<p>PG,
The difference is that your kids didn’t issue a press release stating that they got into 6 of the top colleges in the country/world, but chose not to attend.</p>
<p>sevmom,
As soon as I see that my inquiry is not of interest to anyone, I will stop checking back.</p>
<p>It seems that the rejection of these top schools is something that you take very personally, almost like it’s an affront to you. I guess the bottom line for me is, I don’t really care enough about anyone else’s kid to get that invested in their reasons. If they work for them, that’s good enough for me. If indeed going to Baylor over Harvard et al is a “bad” decision - that’s her problem, not mine. Til lthen, I’ll take it at face value that the reasons are what she says they are.</p>
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<p>Just riffing off this because this is intriguing - as I mentioned before, D goes to an all-women’s college, and part of how she wound up there was precisely because I sort of forced the issue during the college search and pulled the parental I’d-like-you-to-look-at-(a different) women’s-college. But, the vast majority of smart young women decide upfront that a co-ed college is preferable to a single-sex one (for the obvious reason of access to boys). Are they “disingenous” to assert that they prefer co-ed colleges and to restrict their searches and applications accordingly if they haven’t actually visited a single-sex college? I don’t think so; do you?</p>
<p>Thank you,Bay, And even though you earlier suggested I no longer needed to check back into this thread, I will continue to do so as long as I remain interested in the thread.</p>
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I’m not Grcxx3 but both my kids did not pick the highest ranked school among their options. My kids and I do look look at fit as a yes/no variable … most schools fit somewhere on a scale. So it was not a case of the highest ranked school not being a fit but not being quite as good a fit as the school my kids eventually choice … in both cases the highest ranked school made it into the final 3 but was bumped by admittance to a lower ranked but better fit (as judged by my kid) school.</p>
<p>PG,
I take it personally only from the perspective that I have visited more than half of the colleges she rejected, and found them to be very impressive in many ways. I have never visited Baylor, so I am interested to know specifically what it is about Baylor that someone might find preferable to all of those other choices. I don’t know why some feel I am asking too much. She admitted that it had nothing to do with secularism.</p>
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<p>No, I don’t, but if your D had alerted that media that she preferred Wellesley over [insert another highly acclaimed all-womens’ college here], without ever visiting that college, then I would not respect her decision to make that announcement.</p>
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<p>Well, we know that the anecdotes about students turning down Harvard’s offer of admission are plentiful. Most definitely multiples of what the statistics might reflect. Such discussions are regular fodder on the forums of the “lesser” schools, regardless of the size of the kernel of truth.</p>
<p>Then, there is the choice before application and choice after admission. Not applying is different from … turning down an admission! With 300,000 applications to the Ivy League plus MIT and Stanford, it is realistic that many students do NOT apply, and this for a number of reasons. It is also undeniable that MANY students who feel to have a legitimate chance of being accepted do apply to the highest ranked schools. The pool of 300,000 applications DOES represent the best prepared and most competitive students, and that pool could not be easily duplicated. When all is said and done, the enrolled pool of students at HYPS does look quite different from UVA, Michigan, or UNC. We do know that only a very small fraction of such students end up with an offer of admission, leaving the less successful the opportunity to weave … fantastic stories of turning down a prestigious school. Fantastic in all of its meaning! </p>
<p>The question should not be about the ultimate reasons why a student such as Lizzie selected Baylor. A more pressing question should be about the need to invest such efforts in chasing highly schools when a number of criteria that would favor different schools existed before the process started. In this case, weighing financial aid did not seem to be an overwhelming concern. </p>
<p>No matter how we look at the details of this story, it remains that is appears to be rather uncommon. Regardless of how many might claim that turning down a HYPS school for a much less prestigious school happens routinely.</p>
<p>“The difference is that your kids didn’t issue a press release stating that they got into 6 of the top colleges in the country/world, but chose not to attend”</p>
<p>Umm, it looks as if Lizzie did not “issue a press release”, either. The article that launched these 35+ pages of commentary came from a small local story in a regional newspaper. Lizzie’s guidance counselor apparently nominated her for one of those “student of the week/year” stories because said counselor was so impressed with Lizzie’s overall story. In fact, if you read the original story, the counselor rarely talks about Harvard et al but more about Lizzie’s character.</p>
<p>scout59 has a very good point. We had a local public school kid a couple of years ago who got some press because of the 2400 SAT’s, National AP Scholar,etc. I doubt the impetus for the articles came from the family. Probably came from the school or guidance counselor wanting to report something impressive for the school.</p>
<p>^^</p>
<p>Humm, the source for this thread originated at Baylor. And it was not a third-party account. </p>
<p>There has been plenty of discussions about the positive and negative impact of students sharing their personal accounts. There is, however, one common denominator: the student and the parents could have decided to NOT be part of it and they accepted it. It is amazuing how powerful the words NO and “Have no interest to share details” truly are.</p>
<p>Stories do not appear magically.</p>
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<p>Going back to Grrr’s question: Yes, I would be satisfied about the media disclosure, if she had visited Harvard, Yale, Duke, Dartmouth, Vanderbilt, BC and Virginia (everyone- please note these are not all Ivies!), and preferred Baylor over all of them. Having visited 4/7 myself, I would then be VERY intrigued to know what it is about Baylor than trumped them all, and would probably schedule a visit myself.</p>
<p>xiggi, I think even if the source originated at Baylor, the point may be the same. The school (Baylor) is highlighting what they believe is very positive for the school(attracting such an accomplished student).</p>
<p>Actually, if you read the post on the Baylor website - it is based upon (and linked to) a story published previously from a Michigan newspaper. Check out the link on the Baylor web site for more details.</p>
<p>And the original story is better, too. It mentions that Lizzie has 27 foster brothers and sisters. Way to go, Lizzie’s parents!</p>
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<p>Got that part, but it changes NOTHING about my own point about sharing private details in a press release or a … story. For full disclosure, I am a staunch believer that no students should ever provide such information to anyone or being manipulated to participate in this type of publicity. </p>
<p>The mere fact that the decisions of this young person who appears to be an amazing individual have been debated (or openly questioned) should be my exhibit 1452!</p>
<p>I get what your position is on personal details,xiggi,but press releases and stories seem pretty common these days-whether for academics,sports, job performance or other major accomplishments.</p>
<p>It would be unfortunate if it was her GC who prompted her to release all of her personal info (GPA, ACT score, colleges). I do not understand why anyone would want to release this info, because even if you are proud of your accomplishments, you will surely create trouble for yourself in the unrealistic expectation department by letting everyone know how brilliant you are.</p>
<p>Most kids, especially the highly articulate and intelligent students who are admitted to the elite schools, are capable of elucidating the reasons behind their college choice in greater detail than just saying it was a better fit. Indeed, the applications themselves force students to determine what about the school is of interest. These would be the sort of kids who would have researched in depth each school’s academic and extra-curricular offerings, would have checked out the profs in their departments of interest, and so on. If you read the CC forums for the top schools, you’ll note prospective students asking for detailed information about the math sequence at the university and things like that.</p>