Anonymous wrote:One of DC's friends turned down athletic recruiting offers (football) from Harvard and Princeton for a free ride to a much lower ranked school. His family is not wealthy so he would have had to take out loans to pay for it.

To play football?

Folks, these football anecdotes are pretty stupid.

Also, nobody has to take out loans for Harvard or Princeton…especially Princeton…because they are no loan schools. So the family must have had more $$$s than you think.

One of DC's friends turned down athletic recruiting offers (football) from Harvard and Princeton for a free ride to a much lower ranked school. His family is not wealthy so he would have had to take out loans to pay for it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lots of students turn down Ivies for MIT, Stanford, Chicago, Vanderbilt, Rice, Northwestern, CalTech, Duke, Johns Hopkins, Williams, Pomona, Amherst, Michigan, Berkeley, Texas, not to mention all the schools that offered significant merit aid. It's actually quite common to turn down paying $400,000 for Harvard or Penn and choosing the free ride at the state flagship instead. I know a couple of STEM kids at UMD that did exactly that.

It's rare to turn down Harvard.

15-20% of Harvard's admitted students turn it down. Yes, that's a high yield, but not rare to turn it down.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nobody would turn down playing football at OSU or Alabama vs playing for Harvard. Nobody.

The NIL dollars plus payments direct from the school would be massive in addition to the potential to get drafted into the NFL.

Your statement may be true for the five-star recruits and/or skill position players, but a player at the bottom of Alabama's recruiting class (yes, some of them are "only" three-stars) and plays interior offensive line, kicker, or safety is way better off going to a Harvard or Stanford.

Most of the NIL dollars are going to a small subset of the roster.

Stanford is in a Power 4 conference, so not a good example. There are big NIL $$s there too and the Stanford recruit would receive a 100% scholarship for football because that’s how it works in football.

I doubt anyone that is good enough to be recruited af Alabama is ever attending Harvard. They would more likely pick a high academic Power 4 option like Duke or Vandy or UCB or UCLA where again…it’s a 100% scholarship.

They would then be in a position to enter the transfer portal if they have a great season in their conference.

Once again, you're overlooking the fact that big NIL is going only to the best players at certain positions.

Would you at least concede that for some football recruits it makes sense to turn down Alabama for Stanford?

I am conceding that…but Stanford is much different from Harvard because it is in a Power 4 conference.

The football recruit for Stanford goes 100% for free even if you make millions per year…100% of all Power 4 football recruits receive 100% scholarships (and if they were poor they would also go for free because they are as generous all Ivies for need aid).

So…let’s leave Ivy and Patriot schools out of the conversation because the economics of attending college and the ability to compete at a high level at a Power 4 school in football (not to mention having sold out stadiums and national TV coverage) will outweigh everything else.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nobody would turn down playing football at OSU or Alabama vs playing for Harvard. Nobody.

The NIL dollars plus payments direct from the school would be massive in addition to the potential to get drafted into the NFL.

Your statement may be true for the five-star recruits and/or skill position players, but a player at the bottom of Alabama's recruiting class (yes, some of them are "only" three-stars) and plays interior offensive line, kicker, or safety is way better off going to a Harvard or Stanford.

Most of the NIL dollars are going to a small subset of the roster.

Stanford is in a Power 4 conference, so not a good example. There are big NIL $$s there too and the Stanford recruit would receive a 100% scholarship for football because that’s how it works in football.

I doubt anyone that is good enough to be recruited af Alabama is ever attending Harvard. They would more likely pick a high academic Power 4 option like Duke or Vandy or UCB or UCLA where again…it’s a 100% scholarship.

They would then be in a position to enter the transfer portal if they have a great season in their conference.

Once again, you're overlooking the fact that big NIL is going only to the best players at certain positions.

Would you at least concede that for some football recruits it makes sense to turn down Alabama for Stanford?

Ivies may not offer merit aid, but they offer very generous with financial aid If your family HHI is under 200k.

I suspect some families just fear the culture shock of the school, or think it's too far away, or the perception that they are "wasting money" - that it's not just a financial hurdle.

I would love to see a large data set of acceptances, financial aid offers, HHI, major, the family's demographics, and the final decision. That would be fascinating.

Anonymous wrote:My son turned down Cornell For Penn State. At Penn State, his 14 APs fully transfer and he will be starting as a junior (he also has two college math classes that transfer that he took dual enrollment). It was appealing to him that he could do a double major AND get an integrated masters in 4 years.

Smart. In a few years, after experiencing the work world, your son will probably be great candidate for a PhD track or MBA at Penn State, Cornell, MIT, really most anywhere.

I turned down Harvard, MIT, Yale and a few other schools for a full ride to a T20 20 years ago. I really needed the financial aid and parents were unwilling to pay anything for college. I was devastated but great decision ever because I met my future spouse

I cannot answer the question since I don’t ask parent friends what schools their children were admitted to and declined. But I want to comment that posters in DCUM-world seem to have an unhealthy obsession with the “Ivy” brands. So boorish and short-sighted.

My son turned down Cornell For Penn State. At Penn State, his 14 APs fully transfer and he will be starting as a junior (he also has two college math classes that transfer that he took dual enrollment). It was appealing to him that he could do a double major AND get an integrated masters in 4 years.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lots of students turn down Ivies for MIT, Stanford, Chicago, Vanderbilt, Rice, Northwestern, CalTech, Duke, Johns Hopkins, Williams, Pomona, Amherst, Michigan, Berkeley, Texas, not to mention all the schools that offered significant merit aid. It's actually quite common to turn down paying $400,000 for Harvard or Penn and choosing the free ride at the state flagship instead. I know a couple of STEM kids at UMD that did exactly that.

It's rare to turn down Harvard.

Not for engineering or CS. There are a lot of schools that are stronger than Harvard in those majors. Plus Ivy schools don't offer merit. There are many, many UMC families who are reconsidering paying $100,000 a year at Ivy schools in favor of schools where they can get merit. At this price point, everyone is trying to decide what's worth it and what's not. And engineering at Harvard or Yale is very much not worth it.

Multiple to UVA because of cost

Yes, for NU due to major.

My son's classmate turned down Yale for Notre Dame.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nobody would turn down playing football at OSU or Alabama vs playing for Harvard. Nobody.

The NIL dollars plus payments direct from the school would be massive in addition to the potential to get drafted into the NFL.

Your statement may be true for the five-star recruits and/or skill position players, but a player at the bottom of Alabama's recruiting class (yes, some of them are "only" three-stars) and plays interior offensive line, kicker, or safety is way better off going to a Harvard or Stanford.

Most of the NIL dollars are going to a small subset of the roster.

Stanford is in a Power 4 conference, so not a good example. There are big NIL $$s there too and the Stanford recruit would receive a 100% scholarship for football because that’s how it works in football.

I doubt anyone that is good enough to be recruited af Alabama is ever attending Harvard. They would more likely pick a high academic Power 4 option like Duke or Vandy or UCB or UCLA where again…it’s a 100% scholarship.

They would then be in a position to enter the transfer portal if they have a great season in their conference.