Northwestern University’s SESP (School of Education & Social Policy)
Georgetown University’s SFS (School of Foreign Service)
Any large national university with lots of diversity.
My son’s top three are Georgetown, Lehigh, and Wake Forest, but these are both academic and financial reaches. We need to find about six to nine good fits/safeties to try instead for pre-med and/or business/poli sci!
Stanford, UNC, UCB
But I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to go to college and will be grateful no matter where the universe chooses to send me. ?
I’m a freshman in HS but…
MIT, Northwestern, UIUC
(com sci)
In 2016 my top 3 were UCLA, Stanford, and UC Berkeley. If I got into Stanford I would have gone just because you can’t turn down that opportunity. But my heart always said UCLA and here I am.
For the kid/student or parent?
For the poster, I think.
@bethany23, UTA? That’s UT-Arlington. The flagship is referred to as UT or sometimes UT Austin.
@Riversider, you forgot MIT on that list.
I’m still pretty early into the college process, but at this point of my high school career, my top 3 schools are MIT, Caltech, and Northeastern.
@MaineLonghorn oh whoops mb lol
MIT
U Chicago
???
My daughter’s dream schools over the past few years were U Chicago and MIT. By the start of senior year she decided to study engineering so she ended up not applying to Chicago.
Several other schools were very appealing but not quite at the “dream” level. She said she could fall in love with them.
Boston College Georgetown Brown PLME
Stanford, Carnegie Mellon University, UC Berkeley
My only dream school is USC. I don’t have any others that would meet my conditions as a dream school.
If I were a high school senior today (instead of 35 years ago), my top three would be
M.I.T.
Howard
Northwestern
But I’m sure I would be happy attending 1000s of other schools. I don’t really believe in “favorite” schools being the only place a student can find success and happiness. In fact, I find the idea a bit useless.
A childhood acquaintance is a college professor. His three sons earned undergraduate degrees at institutions most CC readers would not value. However, all three sons earned graduate degrees (incuding 2 PhDs) from Yale, Harvard, and U Maryland.
In most instances, it is not the institution, it is the student. Nearly every dentist can successfully address a cavity/filling. Nearly every accredited university can address educating a student. All colleges have students who drink too much and drop out; students who don’t study enough and graduate with low GPAs; and students who excel and graduate with 3.8s and higher.
I want to say that my opinion that having rigid favorites is something I find “useless” as a personal guide for my son’s college-selection process. We plan to visit 40-50 schools by the time he makes his decision in January or February. We’ve already visited more than a dozen schools and have sorted through dozens and probably hundreds of other schools. They’re all more or less very similar within categories.
Unless a campus is in obvious disrepair, they’re all acceptable to him. The students at every school seem … like college students. The staffs present themselves as college professors and professionals should. And my son leaves most campuses thinking “I could go here.”
Of course, there are some criteria that can narrow the field, such as desired majors not being an option at some schools, or cost, or not wanting to live in the snow or high heat. But otherwise, we’ve come to the conclusion that his happiness+success will not be determined by whether or not he attends one of 3 “very special to him” schools.
Maybe other parents/students find it useful to lock onto three schools with a must-have mentality. That may be a good practice for some parents/students. For us, it is not.