It would be helpful for folks to know what is so terribly a bad fit that you have to transfer.
I think the money trade off is really hard to sell to the kids. But it is something that needs talking about. If you get no need based aid, I’d require my kid to research and examine some schools that are generous with merit and have at least 2 applications into them. I’ve have the kid do that before selecting the elite reach schools. Parents here have given very savvy advice about building your resume from the bottom up. We didn’t even entertain the uber reachy schools until the state applications were underway and a great private gave EA with need based aid.
I have a friend who’s kid got a merit award from a private that equalized the cost so the school wouldn’t have been more expensive than the state school. She went with the state school instead, probabally a good decision. The private didn’t quite have the reputation of a UC. but if she had a strong preference for a small school, it was a nice option to have.
Grayfalcon89 put his 2 cents in and I have to agree that building relationships and starting research or internships early are advantageous. You can build a very nice resume over the 4 years.
Although my daughter was able to go to an elite school and not have a cost trade off, and she is graduated now so in hindsight it was a fantastic environment for her, something we didn’t know freshman year–I still thought about the other schools and wondered what it would have been like. Hey can someone make a movie and fufill our ‘what if’ fantasy? Maybe the guy who made the movie about the straight A Asian students who had secret lives as gangsters and the parents didn’t know cause all they cared about were the grades–he’d be a good candidate to make my movie.