heavily prepped and groomed. Sometimes I wish that I'd studied for the SAT so I could have gotten a full scholarship to the top 25 university and not been held back by my father. Oh well, I haven't let him hold me back since then. That was the last time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I turned down Williams and went to an Ivy. I don’t really regret that decision but I wish I’d had the chance to experience Williams as well. A SLAC in a small town would have been a different experience.

I went to Middlebury and have had graduates of Duke, Stanford and Columnia all tell me they wished they went to Miss instead. I think they longed for the small SLAC experience.

I think this is interesting. I have a rising senior and I can't get her interested in SLACs to save my soul. She sees them as nothing but an extension of high school and wants nothing to do with them. I've made her tour both Swat and Middlebury and she thinks they seem as boring as hell. What is she missing? I can't impart that information to her because I went to a large state university.

[Anonymous]

I went to a highly-ranked liberal arts public school in state. Majored in business. If I had to do it all again, I would have gone to the other state school and majored in computer science.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I turned down Williams and went to an Ivy. I don’t really regret that decision but I wish I’d had the chance to experience Williams as well. A SLAC in a small town would have been a different experience.

I went to Middlebury and have had graduates of Duke, Stanford and Columnia all tell me they wished they went to Miss instead. I think they longed for the small SLAC experience.

I think this is interesting. I have a rising senior and I can't get her interested in SLACs to save my soul. She sees them as nothing but an extension of high school and wants nothing to do with them. I've made her tour both Swat and Middlebury and she thinks they seem as boring as hell. What is she missing? I can't impart that information to her because I went to a large state university.

She's not "missing" anything. She's just not you. My spouse went to an SLAC and enjoyed it, but I would have been miserable there. I went to an urban Ivy and it was the right school for me.

[Anonymous]

For me...I had a fantastic college experience at a Big State U party school and I wouldn’t trade that experience for the world. I had an amount of fun that should be illegal but also excelled academically after nearly flunking out of high school.

That said...what would I want my kids to do differently? Number one, smoke WAY less weed (ideally none at all, ha)/don’t do drugs; not fail classes; play a sport. I was fortunate that my parents paid for my schooling and I hope we can pay for theirs, but I also hope they get scholarships and/or go in-state. I hope they choose a major they are interested in that will be lucrative for them. I would strongly discourage them from doing something like journalism, which is, of course, what I studied and do for a living

[Anonymous]

WOuld have bought bitcoin. Then no college needed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I turned down Williams and went to an Ivy. I don’t really regret that decision but I wish I’d had the chance to experience Williams as well. A SLAC in a small town would have been a different experience.

I went to Middlebury and have had graduates of Duke, Stanford and Columnia all tell me they wished they went to Miss instead. I think they longed for the small SLAC experience.

I think this is interesting. I have a rising senior and I can't get her interested in SLACs to save my soul. She sees them as nothing but an extension of high school and wants nothing to do with them. I've made her tour both Swat and Middlebury and she thinks they seem as boring as hell. What is she missing? I can't impart that information to her because I went to a large state university.

Boring how? It’s not fundamentally different once you get past the suckfest of the SLAC football games. Make friends. Get drunk with new friends. Learn stuff. Do sports/clubs/activities. Repeat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I turned down Williams and went to an Ivy. I don’t really regret that decision but I wish I’d had the chance to experience Williams as well. A SLAC in a small town would have been a different experience.

I went to Middlebury and have had graduates of Duke, Stanford and Columnia all tell me they wished they went to Miss instead. I think they longed for the small SLAC experience.

I think ppl from small private school classes want the same in the SLAC experience.

[Anonymous]

I would have invented parents who could pay for my college instead of having to go to Dummy State U and commute. I paid my own way with no loans.

[Anonymous]

I think we got it wrong for DD, but not sure how to have done it differently.

[Anonymous]

I would have set a smaller radius