College Fit - The Background

[Anonymous]

When parents talk about “fit” we all know what it really means: their kid can’t get into a top ranked school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kids go 4 years to high school without parents worrying too much about fit.

Suburban or urban or rural high does not seem to matter. Warm or cold weather does not seem to matter. Brick or gothic architecture does not seem to matter. Mountains or beach location does not seem to matter.

You just go to high school that is assigned to you. But once they turn 18, all the above seem to suddenly take an enormous importance. Things 20 years ago no one cared much about.

That is the fit fetish for you.

I disagree with this. Parents choose geography, town, and nature of the schools their children attend which can include the age of the school buildings for high school.

My choices for where to raise my kids included Midwest, a large town like Bethesda, 4 season weather including skiing, public schools (and okay with them not being selective), renovated older facilities - every building renovated within past 15 years plus a historical Collegiate Gothic middle school, and an easier district to get into the selective state flagship.

Kid #1 applied to 5 colleges. Looked at many more. Applied to 3 previously attended by family. Did not apply to dad's grad school. At the selective flagship now.

[Anonymous]

What do the anti-fit people think of the "Most happy freshman so far" thread? https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1303472.page

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When parents talk about “fit” we all know what it really means: their kid can’t get into a top ranked school.

My DS focused on fit, got into the most selective school along with several others, with choices among private, public and Catholic ones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What do the anti-fit people think of the "Most happy freshman so far" thread? https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1303472.page

My kid is one of the happy ones- at an Ivy so by this board's standards a prestige chasing "striver" but frankly that wasn't the case. It had great program in desired majors, perfect size for my DC, great location, great mix of extracurriculars. But my kid is adaptable and other than a few of the choices where I thought ultimately location would have been too limiting really would have been happy at any number of colleges.

[Anonymous]

You shoot an arrow, then paint an X on where it landed. That is nailing the fit per most parents.

[Anonymous]

If you are a family for whom tuition is the number one deciding factor, the “fit”conversation is very different than a family that has the financial freedom to pay full pay at highly selective/small $$$ schools. It’s not terribly different from those of us who send our kids to the 3000 student public high school vs those of us who opt for small private high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:20 years ago no one was talking about fit. The previous 50 years before that students and families were content to go college nearby. Then the fit craze got started by college counselors as something they can sell.

Fit was talked about at least 40 years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You shoot an arrow, then paint an X on where it landed. That is nailing the fit per most parents.

TBH this is a lot of what life is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:20 years ago no one was talking about fit. The previous 50 years before that students and families were content to go college nearby. Then the fit craze got started by college counselors as something they can sell.

Fit was talked about at least 40 years ago.

Actually 116 years ago in 1909 by Frank Parsons in his 1909 book Choosing a Vocation. But it was quite uncommon until the last 20 odd years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You shoot an arrow, then paint an X on where it landed. That is nailing the fit per most parents.

TBH this is a lot of what life is.

And that is not a bad thing- sort of key to happiness is to be able to live in the moment (obviously not talking about situations of poverty, abuse etc)

[Anonymous]

The $3 billion college counseling industry promoted this and people ate it up.

Just like many other fads.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You shoot an arrow, then paint an X on where it landed. That is nailing the fit per most parents.

TBH this is a lot of what life is.

And that is not a bad thing- sort of key to happiness is to be able to live in the moment (obviously not talking about situations of poverty, abuse etc)

Absolutely. But it makes no sense to worry and spend money on a fad promoted by the college counseling industry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you are a family for whom tuition is the number one deciding factor, the “fit”conversation is very different than a family that has the financial freedom to pay full pay at highly selective/small $$$ schools. It’s not terribly different from those of us who send our kids to the 3000 student public high school vs those of us who opt for small private high school.

Raising my 🤚

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You shoot an arrow, then paint an X on where it landed. That is nailing the fit per most parents.

TBH this is a lot of what life is.

And that is not a bad thing- sort of key to happiness is to be able to live in the moment (obviously not talking about situations of poverty, abuse etc)

Absolutely. But it makes no sense to worry and spend money on a fad promoted by the college counseling industry.

+1