After a long and tiresome search, I have finally narrowed down my list to the school I think I want to ED to, Lafayette College. On paper, it has everything I want, aside from prestigiousness (I want to enter politics which is why it’s important to me), and I can’t help that because of my GPA. I toured Lafayette a couple weeks ago and my mum loved it, however, I didn’t get “the feeling” when I stepped on campus that I’ve heard so many times for why people chose to attend a college. I’ve toured six colleges and didn’t really get that feeling anywhere, and I’m starting to think that maybe it’s me not getting over certain factors that I can’t change, such as prestigiousness. I do think I will be happy at Lafayette, but I am a big believer in following gut/initial feelings and since (it feels like) everyone got “the feeling” at their respective college, I’m beginning to question whether or not Lafayette is right for me.
So I was wondering for those in college: Did you get “the feeling”? Regardless of if you did/didn’t, did you end up being happy once you got there?
P.s. “the feeling” is when someone steps on campus and instantly knows (or even with a possible delay upon thinking) that a college is right for them and is excited to go.
If you aren’t sure, why ED? ED is for when you are certain. Also, you can go into politics from plenty of schools that aren’t top ranked. Stop worrying about that.
First of all, I think you have a very narrow definition of prestige. Just because it’s not top 10 doesn’t mean the name isn’t well regarded. Second of all, prestige wouldn’t give you “the feeling” of belonging somewhere and it being a good fit. I got more of a feeling when I toured Villanova than Duke. Maybe, you’re not getting the feeling because you don’t feel the fit. Maybe you’re looking for more of a community or a student life that you haven’t seen yet. Or maybe you don’t feel that the political science programs at the schools you toured will meet your needs or give you enough experiences. Have you looked into Washington DC schools or schools more in the city? PA suburbs aren’t really a hub of politics. What does it really HAVE on paper that you want?
I am not a big believer in the “one perfect school”mentality. I believe that most students could do well and be happy at a range of schools. Some may be better “fits” than others, and you can judge that for yourself, but I do not believe you need to look for the perfect “Prince Charming”/ “Mr. or Ms. Right” of colleges. It may not even exist, and expecting any college to be a utopia may lead to disappointment when you get there.
But I also disagree with the idea that you should apply ED to a college only if the college is that Mr./Ms. Right for you. ED can be a wise strategic move if you are confident that you will be happy at the college. If there are four other colleges at which you think you would be equally happy, it is not a problem to pick one of them for ED, as long as you are not the type of person who will dwell on “shoulda/woulda/coulda” if you have the good luck to get into it early. You need to be confident you will be satisfied and have no regrets about your ED choice before applying ED. That’s all it needs, not a rosy image that it is the only college where you would be happiest. In fact, the latter philosophy is more problematic, because you might be rejected, and then what?
I agree with the approach which de-emphasizes the “it” school. My kid visited 10-15 LACs, and liked most of them well enough. I don’t think he ever walked away saying “that’s the one,” mostly, he left saying “sure, I could see going here.” Visiting helped him identify his priorities, from what he saw was, and was not, on each campus. His school where he is deeply happy, and we agree is ideal for him, is a school he visited as a safety and used to “practice” for interviewing, meeting with faculty in various areas of interest etc. As he continued to work through the process, many other schools dropped down on his list, and this one kept rising. At the end of the process, there were about 3 schools he could see himself at, and this one was his top choice.
Also agreeing with @TheGreyKing that ED doesn’t have to be the only school you can see yourself at, but rather a school you would be happy to attend without regrets.
IMO it is a terrible idea to have one “dream” “perfect” “it” school because if you don’t get in there you will feel like all is lost. FWIW my D ED’d to Lafayette and had a fantastic 4 year experience. there. She spent a day on campus, shadowed a student, attended classes etc. and that is what sold her on applying ED to the school. But she also knew that if she didn’t get in ED to Lafayette that there were other schools on her list that she could be happy attending.
I don’t think you should ED if you’re not ready to commit. One of my DDs didn’t get a feeling that “yeah, that’s where I should go,” until the acceptance letter stage.
For politicians, going to school in the state you are running in looks good, but prestige isn’t critical. Most of the politicians in my voters guide seem to have attended in-state public universities.
