Unpopular Opinion: You don’t have to go to the “best” school you get into

When applying to college there is so much pressure to go to the “best” school you can possibly go to. “Best” can have plenty of different definitions, but it usually comes down to: 1. The US News Ranking (regular readers of CollegeApp Chick are now rolling their eyes and thinking, “we know! You don’t like rankings!”) Or 2. Parent’s perception/knowledge of the school.

The book “The Gatekeepers” by Jacques Steinberg describes something called the sticker test. Basically, when you put the sticker for the school on the back of your car, will strangers be impressed.

Now think about that objectively. Do you really care if the thirty five-year-old mother of two who is driving behind you on the interstate is impressed by the sticker on your car?
Because if you do you really need to sort out your priorities.

Moving on, I’m going to list a handful of reasons that you might choose a “worse” school.

1.     Fit (Once again, the regular readers of my blog are rolling their eyes)

The absolute, number one reason you should pick a school should be fit. You are, probably for the first and last time in your life, choosing where you will be and who will surround you. Do yourself a favor and pick a place where you’re going to be happy. If the best school you got into is a huge party school, and you know you’ll be happier at a slightly less prestigious, but much calmer school, you should pick the school where you’ll feel comfortable. A school isn’t worth it if you’re going to be absolutely miserable for four (or more) years. 

2.    Price

There are so very few things in your life that are worth going into hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt over. If you’re really smart, you can get into a lot of great schools with practically a full ride. Many people I know who wanted liberal arts schools applied to schools that were “safety” caliber as their top choices, because they knew that they would get enough aid to go there.
If your state school isn’t the best in the country, but has an honors program and is throwing money at you to go, it might be worth passing up “better” schools to avoid student loans.

3.    Rigor/Future Plans

Sometimes people get into their reach schools. And then they struggle terribly because the rigor of the school is just too much for them, and they end up transferring (and having a hard time of that too, because their college GPA is so low). Take a long, hard look at the rigor before you get in over your head. A good academic match is going to challenge you without being overly difficult. If you’re planning on applying to graduate school, you’re going to need to have stellar grades. And the “best” college may not be conducive to that.

4.    Location

If you’re from the South East, and you get into Stanford… You’re going to have a lot of (very expensive) traveling ahead of you. If you’re prone to homesickness, have a medical issue, have financial issues that make traveling difficult, or just don’t want to be that far from your family, you’re probably going to have to pass on Stanford for a school that’s a bit closer to home.

5.    Individual Programs

If you’re very set on a specific major, take a look at the programs the school offers. Make sure that the course offerings are going to be similar to what you want to take. For example, psychology majors need to see if a program is neuro (or Bio) based, or social science based. Additionally, make sure that they have the concentration you like (social, organizational, developmental, evolutionary, etc). Many schools offer both neuro and social science type psychology, but you don’t want to be too bogged down in one if you really like the other. History majors, if you have a certain concentration you like, make sure that there are plenty of classes in it.
This also is a big factor for business majors. Are you automatically admitted to the business school, are there limits for how many majors they take? Is the business school a reputable one? That is a huge factor that might lead you to choose one school over another (my head is currently thinking about a UMich vs. UNC Chapel Hill type situation, but you can each fill in your own blanks).

There are tons of other reasons that you might choose one school over another, but the “best” or biggest named school shouldn’t be your be all end all.