I'd say the biggest difference between the schools OP mentioned, for OP's child, would probably relate to differences in the sheer amount (cohort size) of like-minded, high-stats liberal arts peers.

I'm a Pitt grad who was ranked top in the class in the Liberal Arts college back in the day. The high SATs people interested in liberal arts at Pitt tend to be more unique/quirky/focused on their area of study/potential honors degree area and less often "All American", "Student Council", "Scholar Athlete" types. Pitt would love to get more Rhodes Scholar wins but their candidates seem to continue to be too pointy (not future governor/U.S. presidential candidate level of resumes). So if you want to party with future Supreme Court Justices, you still should go Ivy. Pitt is intellectual but not focused at all on elites and/or elitism. Just individual self-development.

During the admissions process two years ago, there was an Honors College dinner/reception for admitted students. There's also the interview process for the full-ride Chancellor's Scholarship. Those might help with vibes. If attending, I'd definitely recommend the Honors dorm at Pitt for easier finding of like-minded peers.

I'd also consider things related to plans after college such as importance of name brand in a future profession, intended region to live in after college, whether alumni networking will be needed to break in to an industry, etc. Top of the class at Pitt can get into good grad schools for sure. But I wouldn't go to Pitt to get to Wall Street.

OP, have your kid look at the faculty bios for the different departments at all the schools. There may be some additional clues there. Faculty count and faculty areas of study (interesting to DC or not interesting) are important criteria. I'd be scanning the bios of the current profs to see how strong they are and what their research topics are. Profs in your major are likely grad school recommenders, potential employers for undergrad research jobs, etc. So DC should have a gut reaction to what DC reads on their pages.

CMU is best for quants. Econ programs can have that emphasis, so partial fit there. I think overall, though, I'd never recommend going to CMU as an undecided liberal arts major.

I agree with Cornell as a possible fit. I almost went to grad school there but picked Michigan. The "Any Person. Any Study" mantra is also intellectual without being elitist. Cornell will have a larger population of high stats kids if DC is someone who needs heavy social interaction with peers to feel challenged.

Related to UVA vs. the other schools, regional culture is real. At some schools, social bubbles form that keep kids with friends from back home. But there are still vibes. Up to your DC if that matters. As an example, Cornell definitely has New York energy vs. Michigan being more chill and Midwest Nice.

Anonymous wrote:The size requirement and the multiple interests are going to be tricky to reconcile. The biggest schools tend to have separate “schools” that would make it hard to double major in economics and linguistics whereas this would be easier to do at say Brown or Princeton. And a boy with those stats would have a decent shot ED at Brown.

What? No this is misinformation. Very easy to.double major across schools at a lot of large publics, and more class sections, so often easier to get the requirements.

Anonymous wrote:Think about weather, location wrt urban areas, sports teams, recreational opportunities, proximity to airport, will car be needed.
Cornell? Give me a break.

Why would you dismiss Cornell?

OP-
As others have mentioned you probably want to have him think more about the size issue with particular focus to the size of the undergraduate population. One problem is there generally only are small (3k or fewer), medium (5-10k, most in this bucket are @ 6k) and large (15-25K) these are mostly public schools.

Beyond looking at student totals what does he prefer in terms of classroom experience? Does he care about class size? What about clubs/activities? Are the things he is interested on offer with enough scope and variety, if yes size is probably fine.

To the issue of varied interest that can be a problem at schools where you apply to say the College of Engineering vs the College of Arts and Letters. This killed Northwestern for my DS because his interests were split between 2 schools and he was told that while he could take classes "across the line" he'd have lower priority than students in the other college. For this reason your DS might prefer those that in the single college model, Harvard and Yale both are but so are Rice and U Chicago.

Think about weather, location wrt urban areas, sports teams, recreational opportunities, proximity to airport, will car be needed.
Cornell? Give me a break.

The Pitt campus in the East End of Pittsburgh actually resembles Cambridge, MA. I’ve gone to school and lived in both areas. FWIW CMU reminds me of MIT, both possible to walk to from the Pitt and Harvard campuses. So if you like the Boston / Cambridge vibe, Pitt is a reasonable choice that mere mortals
can consider for school.

Anonymous wrote:We are trying to understand what schools are the right fit, regardless of ranking.

DS is high stats (4.0 UW with as rigorous course load as anyone can be at his highly competitive HS, 1590 SAT first attempt), good EC's with leadership positions this year.

1. Interested in multiple subjects sciences, economics and linguistics.
2. Want to go to a school that is large, anything above 10,000 total students would be good
3. No real preference for rural/urban, visited both and likes different aspects of each
4. Full pay and any school is affordable

All the big schools seem to have all the majors, courses, clubs and career services available that he needs.

