Anonymous wrote:please send your child to MIT.

FWIW, hubby went to MIT--I know it is a great school. However, as I said earlier, a few years after you are out, nobody cares--nor should they.

I.DON'T.HAVE.THE.MONEY!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. THank you, 12:37 PP. Good to see where everyone is ending up. I have to agree,not too shabby. My niece graduated from a MCPS school, took a few AP classes and ended up at Carnegie Mellon. Her school work wasn't nearly as diverse as at Marshall's, so go figure.

I am starting to think what's the whole point of such an in-depth workload if kids end up in so-so colleges.

You must be an Asian Mom. Calling Carnegie Mellon is a "so-so" college.

You misread the post. Learn to read first, and then you can try to decide who is an Asian Mom.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. THank you, 12:37 PP. Good to see where everyone is ending up. I have to agree,not too shabby. My niece graduated from a MCPS school, took a few AP classes and ended up at Carnegie Mellon. Her school work wasn't nearly as diverse as at Marshall's, so go figure.

I am starting to think what's the whole point of such an in-depth workload if kids end up in so-so colleges.

You must be an Asian Mom. Calling Carnegie Mellon is a "so-so" college.

Anonymous wrote:

True, but I also believe that the top VA schools (and UMD for that matter) have enough name recognition in most of the rest of the country that it is not a disservice to the child's future career to attend one over a costlier private. To me, the bigger disservice is setting your child up for years and years of unnecessary debt. I fail to understand why people are so fixated on undergrad schools. In many fields, a graduate degree is much more important and a better use of loan money if you must.

I have lived in other parts of the country, including the Chicago area, Texas, and the west coast, and this is not true. In other areas of the country, for the better or the worse, UMD or UVA would not come close to seeming as prestigious as MIT. Also, there is something to be said for having a challenging peer environment--even at the best state schools the average student is not at the same caliber as MIT. The best students are just as good, but there is some major teaching down to the average that happens at flagship state universities. If you look at the syllabuses for freshman chemistry at MIT, they go into some topics that usually are not covered until a sophomore/junior level inorganic chemistry class.

Plus if you are in a technical area like engineering, the hard sciences, and math, you shouldn't be paying for a graduate degree unless it is medicine, law, or business. Most masters and PhD programs that are competitive have tuition covered plus stipends.

First of all, I said that loan money is better used toward graduate degrees "if you must." As you said, few students get significant law, medicine, etc scholarships. Also, I never said that state schools are perceived to be on the same playing field as MIT - I am obviously not that delusional. I just don't believe that taking out loans or having my child take out loans for undergrad is a productive use of any of our money, so I would much rather send my kid to UVA for a social science degree or VT for a STEM degree. To me, it's not worth it when there's no guaranteed return on that investment. But we can agree to disagree on that.

Anonymous wrote:I'm OP. Let me explain where I stand. My husband and I went to good schools: DH went to MIT, I went to U of Michigan-Ann Arbor. No, no Ivy Leagues. We had an AP course here and there, nothing extraordinary. When we moved to this area and had our DS pursue, by his choice, the IB program, we expected to see the rigor of the program match college placement. So yes, I was rather surprised to see second and third- tier colleges on the list one of the PPs provided. I am sorry, I just don't think JMU, GMU and Marymount are worth killing yourself over in IB program.

But if he were taking AP he might also be "killing himself" and still might or might not get into whatever you would consider a "first-tier" college.

WHAT he wants to study also has some impact -- doesn't it? If he wants a specific major that is better done at what you call a "second-tier" college, but the top-ranking colleges don't offer it or their programs aren't as in-depth as some smaller college's program in that field -- then should he go to the college that actually can teach him best in the major he wants most, or should he go to the prestigious school, and possibly do a major that's not really his thing? Some are going to argue that the college name on the degree counts for more and the high-profile college is the one to choose every time. Not sure I'd want my kid working for an employer who was so ignorant of his field that he was more dazzled by a name on the sheepskin than by the courses taken and the quality of work done.

