Regret the school you went to?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not at all. Dh and I both went to GMU, enjoyed our time there, and we now have great jobs.

DH and I are also GMU grads! Loved it.

GMU is now more selective than Va Tech.

%100 false.

You are making the (very common) mistake of comparing acceptance rates.

The freshman profile at VaTech has higher stats than at GMU, indicating higher selectivity.

Schools that are located in big metro areas have artificially low acceptance rates because everyone in the area applies, including large numbers of people who are not qualified. Schools that are in small, isolated college towns have higher acceptance rates because they tend to have a smaller, higher-quality applicant pool.

It's mind-blowing how often people judge a school's quality based on acceptance rates, when this means little by itself.

It's become very difficult to get into BOTH G.M.U and Virginia Tech if you are applying from NoVa - signed dad of Langley kid now at GMU and another hopefully heading to VT

+100
Signed, another Langley parent

[Anonymous]

PP here; should have added it's also difficult to get into JMU from NoVA as well.

[Anonymous]

I went to Yale and don't regret it because I met my amazing husband there. The name was helpful at the very beginning of my career, but I think it hardly matters now and the other things on my CV are way more important. It wasn't unpleasant but it wasn't the best fit for me. I would have felt more comfortable at a smaller school. I loved my Ph.D from a big state school, but wouldn't have wanted to go to such a big school as an undergrad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not at all. Dh and I both went to GMU, enjoyed our time there, and we now have great jobs.

DH and I are also GMU grads! Loved it.

GMU is now more selective than Va Tech.

%100 false.

You are making the (very common) mistake of comparing acceptance rates.

The freshman profile at VaTech has higher stats than at GMU, indicating higher selectivity.

Schools that are located in big metro areas have artificially low acceptance rates because everyone in the area applies, including large numbers of people who are not qualified. Schools that are in small, isolated college towns have higher acceptance rates because they tend to have a smaller, higher-quality applicant pool.

It's mind-blowing how often people judge a school's quality based on acceptance rates, when this means little by itself.

It's become very difficult to get into BOTH G.M.U and Virginia Tech if you are applying from NoVa - signed dad of Langley kid now at GMU and another hopefully heading to VT

+100
Signed, another Langley parent

It's become more difficult to get into basically everywhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Penn State. It's like a stain on my resume. I don't tell anyone I went there since the first thing they think about is .... Well , you know.

Is it really though? Since 2011 have you had to tell people you went there and did they actually say something about the scandal? I'm pro Penn State (Penn grad myself but from the state) and I really don't see what the 10,000 grads coming through each yr had to do with the scandal. If I had a resume of a football player maybe I'd wonder if they ever saw or heard anything or knew Sandusky, since they would have been spending time in the football building, but aside from the football players -- I don't imagine any student goes to or is even allowed in the football offices or locker rooms at PSU so how could they possibly have had any involvement whatsoever??

The entire administration was involved in the cover up. They just hired a coach who rounded up a ring of coeds to "host " recruits against the rules ending up in the gang rape of a "hostess" in her dorm room by his players. Nothing has changed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not at all. Dh and I both went to GMU, enjoyed our time there, and we now have great jobs.

DH and I are also GMU grads! Loved it.

GMU is now more selective than Va Tech.

%100 false.

You are making the (very common) mistake of comparing acceptance rates.

The freshman profile at VaTech has higher stats than at GMU, indicating higher selectivity.

Schools that are located in big metro areas have artificially low acceptance rates because everyone in the area applies, including large numbers of people who are not qualified. Schools that are in small, isolated college towns have higher acceptance rates because they tend to have a smaller, higher-quality applicant pool.

It's mind-blowing how often people judge a school's quality based on acceptance rates, when this means little by itself.

It's become very difficult to get into BOTH G.M.U and Virginia Tech if you are applying from NoVa - signed dad of Langley kid now at GMU and another hopefully heading to VT

+100
Signed, another Langley parent

I am playing the world's smallest violin for you! Maybe another FFX County school with a different demographic set would've been better, like FCHS or Stuart?

[Anonymous]

Another Langley parent here. My kid just went off to an out-of-state U ranked higher than GMU. He took no AP classes, no honors classes. For best admission results, look out of state.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another Langley parent here. My kid just went off to an out-of-state U ranked higher than GMU. He took no AP classes, no honors classes. For best admission results, look out of state.

Outside of UVA and W&M, this is absolutely true. I have 2 kids (who may not have gotten into VT from Langley) at OOS top 50 colleges.

[Anonymous]

I went to a top 10 and yes, I regret it. I didn't go to grad school... so I am guessing that is the problem.

[Anonymous]

I went to W&M as an OOS student, no regrets. It wasn't always rainbows and roses, but I got a great education there, made life-long friends, and had a lot of fun. But I'm sure there are lots of schools where I could have been happy.

Sometimes I do regret moving so far from my family to go to school, since doing so ultimately led to me living far away from my family. OTOH, there have been positives to living here, too, so on balance it's probably a wash.

I went to a lower tier grad school (because they threw boatloads of money at me) and I'm not sure I would go there again. OTOH, it was in a great city in a part of the country I would otherwise never have known, and my *life* there was very good, even if my educational experience wasn't. Still, I needed the degree on my resume, and I have it, and it cost me very little. Again, not much to complain about.

But honestly, at age 50, the topic of where I went to college only rarely comes up, and the topic of where I went to grad school comes up even less often.

[Anonymous]

I regret that I went to an SLAC without any core or distribution requirements. I was not mature enough to realize that if I didn't study subjects that were out of my comfort zone at that time, I would never have a chance to learn them later. I studied only what I liked and was good at. As a result, I had a very high GPA and was really overqualified for my grad program. But I am not as well rounded a person as I would now like to be.

[Anonymous]

I can't believe people even care 10 -15 years out where they went and that someone even asks or that you would be embarrassed.

FWIW, I went to GWU, had a great experience but most of my friends from college I am not in touch with. I am more in touch with friends from other areas of my life outside of college - the sports I have played, the bands I have played in, the places I have worked, etc. - than with my old college roommates, etc.

I sent to grad school at the University of Pittsburgh. They gave me a scholarship, and at the time I was looking to escape DC.

Most of my career has now been spent outside the United States and I have friends and acquaintances from around the world. The college experience is what it was at that time. I am proud of my accomplishments. \

The only thing I might do differently is look at more schools. I know I wanted to study in DC, so I applied to Georgetown and GWU, but not being from the area I did not know that UMD was basically in the DC suburbs. Had I known that, I would have applied there as well. I am sure my Dad would have appreciated the difference in tuition.

Other schools I applied to: University of Miami, Auburn University, United States Naval Academy.

[Anonymous]

Swarthmore was a very bad fit for me. Neurotic overachiever humanities majors probably shouldn't spend 4 years with others like themselves. Beautiful campus, four years of stress.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If the biggest regret that a well-off, successful Washingtonian has in life is that they did not attend a good-enough university, then consider yourself lucky because you have a great life.

+ 1000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Swarthmore was a very bad fit for me. Neurotic overachiever humanities majors probably shouldn't spend 4 years with others like themselves. Beautiful campus, four years of stress.

Hmm ... What would have been better?