So tired of people referring to a school, ANY school as a "good school"

[Anonymous]

Seriously people what exactly makes up a good school? To 90% of you it is the reputation- every one of the more notable schools has one. I cannot stand and cringe i hear a school being brought up to hear someone say "yep that's a great school" or "that's not a really good school".

To me ANY school that has a legit staff with professors with advanced teaching the courses and trying in earnest to shape young lives deserved to be respected bad treated as "a good school"

I feel at one point in the future, might not be in my lifetime, this notion of what is good and what is not will fall out of favor. There are loads of brilliant kids at mediocre schools. Some are lucky enough to go onto great graduate schools, some take advantage of job opportunities,etc...some are born luckier than others.

I for one, went to what is considered be a status school. I was lucky enough to be born into a very wealthy family and didn't have to work very hard, i knew no matter how I did I was covered. I am embarrassed to say it now but that is the truth. I look at my husband who came from nothing went to a mediocre state school but did brilliantly and was accepted for law school at a premiere institution (ivy league). He has come so far and we talk a lot about how people always turned their nose at his choice of undergrad but it really wasn't a choice. One of his best friends went to Deep Springs. Never heard of it? You might be surprised if you google it.

My own D is now looking at schools and has a very unique and decidedly progressive thinking approach to college. She is her fathers child, very very smart, most say she could go anywhere but we are allowing her to choose her school. Not on what is considered to be "good" or "the best" or prestige based and ironically one school she is considering is a school often referred to as a decent school (thought its top 50) but catering to a certain type of kid. Not saying which.....but we are letting this be HER decision. I know even if she were to attend a community college, she would do incredibly well and it just got me thinking about how hung up we are on saying what school is good, great, etc....and it is now a real pet peeve of mine to hear schools labeled this way (often inaccurately). There will get off my soapbox now!

[Anonymous]

Amen to that.

[Anonymous]

Please take a writing course. Thank you.

[Anonymous]

So "good school" is out, but "premier institution" is ok? Gotcha.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seriously people what exactly makes up a good school? To 90% of you it is the reputation- every one of the more notable schools has one. I cannot stand and cringe i hear a school being brought up to hear someone say "yep that's a great school" or "that's not a really good school".

To me ANY school that has a legit staff with professors with advanced teaching the courses and trying in earnest to shape young lives deserved to be respected bad treated as "a good school"

I feel at one point in the future, might not be in my lifetime, this notion of what is good and what is not will fall out of favor. There are loads of brilliant kids at mediocre schools. Some are lucky enough to go onto great graduate schools, some take advantage of job opportunities,etc...some are born luckier than others.

I for one, went to what is considered be a status school. I was lucky enough to be born into a very wealthy family and didn't have to work very hard, i knew no matter how I did I was covered. I am embarrassed to say it now but that is the truth. I look at my husband who came from nothing went to a mediocre state school but did brilliantly and was accepted for law school at a premiere institution (ivy league). He has come so far and we talk a lot about how people always turned their nose at his choice of undergrad but it really wasn't a choice. One of his best friends went to Deep Springs. Never heard of it? You might be surprised if you google it.

My own D is now looking at schools and has a very unique and decidedly progressive thinking approach to college. She is her fathers child, very very smart, most say she could go anywhere but we are allowing her to choose her school. Not on what is considered to be "good" or "the best" or prestige based and ironically one school she is considering is a school often referred to as a decent school (thought its top 50) but catering to a certain type of kid. Not saying which.....but we are letting this be HER decision. I know even if she were to attend a community college, she would do incredibly well and it just got me thinking about how hung up we are on saying what school is good, great, etc....and it is now a real pet peeve of mine to hear schools labeled this way (often inaccurately). There will get off my soapbox now!

I recognize your posts and you've talked about your "brilliant" (no other adjective suffices) husband and his "mediocre" state school literally dozens of times. It's really almost as if you're trying to convince yourself that his lack of pedigree is acceptable. Maybe this is a conversation you need to have with some of your own relatives, but do you really have to recycle it on DCUM every other week?

[Anonymous]

You are very sad, I hope your daughter did, in fact, take after your husband. Btw, you should know that something is either unique or its not, though maybe that is a lesson you missed somewhere along the line.

[Anonymous]

You need to chill out, OP, you protest too much. What comes through to me is "I came from a certain family and went to a certain kind of school and my daughter has rejected all that and i feel the need to tell the whole world that its OK because I'm afraid people will judge me."

It isn't about you.

There are a lot of good schools out there (there, I said it!). Anyone who is hung up on a very small number is out of touch with what is going on now with college admissions. And anyone who has had a child go through it knows whats going on with college admissions. Stop making excuses for your DD. She sounds fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seriously people what exactly makes up a good school? To 90% of you it is the reputation- every one of the more notable schools has one. I cannot stand and cringe i hear a school being brought up to hear someone say "yep that's a great school" or "that's not a really good school".

