@Veryapparent Biglaw does not recruit exclusively from the top schools. But they do exclusively recruit the top students (i.e. law review students). GPA/class rank requirements are a little more lax for the recruits from top schools but great students are not shut out. If not attending a top school job prospects are better if you attend law school in the geographic area where you plan to establish your career.
Yes. D passed up full-tuition scholarships at USC, Vandy, WashU, Grinnell, and Kenyon, as well as max merit at other top 20 schools, in-state tuition at Cal and UCLA, etc. for full pay at Stanford.
We’d make that choice again in a heartbeat. Assuming you able to swing it financially, it’s all about fit.
Do you care to share your home distance to Stanford? As you mention fit, did your student participate in any sports at any level?
@LoveTheBard Wow, full tuition scholarships from Univ of Southern CA and Vandy? Sure passed up many full tuition scholarships from good schools.
@websensation - Williams is pretty strong across the board; their art history department is particularly strong.
It’s known for its Oxford-style tutorials where two students are paired and meet 2-on-1 with a professor every week to explore topics in depth.
I would have flunked out from Williams because no place to hide. I got by skipping classes because most of my classes were large lecture style where prof did not do a roll call. For few classes, when I showed up to take final exams, fellow students did not recognize me and asked me if I was in the correct class. Lol
D1’s friend passed up Duke Robertson for Yale.
Completely agree with the sentiment that if you can swing it, it’s all about fit. S is attending a highly selective school full pay vs. a very inexpensive honors program at state flagship. He is thriving in the intimate environment and doing things (has access to opportunities) he wouldn’t otherwise have. Not only do we have no regrets, my wife and I love that we’re able to provide this platform for his growth and just insist he does the same for his kids. Fun to watch the maturing process.
@websensation - Yes, she did. And there’s not a day that goes by that she isn’t 100% convinced that she made the right choice.
@MaterS - We are in SoCal, so it’s an easy, generally very cheap, hour-long flight. She was looking at schools on the east coast, south, and midwest, some of which would have been much more complex logistically-speaking. She is not into sports at any level – either as a participant or as a spectator. Totally not her thing.
reasons for our decision to go full pay at Stanford and forgo of all other options ( merit/scholarships) for our older D : 1. we can afford it without having to get any loans 2. choice of major 3. we agreed early on that S is the only school worth paying full pay for, and D was lucky enough to get in. Haven’t regretted the decision so far ( only a sophomore) --time will tell !
May be other factor than just money vs higher rank/prestige. It could be location, location, location or time saving. We are paying twice (and yes, planing to use some loan) of what D could have gone to the state flag (a top 50 ranked nationally and top 10 public university) or go to a lesser public in state and got some scholarship, and I am sure D would be as much happy and successful as she is now in a top tier school. But D has an outside school interest that could potentially be a good career by itself that is thriving in the surrounding of her current school. Paying the extra is for D to see if she could workout something there while studying her 4 years of undergraduate. Did not what D to wonder later in her life “what if I had tried” or after graduated with a degree in certain field but wants then to pursue her dream (and potentially waste 4 - 10 years of her productive life). So we choose to kill two birds in one stone approach in paying more for a prestige school for reason than people have discussed. I think there are many students/parents paying full to go to NYU (so their children can pursue fashion/acting while in school), to Georgetown (more opportunities in political science/public policy fields), to UCLA/West Cost schools for movie industry… reasons than just simply more name-brand/competitive environment reasons.
Oldest son was NMF and Governor’s Scholar with several full-ride options. He ended up going full-pay to a tiny Catholic LAC. (The school was moderately priced for a private college at that time–10 years ago–25-30K/year including room/board.) S had attended a summer program there and loved it. H really wanted S to go there. It was a good fit for S in a lot of ways. However, it was a great books school, which didn’t really prepare S for a career. (He teaches at a private high school.) We didn’t take out loans to pay for the school, but it required us (and our 6 younger kids) to live very frugally, put off needed repairs to our home, keep driving our old cars, etc. H changed jobs and we moved during the recession, which added financial strain. Several years later, our younger sons (also NMFs) were “forced” to take their full rides. (H really wanted youngest son to go to the same LAC that his brother went to…but by then the price had increased and I vetoed the idea.)
My son turned down a full ride to our in-state school as well as large scholarships to other schools to attend Yale. We are full pay, but we all felt it was the perfect school for him. It has exceeded all of our expectations so we don’t regret the choice.
@TheGreyKing Please stop perpetuating the myth that most families can afford a top school because of their generous financial aid. Setting aside the fact that most wont get in, it simply is not a fact. And you’re using low income students to justify your belief.
Full rides are extremely limited. And a full pay student is unlikely to bother applying for a full ride (none of the good ones are automatically awarded without a separate application). Therefore, there just aren’t going to be many who turn down a full ride for full pay, which is why so far only a couple who have answered the OP actually faced that dilemma.
Not free, but we turned down half-price for full-pay (details [here](http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/19668064/#Comment_19668064)).
It is impossible to know how things might be going if we had made the opposite choice, but so far things are going extremely well with the choice we did make – no regrets at all, quite happy with it.
^^^ and isn’t that the point? If you’re happy with it, it was a great decision. It’s not about what could have happened somewhere else. Every decision in life has an alternative choice with a different outcome attached (that we will never know). This topic is a very personal one. Everyone’s situation is different. Many don’t have the choice (either financially or admissions driven). For those that do, it’s great to be able to do what you feel is best.
Also, each kid is different. My youngest is not nearly as academic (very smart- just different priorities. more of a free spirit) as her brother. For her, admissions will be highly tied to auditions. So her “fit” will largely be defined by where she gets selected. Ridiculously competitive. makes getting in to Harvard a cake walk. If it’s at the state school with a good BFA program, that’s where she’ll go. If it’s NYU, so be it. Hopefully we’ll have good choices.
My daughter is at Yale and had a free ride at her in-state flagship university which is ranked in the top 20 in the country. So yeah, we paid quite a bit for her to go. Was it worth it? Who knows. I am one of those people who will drive a beat up Honda because all I need is transportation while others want Lexus and Jaguars. So worth is subjective. It was worth it to us.
D16 turned down Banneker Key at UMD for Stanford. Only moment of regret was when she got a concussion from playing a sport and we had to deal with it from the other side of the country.
Location and industry were among many of the factors that went into that decision. Could she end up doing something similar that she could had at UMD, sure. But, no reason for us to look back. Life is too short. We make our choices and move forward.
@iska123 wonder if our kids know each other?
I think perhaps it may be less common, but if you are only looking at kids who are full pay, (as opposed to no merit but some FA), then I’d say it is common but not really discussed, as there seems to be little point.
My S could have gone nearly free tuition at a number of schools, but chose a full pay school. Not a huge sacrifice for us, so not much to say about it. I’d have loved to save $, but it is a much bigger decision and sacrifice for some full pay families than others to forego the savings.
Full pay starts at anywhere from $150k “and up” at these top 50 schools? (I’m sure someone will correct me.). Paying $60k a year is much harder the closer you get to that threshold. (Plus no one wants to hear anyone full pay complain. It turns into a giant class war-slash-contest of who drives the oldest car and washes out their ziplock bags to reuse!! PASS! Lol.)
My son chose what he chose over the $ for a few reasons. Prestige was one. But he wanted a big school rah-rah experience. He was undecided on major for sure, so also wanted a school where any program was a “top program”. I had him pegged as a Michigan kid from day 1, so no big surprise to me. If it was really an issue, i would have been straight with him upfront about his $ limit.