Can anyone please help understand what is the right fit for DS

[Anonymous]

Safeties: Pitt, Syracuse, Clemson
Target: Boston U, Wisconsin, UMD, UGA, UVA
Hard Target: Michigan, UCLA
Reach: Cornell

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are trying to understand what schools are the right fit, regardless of ranking.

DS is high stats (4.0 UW with as rigorous course load as anyone can be at his highly competitive HS, 1590 SAT first attempt), good EC's with leadership positions this year.

1. Interested in multiple subjects sciences, economics and linguistics.
2. Want to go to a school that is large, anything above 10,000 total students would be good
3. No real preference for rural/urban, visited both and likes different aspects of each
4. Full pay and any school is affordable

All the big schools seem to have all the majors, courses, clubs and career services available that he needs.

Say we are looking at UMD, U Pitt, UVA, Harvard and Yale, just as an example. All of them meet all the criteria and so do a ton of others.

I know there is no chance of getting into Harvard or Yale and I am asking this to understand the thought process. What other criteria can use to say UMD, Harvard, Yale, U Pitt or UVA are not a good fit. Is Harvard not a good fit for anyone on the off chance that they get admitted?

U Chicago, Rice, Duke, Vanderbilt.

[Anonymous]

How much does he want to do foreign languages as part of a linguistics major? Schools have different foreign language requirements. It may help him add or eliminate colleges.

[Anonymous]

I’ve got a kid at UMich now who’s a double major in Econ and something else. TBH the Econ undergraduate teaching here is pretty mediocre. No placement credit for AP Econ.

For other departments UMich is a great option but I don’t recommend the Econ here for OOS tuition.

[Anonymous]

I think campus culture and vibe can vary significantly. When evaluating schools, I asked my kid to look deeply at the major/requirements/faculty, to look into 3 clubs/activities that might interest them, to investigate how easy/difficult to get to school - sometimes schools that were a flight away were easier than rural schools in our region. For ex, we are from ny and cornell and other upstate schools are hard to acess vs schools along amtrak or short flights away. Ask current students how they spend their time and what if anything frustrates them? Is greek required for social access? I think the why x school essays were very helpful in terms of assessing fit. My kid also spoke with professors in their area of interest. Admissions also looks for fit, and stats are only part of the equation.

[Anonymous]

Hard to help unless you get over the large/medium distinction. Do you want a large public or a mid-size (Harvard, Yale)? And if mid-size is OK, it opens up a lot of options…otherwise the question is which state school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Think about weather, location wrt urban areas, sports teams, recreational opportunities, proximity to airport, will car be needed.
Cornell? Give me a break.

Why would you dismiss Cornell?

Awful weather. Depressing. The Gulch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Think about weather, location wrt urban areas, sports teams, recreational opportunities, proximity to airport, will car be needed.
Cornell? Give me a break.

Why would you dismiss Cornell?

Awful weather. Depressing. The Gulch.

Do Penn instead of Cornell.

[Anonymous]

Penn, Chicago, Northwestern

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP-
As others have mentioned you probably want to have him think more about the size issue with particular focus to the size of the undergraduate population. One problem is there generally only are small (3k or fewer), medium (5-10k, most in this bucket are @ 6k) and large (15-25K) these are mostly public schools.

Beyond looking at student totals what does he prefer in terms of classroom experience? Does he care about class size? What about clubs/activities? Are the things he is interested on offer with enough scope and variety, if yes size is probably fine.

To the issue of varied interest that can be a problem at schools where you apply to say the College of Engineering vs the College of Arts and Letters. This killed Northwestern for my DS because his interests were split between 2 schools and he was told that while he could take classes "across the line" he'd have lower priority than students in the other college. For this reason your DS might prefer those that in the single college model, Harvard and Yale both are but so are Rice and U Chicago.

The above highlighted portion is incorrect with respect to Northwestern University. Totally inaccurate !

Northwestern University has slightly more than 9,000 undergraduate students. Easy to cross-register among schools--other than Theater (rarely, if ever, accepts transfer students) & Music (music requires an audition). But, an engineering student can easily cross-register for courses in the college of arts & sciences. Very easy to double or triple major at Northwestern. Can also do one major and two minors.

The poster who suggested Northwestern, U Penn, & Chicago hit the nail on the head. Econ is outstanding at both Northwestern & Chicago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are trying to understand what schools are the right fit, regardless of ranking.

DS is high stats (4.0 UW with as rigorous course load as anyone can be at his highly competitive HS, 1590 SAT first attempt), good EC's with leadership positions this year.

1. Interested in multiple subjects sciences, economics and linguistics.
2. Want to go to a school that is large, anything above 10,000 total students would be good
3. No real preference for rural/urban, visited both and likes different aspects of each
4. Full pay and any school is affordable

All the big schools seem to have all the majors, courses, clubs and career services available that he needs.

Say we are looking at UMD, U Pitt, UVA, Harvard and Yale, just as an example. All of them meet all the criteria and so do a ton of others.

I know there is no chance of getting into Harvard or Yale and I am asking this to understand the thought process. What other criteria can use to say UMD, Harvard, Yale, U Pitt or UVA are not a good fit. Is Harvard not a good fit for anyone on the off chance that they get admitted?

Family member had to select among several elite schools during the application process. Had the strongest connections at H & Y which made admission more likely than not, but opted for another Top 10 university based on particular major.

[Anonymous]

Northwestern or Duke

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP-
As others have mentioned you probably want to have him think more about the size issue with particular focus to the size of the undergraduate population. One problem is there generally only are small (3k or fewer), medium (5-10k, most in this bucket are @ 6k) and large (15-25K) these are mostly public schools.

Beyond looking at student totals what does he prefer in terms of classroom experience? Does he care about class size? What about clubs/activities? Are the things he is interested on offer with enough scope and variety, if yes size is probably fine.

To the issue of varied interest that can be a problem at schools where you apply to say the College of Engineering vs the College of Arts and Letters. This killed Northwestern for my DS because his interests were split between 2 schools and he was told that while he could take classes "across the line" he'd have lower priority than students in the other college. For this reason your DS might prefer those that in the single college model, Harvard and Yale both are but so are Rice and U Chicago.

Not true for Northwestern. They encourage double majors across the schools. You just have to be accepted to both. I did it 30+ years ago and it continues today.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP-
As others have mentioned you probably want to have him think more about the size issue with particular focus to the size of the undergraduate population. One problem is there generally only are small (3k or fewer), medium (5-10k, most in this bucket are @ 6k) and large (15-25K) these are mostly public schools.

Beyond looking at student totals what does he prefer in terms of classroom experience? Does he care about class size? What about clubs/activities? Are the things he is interested on offer with enough scope and variety, if yes size is probably fine.

To the issue of varied interest that can be a problem at schools where you apply to say the College of Engineering vs the College of Arts and Letters. This killed Northwestern for my DS because his interests were split between 2 schools and he was told that while he could take classes "across the line" he'd have lower priority than students in the other college. For this reason your DS might prefer those that in the single college model, Harvard and Yale both are but so are Rice and U Chicago.

Not true for Northwestern. They encourage double majors across the schools. You just have to be accepted to both. I did it 30+ years ago and it continues today.

Other than for theater or music, I am not sure that this is accurate. (This was one reason given for the high academic credentials needed to major in theater and to be admitted to the School of Communications as one, after being accepted and matriculating, could just switch to engineering, SESP, or another college within Northwestern University.)

[Anonymous]

Northwestern. The quarter system allows kids to take more classes, which is an extra opportunity to explore different interests and mix with students in different schools. DC loved the campus and surrounding area, plus the proximity to Chicago.