Anonymous
Post 05/29/2025 00:51     Subject: Did anyone's kid choose quality of life/social factors over prestige?
Anonymous wrote:Go where you are happy. But why assume prestige schools don't offer quality of life?


It's no secret that several "prestige" schools are hyper-competitive, cut-throat places. Wasn't like that in the 90s but sure is now. The anxiety level of many of these kids is off the charts. It's real!
Anonymous
Post 05/29/2025 00:29     Subject: Did anyone's kid choose quality of life/social factors over prestige?
Go where you are happy. But why assume prestige schools don't offer quality of life?
Anonymous
Post 05/28/2025 23:45     Subject: Did anyone's kid choose quality of life/social factors over prestige?
Anonymous wrote:*Top quarter at uva on par with top 3/4 at ivies


? 75th percentile at UVA is similar to 25th percentile at Ivy.
Anonymous
Post 05/28/2025 23:42     Subject: Did anyone's kid choose quality of life/social factors over prestige?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:These three schools don’t have that much of a difference in prestige.

If your DC are going for engineering, the differences are more significant. Cornell probably has the best engineering program among the three, and a strong network in the industry.


Thank you but DC did not get into Cornell. It's Penn vs Columbia vs UVA. Penn and Columbia are (i think) data science programs within their SEAS and she would probably go into consulting/finance/business/tech/etc. She is not planning on majoring in straight engineering. I need to clarify this as I'm not sure exactly which majors go with which of her applications.


I am at a big econ/business consulting firm. Penn is at a completely different level for target schools for junior recruitment. UVA is a level down, but still a target school.


This.

Question: Penn Wharton, or Penn?
If the young woman didn’t apply to Wharton that’s not what she’s been offered.


You are way out of date. OP’s kid apparently got Penn Seas, if the post is true(our DMV high school has one on WL and they were told seas took no one off the WL this cycle). Penn seas has higher salaries than penn wharton, does as well or better in consulting (tech consulting get paid more and prefer Seas or physics or math majors these days not wharton). Penn seas has had sub-3.5% admit rates the past 3-4 cycles and was apparently 2.5% this year. The application pool for seas has surged immensely.
Anonymous
Post 05/28/2025 23:36     Subject: Did anyone's kid choose quality of life/social factors over prestige?
Anonymous wrote:Back in 94, I chose nyu stern over Berkeley, Michigan and Penn. I wanted to be in nyc, and got a merit scholarship.


Start spreading the news. I'm leaving today. I want to be a part of it, New York, New York.
Anonymous
Post 05/28/2025 23:35     Subject: Did anyone's kid choose quality of life/social factors over prestige?
Back in 94, I chose nyu stern over Berkeley, Michigan and Penn. I wanted to be in nyc, and got a merit scholarship.
Anonymous
Post 05/28/2025 23:32     Subject: Did anyone's kid choose quality of life/social factors over prestige?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:My DC is committed to UVA (out of state and chose over Berkeley, Michigan, Northwestern and a few others) and very excited about it but about 10 days ago got off the waitlists for SEAS at both Penn and Columbia. DC was given roughly 2 weeks to decide by each school because of pending financial aid (we receive(d) a minimal amount as we have 2 older kids in college).
DC really wants to stick with UVA because they believe it will be a more enjoyable, well-rounded. classic college experience.
Major is uncertain but probably statistics/data science or economics. DC applied to different majors at each school and I'm not actually sure what.

What would you do as a parent in this situation? All the schools will end up costing about the same (roughly $75K/year give or take).
Did your kid make a similar choice?



Where does he/she want to work? What industry or career?
How far from you (flights etc)?
How important is Greek life and sports?


