Interest in Technology/Start ups… I mean, if Stanford were an acronym, I think it would be
Startups &Technology Always Nearby & Financed by Our Renowned Dreamers
I mean, Silicon Valley gets the press, but Stanford is an engine for innovation in all the STEM fields (and monetizing said innovation).
Stanford as Silicon Valley and entrepreneurial spirit goes hand in hand!
We have what I can best call peace and certainty in our house now.
Since S24 was accepted REA to Stanford, he’s been, of course, thrilled, but still uncertain about what he wanted to do, whether it was the right fit. A little imposter syndrome, a little wonder about whether he could see himself fitting in with the other students.
So he kept a few applications in play over the past few months. Lots of interviews, etc, with these applications kept him busy. Ended up with some great news with two other programs but then not-great Ivy results.
Mild disappointment (but fine…I mean, his luck had to run out at some point). Then by the weekend - boom - his decision crystallized. Declined waitlists and acceptances and moved on from rejection.
He’s now incredibly excited about Stanford and committed last night. Paid the deposit and made it Instagram-official (changed his bio, announced through his school’s Instagram page).
He’s especially excited bc he learned another student from his school who was deferred REA was accepted. He also has several friends of friends from different programs he’s done over the years who will be there as well. Admit weekend should be very fun!
DH and I are so happy he’s done and happy. Even though, in retrospect, S24 could have committed back in December, we all agree he needed to see the process fully through before feeling 100% confident in his decision.
As someone commented previously in this thread, our kids have grown so much this year, and I definitely have seen this with my son. Having a great option early but not having to commit has been a gift.
Things have finally settled down for our household as our kiddo has received all, but two, of her school decisions and seems ready to commit. Our daughter is pragmatic and has been especially careful not to rush into her choice (and has taken the opportunity to reach out and visit with students personally or virtually at her top school choices to learn more from their experiences). I did not fully understand how difficult the college application process has become since my wife and I went through it many years ago, and I’ve been a ball of nerves! Seriously, it’s been stressful.
We were very lucky and happy with our daughter’s available choices. She applied and was accepted into the business programs for McGill, UC Berkeley Haas GMP, NYU Stern, UT Austin McCombs, Toronto, Notre Dame, and IU Kelley. She was declined at MIT (deferred, then declined), Brown, and Duke. After much thought, our kid has decided to attend McGill and we are really excited! For our daughter, it came down to her focus on international studies and environment and how the available opportunities will match to her future goals.
Thanks to everyone for sharing their own thoughts and experiences and stories, it’s been super helpful for us as her parents to work through the process. Wishing everyone the best with their own kids in this adventure!
Things have not settled down here. It’s been a bit overwhelming thinking about options and how they line-up for his future goals of medical school. Pondering quality of advising, access to opportunities to build a competitive application while also feeling good about the chosen school if he should ever decide to pivot.
Meanwhile D25 needs my attention as she will be a totally new learning curve and I was really hoping for a more clear answer after results. Back to back kids was great as littles, but a skosh overwhelming at the moment.
Just to add a little more complexity the admitted days are back to back, different parts of country and both require hour plus drives to closest airport. I’m fine, everything is fine. 
If it makes you feel any better, those of us with next kids far out, like my D30, are going to have to relearn everything because it will all likely be totally different again by then.
Come to think of it, that probably did not make you feel better, but it made me feel worse, so, misery and company and all that.
Those are all great choices, so it’s a can’t-go-wrong situation where any of them will be a great outcome and seem like the right decision in hindsight.
Has your student visited all of these personally? If not I would try to do so. Given that they are all winners, the deciding factor should be where they get the best vibe. I would waste no time trying to dig too deep on which is a better school or program (because they are all top tier) and really just focus on where the student wants to be.
