<p>I absolutely would. My problem is that today I frankly think I wouldn’t get in. And it has nothing to do with sports - we’re a classic left-at-the-altar school in terms of pursuits of championships. It’s an amazing place that has always filled me with pride and that I’ve found comes up either in the media or conversations weekly if not daily and has the most beautiful Grounds. Wahoo wah!</p>
<p>Yes, I’d go there again in a heartbeat (which is not to say that there aren’t other places I would have loved to have gone, and would have likely enjoyed just as much). My S is now a junior there. I think the town has improved dramatically in terms of offerings (restaurants, etc.) geared towards college students, and the overall experience at this school is far better than it was in my day. I can’t think of any area in which I think it’s “slipped” versus my day – the one weak point is the dorms, which I think aren’t worthy of a school of this caliber.</p>
<p>beolein, I never attended a football game in the four years I spent there, and have no clue what the football team is up to now.</p>
<p>My exuberance has to do with how much my college stretched me, not any faux allegiance.</p>
<p>I would attend again, and I hope I would study more/better so I could get more out of it. Let’s just say I enjoyed myself too much. 
But I don’t feel badly both DDs selected a different school.</p>
<p>I loved, loved, loved UT Austin. I was a female engineering student with excellent stats and could have picked a more selective school. I had some friends ask why I wasn’t attending MIT. I said, “Well, for $4 a credit hour, I can go to UT, one of the top-ranked civil engineering programs in the country. Just because it’s in my backyard doesn’t make it less worthy!” I ended up staying there for over six years, to get my BS and MS. I would go back in a second!</p>
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<p>Harrumph! Just because I follow a Mid-American Conference football team that is likely to set an all-time record for punts attempted this season does NOT make me any less of an adult than you, sir or madam. Clinically deranged, perhaps, but no less an adult.</p>
<p>Harrumph again!</p>
<p>(And, in case you couldn’t tell, I’d do it again in a heartbeat.)</p>
<p>No. I attended #1 LAC, and was uncomfortable the entire time I was there. And the things I didn’t like then now exist but on steroids.</p>
<p>I did receive a great education, for which I am very grateful.)</p>
<p>YES. University of Wisconsin-Madison. Still excellent Honors program and academics. Some new buildings but no loss of icons. They have a master plan to change some things and it looks good. I did not want to go across town to college but living on campus made it great. Was surprised son wanted mom’s old campus- but he went there and I rediscovered the campus and learned how the school now does things. It was interesting to see how times change but don’t change- there were a couple of State St. shops that could have been there decades ago in the hippy era. Much more and better near campus apartments than the old house student slum areas.</p>
<p>Well, no but I didn’t have a choice the first time. Also, like Chardo, I don’t know if I would be admitted now.</p>
<p>I went to an Ivy (which was much easier and much lower ranked in the late 70s) because my father taught there and tuition was free. Good school that came way up in the world because now people are obsessed with brand names. But, it’s pre-professional in nature and the students are Type A (and maybe cutthroat). If I had the choice (and knew about such schools), I would have gone to a second-tier liberal arts college.</p>
<p>Yes and no. I don’t regret where I went, and it was a wonderful fit–but when I visited other schools with my kids, I wanted to go to some of those, too!</p>
<p>I don’t quite understand the point of these–“would-you-do-it over” questions. I am not the person I was 40-some years ago when I started college. I went to a Big Ten school because my boyfriend was a football player who was getting a full ride–stupid reason for choosing a college. I got a good education, but when I look at the great LACs my kids and step-kid attended, I often think I probably would have preferred that type of college environment. My kids had no interest in going to my Big Ten school–it was too big, too impersonal, etc. My youngest daughter had a great line as to why she wouldn’t go–"I just can’t see myself in a place where people drink “pop”.</p>
<p>No, I wouldn’t if I had more options than I did at that time. I attended a UC that was close to where we were living. I do appreciate the education, but it was a commuter experience for me as I didn’t live on campus. I was also working at the time and married, so time outside of class wasn’t spent “in college” in any traditional sense.