-we're in Columbia, MD.
-Greek life is very important or so she says now (without experiencing it)
-sports don't have to be high level (declined Michigan although clearly the sports are better there) but is the kind of kid who will go to the football games, basketball games, soccer games, ice hockey games for the social aspect regardless of how bad the teams are
-wants to probably live on the East coast (big reason for declining Berkeley), probably either in consulting or finance or tech


Columbia does not offer a balanced life. Our oldest is a fairly recent grad. It used to be more intellectual and fun when I attended, but now it's become super intense, preprofessional, and competitive. Kids there are so pretentious (includng our son and his peers). Not a happy place, no one goes to games, and school spirit doesnt exist. Separately, the disruptions to campus and lack of diversity of thought and cultish elitism have detracted from everones experience. If i were a parent, id ask for a refund. Penn is competitive but also pretty social and fun. UVA does seem like the quintessential college experience. Your kid has good instincts.
Anonymous
Post 05/28/2025 23:29     Subject: Did anyone's kid choose quality of life/social factors over prestige?
Anonymous wrote:How is claiming that the difference isn't huge "equating" them?


Some people aren't good at reading and/or math.

I grew up in NJ and we all looked down our noses at Rutgers, even though it is a decent school. I think there are a lot of Virginia people here who underestimate its prestige. You can throw lots of stats at me but it is not that far behind Columbia/Penn, and it has enough positive offsetting factors that I can definitely see choosing it. In the grand scheme of colleges they are extremely close together.

But I will defer to all of the alleged experts here who think they are so smart.
Anonymous
Post 05/28/2025 23:26     Subject: Did anyone's kid choose quality of life/social factors over prestige?
*Top quarter at uva on par with top 3/4 at ivies
Anonymous
Post 05/28/2025 23:26     Subject: Did anyone's kid choose quality of life/social factors over prestige?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:There is not a huge difference between the schools in terms of academics/prestige. They should go where they think they will be happy. Especially since UVA is so different from Penn/Columbia in terms of not being in a big city.


Wait - what?

Most people would agree that there's a difference, but what evidence supports your view that it's "huge"?


The data someone else posted upthread, the top quarter of uva is on par with the top 75% at uva. Plus, looking at who attends from the area schools. Granted these are in state, but the uva admits are a much lower level overall than ivy/top 10. Uva accepts about 25% of our private school not counting athletic recruiting. Top 10/ivy are accepted from the top few, super-smart kids with straight A in hard courses where As are not easy, and impressive resumes to boot. Admittedly there are OOS at uva that are closer to ivy kids but that is not the majority of the student body
Anonymous
Post 05/28/2025 23:17     Subject: Did anyone's kid choose quality of life/social factors over prestige?
How is claiming that the difference isn't huge "equating" them?
Anonymous
Post 05/28/2025 23:05     Subject: Did anyone's kid choose quality of life/social factors over prestige?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:There is not a huge difference between the schools in terms of academics/prestige. They should go where they think they will be happy. Especially since UVA is so different from Penn/Columbia in terms of not being in a big city.


Wait - what?

Most people would agree that there's a difference, but what evidence supports your view that it's "huge"?


I mean, come on. Are you the same poster who always tries to equate UVA with the Ivies? Just stop.
Anonymous
Post 05/28/2025 22:51     Subject: Did anyone's kid choose quality of life/social factors over prestige?
Haven't read the whole thread, but the answer is yes. Two kids, and they both did it...so I guess the answer is 'yes and yes.'

The thing about choosing based on what other people think, is...then it starts to really, really matter what other people think.

Anonymous
Post 05/28/2025 22:42     Subject: Did anyone's kid choose quality of life/social factors over prestige?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:There is not a huge difference between the schools in terms of academics/prestige. They should go where they think they will be happy. Especially since UVA is so different from Penn/Columbia in terms of not being in a big city.


Wait - what?

Most people would agree that there's a difference, but what evidence supports your view that it's "huge"?
Anonymous
Post 05/28/2025 22:22     Subject: Did anyone's kid choose quality of life/social factors over prestige?
Anonymous wrote:Just want to reiterate that UVA rush is going to be very competitive for an oos girl, and rush at Penn less so. I was rush director at my sorority decades ago and am shocked at how much rush is different than I experienced. At UVA, very superficial things that she has little control over, like the high school she attended, will matter (strong preference for private schools and feeder affluent public schools) as well as how much she fits a sorority’s type in terms the way she dresses and looks.


This is untrue, the UVA sororities that take a lot of out of state girls. Don’t take advice from someone who is decades out of college!