And as others have noted -- students should take IB (or AP, or whatever) to learn, not just to set themselves up for entry into a specific college.

please send your child to MIT.

FWIW, hubby went to MIT--I know it is a great school. However, as I said earlier, a few years after you are out, nobody cares--nor should they.

True, but I also believe that the top VA schools (and UMD for that matter) have enough name recognition in most of the rest of the country that it is not a disservice to the child's future career to attend one over a costlier private. To me, the bigger disservice is setting your child up for years and years of unnecessary debt. I fail to understand why people are so fixated on undergrad schools. In many fields, a graduate degree is much more important and a better use of loan money if you must.

I have lived in other parts of the country, including the Chicago area, Texas, and the west coast, and this is not true. In other areas of the country, for the better or the worse, UMD or UVA would not come close to seeming as prestigious as MIT. Also, there is something to be said for having a challenging peer environment--even at the best state schools the average student is not at the same caliber as MIT. The best students are just as good, but there is some major teaching down to the average that happens at flagship state universities. If you look at the syllabuses for freshman chemistry at MIT, they go into some topics that usually are not covered until a sophomore/junior level inorganic chemistry class.

Plus if you are in a technical area like engineering, the hard sciences, and math, you shouldn't be paying for a graduate degree unless it is medicine, law, or business. Most masters and PhD programs that are competitive have tuition covered plus stipends.

People, once your kids are out of school and get a job it won't matter. They will be judged on their work.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone even considered having their kids take out student loans? Because if my DC faced an opportunity to go to MIT vs. UVA, damn straight I would kick his ass to go to MIT. With student loans and everything.

Really? I went to a Virginia state school and I've benefitted heavily career-wise from the large alumni network in the DC area. I am a huge cheerleader for local state schools - we have some of the best in the country around here. I would absolutely not saddle my child with loans in this economy and uncertain job market.

Exactly. If you want to stay in DC area. Not everyone does.

True, but I also believe that the top VA schools (and UMD for that matter) have enough name recognition in most of the rest of the country that it is not a disservice to the child's future career to attend one over a costlier private. To me, the bigger disservice is setting your child up for years and years of unnecessary debt. I fail to understand why people are so fixated on undergrad schools. In many fields, a graduate degree is much more important and a better use of loan money if you must.

Anonymous wrote:Is there similar data for other FCPS high schools?

My daughter attends GCM. I am pulling data from Naviance, which all students and parents at the school have access to.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone even considered having their kids take out student loans? Because if my DC faced an opportunity to go to MIT vs. UVA, damn straight I would kick his ass to go to MIT. With student loans and everything.

Really? I went to a Virginia state school and I've benefitted heavily career-wise from the large alumni network in the DC area. I am a huge cheerleader for local state schools - we have some of the best in the country around here. I would absolutely not saddle my child with loans in this economy and uncertain job market.

Exactly. If you want to stay in DC area. Not everyone does.

UVA and W&M have a large alumni network outside of the DC area. Not unlike how UCLA has a large alumni network outside of LA.

Is there similar data for other FCPS high schools?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone even considered having their kids take out student loans? Because if my DC faced an opportunity to go to MIT vs. UVA, damn straight I would kick his ass to go to MIT. With student loans and everything.

Really? I went to a Virginia state school and I've benefitted heavily career-wise from the large alumni network in the DC area. I am a huge cheerleader for local state schools - we have some of the best in the country around here. I would absolutely not saddle my child with loans in this economy and uncertain job market.

Exactly. If you want to stay in DC area. Not everyone does.

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone even considered having their kids take out student loans? Because if my DC faced an opportunity to go to MIT vs. UVA, damn straight I would kick his ass to go to MIT. With student loans and everything.

Really? I went to a Virginia state school and I've benefitted heavily career-wise from the large alumni network in the DC area. I am a huge cheerleader for local state schools - we have some of the best in the country around here. I would absolutely not saddle my child with loans in this economy and uncertain job market.