Discussion on abysmal APS college results

[Anonymous]

I went to a mid-tier undergrad full scholarship and a top 3 law school. Today, nobody ever asks me where I went to undergrad. Professionally, most employers only care about the last school you attended. So if your kid is bound for grad school (and many in this area likely are), then there is a lot of logic to staying in state for undergrad and saving the student loan debt load to attend a top law/med/grad school program instead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live in Arlington and I attended an Ivy. But the cost is too high now and I’ll encourage my kids to apply to state schools. I bet there are a lot of others in similar situations.

Same for me. I went to Yale but can’t afford an Ivy for my daughter. She can go to any in state school in Virginia.

I find it telling that so many Ivy grads can’t afford to send their kid to an Ivy. DH and I both went to a state school. We can easily afford private HS, Ivy tuition, second home, etc. I guess it’s really not the golden ticket everyone thinks it is. Smart kids do well wherever they go.

Yep! The prestige and benefits are short-lived.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live in Arlington and I attended an Ivy. But the cost is too high now and I’ll encourage my kids to apply to state schools. I bet there are a lot of others in similar situations.

Same for me. I went to Yale but can’t afford an Ivy for my daughter. She can go to any in state school in Virginia.

I find it telling that so many Ivy grads can’t afford to send their kid to an Ivy. DH and I both went to a state school. We can easily afford private HS, Ivy tuition, second home, etc. I guess it’s really not the golden ticket everyone thinks it is. Smart kids do well wherever they go.

You can just hear the smugness emanating from this post. Ever occur to you that not all Ivy grads choose to chase the highest paying career?

Even more argument against the expense of Ivy League and similar schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are you basing the current APS college admissions results with the New Trier admissions when you were in high school? My dear, college admissions is a completely different ballgame now, nationwide.

Educate yourself.

This. In the late 90s, my spouse went to an ivy as a fairly typical student from a town I call “Bethesda in NJ” and 6 of the top 10 in my graduating class went to the same STEM focused private university, a school routinely coveted on DCUM.

Neither of us would be accepted to the same schools today.

My kids will be run of the mill, smart affluent white males graduating from APS in the coming years. They have no hooks except maybe Ivy legacy + full pay which is hardly rare or special in this area. If acceptances look dismal from your vantage point, perhaps it’s that kids have become more realistic about where they CAN get in and what kind of school suits them best.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live in Arlington and I attended an Ivy. But the cost is too high now and I’ll encourage my kids to apply to state schools. I bet there are a lot of others in similar situations.

Same for me. I went to Yale but can’t afford an Ivy for my daughter. She can go to any in state school in Virginia.

I find it telling that so many Ivy grads can’t afford to send their kid to an Ivy. DH and I both went to a state school. We can easily afford private HS, Ivy tuition, second home, etc. I guess it’s really not the golden ticket everyone thinks it is. Smart kids do well wherever they go.

You can just hear the smugness emanating from this post. Ever occur to you that not all Ivy grads choose to chase the highest paying career?

Even more argument against the expense of Ivy League and similar schools.

My Ivy League PhD spouse chose a career in pubic service. I suspect many other graduates of prestigious schools in the DMV chose similar paths. The Ivy grads making $$$$$ are in Finance or the Bay Area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live in Arlington and I attended an Ivy. But the cost is too high now and I’ll encourage my kids to apply to state schools. I bet there are a lot of others in similar situations.

Same for me. I went to Yale but can’t afford an Ivy for my daughter. She can go to any in state school in Virginia.

I find it telling that so many Ivy grads can’t afford to send their kid to an Ivy. DH and I both went to a state school. We can easily afford private HS, Ivy tuition, second home, etc. I guess it’s really not the golden ticket everyone thinks it is. Smart kids do well wherever they go.

You are mistaken. My husband and I are ivy undergrad and ivy graduate school. But we live here because we chose careers in public service. Our degrees have certainly opened a lot of doors and given us flexibility to do what we love. But we think our kids can have the same success at an instate school (both of us came from parts of the country with poor to mediocre in state options). I find it telling that you judge the quality of a degree by how much money you earn.

[Anonymous]

I'm sure there are some donut holes families in Arlington who wouldn't pay for an Ivy, but there are also lots of families with the means to afford an Ivy, as well as families that would stretch to make it happen for their student or who qualify for lots of aid.

In the end, if there are APS kids with the stats for Yale, most families would try to make it happen. Arguing that a statistically larger number of APS students aren't being admitted to Ivies or other top schools than in the past because they are making different financial choices sounds like a bunch of nonsense.

-someone who actually turned down a T20 for a tier 4 school 20 years ago, only partially for financial reasons, but also because of a backward view by my parents that women only attend college to get their Mrs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live in Arlington and I attended an Ivy. But the cost is too high now and I’ll encourage my kids to apply to state schools. I bet there are a lot of others in similar situations.

Same for me. I went to Yale but can’t afford an Ivy for my daughter. She can go to any in state school in Virginia.

I find it telling that so many Ivy grads can’t afford to send their kid to an Ivy. DH and I both went to a state school. We can easily afford private HS, Ivy tuition, second home, etc. I guess it’s really not the golden ticket everyone thinks it is. Smart kids do well wherever they go.