A couple additional thoughts, but all our personal opinions and none trump my suggestion above to visit and go with gut…
What is your student like personally? If they are super competitive, driven, self-starting, maybe even intense, I would consider Stanford given the interest in tech start-ups. Stanford is still in the world epicenter of tech VCs and start-ups. The downside is its crazy intense and competitive (particularly in CS) so if you’re student won’t thrive in that kind of environment, consider the alternatives. That may sound like an environment no one would love, but some really do their best in pressure cookers where they have to rise above a high bar. Not that any of these alternatives aren’t hard and competitive but Stanford is next level particularly in the CS and tech-related majors. One of the most gifted CS students at my kid’s HS went to Stanford. The kind of student it all came easy to in HS. Started in CS and got so stressed out that the student ended up taking a break for a year mid-undergrad. Went back and switched to a more CS-adjacent major and thrived and is doing great. Beautiful campus. Great weather. I love the Bay Area.
Personally Princeton is my favorite school. But again that’s just personal opinion. They are more undergraduate focused than most of their peers. They have the best per student endowment of any school, and it shows in the incredible campus and resources. (I’m a big believer in per capita endowments as a barometer to student experience.) They have a next level alumni network (and throw truly legendary annual alumni reunions that every other Ivy envies). They are not as intense as Stanford CS, but still a stressful environment that has had 8 student suicides in the last two years.
As noted above, UPenn’s M&T program is tailor made for your students interest. Great school, can’t go wrong. Personally I am not a fan of the UPenn campus and surrounding area the way I am of the Princeton or Stanford campuses and communities. That said, it’s the only urban of the three. So if our student has an interest in living in a true major city its the best location of the three.
Worth noting that both Stanford and UPenn are undergoing leadership changes after both presidents were forced to resign under pressure, for different reasons, recently. Sometimes such changes can be disruptive. Princeton has had the same leadership for a while.
I only know Georgia Tech by reputation so nothing to add.
Congrats on amazing outcomes and good luck with your students win-win decision.
I agree, but I have to say it feels like the odd man out within this group. IMO the other three have students that are much more career oriented and intense in a very different way. Princeton students are very intellectually intense but it’s a different thing.
S24 has visits planned to Grinnell, St. Olaf, and Lawrence next week, Emory the week after that, and Amherst the week after that (all admitted student days except for Grinnell). I think we have a clear top 4 at this point (he’s planning on a double major in music and then maybe English):
UGA: he did the regular campus tour as a 10th grader and told the tour guide, “I’m probably going to go to a small college.” But then fell in love with the music school when he visited this past fall. I think it’s at least as strong as any of his options if he does a BM. My worry is that music school aside it’s not the best fit, and he’s planning to double major in something outside of music. Also, there appear to be very limited music opportunities for non-majors; I worry that if he gets there and decides after a couple of semesters that maybe that’s not what he wants he’ll feel stuck. But it’s close and he could do marching band so we could see him on TV!
St. Olaf: I have nothing negative to say about St. Olaf. I think it’d be a great fit for him–strong LAC with strong music. FA is very solid, though others have since come in better. He really likes it; it’s definitely a contender. If RD hadn’t gone the way it did, we’d probably be down to these first two by now.
Emory: It’s less than an hour away–we could go to all his concerts! Heh. He says that all things being equal he’d probably rather be a little farther away, but it’s not a dealbreaker for him. No BM offered, but they take music very seriously, hire great faculty, and have an excellent department and ensembles. Being in a city comes with easy access to music outside of school, too. Best FA package by a good bit. We’ll see how he feels after admitted student day; it might be a bit big, and the vibe might be a little pre-professional for him.
Amherst: Amherst seemed like such a longshot that we didn’t spend that much time thinking about it until the acceptance came in, but now it’s very much rising in the rankings. Music looks incredible there for a small LAC without a conservatory, and if he can’t get enough then there’s always UMass down the street. Music faculty has been very responsive and pro-active about reaching out to him. FA is not as good as Emory’s, but still very good. Open curriculum a definite plus. And then there’s the whole “it’s Amherst” thing that’s hard to overlook.