To me ANY school that has a legit staff with professors with advanced teaching the courses and trying in earnest to shape young lives deserved to be respected bad treated as "a good school"

I feel at one point in the future, might not be in my lifetime, this notion of what is good and what is not will fall out of favor. There are loads of brilliant kids at mediocre schools. Some are lucky enough to go onto great graduate schools, some take advantage of job opportunities,etc...some are born luckier than others.

I for one, went to what is considered be a status school. I was lucky enough to be born into a very wealthy family and didn't have to work very hard, i knew no matter how I did I was covered. I am embarrassed to say it now but that is the truth. I look at my husband who came from nothing went to a mediocre state school but did brilliantly and was accepted for law school at a premiere institution (ivy league). He has come so far and we talk a lot about how people always turned their nose at his choice of undergrad but it really wasn't a choice. One of his best friends went to Deep Springs. Never heard of it? You might be surprised if you google it.

My own D is now looking at schools and has a very unique and decidedly progressive thinking approach to college. She is her fathers child, very very smart, most say she could go anywhere but we are allowing her to choose her school. Not on what is considered to be "good" or "the best" or prestige based and ironically one school she is considering is a school often referred to as a decent school (thought its top 50) but catering to a certain type of kid. Not saying which.....but we are letting this be HER decision. I know even if she were to attend a community college, she would do incredibly well and it just got me thinking about how hung up we are on saying what school is good, great, etc....and it is now a real pet peeve of mine to hear schools labeled this way (often inaccurately). There will get off my soapbox now!

YES! EXACTLY.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You are very sad, I hope your daughter did, in fact, take after your husband. Btw, you should know that something is either unique or its not, though maybe that is a lesson you missed somewhere along the line.

Huh? how is OP sad. She isn't so far off base here, yes people have gotten way too hung on passing judgements on schools they know nothing about unless its got a certain number next to it in US NEWS. Your comment makes no sense, who is talking about something being unique or not. There is a lot of weirdness on these boards.

[Anonymous]

Well, any time someone feels it is necessary to take to a forum (anonymous no less) at length to justify the decision her poor daughter is making while making it clear that she is thumbing her nose at snobbery and just how wonderful her husband is despite the mediocre school he went to . . . that strikes me as sad. She also worked in that her husband made it to the Ivy league for grad school, not sure how that is consistent with forging your own path but whatever, as they say. Schools really do vary in the opportunities they create for their students and I think it is crazy to ignore that, but it is also the case, that many people can thrive wherever they end up. As for unique, she said her daughter had a "very unique" perspective and that is why I was noting that one is either unique or not but no one is very unique.

[Anonymous]

I think the OP is a bored nanny who speaks English as a second language and doesn't know verb tenses. Maybe she's writing about the people she works for.

[Anonymous]

I believe a person can receive an excellent education at most colleges. However, historically students who graduated from elite universities have had a distinct advantage when applying to graduate schools which them led to higher percentages of their grads enjoying prestigious and lucrative careers.

I think this is changing. College admissions are becoming so competitive these days that tier 2 schools are also loaded with very smart and capable students who will one day manage Fortune 500 companies and they will be hiring graduates from their Alma maters as well. Also, many students in the future will be attending colleges on line. So the special quality of attending "elite colleges" is beginning to diminish.

Don't get me wrong, Harvard will not be going out of business next week, but in 30 years attending Harvard will not be nearly as revered as it is today.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I believe a person can receive an excellent education at most colleges. However, historically students who graduated from elite universities have had a distinct advantage when applying to graduate schools which them led to higher percentages of their grads enjoying prestigious and lucrative careers.

I think this is changing. College admissions are becoming so competitive these days that tier 2 schools are also loaded with very smart and capable students who will one day manage Fortune 500 companies and they will be hiring graduates from their Alma maters as well. Also, many students in the future will be attending colleges on line. So the special quality of attending "elite colleges" is beginning to diminish.

Don't get me wrong, Harvard will not be going out of business next week, but in 30 years attending Harvard will not be nearly as revered as it is today.

I agree with your conclusion, but I think the brand is being watered down in the name of diversity. In addition, the economic and cultural center of gravity continues to move west and south so New England and even NY are becoming less important while DC, Texas and California become more important.

[Anonymous]

I went to a crappy state university. I had great SAT scores and somewhat bad grades in high school. I got my act together in college and got a full ride to a really good graduate school. I will say that I was woefully unprepared compared to kids that came from "good" colleges. I was able to compensate after recovering from the culture shock and I ended up getting very good grades, but it was clear to me that the rigor and expectations of my undergraduate classes were lacking. While there are certainly smart kids at any school, it's been my experience that professors will gear the level of the class towards the middle. More mediocre students means a lower level of instruction on average.

[Anonymous]

So your DH went to a lesser known undergrad ---- and then went to an IVY LEAGUE law school.

Sorry, but that fact completely undermines your entire argument.