Good for you. I’m the PP who posted that DH and I both have degrees from Ivies but wouldn’t/couldn’t pay current Ivy tuition for our 4 kids. Did it ever cross your mind that other peoples’ values might be different than yours??? DH is an attorney who represents low income clients addressing housing issues so no, he didn’t go to an Ivy (or law school) with the plan of striking it rich. And, since we did start saving for college before our first was even born, we probably could have afforded to pay for a couple of our kids to attend a college that cost $90K a year, we felt strongly that all 4 had to be treated relatively equally. I think 3 UVA graduates/students and a VT graduate now at UF vet school is pretty damn impressive and I wouldn’t trade it for your second home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live in Arlington and I attended an Ivy. But the cost is too high now and I’ll encourage my kids to apply to state schools. I bet there are a lot of others in similar situations.

Same for me. I went to Yale but can’t afford an Ivy for my daughter. She can go to any in state school in Virginia.

I find it telling that so many Ivy grads can’t afford to send their kid to an Ivy. DH and I both went to a state school. We can easily afford private HS, Ivy tuition, second home, etc. I guess it’s really not the golden ticket everyone thinks it is. Smart kids do well wherever they go.

Guess you've never heard of public service. It's telling when someone thinks money is the only measure of value or worth. I guess there is value to sending kids to Ivies if they don't learn this at state schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live in Arlington and I attended an Ivy. But the cost is too high now and I’ll encourage my kids to apply to state schools. I bet there are a lot of others in similar situations.

Same for me. I went to Yale but can’t afford an Ivy for my daughter. She can go to any in state school in Virginia.

I find it telling that so many Ivy grads can’t afford to send their kid to an Ivy. DH and I both went to a state school. We can easily afford private HS, Ivy tuition, second home, etc. I guess it’s really not the golden ticket everyone thinks it is. Smart kids do well wherever they go.

Guess you've never heard of public service. It's telling when someone thinks money is the only measure of value or worth. I guess there is value to sending kids to Ivies if they don't learn this at state schools.

Love this response!

[Anonymous]

I hear all of this but I do not buy it because your children will not attend an Ivy, the numbers prove it. And so I see a lot of justifying for what the realistic options are for your kids. I believe all of you would make it happen for your child if that child could actually get in. I do not believe in Arlington there are swaths of kids who would likely get into Harvard/Stanford/Yale/Princeton but who aren’t even applying due to the cost.

I think your posts are rationalization of your situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hear all of this but I do not buy it because your children will not attend an Ivy, the numbers prove it. And so I see a lot of justifying for what the realistic options are for your kids. I believe all of you would make it happen for your child if that child could actually get in. I do not believe in Arlington there are swaths of kids who would likely get into Harvard/Stanford/Yale/Princeton but who aren’t even applying due to the cost.

I think your posts are rationalization of your situation.

Eh, maybe. But also in the current admissions environment Harvard, Yale, etc. admissions are very rare with really stellar applicants not getting into the very highly ranked schools so it seem like a really weird metric on which to judge a school system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live in Arlington and I attended an Ivy. But the cost is too high now and I’ll encourage my kids to apply to state schools. I bet there are a lot of others in similar situations.

Same for me. I went to Yale but can’t afford an Ivy for my daughter. She can go to any in state school in Virginia.

I find it telling that so many Ivy grads can’t afford to send their kid to an Ivy. DH and I both went to a state school. We can easily afford private HS, Ivy tuition, second home, etc. I guess it’s really not the golden ticket everyone thinks it is. Smart kids do well wherever they go.

Yep! The prestige and benefits are short-lived.

I will say that my ivy league undergrad ed gave me an advantage several times in my life -- getting a job after college; getting into law school after working for several years out of undergrad; and then getting back into the work force after being a lawyer several years then taking time off with the kids. I am not good at building relationships with people who might give me a job in the future and this was useful for me instead; it really did help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live in Arlington and I attended an Ivy. But the cost is too high now and I’ll encourage my kids to apply to state schools. I bet there are a lot of others in similar situations.

Same for me. I went to Yale but can’t afford an Ivy for my daughter. She can go to any in state school in Virginia.

I find it telling that so many Ivy grads can’t afford to send their kid to an Ivy. DH and I both went to a state school. We can easily afford private HS, Ivy tuition, second home, etc. I guess it’s really not the golden ticket everyone thinks it is. Smart kids do well wherever they go.

Yep! The prestige and benefits are short-lived.

I will say that my ivy league undergrad ed gave me an advantage several times in my life -- getting a job after college; getting into law school after working for several years out of undergrad; and then getting back into the work force after being a lawyer several years then taking time off with the kids. I am not good at building relationships with people who might give me a job in the future and this was useful for me instead; it really did help.

I would totally agree with this.

Singed, another Ivy grad

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hear all of this but I do not buy it because your children will not attend an Ivy, the numbers prove it. And so I see a lot of justifying for what the realistic options are for your kids. I believe all of you would make it happen for your child if that child could actually get in. I do not believe in Arlington there are swaths of kids who would likely get into Harvard/Stanford/Yale/Princeton but who aren’t even applying due to the cost.

I think your posts are rationalization of your situation.

And just exactly how would we make it happen??? Take it out of our retirement? Take it out of home equity? Take out parent plus loans? Any of those “options” are stupid and irresponsible, especially if we have more than one kid. Tell Kid #2, yes we paid close to $400K for your sibling to go to Columbia but no, we’re not going to pay close to $400K for you bc your most “prestigious” option is Bates and Bates isn’t worth it. Sorry honey.