HomerSimpson

So my sister had a soccer party last night, and, as a high school senior, I found myself answering about nine bajillion questions from parents who were curious where I wanted to go to school last year.
In front of a group of people, I said my first choice was probably Northwestern; to which one man replied "That's interesting, my daughter is using Northwestern as a safety. Don't worry, you'll probably get in."
I got so ****ed. It was kind of like that scene in Rushmore only the guy was like 30 years older than Max.

Hippo724

Wow. Who the **** considers Northwestern to be a safety? Don't worry though, when his daughter gets rejected in April you'll have the last laugh.

svtcobra

lol I know what you mean. When some guy asked me where I wanted to go I told him michigan state, and he told me it sucked and was a bad choice.

don't let it get to you. parents favorite thing to do is to brag about their kids. everyone else knows northwestern is one of the top schools in the world. and if you like it, who cares? even in my case, i know that michigan state is not even top 50 so people hate on it a lot, but i just ignore them

and i'm curious, do people really use northwestern as a safety?

Gryffon5147

Yeah... its all about the last laugh... you get them back after years and years of them filling their own egos about themselves and their children. Honestly, its very satisfying.

I had to listen to years of Asian helicopter parents condescendingly rip on my supposedly inferior public school that never send any students to Berkeley and LA, and how my school's valedictorian chose to go to CSULB (on a full four year scholarship) while their sons and daughters are allegedly doing so well in their sheltered suburban, Blue ribbon award, 20 AP class magnet schools.

Then I got my acceptance... checkmate.

Don't worry about it. Their comments are meaningless and as long as you know they are BS, you can either:
1). Pity their ignorance on the true state of modern admissions
or 2). Pity the insecurities that drive them to make such comments.

ghalla10

I get that from my parents 24/7. Imagine how frustrating that is.
I remember one time I told my (Asian) dad that I wanted to apply to Wake Forest, and he exploded and answered, "I don't even know what that is. There's not even a name for it in Chinese. How will I tell your grandparents if you go there--that you went to the worst school possible?" It made me so depressed because Wake isn't even like a safety for me; it's probably a reach and I really want to go there. My parents just have this Asian, unrealistic expectation of me that makes no sense. They think like Harvard and Yale are the only good schools.

ghalla10

I get that from my parents 24/7. Imagine how frustrating that is.
I remember one time I told my (Asian) dad that I wanted to apply to Wake Forest, and he exploded and answered, "I don't even know what that is. There's not even a name for it in Chinese. How will I tell your grandparents if you go there--that you went to the worst school possible?" It made me so depressed because Wake isn't even like a safety for me; it's probably a reach and I really want to go there. My parents just have this Asian, unrealistic expectation of me that makes no sense. They think like Harvard and Yale are the only good schools.

Student92

^ that's really rough. Sounds like it'd be tough to deal with

Anon_Person_1

I had a girl tell me that any school below top 20 is "unrecognizable"...no, you're just ignorant...hah. If you seriously think that top 20-top 50 is "bad", get a grip, really.

ruskie

@ ghalla, yeah my mom (not asian though) was like that at first. Most immigrant parents want their children to go to "top" schools because it is the only ones they have heard of. I just got a really good scholarship to Indiana and I was really happy, even though it was just a safety, but my mom had this "disappointment" look on her face, which kind of brought my spirits down. Since we have had a hard life, I understand that she wants me to go to a "good" school and be successful and eventually help her out, but I explained to her that it really doesn't matter that much about where you go to undergraduate school. If you are passionate about a certain career, you will pursue it somehow.

#theorymom

before I came to CC I knew not a thing about waht a safety was or a reach. When I went to college, I just applied to where I would have liked to have gone and got into a couple of them. Nowadays, it has become more science than art.
My son applied to 4 safeties (got in to all 4) 3 tech matches and 4 LAC matches, got into 1 and is being heavily considered after more materials are sent to another, have not heard from the others (RD), and 4 reaches (heard from none of these yet)
Sheesh, exhausting

pFNMCp

Wow big deal....some people just think they're all that...and some people are all that. It's not like you can be better than everybody else.

Youdon'tsay

How rude! I make it a point to NEVER ask a senior his/her plans. Y'all feel enough pressure; why should I add to it?

Wlokos

I was taco bell two days ago and I ran into a friend and his dad, who proceeded to grill me on my college choices with a completely straight face and reasonably intense demeanor for the few minutes that I stood there waiting for my food. He wasn't even being mean about it, just relentless and completely devoid of any sort of humor or personality. I was pretty glad to get out of there.

bank1019

Some people are really ignorant...

My grandma thought NU was a commuter school at first and couldn't believe I chose it over UT. :/

xxmagicboxersxx

Pfft.

You think it's bad when they're just ragging on you about college. I have my GED, and as soon as I mention that, people are all HOLY CRAP YOU MUST BE UNMOTIVATED AND STUPID!

Not really. I had health complications. Not that it matters to them.

[/grumbles]