Since I’ve been helping my older son17 with his college search I’ve stumbled across many schools that I was unaware of their selectivity and “prestige factor”. Growing up and spending most of my time in the New England area has left me sheltered and I guess ignorant of how many good schools there are throughout the USA. Part of my ignorance may stem from the fact that I’ve never met people in my social or professional life that have attended some of the these schools, so I’ve just never paid much attention to them.
My 2 examples:
University of Chicago - never once I have I met anyone who’s graduated from there, and I never hear of kids around me applying there. Really had no idea. Just assumed it was a regular old college based in a city I never visit. I understand it to be quite intellectual. After looking at the info online, it seems like a cool place to go to school if you are their type. I am not their type, lol.
University of Rochester: Again, never met anyone, nor worked with anyone who’s graduated. I don’t think many kids in my son’s school apply there. I thought it was just another ho-hum institution based in a city that I never visit. My wife used to complain about traveling to Rochester for work sometimes, so I just never held it in high regard. Ignorance, again!
So, that’s 2 school’s, there’s many more that have surprised me and opened my eyes to all of the great schools around the country. I’ve enjoyed reading and learning about a lot of neat places to go to college.
Not that it matters much to me at this time, my kid wants to go to school 15 miles away,
I lived for a while years ago outside of Beloit, WI., and it wasn’t until fairly recently that I learned that Beloit College is highly-regarded and students actually come quite a distance to attend there.
I moved to Georgia in 2008. Up until last year, I thought Emory was just a hospital. Forget the fact its views as a top notch university. I didn’t know it was a school at all. LMAO!
When I went to college in Boston a lifetime ago, Northeastern was okay, now it appears to be a giant with certain populations and has an acceptance rate less than 30%. Several of D’s friends applied and are attending and, in my ignorance, I wondered why they picked the school.
I don’t know why Swarthmore never hit D’s radar, but just as well as she wasn’t accepted (waitlisted at many) at any of her reach schools.
Lots of schools are much more selective for specific majors than the school is overall (examples include CS at schools like CMU, UIUC, Washington, several UCs, Texas, etc.). This can produce unpleasant surprises (either rejection or admission to the school but not the major) for applicants who overestimate their chances based on the schools’ overall admission stats.
Ha, just now in this post I learned that U. Rochester is elite. I never knew that. Rochester sounds like an industrial boring super cold windy town to me. One of my favorite professors in college went there, and I always assumed he went there because he got a full scholarship or something. Maybe U.Rochester is the reason my professor is so awesome!
@NEPatsGirl: NE used to be nothing really. I had a friend who attended, then transferred and told me all about why. Now they have a well renowned coop and turning down some serious talent from my kid’s school. Big change in the last 20 years.
Washington University in St. Louis. Never heard of it, and it is very selective.
Rice: My high school boyfriend got in there so it can’t be too selective right? Wrong!
@NEPatsGirl Northeastern too! I’m with you. I applied,got accepted and visited in the 80’s. It was my least favorite school on my list by a mile. Cruddy, runny down, didn’t like the location. I actually took a tour and a rat ran by us in the hall, no lie! Big ol’ pass for me.
I’ve just had such a negative image of that place that I can’t accept the fact it’s considered difficult to get into now.
I disliked my visit so much that I told my son not to bother considering it. Then I learned how much I guess it’s improved, ha.
Cal Poly SLO for STEM majors. Lots of local kids attend (but they have an admissions advantage), so I viewed this college as a small step up from the neighborhood city college until about a year ago when I discovered they routinely turn away kids with near ivy-level profiles.
RightCoaster, Northeastern is a generation away from being, as you said, somewhat of a crummy commuter school. Its transformation is fairly amazing, in part due to superb management and a fortune spent on building and faculty hiring, and in part on shrewdly manipulating numbers to increase its rank. It didn’t hurt that during key periods of its expansion/transformation, the economy went belly-up, and practical, coop-centric education suddenly became very “in.”
That said, there’s a couple thousand “good” schools in this country… Can’t know 'em all!
In our search, Georgia Tech stood out as a school that ended up being more difficult to get into than we anticipated. A few years ago, I would have considered it a good state university, nothing more–certainly not among the highest-regarded (UCB, Michigan, UVA). But the acceptance stats over the past couple years are crazy.
Maybe I’m just feeling this way b/c my high-stat D (33 ACT, 3.95/4.5) got waitlisted.
I believe Reed falls into this category. Their acceptance is 39%, but don’t be fooled. The stats of incoming freshmen are pretty high. 50%+ from top 10% of their class, 87% in the top quarter. ACT mid range 29-33. Average GPA 3.9.
I understand that Northeastern is all nice and new now, but the scars of the rat remain with me, lol. You know, the old “you only get one chance to make a 1st impression” thing.
There was a great article on Northeastern’s transformation recently, maybe in the Globe? Very good story.
Northeastern may have been just a ‘commuter school’ back in the day and not much to look at, but there were many leaders in their field teaching there and the co-op program has always been top-rate.
For me, it’s been more about schools that have transformed themselves over the course of my career and become selective. Northeastern is certainly one of these. GW is another. They would take anyone with a pulse from my private school 20 years ago. Boy, have times changed. Vandy and Wash U went from strong regional privates to major national powerhouses in what feels like a snap of the fingers.
