<p>I am a big fan of CC and enjoy participating in many of the discussions. I have one request for many of the parents who like to compare schools by denigrating one to make the other look good: please stop this. It is the one thing I hate about CC. I understand the high school kids engaging in this type of thing, but I would expect the adults to know better. </p>
<p>I don’t have a problem expounding on the many virtues of your alma mater or the school your children are attending, but is it really necessary to compare it to other schools by denigrating them. Many parents here act like they are experts on many different schools, which I find hard to believe. If you have never visited a school or had personal experience with the school, you should be very careful before giving your opinion of the school to everyone here. It is hard to fully appreciate the nuances or subtleties of a school unless you have been involved with the school in an extensive way. Remember, we are trying to assist the high school students on this board, instead of engaging in some type of one-upmanship with some of the other posters. </p>
<p>I raise this issue now because lately I have seen a proliferation of these type of threads. Maybe it is happening because students are deciding between schools before the May 1 deadline. Whatever reason, I hope we can curtail it to some degree.</p>
<p>I am a great fan of my kids’ colleges but I try to confine my opinions about them to the college specific forums on this site. Also, I really don’t think my kids’ schools (or any other for that matter) are superior to any other school.</p>
<p>Much of the nastiness I’ve seen here has been posted by young folks - some of whom seem almost obsessed with rankings and prestige, with never any practical knowledge to back up their snarking. Others are college students who continually pop up on “rival” colleges’ threads to post negative comments. It always makes me think A) you don’t go there, so you have very little to base your comments on, and B) if you are happy with where you are, then why are you still here, posting negative cr*p on CC? I have NO problem with the kids who love and talk up their schools, just the ones who try to put others down.</p>
<p>I think most schools have positives and negatives. Sometimes I think people think that if you say anything negative about a school that your child isn’t attending it’s not fair. I disagree.</p>
<p>The best school for anyone is the BEST FIT school. Some schools are obviously better academically but that is only part of the package. Also- a school one has to struggle to only possibly succeed at is not the best choice- failure at “top” school X is worse than success at “mediocre” school Y. Don’t let the opinions bother you. Remember the huge list of possible schools has to be trimmed- hearing what people didn’t like can be just as valuable as what they do like.</p>
<p>On CC, it’s best to provide all of the good/bad qualities of each option.</p>
<p>In real life, I prefer the your-school-is-better-than-my-school approach. Or at least equal. Because really, there isn’t some hierarchy in the real world; just CC and US News.</p>
<p>When people are posting X vs Y vs Z threads, they are looking for positive and negative info and opinions. Just skip these threads if you are uncomfortable with people discussing the schools in critical way.</p>
<p>I get more out of hearing about the criticisms than about the positives. It takes a brave soul to point out what where a school fall short. I like both my kids’ schools - for the most part - but they were far from perfect utopias and even I have been reticent to post the negatives for fear of being at attacked by the boosters.</p>
<p>OP: I do have a habit of pushing good things about DD college to the point where it has become annoying or unpleasant for others. During such discussions I may touch upon other peer colleges as comparison but I restrict my comparison to colleges I’ve visited or researched and where DD applied and got accepted.</p>
<p>I think people on CC are there to get information about colleges and who else can provide this information better than the current students or parent of current students.
There are many things I didn’t know about DD’s college which came to surface during the last 2 years, so why do you think sharing such information with CC is wrong?</p>
<p>Why don’t you take the information from CC with a grain of salt and make your opinion about merit or demerit of each college.</p>
<p>How many posters comment on schools they have any direct experience with. People make these broad generalizations about schools without having ever spent time at the school or even knowing anyone who has attended the school. How about we require all posters who want to tell us their definitive opinion of a school to state where they came by this knowledge. If it is hearsay or you read it somewhere without citing a source at least the rest of us can decide if the information is credible.</p>
<p>^^^: I’ll agree that CC posters do have the habit of saying ‘Oh!, it’s common knowledge’ but don’t try to logically discuss why it’s so. If you think any school is better in some respect than there should be some definite data to support the same conclusion instead of dismissing something as just common knowledge.</p>
<p>This is a discussion forum, not a peer-reviewed journal. People can say whatever they want, and you can argue with or disregard the info you don’t like. At least on the Parents’ forum most of the comments are made with the intention of providing useful info, even if sometimes they are outdated or factually incorrect. It is up to the reader to decide which ones to take to heart.</p>
<p>Many times strong words are said about a school not worth what a family/student is going to have to pay. When I see a kid from a family with a low EFC contemplating going to a high cost school that means lots of loans from kid and parents, alike, my feeling is that no school is worth that sort of monetary stress it is putting on a family already low income. Some parents put it more strongly than that. Then someone takes offense. </p>
<p>How wonderful a school is depends so much on the student and the affordability of it. We can’t assess the student/school match from an internet site but we sure can do the numbers.</p>
<p>The funny thing is, the prestige factor pretty much goes away for all but a handful of schools after the first year. My kids have uniformly come home from freshman year to discover that their old high school friends no longer care about that stuff - one has transferred from a prestigious school to the state directional U to save money, one took a gap year or a year at a community college and now is going to a well known LAC, one is still perfectly happy at the state flagship, one who entered college expecting to transfer found out that fate had put them in exactly the right place, one is taking a gap year from an Ivy to teach nature skills to middle schoolers, one has dropped out and is working as an exotic dancer (true!)…and they all respect one another’s choices (except maybe the exotic dancer one).</p>
<p>Totally agree. John’s best school may not be Jane’s at all. </p>
<p>That said, when we compare schools, we use numbers, and there is no way around that. For example, students at your school have on average a 2150 SAT, but at mine it’s 1550. Mine fits me the best. I have no problem with that kind of comparison. Opinion-based comparisons often are valuable too.</p>
<p>It’s a question of perspective and specific commentary. I think the rankings like USNWR have some merit and utility, but people get wrapped up in a school being ranked #11 or #12 from year to year. Come on!
I think looking at and understanding broader categories of schools has some merit, but dissing a school for dropping one spot in rank is absolutely ridiculous and meaningless. Then, some schools like LACs don’t have the same mission or offerings as national or regional universities, or state public schools, etc. They’re DIFFERENT not “bad” vs. “good.”
Also, money and marketing makes a difference. I have become aware of a university I was really not previously aware of, that aggressively markets and pursues quality students; then there are some places that give the message that you have to come to them.</p>