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[quote=Anonymous]The OP buried the lead by not making clear that she's posting from New Jersey which by and large has mediocre state colleges.  Yes, Rutgers itself is pretty strong academically but it's large and almost everyone is in state and NJ is a small state so it can be a suitcase college and for many it doesn't provide all that great of a social experience.  It's also not all that cheap.  NJ exports more students out of state than any other state for a reason.

This is why I hate non-DMV posters who post without making where they're from clear.  We assume a context that's not there.  It's annoying.

I was responding from the context of a Virginia resident.  I had two kids go to UVA over top 20 privates and another go to VCU over mediocre privates.  Another one of my kids turned down William & Mary for a strong LAC but only because they were awarded substantial merit aid and the price difference was not significant.  (Kid was also admitted to Carleton but there was no way we were going to pay full tuition for Carleton over W&M).

But here's the thing.  None of our kids whined about this or had any regrets.  They're reasonable and understood it made sense.  They didn't approach the process like a marriage, as so many of you do.  That's what you all mean when you talk about "fit," and it's bullshit.  There's way more than one or two schools that are perfectly fine for any normal kid, and when you talk about "fit" the concept should also include financial considerations and common sense.  And before anyone says "sorry you couldn't afford private" just let me add that nope, that wasn't the issue at all.

One final note.  I'm betting that many of you are fairly new to the process and only have recent or soon to be high school or college grads.  You really should be thinking long term and not short term here.  Unless you're truly poor and/or from an underprivileged background, study after study shows it really doesn't matter where you go to college as long as you just go.  A few years down the road you won't even remember who were the high school academic stars and who went to a fancy college; there will be little correlation between the professional success (or lack thereof) and happiness (or lack thereof) of your kid and their high school classmates and the college they attended.  The first could very well be last and vice versa.  [/quote]

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