Did anyone's kid choose quality of life/social factors over prestige?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Agree with others that it is amazing that there are this many pages nitpicking the differences between these schools. In the grand scheme of things they are basically the same and personal fit should drive the decision.

Anyone who thinks they are such an expert that they can analyze nuanced differences, particularly with regard to a person they don't know, knows nothing.

There have been several posters in the fields op’s dd is interested in who have said Penn is considered a tier above uva in recruiting.

And that’s not surprising, but OP’s kid is more likely to shine at UVA than at Penn and that should erase the difference. A strong student at UVA has as many doors open to her as any school anywhere.

OP said her kid "wants to probably live on the East coast (big reason for declining Berkeley), probably either in consulting or finance or tech"

If that is a major issue for OP and her kid, Penn will offer far more professional opportunities due solely to the number of successful alums who have founded hedge funds and boutique PE, Investment Banks and other companies and basically only recruit at Penn (lots of Wharton, but they like SEAS too).

They each don't hire that many kids, but when you add them all up it comes to a fairly large number.

UVA has the equivalent on a smaller scale, and yes all the large finance companies recruit at UVA as well as Penn.

Baloney. UVA has a strong presence in NYC and the school is very well respected there.

You literally didn't even read the post. This is about boutique financial firms founded by Penn alums that basically only recruit at Penn.

UVA probably has some, but on a smaller scale.

This had nothing to do with "respect" or a strong presence or not in NYC.

Don’t even bother, the rabid UVA supporter(s) can’t process that there is a difference between recruiting from Ivy League schools and UVA. They will argue to the contrary til the cows come home.

I’m not arguing that there isn’t a difference. I’m arguing that it’s not so meaningful that it should be the sole criteria or even primary criteria when deciding which school to attend, especially for a student with the personality/interests
that OP has described.

She’s not choosing between Wharton and Temple with an eye towards NYC. She’s choosing between Penn/non-Wharton and UVA, a school that NYC families are banging the doors down to enroll their kids. And, as I have said before, we’re talking about a kid who has already turned down Northwestern. Obviously she’s a smart - and outgoing - kid who we can reasonably predict will likely graduate closer to the top of the class than the bottom. If she wants NYC, it will be available to her.

Penn SEAS grads are highly coveted…that’s what we are talking about (vs CAS) grads.

BTW she can do an uncoordinated dual degree fairly easily with Wharton if she decides to do that after freshman year.

NYC families are banging down the doors at lots of schools…including UPenn…so not sure what that matters.

+++ grads and current students’ success getting summer jobs it is incredible

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree with others that it is amazing that there are this many pages nitpicking the differences between these schools. In the grand scheme of things they are basically the same and personal fit should drive the decision.

Anyone who thinks they are such an expert that they can analyze nuanced differences, particularly with regard to a person they don't know, knows nothing.

This exactly!

There have been several posters in the fields op’s dd is interested in who have said Penn is considered a tier above uva in recruiting.

It is, 100% a tier above but that does not make Penn a good fit for this student. From all OP has said, UVA is the fit here. Fit matters more than recruiting. The two schools are vastly different: i have a current Penn seas and a recent UVA grad(stem but not engineering). The UVA kid would have drowned at Penn. That DC got top internships at UVA compared to other uva students and ivy students were some of the people at one of the internships. Now of course they did not get in to ivies(they did get into Michigan and ucla but picked uva). My penn seas DD would not fit at all at UVA nor would most of her Penn friends.
Know your kid OP.

This exactly! Penn is the stronger school and takes a certain type to succeed and want that more intense environment. UVA is also very good and less intense. Fit matters for success.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree with others that it is amazing that there are this many pages nitpicking the differences between these schools. In the grand scheme of things they are basically the same and personal fit should drive the decision.

Anyone who thinks they are such an expert that they can analyze nuanced differences, particularly with regard to a person they don't know, knows nothing.

There have been several posters in the fields op’s dd is interested in who have said Penn is considered a tier above uva in recruiting.

And that’s not surprising, but OP’s kid is more likely to shine at UVA than at Penn and that should erase the difference. A strong student at UVA has as many doors open to her as any school anywhere.

OP said her kid "wants to probably live on the East coast (big reason for declining Berkeley), probably either in consulting or finance or tech"

If that is a major issue for OP and her kid, Penn will offer far more professional opportunities due solely to the number of successful alums who have founded hedge funds and boutique PE, Investment Banks and other companies and basically only recruit at Penn (lots of Wharton, but they like SEAS too).

