But as a star student…if she remains so…she could end up with some fabulous opportunities as the big fish in the little pond. Nothing wrong with that!
Rockstar might just be throwing out a red herring.
My guess is that she’ll be a rock star at the local directional school if that’s the school she’s chosen to attend.
Hearsay sometimes has a way of not getting the whole story.
My son goes to a directional. The average GPA is around 3.3 and fully 1/3 have over 3.5. And I know many states have more competitive admissions across the board than mine.
The girl will not be a full GPA point higher than everyone else. There might even be other 4.0 students, shocking as it seems. Yes, she will be above average–if she got a huge merit scholarship that’s clear. But she won’t be the only smart student there.
If her brother is at the flagship they may have a family culture where it’s the norm to stay in state. That’s very much the norm for most around here. And some kids have reasons for not wanting to go to the flagship–size is a common one. But there might be specific programs of interest elsewhere. My D has applied to the flagship but she recently added an app to the directional my son goes to because they have a major concentration the flagship doesn’t.
I have two friends (in their late 40’s). One went to directional U and one went to MIT. The one that went to Directional U (with a Communications degree). Is extremely successful and President of a large company. The one that went to MIT is a consultant and lives in a house about 1/2 the size of the other and drives older cars. BUT…here’s the clincher …they are both great men, loving husbands, great fathers and great citizens!!! Let it go!!!
The smart kids from middle income families who aren’t accepted to elite schools and can’t afford to pay OOS rates have to go somewhere. I don’t think she’ll be surrounded by intellectual inferiors. She seems to have done okay surrounded by the locals at her high school, so I’m sure she’ll do well at the state college too.
Agreed. It definitely does depend on which state it is. I may have overstated a bit on GPA.
I just checked some of the NY state schools. I didn’t check them all, but the least selective ones seem to have average GPA’s in the 3.1 - 3.3 range, the middle ones are around 3.5, and the most selective ones are in the 3.6 - 3.7 range.
Connecticut is a very different story. For all but Storrs, the average GPA is very close to 3.0. The highest is 3.07, and the lowest is 2.9. Yikes, what the heck is going on up there? I think I know the answer - private school 
Best not to concern yourself with the decisions of others. It is strange that she didn’t seek out merit aid elsewhere, but nobody ever knows the full story of what is going on in other people’s homes.
Okay. but all students should know that there are more opportunities at state schools than they can possibly take advantage of. You don’t have to be a “star”. All you have to do is reach out, take it and actually do something with it.
Oh please. I completed,a post masters program at Central CT State University and Southern CT State University…both directional universities in this state. There were some very specific instructors with whom I wanted to study at each of these schools…never mind that Storrs is a good 1 1/2 hour drive from my house.
We have friends and neighbor’s whose kids attend those directional CT universities…and guess what? They are doing fine. The grads we know all found good jobs right after graduation. All of them chose the directional because they didn’t want to go to a school as large as UConn…either that or they didn’t want to be in the boondocks.
The state of CT has pumped a large sum of money into the infrastructure at these directional universities. Their facilities are really quite nice.
And the prices are much more favorable than UConn.
In addition, they are placed such that one can commute to one of these schools from most spots in the state.
The notion that all the smart kids in CT go to private universities is…well…poppycock.
The proper response is " Congratulations". You might also ask her if she knows what she plans to study, if she is excited about starting college, etc. The same response you should give any student going to any school.
True, but this isn’t just a smart kid, this is a kid with top stats. It’s just surprising that there weren’t some private schools throwing big money at her. And for all we know there were, or like other posters said, she might need to be close to home.
I’m sure she won’t die of intellectual starvation at the local school, and I think we’re all going to be OK, too I think we’ll get over it. It’s just one of those stories that makes you wonder.
It doesn’t make me wonder at all. People ha e their reasons. Not every part of the country is obsessed with elite schools. The people in the part of the country who are tend not to realize that the rest of the country is quite different in that regard.
I live in elite school heaven…and believe me, not everyone around here is obsessed with elite schools either.
@thumper1, I wasn’t saying that they’re bad schools or that the kids aren’t going to get jobs after they finish. I was just surprised when I recently learned the average stats.
It’s a small state, so you’re not going to have as many options as you would in some of the larger states. New York, where I live, doesn’t have a whole lot of great options either. Most of them are in cold, snowy locations. But there’s more than one option for kids who do want to go to a school that is somewhat selective. Nowhere near as good as California or Virginia, but better than Connecticut.
As far as the number of CT kids that go to private colleges, I was half kidding, but I did just find an article that discusses the topic.
Not surprisingly, a higher percentage of kids in Fairfield county go to private colleges than in the other counties. And a higher percentage of CT kids overall go to private colleges than in most other states. So it may not be that all of the smart kids in CT are going to private schools, but a larger percentage of the kids overall are going to private schools.
Here’s a quote from the article, followed by a link to the article.
“National statistics show the likelihood of students’ attending a private institution is very low. Connecticut’s rate of attendance at private schools is higher than most states.”
http://trendct.org/2015/06/16/where-might-the-graduating-seniors-be-going/
Often a directional will have one or more really great departments that people who are not interested in those areas might not know about. One example is elementary or secondary ed – some of the directionals are more highly regarded by employers in this area than some flagships might be.
Maybe she likes that school better than the other schools that she applied to?
(Though the parents seem not to have planned the college budget for their kids too well if they spent it all on the first kid and left nothing for the second kid.)
As far as the school quality goes, some non-flagship state universities are better than others, so merely describing the school as a “directional” or non-flagship state university does not say much about the quality of the school, or the quality of the specific academic programs that the student in question may be interested in.
I was struck that the older brother gets flagship, and younger daughter gets directional. I would feel ripped off if I was her (although maybe she didn’t want flagship I guess). Seems potentially sexist family situation.
Here in CT, if you want to be a speech pathologist, you want to go to Southern Connecticut State University. While UConn has a speech path program, the one at Sothern is a much better program, and with a larger cohort of students…and more clinical opportunities that are close by. As a speech path, I would most definitely recommend the SCSU (which is a directional) over the state flagship.
I’m sure there are plenty of directional universities with specific departments that are better for some reason than the flagship.
I’ll point out once again that you don’t have to be obsessed with elite schools to favor certain private schools over the local directional. There’s a lot of space between SUNY Brockport and Fordham University, for example.
I’m not saying anything bad about Brockport. I’m just using it as an example. I think we can safely say that Fordham is not an elite school. It’s a very good school, but I think calling it elite might be a little bit of a stretch. And I think we can safely say that a kid who is shooting for Fordham, and similar schools, is not obsessed with elite schools.
Surprisingly, the admissions rates at the two schools are very close - 48% for Fordham vs 49% for Brockport. But the average GPA’s and SAT scores are pretty different. Some kids, and parents, might prefer Fordham, because on average, the kids are stronger students. There’s no crime in that. It doesn’t make them prestige whores, or typical Northeastern elitists.
People prefer certain schools over others for all kinds of reasons, but for some reason, it’s a crime around here if you value selectivity or prestige in any way at all. It’s just like with college majors. All majors are created equal and all schools are created equal, and if you believe otherwise, you’re a heretic on CC.
Strange place, but I’m starting to adapt. Maybe if I just keep saying that sentence i just wrote over and over again, I’ll have a transformation, and I’ll really fit in around here:-)
All majors are created equal. All schools are created equal. All majors are created equal. All schools are created equal…