<p>You can get merit aid for your SAT score alone. If you are NM finalist, some schools will give you a free ride plus some spending money.</p>
<p>It might be easier to get into med. school. You are more likely to be at the top of your class, and offered more research opportunities, etc. than you would if you were middle of the pack at a Tier One. As a result, you might also have a more, rather than less, intense academic experience. If you are a really good student, you are more likely to have a faculty member take you under his/her wing.</p>
<p>What are the advantages? Well first…some tier 1 schools don’t offer certain majors to undergrads. For example, few of them have music performance as a major for undergraduate students…or a specific program might not have the strength the student is seeking. Another advantage…some very outstanding schools are NOT in Tier one…oh well…but are very fine nevertheless. DS goes to Boston University. I’m not saying it’s Tier 1, but it is a fine university. DD has visited a bunch of Tier 1 schools (no not all 50) and so far she hasn’t really felt that they would be places she would like to study…so we will look further. Finaid…often top students who would not receive need based aid anywhere will be very eligible for good merit aid packages at these “second tier” colleges and universities. Location…some tier schools are in great locations. Specific professor…sometimes there is a particular professor one wishes to study with…and they may be employed by a university other than the top tier.</p>
<p>Angryshnauser: even if your rank keeps you out of your reaches (and maybe it won’t), if everything else about you is in line with that SAT, you can get into a very competitive school. There are lots of serious, academically-oriented schools which would love to have you, including many “tier one”. What other schools are you looking at?</p>
<p>Angryschnauzer, I agree with Garland, you have many choices. If it is only your rank, your chances at Chicago and Columbia aren’t zero. Secondly, what I’m hearing from you is more about atmosphere, there are some less selective schools with a leaning toward academics, as well as the honors college alternative in a state school if funding is also a problem. Two schools that come to mind are College of Wooster and Brandeis - they were recommended to my daughter who has an academic bent.</p>
<p>It’s funny how it’s turned out this way, but D, who is a senior, has applied or is applying to 6 schools–two ranked in the USNWR Top 25, two between 26-50, and two between 51-100. Private & public mixed.</p>
<p>Chances of merit aid for D’s credentials are nil for the schools ranked 1-25, possible but not probable for 26-50, and hopeful/crossing fingers for the 51-100 schools. This is I’m sure more of an anomaly than a trend, but just thought I’d mention it…</p>
<p>Our results have been similar - daughter was accepted to 2 top 25 schools(with no money), two schools in the 26-50 range (between 50-60% tuition merit scholarships) and a safety school ranked somewhere in the 80-90 range (full ride). Most of her friends had similar offers in those ranges.</p>
<p>"It might be easier to get into med. school. You are more likely to be at the top of your class, and offered more research opportunities, etc. than you would if you were middle of the pack at a Tier One. "</p>
<p>I don’t know if the above holds. I went to a top 5 university that sends many students to med school, law schools, business schools, etc. I knew lots of people who were premed, and knew only 1 premed student who didn’t get into any med school. She was a very rare student whose extensive partying had seriously hurt her gpa.</p>
<p>I knew students who were middle of the pack who got to do research with professors and in prestigious programs over the summer.</p>
<p>There also was lots of information, including inside info, about the med school application process available on campus.</p>
<p>I taught at a school that varies from being tier 2, to tier 3. Very few students went to med schools. The premed advising was weak. The science courses were weak. There was little inside info available about the application process. I am not a doctor, yet ended up writing a recommendation for a highly-motivated student who was one of the best students in the college’s history. The student felt lucky to get into a med school at all. She did not get into an Ivy or anything like that even though she had applied. Her original med school application (which fortunately she showed me before sending), written on the advice of college professors, was dreadful. I know because I asked friends for advice who were on faculties of med schools.</p>
<p>Although her grades were high, she did not have an impressive MCAT score despite taking the review course at the college’s expense (Since she had successfully complained to the college prez about the weakness of the premed curriculum).</p>
<p>From what I saw of law school applicants at that college, the students ran into similar difficulties.</p>
<p>I don’t think that one needs to go to HPYS to have excellent chances at good postgraduate academic options. But it is a plus to go to a school with a strong record for placing students in the kind of postgraduate options that you want.</p>
<p>Don’t think that being a top student at a mediocre school will automatically open doors. When it comes to jobs, etc., employers also tend to go to the top schools in their field or region. The mediocre schools don’t get as many recruiters. </p>
<p>Having recruited for a corporation, I have noticed that even the middle of the pack students from stop schools can be stronger candidates than the top students from mediocre schools.</p>
<p>My UG degree is from a tier 1 school (MIT); my master’s (teaching) is from a third-tier state college. This is what I noticed: MIT is hard work and I was middle-of-the-pack if that. 17 years later I did my master’s and found it not that hard to take 9 courses at once, even though I also had two kids (age 4 and 5 then); some of those were teaching courses and 3 were specific science courses I needed for the certificate. Yes, I was more focused because I was older. I was also faster to grasp concepts than most of the others and spent a LOT of class time waiting for the rest of the class to catch up. I didn’t bother to take notes, except for one graduate level science course I was taking for my one pleasure. I also spent time outside of class helping other students. </p>
<p>I accidentally started a small rebellion in one class when I stopped the professor and made him explain something that wasn’t clear. After class, three people asked “how can you have the courage to do that?” “Easy, I’m the customer, I pay tuition, I pay his salary, and my taxes also support the school.” “Oh, I never thought of that.”</p>
<p>BUT: getting the teaching certificate from that state school was easy. I’d passed the courses, and the certificate came in the mail. They had connections with the local high schools because they trained lots of teachers. They got regular calls for teaching jobs for their graduates. </p>
<p>I concur with others who have said: it depends on what you want from the state school. Do you want a top graduate school, medicine, law? Got to the best school you can get into and can afford. Do you want to go into elementary ed in your home town? You’ll do just fine at your local state college.</p>
<p>NOTE to those who like to teacher-bash: don’t do it on the basis of what I’ve said here. State schools have good teaching programs; it’s a specialty, because the state has an interest in training its teachers. Your local teachers are just fine. The best way I know of to learn something really well is to teach it.</p>