Any colleges you wouldn't allow your kid to go to?

[Anonymous]

Any school with a dangerous campus or in a bad neighborhood.

[Anonymous]

Anything up north where it is cold most the school year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anything up north where it is cold most the school year.

Why do you care?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anything up north where it is cold most the school year.

Why do you care?

My son has SAD.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any school that offers DC a merit scholarship. It's a pretty good sign that the school is desperate for stronger students to boost their averages. Plus it redistributes money from needier students to families that don't need the financial help.

Hilarious! We push our kids to succeed...and then don't want them rewarded for it!
I assume you work in the non-profit sector?

Top schools don't offer merit aid. Schools tend to offer merit aid to students that are better prepared than their average admit. Professors teach to the average admit. You just want to be careful that the classes aren't pitched at such as low level that your kid will be bored.

Signed, former professor

Are you the person who keeps disparaging schools that provide merit aid for some bizarre reason? PLENTY of great schools give merit aid. Vanderbilt not good enough for you? Oberlin, Kenyon, Grinnell, Wash U? Schools of all shapes and sizes offer merit aid because their tuition is insanely high and they're competing for kids who get awards from elsewhere and and against much cheaper top-flight public universities. It's one of the more glaring distortions in the college economic model, and it's true, many top schools (and some non-top schools) don't award merit aid, and end up with a mix of kids on need-based aid and kids who pay full freight -- and not a lot of middle of the road full-pay kids who go to state schools and colleges that offer merit aid. There are certainly cases where kids get huge awards from schools that are a notch below in rigor. But to frame the merit aid system as some sort of discount for struggling schools is unfair to the many folks who do benefit from the system, and to the schools that are looking for a way to compete in a screwed up market place for good students who have other options.

Signed, a parent who has had this conversation with several (current) college presidents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any school that offers DC a merit scholarship. It's a pretty good sign that the school is desperate for stronger students to boost their averages. Plus it redistributes money from needier students to families that don't need the financial help.

Hilarious! We push our kids to succeed...and then don't want them rewarded for it!
I assume you work in the non-profit sector?

Top schools don't offer merit aid. Schools tend to offer merit aid to students that are better prepared than their average admit. Professors teach to the average admit. You just want to be careful that the classes aren't pitched at such as low level that your kid will be bored.

Signed, former professor

Are you the person who keeps disparaging schools that provide merit aid for some bizarre reason? PLENTY of great schools give merit aid. Vanderbilt not good enough for you? Oberlin, Kenyon, Grinnell, Wash U? Schools of all shapes and sizes offer merit aid because their tuition is insanely high and they're competing for kids who get awards from elsewhere and and against much cheaper top-flight public universities. It's one of the more glaring distortions in the college economic model, and it's true, many top schools (and some non-top schools) don't award merit aid, and end up with a mix of kids on need-based aid and kids who pay full freight -- and not a lot of middle of the road full-pay kids who go to state schools and colleges that offer merit aid. There are certainly cases where kids get huge awards from schools that are a notch below in rigor. But to frame the merit aid system as some sort of discount for struggling schools is unfair to the many folks who do benefit from the system, and to the schools that are looking for a way to compete in a screwed up market place for good students who have other options.

Signed, a parent who has had this conversation with several (current) college presidents.

+1

DC got merit aid at the school for which he applied ED, so it was his first choice. Some of the distortion here has to do with the fallacy that Ivys offer the best education. Students in the know will look elsewhere and elsewhere often offers merit aid.

[Anonymous]

Mr. or Ms. College Professor: Stop spreading disinformation. Top schools offer merit aid. The scandal is that they (and others) offer it to students who can afford to pay full freight. Some applicants need the aid. Many do not. It's another wackadoodle aspect of the college admissions process.

I really do not like Duke and Georgetown. Didn't for myself, don't for my child. Too preppy. My child found a great fit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mr. or Ms. College Professor: Stop spreading disinformation. Top schools offer merit aid. The scandal is that they (and others) offer it to students who can afford to pay full freight. Some applicants need the aid. Many do not. It's another wackadoodle aspect of the college admissions process.

I really do not like Duke and Georgetown. Didn't for myself, don't for my child. Too preppy. My child found a great fit.

Anyone who has taught a course at a college an claim to be a professor (on this anonymous board you can claim to be anything). This supposed professor has admitted she is just a mom who waves the title "professor" to make her minority viewpoint more credible. She doesn't speak for all professors.

[Anonymous]

Thanks PP, but do you think anyone thought that Professor PP spoke for all professors? What a condescending post!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I love the way some posters are saying they "won't allow" certain schools. You know how I can tell you don't have college kids?

We have one who has graduated, three in college now, one in high school. My four oldest chose very different schools. Because we are the ones paying, of course we had some say in where they decided to go. But the only thing we said was that we would pay the equivalent of in-state tuition. Anything extra would have to be scholarships or other aid. Other that that, we let them make the decision.

These are ADULTS. You need to put aside your own prejudices (Really? No schools anywhere in the South? How stupid do you have to be to come up with something like that) and your own college experiences (The poster who hates Greek life was so obviously shut out of every good sorority) and let your adult children make their own decisions.

No wonder so many of you have kids on medication and in therapy.

I have three adult children all done with college and beyond.

We made it clear to them when they were in high school that we had the right to veto any school that we thought was not suitable for them. So with our help a short list of schools was drawn up in which they were heavily involved. They were fine with it.

Why did we do this? Easy, we were paying for their college and as long as it was on our dime we had a say - not that we would decide the school they would go to but we would decide which school they would NOT go to.

When it came to grad school, law school, med school, they made the decision partly because they were funding most of the cost and also because they were really mature enough to make a decision. You may think that 18 year olds can make informed decisions and some can - but many cannot and it is the role of the parents to guide them and if we are paying for it to have a decisive say on what is not acceptable.

BTW, none of my kids are or have been on medication or therapy.

[Anonymous]

No uber conservative school -- Liberty, Bob Jones, Oral Roberts

No super left wing schools

Penn State

Dartmouth

[Anonymous]

I am surprised that the list of unsafe schools didn't include the USNA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:University of Maryland any campus. Awful.

Why?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

All the Florida hate is hysterical. I graduated from a Florida school, and it was fabulous: sunshine and beaches. The degree also led to a great career.

I don't get the Florida hate either. There are some excellent colleges in Florida, both public and private. I think many dcum posters lack awareness of much outside their little world.

Yeah. It's bizarre the way Florida keeps getting singled-out. Wouldn't it seem weird if posters kept saying "anywhere but Nebraska," or "anywhere but Colorado!"

The top Florida schools (UF/FSU/Miami/Rollins/New College) are decent. There are a large number of huge, overcrowded commuter schools in Florida that aren't so great, but these can be found in any state.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

All the Florida hate is hysterical. I graduated from a Florida school, and it was fabulous: sunshine and beaches. The degree also led to a great career.

I don't get the Florida hate either. There are some excellent colleges in Florida, both public and private. I think many dcum posters lack awareness of much outside their little world.

+1 The really "humorous" naïve posters espouse New England schools and talk about their desire to attend schools that embrace diversity. Of course, much of New England isn't diverse at all; and their colleges and universities often reflect those demographics.