Say we are looking at UMD, U Pitt, UVA, Harvard and Yale, just as an example. All of them meet all the criteria and so do a ton of others.

I know there is no chance of getting into Harvard or Yale and I am asking this to understand the thought process. What other criteria can use to say UMD, Harvard, Yale, U Pitt or UVA are not a good fit. Is Harvard not a good fit for anyone on the off chance that they get admitted?

I

Public or private school?

He'd be a great fit for UC Berkeley.

Anonymous wrote:We are trying to understand what schools are the right fit, regardless of ranking.

DS is high stats (4.0 UW with as rigorous course load as anyone can be at his highly competitive HS, 1590 SAT first attempt), good EC's with leadership positions this year.

1. Interested in multiple subjects sciences, economics and linguistics.
2. Want to go to a school that is large, anything above 10,000 total students would be good
3. No real preference for rural/urban, visited both and likes different aspects of each
4. Full pay and any school is affordable

All the big schools seem to have all the majors, courses, clubs and career services available that he needs.

Say we are looking at UMD, U Pitt, UVA, Harvard and Yale, just as an example. All of them meet all the criteria and so do a ton of others.

I know there is no chance of getting into Harvard or Yale and I am asking this to understand the thought process. What other criteria can use to say UMD, Harvard, Yale, U Pitt or UVA are not a good fit. Is Harvard not a good fit for anyone on the off chance that they get admitted?

If you relax your size criteria and are open to a university with only 7,500 undergrads (+ additional grad students that would make the campus feel bigger), I'd consider U Chicago. They have a phenomenal economics dept and robust linguistic department. I think your DS would thrive there. Also good for sciences.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The size requirement and the multiple interests are going to be tricky to reconcile. The biggest schools tend to have separate “schools” that would make it hard to double major in economics and linguistics whereas this would be easier to do at say Brown or Princeton. And a boy with those stats would have a decent shot ED at Brown.

I think the vast majority of universities, including giant ones, will put econ and linguistics both in the Letters and Sciences or Arts and Sciences department.

If he was saying Computer Science and Econ, or Business and Linguistics it would be different.

No problem at Cornell CAS. Those are not niche majors, CAS houses these departments.
CALS may be an issue, nonetheless it allows minor in CAS or take classes there.

Can still do those at Michigan too. So bizarre.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The size requirement and the multiple interests are going to be tricky to reconcile. The biggest schools tend to have separate “schools” that would make it hard to double major in economics and linguistics whereas this would be easier to do at say Brown or Princeton. And a boy with those stats would have a decent shot ED at Brown.

I think the vast majority of universities, including giant ones, will put econ and linguistics both in the Letters and Sciences or Arts and Sciences department.

If he was saying Computer Science and Econ, or Business and Linguistics it would be different.

No problem at Cornell CAS. Those are not niche majors, CAS houses these departments.
CALS may be an issue, nonetheless it allows minor in CAS or take classes there.

Anonymous wrote:The size requirement and the multiple interests are going to be tricky to reconcile. The biggest schools tend to have separate “schools” that would make it hard to double major in economics and linguistics whereas this would be easier to do at say Brown or Princeton. And a boy with those stats would have a decent shot ED at Brown.

What are you talking about? Name a single university where there are structural barriers to double majoring in economics and linguistics. We’ll wait.

How about this, OP? You have a kid who has good admission chances at a variety of schools, but the full pay factor may have obscured another possibility: what schools would give your kid a full scholarship? Those are the places that will really want him, and where he will receive the special attention that guarantees he gets the most out of his college experience. Not all places that would scholarship him are lower ranked or less selective, either. Try investigating that angle, juat to see what you get. Better for your kid to be valued than just to be able to get in.

How about this, OP? You have a kid who has good admission chances at a variety of schools, but the full pay factor may have obscured another possibility: what schools would give your kid a full scholarship? Those are the places that will really want him, and where he will receive the special attention that guarantees he gets the most out of his college experience. Not all places that would scholarship him are lower ranked or less selective, either. Try investigating that angle, juat to see what you get. Better for your kid to be valued than just to be able to get in.

Anonymous wrote:The size requirement and the multiple interests are going to be tricky to reconcile. The biggest schools tend to have separate “schools” that would make it hard to double major in economics and linguistics whereas this would be easier to do at say Brown or Princeton. And a boy with those stats would have a decent shot ED at Brown.

You can major in linguistics and economics at Michigan. They’re both in LSA. Such a weird comment.