<p>I loved my college years, but after returning for homecoming two years ago, I wouldn’t want it for my kids. Maybe it’s because I’ve seen too many other schools since my time there. Choosing a school was never an option because I grew up knowing that everyone in the family goes to this flagship. I don’t like it now because it’s a perfect example of urban sprawl (Third hockey arena was built a mile from campus, but the TWO older arenas are vacant and still standing.) The football stadium is two miles from campus. It makes me sad.</p>
<p>Yes. I loved my time at my small LAC. Today it is in the Top 20 LACs, but back then rankings did not exist. I had never heard of it prior to my mother’s recommendation. I would definitely never get in today based on my then GPA and SAT scores. I have been back a few times, but it is on the other side of the country (and you have to want to go there because there is nothing nearby that would otherwise attract your attention). I did take my son there once on a trip nearby so he could see it, but when it came to college applications, I knew that it would never be on the list. OTOH, he has now graduated from a Top 10 Univ where I would have gone in a nanosecond if I had thought that I could have gotten in back in the dark ages (which I couldn’t have).</p>
<p>In a heartbeat, but I probably couldn’t get in today. I met my husband in those first weeks, got a fantastic education, made friends for life, and remember it as an absolutely magical time. Hubby and I visit whenever we happen to be in that state and will be touring there with ChoatieKid in November, though it is not at the top of his list. Every time I set foot on that campus, my hearts swells, and I feel joy.</p>
<p>No way - my kids are banned from even applying to RPI. Naturally, my (smart aleck) oldest signed me up to get their emails when he got something from them in the mail.</p>
<p>Even though I probably would have still chosen engineering, my friends tend more to be history/literature/philosophy types. The 85:15 gender ratio and the amount of work required was about 1.5x what is needed at most schools and their sink-or-swim academic attitude was not friendly to anyone struggling (I did OK, but had two roommates fail out). I had to take finals one year with a 103 degree fever.</p>
<p>At the time, the right school for me would have been more along the lines of Berkeley or Michigan, maybe UCSB or Davis.</p>
<p>On the other hand, I would definitely attend my high school again. I chose it from 10 (NYC HS process was like college is now for most) and am still very active and in touch with my classmates though I live 500 miles away now. Small Quaker school with teachers who cared, who we called by their first names, great administrators, philosophy.</p>
<p>I’d go back to my alma mater (state flagship) in a heartbeat. The only thing I would do differently is that I would have majored in nursing from the get go rather than going back to school for a BSN as a 29 year old (nursing degree from different university).</p>
<p>If I could get in, I’d go. But this time I’d take my studies more seriously and wouldn’t squander the privilege of being there.</p>
<p>And I’d keep in touch with the people I met.</p>
<p>I asked my Dad and he said he wouldn’t change a thing.
- he said his schools where pretty crappy but he loves his life today so he believes his path to meeting Mom and having his kids and finding his current job would have never happened if he went somewhere else.</p>
<p>He went to Maine on a wrestiling scholarship – he said it was a lot of fun.
Then Graduate school at Northeastern was the loneliest time of his life. he found it amazing that such a huge school with so many people could create an environment where a person could be so alone … but Northeastern allowed him to go to Draper Labs and become a very happy scientist and continue even more schooling…and then researching at Draper and teaching at the school next to his office.</p>
<p>He has told me that the path was fun sometimes and really painful at other times …but all together it added up to something that resulted in a great life.</p>
<p>Nope. I still wish I’d gone to one of the better OOS schools I’d been accepted to but as a first-gen student with no money (and no internet CC!) I couldn’t figure it out…ended up commuting to a state school literally 1.5 miles from my high school.</p>
<p>My grad school was fine.</p>
<p>No. I didn’t have any say. It is a well-known, well-respected school, but it was too big for me. I hope my children will have many more options…they are definitely better students than I was!</p>
<p>
Mine was within walking distance!</p>
<p>YES. It was a STEM school involving a lot of very hard work and grueling winters. But no regrets.</p>
<p>Yes and no.
Went to state u. #1 and was very happy there. Was dating my now DH. His state U. was 77 miles from mine. He graduated and got a job five hours away. I still had two years to go.
