I do believe in fit, but fit belongs to the luxury of choice and by making things “fit”. If you don’t have the luxury of choice, you make the most of the situation you are in and “make it fit”. Back in the day, I also didn’t have the luxury of choice, in fact, given my circumstances it’s a miracle that I even went to college. But I got some very lucky breaks for which I will always be grateful. Fast forward. Today is very different from the time I went to school, and I am not the same person, either. There is no way that I would watch my kids go through similar experiences.
Colleges are different and afford different opportunities or not. Colleges also emphasize different things, that is, the atmosphere or college culture. For example, BC emphasizes community spirit and “men and women” for others, and they really mean it. Bard is very different from Notre Dame, Oberlin from Carnegie Mellon, MIT from Brown, etc. True, just by going to Harvard doesn’t mean success, just as going to a much lower ranked college doesn’t mean lack of success. The students who are driven, motivated, and want to succeed, will succeed wherever they land. That’s a given, hopefully.
I am just one parent, but for me (and my husband), there are right answers to tough issues. There can be many answers, as right for one person may be wrong for another. Right answers come when one makes decisions based on what one feels is right for that person or family. Yes, these are indeed tough decisions when picking a college, but one has to eventually make a choice. That is why I put in the coin toss analogy. Because deep down, we each of us know what the right choice is for our own particular situation.