If your first choice is an impressive school, great. Having said that, I have watched a countless number of students pick a school based on their “wow” factor when it was NOT an optimal fit for them.
They wanted their parents to be proud.
They wanted their classmates to be impressed.
They wanted to wear that school’s sweatshirt.
So, they marched off to that school, and, over time, they quietly realized that school was not the right fit for them.
Just recently, one of my students reached out to me to find out how to get his transcript at our school. He told me how disappointed he was with the alumni network of his very prestigious school. He said he had emailed a number of alums in his field. No response. In desperation, he reached out to a classmate from his high school who went to a large state school near their hometown for help. She responded immediately, and he said she had been much more helpful than the alums at his prestigious school who left him high and dry. He told me there is no sense of community at his school that is in a major American city. You need to consider how important a college campus is during your search. At least a dozen former students have told me that their school situated in Chicago or New York City felt like more of a job than the full collegiate experience. A number of them told me that they made a mistake.
So many of you swear on the first day of your senior year that there is no way you will go to a large state school near your hometown.
And that’s fine.
It’s your choice.
But I would argue if you could pick up that large state school and move it 500+ miles away, you would be pulling out all the stops to get into that school. It’s bizarre.
Just some food for thought.
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