Is 'fit' overrated?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Fit" is a thing but my hope is that our children aren't in need of a particular fit. We discourage SLACs.

The college professors in our family have the exact opposite opinion. They discourage large schools and any school with a big graduate program. They want all the kids in the family to attend a school where the primary focus of fully tenured professors is undergraduate education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Fit" is a thing but my hope is that our children aren't in need of a particular fit. We discourage SLACs.

Why, though?

Not PP, but my guess is that they want their kid to choose the highest ranked school they get into no matter how much they hate the school. "Rank" is the end all be all for people who think "fit" is a dirty word synonymous with weakness. Whereas, "rank" mens superiority and strength.

I’m so glad my soon to be freshman wasn’t in this rat race. She was on the edge of 4 year vs community college. We were just happy she had a couple choices. There are options out there for late bloomers. We weren’t looking for prestige-just a school that gives a kid like her a chance. And yes, we do feel we found the right “fit” - just hoping she takes advantage of the opportunity ahead of her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Fit" is a thing but my hope is that our children aren't in need of a particular fit. We discourage SLACs.

The college professors in our family have the exact opposite opinion. They discourage large schools and any school with a big graduate program. They want all the kids in the family to attend a school where the primary focus of fully tenured professors is undergraduate education.

Makes sense to me

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Fit" is a thing but my hope is that our children aren't in need of a particular fit. We discourage SLACs.

The college professors in our family have the exact opposite opinion. They discourage large schools and any school with a big graduate program. They want all the kids in the family to attend a school where the primary focus of fully tenured professors is undergraduate education.

National polls of professors: they all say they would choose small slacs or privates no larger than 6-7k for their own kids. All were against big schools for undergrad.

[Anonymous]

Fit to me just means what a kid likes.

My oldest does not like the huge football culture or big schools. He also doesn’t like tiny schools 1,200. All the schools he was drawn to were around 6k-7k undergrads- Georgetown, Hopkins, ivies, etc

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would have hated a big school. I found my comfort zone at a school that was under just 4K kids. I now call it "Goldilocks size" - not too big, not too small.

Would I have done fine at a state school? Most likely. But it wasn't the college experience I personally wanted.

My own child would be absolutely lost at a big school. She is headed to a small college with about 1200 students.

Can you find your crowd at a large school? Sure, but I think it would take a lot more work for certain kids. Again, I likely would have been fine as I have always been an extrovert - my child ISN'T me, though, and struggles a bit in that area.

I"m not trying to be rude, but my public HS had 4,000 students. I found my crowd in HS. Could I find it with only 1200 students? Unlikely!

My HS had 1200. My daughter’s was close to 3k.

Smaller was a better size for her for college. And the college is kind of her crowd because of what the school is known for, which made it the right place for her specifically. We looked and there honestly weren’t many places with the exact mix of programs and services.

This is all very specific to your own kid. I personally could have been ok in many places-my needs weren’t quite as specific as my daughter’s. But I landed at a school that fit my ideal of what a college was supposed to look like. I know people are downplaying and/or rejecting the idea of the romantic “this is my place” feeling, but I absolutely felt that the moment we drove onto the campus of the school I attended.

Just do your research, know your kid and trust the process.

This was my DD's experience. HS is a random assortment of kids who happen to live in the same area. A small college known for specific things attracts a lot of similar kids. I do think that fit element is much more important when choosing a small school. DD's list was driven more by that feeling of social fit during early tours because there are LOT of small schools that could have potentially met her needs so "doesn't feel right" is a perfectly reasonable way to cut things. In the end, she came down to deciding between three schools that, on paper, seemed very similar but after revisiting them she was really clear that the vibe was "off" at two of them and she felt right at the one she chose.

My son narrowed it down based on preference for big school, big sports, college town, good program for his major, not too far away. Had several options that met those criteria. The "vibe" really had nothing to do with where he applied but maybe it would have if covid didn't hit his junior year, limiting the ability to visit. In the end, he did have a clear first choice and ended up there. Not sure how he came to that, probably mostly from YouTube and friends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Fit" is a thing but my hope is that our children aren't in need of a particular fit. We discourage SLACs.

The college professors in our family have the exact opposite opinion. They discourage large schools and any school with a big graduate program. They want all the kids in the family to attend a school where the primary focus of fully tenured professors is undergraduate education.

If I were looking for advice for success and happiness in life, I would not look to college professors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Fit" is a thing but my hope is that our children aren't in need of a particular fit. We discourage SLACs.

The college professors in our family have the exact opposite opinion. They discourage large schools and any school with a big graduate program. They want all the kids in the family to attend a school where the primary focus of fully tenured professors is undergraduate education.

If I were looking for advice for success and happiness in life, I would not look to college professors.

DP

The worst advice that I have received in my life came from college professors. Not kidding. Not a joke.

[Anonymous]

My kid found perfect fit at one of the Claremont Colleges. Location, weather, peers, class size, course offerings, club offerings, social scenes, weekend activities, dorm, food ... I have to say they won the lottery.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid found perfect fit at one of the Claremont Colleges. Location, weather, peers, class size, course offerings, club offerings, social scenes, weekend activities, dorm, food ... I have to say they won the lottery.

that's great

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Fit" is a thing but my hope is that our children aren't in need of a particular fit. We discourage SLACs.

The college professors in our family have the exact opposite opinion. They discourage large schools and any school with a big graduate program. They want all the kids in the family to attend a school where the primary focus of fully tenured professors is undergraduate education.

If I were looking for advice for success and happiness in life, I would not look to college professors.

This is advice on what makes for a good a college education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid found perfect fit at one of the Claremont Colleges. Location, weather, peers, class size, course offerings, club offerings, social scenes, weekend activities, dorm, food ... I have to say they won the lottery.

I think that would have been a good fit for mine too, but they did not want to have to fly to college, so CCs were out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid found perfect fit at one of the Claremont Colleges. Location, weather, peers, class size, course offerings, club offerings, social scenes, weekend activities, dorm, food ... I have to say they won the lottery.

I think that would have been a good fit for mine too, but they did not want to have to fly to college, so CCs were out.

It's why I didn't apply 30 years ago

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Fit" is a thing but my hope is that our children aren't in need of a particular fit. We discourage SLACs.

The college professors in our family have the exact opposite opinion. They discourage large schools and any school with a big graduate program. They want all the kids in the family to attend a school where the primary focus of fully tenured professors is undergraduate education.

If I were looking for advice for success and happiness in life, I would not look to college professors.

This is advice on what makes for a good a college education.

"College education" is about a lot more than direct interface with one's instructors, and a lot of professors don't understand that. It leads them to overvalue LACs, especially the kind that (over) produce PhDs. I'm not saying LACs are bad, but let's keep things in proportion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Fit" is a thing but my hope is that our children aren't in need of a particular fit. We discourage SLACs.

The college professors in our family have the exact opposite opinion. They discourage large schools and any school with a big graduate program. They want all the kids in the family to attend a school where the primary focus of fully tenured professors is undergraduate education.

If I were looking for advice for success and happiness in life, I would not look to college professors.

This is advice on what makes for a good a college education.

"College education" is about a lot more than direct interface with one's instructors, and a lot of professors don't understand that. It leads them to overvalue LACs, especially the kind that (over) produce PhDs. I'm not saying LACs are bad, but let's keep things in proportion.

You say that as if LACs don't have those other things as well.