Originally Posted by intparent
It is more art than science... we started our search with the Fiske Guide to Colleges and a pack of post-its to mark the schools that looked interesting. Then looked at SAT test score ranges. Then visited. It was easy to find reach (and expensive) schools that fit the bill. Much more challenging to find matches and safeties. We found you really have to set foot on campus to tell. And my D didn't really know for sure until going back for accepted student days (so 24 hours on campus) at her top choices. She ended up picking what was her 3rd choice going into those final visits.

This is TERRIFIC as a blueprint for finding a good fit. smile

It's also what we're finding-- there are a number of "reach" schools (most of which are also solidly out of our league financially), and then the rest are all in the 'safety' category (and so far to that side that they're almost academically unthinkable), though many of them are also out of reach for financial reasons.

Originally Posted by Bostonian
Originally Posted by Wren
The article brought up some good points and by the time DD is applying, parents will have strategized an EC path to optimize intellectual curiousity.
Parents strategizing to optimize the intellectual curiosity of children sounds like a contradiction in terms to me.

Indeed. I wholeheartedly agree.

I mean, I can suggest to DD that some things will "play" better than others in terms of scholarship payoff and prestige with college admissions, but she IS going to do things her own way. I'm actually rather glad of that, because as has been pointed out numerous times in this thread alone, while I can THINK that I know what will play well with college admissions committees, even though I have direct insider knowledge, the bottom line is that it's inherently rather difficult to predict accurately.

Ergo, I would be advising her to quit being herself-- which certainly has a clear cost... and a not-so-clear benefit which is mostly conjecture.


Schrödinger's cat walks into a bar. And doesn't.