They each don't hire that many kids, but when you add them all up it comes to a fairly large number.

UVA has the equivalent on a smaller scale, and yes all the large finance companies recruit at UVA as well as Penn.

Baloney. UVA has a strong presence in NYC and the school is very well respected there.

You literally didn't even read the post. This is about boutique financial firms founded by Penn alums that basically only recruit at Penn.

UVA probably has some, but on a smaller scale.

This had nothing to do with "respect" or a strong presence or not in NYC.

Don’t even bother, the rabid UVA supporter(s) can’t process that there is a difference between recruiting from Ivy League schools and UVA. They will argue to the contrary til the cows come home.

I’m not arguing that there isn’t a difference. I’m arguing that it’s not so meaningful that it should be the sole criteria or even primary criteria when deciding which school to attend, especially for a student with the personality/interests
that OP has described.

She’s not choosing between Wharton and Temple with an eye towards NYC. She’s choosing between Penn/non-Wharton and UVA, a school that NYC families are banging the doors down to enroll their kids. And, as I have said before, we’re talking about a kid who has already turned down Northwestern. Obviously she’s a smart - and outgoing - kid who we can reasonably predict will likely graduate closer to the top of the class than the bottom. If she wants NYC, it will be available to her.

Penn SEAS grads are highly coveted…that’s what we are talking about (vs CAS) grads.

BTW she can do an uncoordinated dual degree fairly easily with Wharton if she decides to do that after freshman year.

NYC families are banging down the doors at lots of schools…including UPenn…so not sure what that matters.

UVA grads do just fine in NYC too. That’s the point. There’s plenty of room for them as well.

Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Wellesley and UVA hold joint admissions sessions every year.

https://apply.princeton.edu/portal/upcoming_virtualevents?id=139c44b9-9087-4e92-80a5-40233a22518d

Yale and UVA share the same club facilities in NYC.

https://www.yaleclubnyc.org/affiliates/uva

Clearly the Ivy League itself doesn’t consider UVA to be Podunk U.

So at a simple level…if Penn provides 1.25-to-1.5X the opportunities of UVA for finance on the East Coast and let’s say those career opportunities are one of the top 3 reasons for picking a college…then it’s a harder decision.

If that’s #10 on the list…then UVA is a no brainer it would seem in this situation.

[Anonymous]

Making decisions solely or primarily on USNWR rankings has been a disaster for U.S. higher education. It has resulted in a decrease in competition and higher prices - significantly higher than anywhere else in the world.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Making decisions solely or primarily on USNWR rankings has been a disaster for U.S. higher education. It has resulted in a decrease in competition and higher prices - significantly higher than anywhere else in the world.

For sure. But this kid is interested in a career in finance or consulting, which are dinosaur industries that continue to recruit based on a defunct magazine's rankings. IB and MBB are all about the old timey magazine rankings. It will always be 1997 for them. So... play or don't play. In their world, Penn is superior to UVA regardless of a student's talents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC chose Pomona over UChicago. No regrets so far.

Thing is you would never know the subtle advantages that the latter would bestow ….

[Anonymous]

Fair or not, I associate Penn with Trump and Musk and can't stand that about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Fair or not, I associate Penn with Trump and Musk and can't stand that about it.

Well, that is just plain silly and no one cares what you think

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fair or not, I associate Penn with Trump and Musk and can't stand that about it.

Well, that is just plain silly and no one cares what you think

You do or else you would not have responded.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Making decisions solely or primarily on USNWR rankings has been a disaster for U.S. higher education. It has resulted in a decrease in competition and higher prices - significantly higher than anywhere else in the world.

You know that everyone on this forum talki1ng about T5/10/50/100, etc. schools is referring to the USNWR rankings, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Making decisions solely or primarily on USNWR rankings has been a disaster for U.S. higher education. It has resulted in a decrease in competition and higher prices - significantly higher than anywhere else in the world.

You know that everyone on this forum talki1ng about T5/10/50/100, etc. schools is referring to the USNWR rankings, right?

No kidding.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Fair or not, I associate Penn with Trump and Musk and can't stand that about it.

They also have Luigi Mangione, Michael Milken, and Raj Rajaratnam.

[Anonymous]

UVA has a business school? Is it new?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fair or not, I associate Penn with Trump and Musk and can't stand that about it.

They also have Luigi Mangione, Michael Milken, and Raj Rajaratnam.

I struggle with the idea if Penn is a force for good or evil…

[Anonymous]

Wharton -Penn that is