Avoiding a college because someone else goes there?

umcp11
Wed, 20 Oct 2010 14:45:11 +0000

I actually don’t see a problem with a kid avoiding a school because someone he/she dislikes goes there. It’s not as if there aren’t many paths to success and/or many colleges the kid will enjoy…it’s one thing to force someone down a different path and another for them to choose it on their own.

My best friend in high school chose to go to an expensive private school that was actually several rankings below our state school because “she didn’t want to live close to home.” Nevermind she’d never been more than 10 minutes from her home and the state school was massively different than anything she’d ever seen before. Well, it was a stupid choice because the academic quality was inferior and the cost more, her reasons for not choosing the state school were immature…but she did fine, graduated with a great gpa, and is now happy in grad school.

One can make stupid choices and still succeed, so I say, if the kid wants to avoid a school because someone they dislike goes there, whatever. There are many colleges in the U.S., no big deal. Now parents can put their foot down if bypassing a certain school means paying significantly more at another, but besides that, live and let live.