I will add that if you are not sure about Lafayette then maybe it is best to apply to a number of schools RD and then revisit your top choices during accepted student days before making your choice. Or perhaps before you apply ED see if you can revisit Lafayette and shadow a student for a day to get a better feel for the school. It comes down to how much you want the ED bump that you get at Lafayette vs. how confident you feel that you would be happy there and only you can answer this.
I also don’t think that you should apply ED unless both of the following are entirely true: (i) You are certain which one school you want to attend, and this won’t change between now and May 1 of your senior year of high school; (ii) You have run the NPC, are fine with the result, and have no desire to compare financial offers from multiple schools.
If you want to enter politics, I am not sure that going to a “prestigious” school is a good plan. It could help you to get labelled as a elitist who doesn’t care about normal working Americans.
I think that my daughter’s both got the feeling that they were in the right place only after multiple visits to the same school. Personally I have visited multiple small schools over the past 4 years (LACs in the US, and the Canadian equivalent) and to me a lot of them look quite a bit the same. IMHO you might need to talk to students and professors to have any chance of choosing one over another based on “feeling”.
ED does not always provide quite the bump people think it does. Great if you are 100% sure. Otherwise, you might be better off seeing what the RD round offers you, attending some accepted students days, and THEN choosing your school.
My D toured dozens of schools and never had “the feeling”. She was adamant about some she would not attend, the ones she was wishy-washy about, and those she knew she would be comfortable attending. Even at the very end during our second visits, I pushed her to “buy the damn sweatshirt already”… decision-making is still not one of her strengths.
As for ED, she did apply to a very prestigious school and was denied outright. It was a school we never visited but felt the prestige, the desirable location, and the NPC were enough to make her comfortable in the ED process.
I’m a true believer in loving the school that loves you back.
@porcupine98 In general I agree but at Lafayette (the college in question here) ED does provide a significant bump in admissions. The class profile even breaks out ED applicant acceptance statistics.
Athletics recruiting sometimes skews those numbers. Do you know for a fact that that’s not the case for Lafayette? (I don’t … just saying those higher admissions figures for ED can be misleading for the average applicant.)
Your feelings are normal. Others do have that “feeling” and either can’t get in or can’t afford it and are crushed. Picking a college can take time. You have a while still to decide. It will come to you.
Ours wanted to approach their college search a little different. We visited AFTER the acceptances. They didn’t want to fall in love with a campus and not get in. So they applied to a broad range of schools. I am very glad about the range because our child’s college thought process changed from when we started to the end. In the end if they applied ED, they would not be where they are today. Looking back ours have said they are glad we did not let them ED because they weren’t 100% sure that it was a school they wanted. Did you check your school’s naviance about the ED stats or was it from their website. Can you revisit the school?
That was also our experience. What our kid thought he wanted and what ended up being his final choice were very different – a lot of learning and development can happen between Fall and Spring of senior year.
@porcupine98 Yes, athletics and alumni do skew the number but there is a definite ED bump at Lafayette. The school takes close to half of the class ED (sometimes even a touch over 50%) which includes many non-legacy, non-alumni students. The acceptance rate is around 48% ED and 27% RD. https://about.lafayette.edu/lafayette-at-a-glance/class-profile/
We felt the school was quite clear about the ED bump in information sessions and the website states “a higher percentage of applicants are admitted under Early Decision than under Regular Decision because we give preference to students who are enthusiastic about the chance to join the Lafayette community.” Anecdotally we know kids with somewhat higher stats than my D who applied in the RD round her year and were rejected while she got in ED.
Again, I would not talk with this degree of certainty about any other school, but we do have personal experience at Lafayette and have had direct conversations with admissions officers there about this very topic.
However, I will reiterate that if the OP isn’t sure about Lafayette that he/she should not apply early.
What kind of visit was it? Did you do the campus tour and info session? Was school in session? Did you get a chance to meet any other students, sit in on a class, meet with a professor in the Political Science department?
My daughter was able to eliminate some choices with basic visits (campus tour and info session) and felt that she could be happy at a number that she toured. But “the feeling” only really solidified upon sitting in on classes and talking with students and professors. That gave her a clearer sense of what the intellectual experience would be like, which was her top priority.
If you haven’t done an in-depth visit, you might want to revisit and see if that changes your opinion.
These student blog posts might give you a better sense of what the students might be like. The last one is from 2016, but it should give you an idea.