After putting two kids through college, I would rather have had the experience of either one. My son’s LAC, or even one of the other colleges in the consortium, probably would have been a good fit for me. I think I would have benefited from a more intimate experience at that time in my life. The UCs offer a lot, but they can definitely feel like a factory, especially if you’re not living on campus.</p>
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OK, I’ll buy that …</p>
<p>Yes, no question. Academically, intellectually, and socially it was an outstanding experience for me. I’m grateful for the education I got, the intellectual growth I underwent, the experiences I had, and the lifelong friendships I made. A large public flagship, even one with superior academics, is not for everyone. I couldn’t sell either of my daughters on it; they both opted for small LACs, though D2 flirted with my alma mater for a while and came close to choosing it. But for me it was exactly the right place to be. (And football was only a small part of it).</p>
<p>That’s not to say I couldn’t have been happy at other schools, or at different kinds of schools. But back in my day need-based financial aid wasn’t what it is today, so private colleges and universities were beyond my reach financially. Which is just one more reason I’m grateful our public flagship gave me the superb educational opportunities it did, at an affordable price.</p>
<p>I suppose it’s that gratitude more than anything else that makes me say I’d do it over again. That, and a bagful of experiences and memories I’ll always cherish.</p>
<p>Interesting question. I transferred from my top 20 LAC after only a semester, but that was primarily due to its location…I thought I was going to be OK leaving the large city I grew up in and as it turned out, I was not. One of my HS classmates who also went there transferred to a school in the city a semester after I left.</p>
<p>My parents were NOT happy I switched and I have some lingering bad feelings about the place. So me? Definitely not. I probably should have chosen the Ivy in my backyard that I refused to even consider or a large private U in a southern city that I turned down instead.</p>
<p>My D has grown up in a pretty small town so she might be interested…but it’s awfully hard to get in there now, especially for a girl. I won’t encourage her to apply, there are IMO better reaches she can put her energy into. I doubt she’d be impressed with the town either in any case.</p>
<p>Yes, I would. I love my alma mater - my experience was phenomenal. I give; I intend to be more active as an alumna after I finish graduate school, and will name my alma mater in my will as well if I have significant assets. I think I might have done some things differently there, but I would attend again.</p>
<p>However, if given the chance knowing everything I know now, I would consider attending a different kind of university just for the experience. I think I would like to attend a very large public institution (like my state’s flagship, the University of Georgia). I like new people and new experiences, and that was the one thing I felt I was missing on my very small LAC’s campus. There would be so many new clubs and new people to meet at a big school like UGA; there’d be big sports to follow, and I think I would’ve selected a different and more marketable major (statistics, which wasn’t available at my undergrad). And it might have been nice to go to college in a small college town as opposed to a big city. I didn’t have a car in college, but my friends started doing things off-campus around junior year (and moving off campus) and so sometimes I got a bit left out unless someone would come pick me up. In Athens, everyone lives on campus and more things happen either on-campus or within walking distance of the university.</p>
<p>In the mid-2000s when I went, the HOPE scholarship would’ve covered my tuition (which was only about $4,000 a year then) and Stafford loans would’ve covered my room and board. Now tuition and fees are $10,000 a year and the res halls + board are $9,000. They also raised the eligibility criteria for their full-merit - it used to be a 3.7 GPA and a minimum 1300 SAT score and now it’s a 3.8 UNWEIGHTED with a minimum 2100 SAT score. And the HOPE/Zell Miller scholarship programs don’t cover full tuition anymore - I think the most you can get covered is like 75%. So I wouldn’t be able to afford UGA now, since my parents didn’t contribute anything to my college education and refused to if I lived on campus and didn’t go to a place they selected.</p>
<p>Yes, no doubt. UMCP was excellent for electrical engineering and I matured so much by living on campus. I would have had more fun and be involved in more clubs than I did back then. I had to make up for very poor SAT, poor high school preparation, a very challenging engineering curriculum and just studied all of the time.</p>
<p>We are not the same people we were 40 years ago. I realized that when I climbed the hills I used to do daily as a student and spent the night in a dorm room for the parent part of summer orientation (I did like breakfast with many good choices and not having to prep or clean up). When I see the improvements since my day and learn about how things are done at other U’s today I would still strongly consider UW. Even athletics have improved- juniors my freshman year told me how the football team won its first game in three years their freshman year. Unfortunately the family income level of today’s flagship U students has risen- many more of us had shoestring budgets then (fact that kids come from richer families according to instate sources). I would have done some things differently now. Now students are much more into extracurricular activities.</p>
<p>Back then there were no need blind admissions and gender blind admissions were in their infancy (ie schools were barely going coed). The Ivys would have been too far out of my league socially, especially the finances required for that. Many of the elite schools of my day now have improved their admissions standards so they have fewer “gentleman’s C” students of “proper” backgrounds. Plus many more budget minded students. I have thought about where I would have stood relative to others. I had an excellent public education for its day and was a NMS but now there are so many more gifted program offerings and AP courses available that my academic competitiveness may have improved.</p>
<p>H and I had a discussion of then and now back when our son was doing his college planning. H is from India and so did not consider US schools. Back then both of us had brains but not much money. Now our son had brains, money but was in the dime a dozen minority for those schools.</p>
<p>No, I would not. The first university I went to had a lot of bigotry issues. The second I went to was great, but does not rank high. I would have qualified for plenty of financial aid (I legally had no parents) but was given 100% student loans at the first school. It was all a mistake, especially since I was national merit and everything. I could have and should have done better. But I didn’t know as much about looking at colleges and such back then, and obviously, I had no parental direction to help me.</p>
<p>Absolutely. Everything was pretty darn close to perfect for me. I’m a fanatic. But I wish I had multiple lifetimes so I could go to other schools, too. I’d LOVE to go to Stanford today!</p>