<p>Sorry csqaure I think my post crossed with yours.</p>
<p>
Bingo. 10char</p>
<p>hsmomstef: I might be wrong but at this point I still think Harvard might provide a better opertunity to my daughter in terms of growth than U Chicago for any course.</p>
<p>I might be short sighted here but since I don’t know enough about U Chicago to risk the future that a Harvard Education will be able to provide to my daughter.</p>
<p>I won’t say this regarding Stanford as I know a lot more about that institute to be comfortable choosing Stanford over Harvard.</p>
<p>Also I don’t know that much about Yale too but since it is my Daughter’s first choice I’ll respect that.</p>
<p>But if I’ve to pick between Harvard and Yale. I’ll pick Harvard.
I would prefer MIT over Yale too.</p>
<p>But since it is not I who will be going but my daughter so the first choice is Yale.</p>
<p>It is very hard and so it might just be a dream but still that is the way things are at this point.</p>
<p>you are assuming she will get in…its a 1/10 shot she will…some exceedlingly wonderful “perfect” kids get rejected…you act like its a given she will go there, well, good luck with that</p>
<p>I’m realizing that, so time to go slow and rethink over the list. I’ll try exploring more college options with my daughter over the next one year as things become more and more clearer.</p>
<p>lets say she doesn’t get into any of those schools, which statisitcally is very likely, then what?</p>
<p>if you want to be "clearer: stop looking only at rankings and “prestige”</p>
<p>But the list do contain all sort of colleges. If she cann’t get into any then the notion of safeties will go away.</p>
<p>We will be applying to a mix of reaches/matches/safeties and I hope she gets into her choice college. That is why she goes to a good high school so that she is prepared to shine irrespective of any college she go to.</p>
<p>
Bingo. If your daughter truly wants to become an ______ and to be highly respected in her field, both UChicago or _____ or Harvard will provide that to her. All are, for lack of a better word, awesome schools. UChicago simply doesn’t have that “OMIGOSHHARVARD” prestige factor because the public pays far too much attention to rankings. </p>
<p>If you daughter truly loved one school, but didn’t quite feel comfortable at Harvard, you would make her attend Harvard? Really? Just because Harvard is Harvard, that doesn’t make it the be-all and end-all of a school worth attending.</p>
<p>EDIT: Yes, yes, give it time. Don’t force it too early.</p>
<p>I would recommend you spend the next year (her junior year) helping her find schools that are less selective and yet would still provide her with the educational experience she wants (in other words – a good fit). I don’t mean more extremely selective schools, either. Some middle range schools and a safety.</p>
<p>You really don’t want her to be crushed and feel like a failure and like she disappointed you if she doesn’t make it into a top school, do you? you need to make sure she knows that you are proud of her no matter what school she gets into and that she will be successful anywhere – that she could go to the local community college and still be a star. </p>
<p>If you have read any of the posts of kids whose parents put tremendous pressure on them to go to a top school and they weren’t admitted, I can’t imagine you would want to put your D through that agony.</p>
<p>I ditto stef’s remark.</p>
<p>I also HIGHLY recommend that you take her to visit some colleges over the summer - or over school breaks when the college is still in session (gives a more accurate picture) - to get a feel for what the schools on her list are like. That way she won’t waste time filling out apps for schools she knows she won’t want to go to.</p>
<p>yep – visits are a good idea.</p>
<p>My son liked the idea of applying at St. Johns, so we visited the campus in Santa Fe (he attended classes, stayed in the dorm overnight, the whole bit). He does not want to apply – and he had some great insights into why he didn’t like it and we can take those same insights and apply them to other schools. I think he found the visit to be vastly more informative than expected.</p>
<p>and parent – just another suggestion. Schools really like to see interest and intiative on the part of the student (and not the parent!). so it is vital that your d be the one that arranges any visits and asks any questions. Most of the time, parents ask questions regarding safety and financial aspects. If there are certain questions that you feel you want answered in terms of academics, she needs to ask them. For official college visits, she is the one who will visit and you will get a tour and be asked to pick her up the next day.</p>
<p>for this first overnight visit, I asked my son to take note of a few things – but I was amazed at the questions he asked and the observations he made. We are definitely not the same person – concerns for him would have been non-issues for me.</p>
<p>wow another 50-year old who hasn’t learn her lessons on what matters in life.
still hungry for harvard, mom?</p>
<p>why would someone go to UMich when you can go to Harvard? what’s the point kids, why would you ever consider it? UMICH!!! my own ivy dreams are gone, my daughter is, for the love of god, considering UMICH…i’ll just wait for the next generation to leech off of.</p>
<p>but seriously, your username just says it ALL.</p>
<p>and no, I do not attend Umich, or any other college yet.</p>
<p>I just read a statement by “Parentofivyhope” asking about csquare’s curriculum. I am confused, are you saying that she underperformed by getting accepted to Northwestern and attending. Where do you get off making that kind of assertion. From your title, let’s see how your daughter or son fares in the end. Let’s see if he/she even gets accepted to one top 25 school, let alone more a few like CSquare who got admitted to several top 15 schools.</p>
<p>POIH, Regarding your post 135. Sorry if someone responded to it already, but in addition to assumptions about the Ivies, you are under some misunderstandings about other things, as well.</p>
<p>Yes, there are some Valedictorians whose position was attained by taking less rigorous courses to achieve a high GPA. However, mostly that is not true. That is because most high-achieving students also want to take a rigorous curriculum and do better even in those classes than less able students do in easy classes. I know that there are still some schools that select Vals by unweighted GPA, which is pretty meaningless. </p>
<p>The Regents UCLA scholarship of which csquare speaks is rare and an honor. The selectiivity is very high, among thousands of students. There’s no need to feel sorry for csquare, or feel that he/she missed out.</p>
<p>US Higher education is not great because it has HYPSMC. It is great because it has so many outstanding schools with outstanding professors and degree programs – beyond HYPSMC,
because the opportunity to apply for those many outstanding schools is not limited to some small percentage of lucky test-scorers,
because Admissions looks at so many assets of each student, not just cold, hard statistics,
because people from all backgrounds, races, and economic circumstances can apply for those,
because there are many avenues to getting a college degree financed</p>
<p>However, because these opportunities apply to the whole population and there are many fine students with talent probably equal to your daughter’s, admission to the very top schools is very competitive, & so it is unwise to expect even one acceptance from there, or to “feel sorry” as if a mistake was made by the college or by your daughter if an acceptance is not granted.</p>
<p>As an added note, a frequent complaint about Harvard is that it doesn’t care about its undergrads; I’ve even spoken to current students who are unhappy at Harvard (the epitome of elite education, no?) because it isn’t what they thought it’d be at all. But I hear many times that at UChic, it’s very undergraduate-focused, as it’s much like a liberal arts college. So it’s possible that Chicago would offer more than Harvard.</p>
<p>And to say that Chicago is inferior to Harvard in education quality would be stupid.</p>
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<p>Michigan has its highest number of California admits this year from Harvard Westlake, Palos Verdes Peninsular, Torrey Pines, and Milken Community. As I never recruited in CA I don’t intimately know about those schools reputations (particularly in comparison to your daughters’ school). But really, my point is that perhaps there are more foolish people in CA than you realized, wasting their application $$ on Michigan. :)</p>
<p>I have heard the same comments about Harvard undergrad – and those people who I know that graduated from Harvard (both grad and undergrad) suggest going to the school for a grad program and elsewhere for undergrad.</p>