It is still not impossible somewhere else will win him over, but the others are having trouble cracking the top 4 for assorted reasons, mostly having to do with some combo of money and music. Just a year ago he was much less firm about how important strong music was to him; this process has really made it clear to him how much he cares about continuing to play at a high level, whether or not music winds up being his career path.
Even 25+ years ago, it was very much career/tech/startup oriented even for non-stem students. I still remember the the student newspaper article about humanity students complaining that they were treated like a second class citizen. I thought it was really odd since my undergraduate school was the opposite, everyone looked down on engineering students being geeks.
I liked my time at Stanford and it helped me a lot. But sometimes I wonder how my life would have changed if I went to UMich and got phd.
My intention was to get phd at Stanford, but the pressure to get out and make big money was extreme. Only small number makes big money.
Ha!
What do you really think the answer is? Do you think the postal worker cares where your kid goes or you think a neighbor figured out what day your mail would arrive and opened it in the street to read it? Don’t you think it’s more likely someone got the wrong mail and just opened it without looking and then said oh crap this seems like they really need this and passed it along instead of throwing it out?
Not all kids know what they want and want options for when they need to make the decision. I didn’t even have my drivers license in NJ in August before senior year (17 to drive in NJ and I’m a summer birthday), it’s a lot a growing in those months. I know my daughter loves a medium size school but she also loves a city and those two things don’t go together really in the north east. But she is also chasing merit so she will apply to a lot and see if the most affordable where she’s comfortable.
Merit unlikely but BC and Tufts fit that, as well as UChicago, and maybe CMU and Georgetown. Ivys other than Princeton, Cornell or Dartmouth.
Well of course it makes sense that your D will apply to a variety of schools that fit those criteria. But will she apply to all the ivys and a ton of small LACs? I would guess not. That is more what I am referring to. The kids on TikTok who apply to every ivy, plus williams, Amherst, Stanford and Duke. It makes no sense other than chasing prestige.
My son is also considering Rice (the residential college system and flexibility to take classes across different schools were particularly appealing to him ).
We are not as familiar with it as it sounds you are so any information you have would be appreciated.
A couple of questions: -
he is planning on majoring in something in social sciences and we see a lot about Rice’s reputation in stem, but was wondering how it is for those in other fields?
And he most likely does not want to stay in Texas after graduation, and we were wondering how rice does with placement in other parts of the country - particularly the northeast (may want to do something business related in future - one of the majors he is looking at seems to place 1/3 of its graduates in mgmt consulting)?
Depends on how you define Northeast, but there is also Rochester.
I have no idea, honestly. I just am careful not to read other people’s mail, but that’s just me.
If he definitely wants to live in the Northeast after graduation, Im not sure Rice is your best option. I live in New England and it’s not well known up here. D24 is the first person ever to be accepted from our school (we usually send about 5-7 kids to Ivies). The only kids from our school who apply to Rice (about 10 per year) usually do so only because of its ranking. I’m not saying it’s impossible since recruiters/employers are probably more familiar with the school than the average person.
Regarding STEM reputation: D24 will major in business /history. It’s a bit of a gamble since Rice’s undergraduate business degree is new. They had a business minor but just recently offered it as a major.
Before our school tour last year, D24 reached out to the Business school dean and set up time to meet when we visited. They spoke for about 20 minutes on campus and discussed the trajectory of the business program. Their MBA program is also relatively new but is now ranked in the Top 20. Undergraduate business is taught by the same MBA professors. Also, since the business program is new, D24 felt it was “under-the-radar” compared to the traditional top business schools. And the top firms do recruit Rice. In her mind - less competition for top business jobs, more collaborative, not hyper competitive/cut throat, and the ability to make her own mark.
D24 may not live full time in Texas, but she’d be very open to doing internships there and the Rice name in Texas is king - and the job market is huge. Rice will probably open more doors for her there than almost any school in the country other than a small handful. In the Northeast, probably not as much.
Thank you, this all confirms our impressions. I don’t think the northeast network is a deal breaker, so we will see how he feels after visit in terms of fit.