We couldn’t stand the distance for two years so decided to get married after my soph. year. I transferred to state u. in our new city. Didn’t like it nearly as much as state u. #1 but hung in there for 3 years and graduated. Didn’t like the school but being with my DH was totally worth it. Still wish I could say I was an alum. of state school #1.<br>
When anyone asks me where I went to college I usually say school #1 first. School number 2 was more like a job than a college experience. I was a nursing major at both schools.</p>
<p>I was given one choice if i wanted to go away to school and if I could get a scholarship - large state school. Loved it then and have loved every minute visiting my D there. I did not push the kids since it’s 6 hours away but after all the visits, D loved it too. S goes to H’s school. He loves it there too. One more S to go, two more colleges to choose from if he wants to keep the pattern going. (Oh, and the one school I was allowed to go to was one of my Dad’s schools- so 3 generations there so far.)</p>
<p>Probably.</p>
<p>My alma mater is Cornell. My reasons for going there weren’t very well thought out, but college turned out OK for me anyway. And I’ve never been sorry about having a Cornell degree. It gets just the right reaction in job interviews – serious respect without awe. People think of Cornell graduates as well qualified – not underqualified or overqualified. This is exactly how I want to be perceived.</p>
<p>On the other hand, if I knew then what I know now, I might have picked a different college at a similar level of selectivity. Cornell is large and a bit impersonal; it was not the ideal place, in some respects, for a first-generation college student like me. I could have benefited from the more personal atmosphere of a smaller school. I turned down Tufts for Cornell because Cornell gave me better financial aid, but a school the size of Tufts might have had advantages. </p>
<p>Incidentally, one of my kids went to Cornell, too. She liked it just fine and did well there. And she got one heck of a good job after graduation. My other kid wouldn’t have applied to Cornell if it were the last school on earth. And that’s OK, too. It would have been a poor choice for him.</p>
<p>Yes, I would. I went to graduate school at a large state university but attended an all-women’s LAC for undergraduate. I believe I got the best of both worlds. My undergraduate institution was pure academic joy. Socially it was a bit challenging at first, but I found my stride. I would have floundered at a larger school as an undergraduate. At 18, I still needed a bit of cultivation.</p>
<p>I doubt it, altho i went to a much sought after state flagship. Problem is, in that day, in my town, in my kind, we just went. we didn’t think, plan, or as i recall, even do much more than forward a transcript. i must have been an auto admit. idk. </p>
<p>but NOW!! to examine what you have a gift for? an interest in?? “fit” of a school??? there is no way I would have majored in what i did…the standard marketing type degree. and had i to do it all over again?? yes, i’d pick a different major and college. </p>
<p>but, things worked out well…but i think i would have been much more ‘my own person’, if that makes sense, had i done some thinkin’ 'bout things!!</p>
<p>Another Cornellian with mixed feelings. Classes too big, NO advising, but I was first generation college and knew no better, survived, made friends and flourished after. </p>
<p>My D has enough sense to flatly refuse to consider it.</p>
<p>I don’t have the same 30-40 years window to present, but I would return to ALL the schools I had the chance to attend from preK to graduate school. I ended up attending an UG school I never heard about before joining CC. This said I would have been ecstatic to attend my mom’s alma mater, which is the same as MaineLonghorn. I visited again last week and Austin is as fabulous as it was a decade ago when UT was kind enough to admit thus rebel. I missed Vince Young and Colt, but had plenty of …Luck later on.</p>
<p>In a way, I hope I could offer the same choices to my future offspring, but I seriously doubt the same options will exist, cost, experience, and quality wise. The easiest part will be the college years, as plenty of valid and affordable options will exist. The hard if not impossible element will be the K-12, for which I have only negative expectations, unless we witness an education revolution in the next decade.</p>
<p>No, probably not. I don’t even remember looking around much at schools. This was a good close option that had my major and they gave me a great scholarship. I probably would have gotten great scholarships at many places with my stats but never bothered to even look elsewhere. Now when I look at my kids and their choices I realize there were a lot of other options back then that I didn’t even consider.</p>