Anonymous wrote:No to U Miami. The last thing this particular kid needs is beach distractions.

It's not at the beach.

Anonymous wrote:We're full pay, never gonna get aid at meets-need schools.

So I drew the line at schools I thought were not worth 90k colleges. For me, that was BC. On the BC tour, I told my kids I didn't want to pay more than 90k for this. sorry!

There were plenty of schools in that BC-range that gave merit so .. that felt fine to me. But I was not paying full boat for BC. Yale? Sure. Stanford? Sure. Northwestern? Sure. But once we got to BC ... No.

Can you explain your reasoning here? What was it that you saw on the tour at BC that made you draw the line there? I have not visited BC, but the pictures I've seen online make it seem like a great school....

Geography for us. Have to be able to drive. Also would exclude anything in an unsafe area (like really unsafe, all schools have some crime) and anything where housing is simply impossible (looking at you UC Santa Barbara).

NYU, USC, Miami, Tulane, SMU

I am from New York. My dad refused to let us apply for schools west of the Mississippi and south of the Mason Dixon.

No NYU, Northeastern, Drexel or BU.

While we were prepared to be full pay for a private college, I put my foot down at NYU, USC and UMiami for the super high price tag and for COL in those cities esp. with those student bodies ie super super rich kids

Anonymous wrote:We visited multiple schools where the tour guides opened with their pronouns and/or a "stolen land acknowledgement." While we didn't outright nix those schools, we strongly discouraged them. Thankfully, DC felt the same way about spending four years in an environment dominated by insufferable woke SJWs as we did, and chose accordingly.

P.S. I know, I know: "Hope your DC enjoys Liberty." You're not funny or original.

Name the schools where the guides did this. I don’t believe you.

We went on 15+ tours, mostly slacs, and not a one of them had this happen.

Anonymous wrote:Put my foot down at Notre Dame and Holy Cross.

Nice! I refused to let mine apply to Alabama and ole miss.

Absolutely! Absolutely we put restrictions on their application list. We started with cost. We wanted to make sure, in a worse case scenario if no merit aid, we could afford to be full pay. If we approved a school going on their application list, they were free to choose once results were known. An added bonus was merit aid really changed the cost of the attendance landscape and our DCs seemed to gravitate to the schools that had shown them the love.

To start the process, DH and I tapped a list on the refrigerator. On the frig so it would be front and center, junior year. A list of 50 schools that we thought were good options. It was in descending order of full pay cost just to get DCs use to the idea of the cost of college. We asked them to do enough research to keep a running list of 10 favorites. We knew the particular 10 would change widely during the process. But to always keep 10 on the list. They were free to present their case for any school not on our list of 50.

Just one kooky way that worked well for us

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Put my foot down at Notre Dame and Holy Cross.

Yes, the last thing you'd want is for your kid to go to a school with great academics, an engaged community, great school spirit, loyal alumni and amazing outcomes!

Hit the Catholic nerve didn’t I?

Do: we are not religious (kid literally had never seen a bible besides the hotel nightstand). Kid had amazing experience at Jesuit university.

Told my kids how much we could afford annually. Told my kids they could not apply to a specific Ivy, as I have a work colleague of 20 plus years in academia that has many connections to that university and said it is not a good place for undergraduates. Otherwise they could apply wherever they wanted. They used the financial guidelines we provided to eliminate some colleges and decide on which college to attend.

Anonymous wrote:I went to Michigan, so I absolutely forbade my kids to apply to Ohio State.

Same here. No Buckeyes/Sparties/Domers. And all the RushTok schools down south.

My kid knew way better than me.

He had a short list of schools he would want to attend more than UVA/VT/WM and a couple of safety schools. The short list were all pretty expensive but worth it and the safeties were all reasonably priced or we could expect merit.

His mom wanted him to stay within driving distance but his top choice was on the other coast.

I went to Michigan, so I absolutely forbade my kids to apply to Ohio State.