i would go back to Wellesley! I would love 4 more years on that beautiful campus. As a first gen, inner city kid, it was transformative.
@jmnva06 It’s good but it can be great or at least exciting. Adam & Eve found it tempting, your paradise can’t be better.
See I didn’t take the question as “if I had to do it over again” I took it as - you get to leave where you are now and spend 4 years playing as a full-time student at any school, studying anything. I enjoyed my time at two very different alma maters but I’ve “done” those. Since it’s total fantasy I chose to take my second chance at education in a new direction. Why would I major in Math a second time? I loved it the first time through but I already did that! But then again, I like change and I like challenges.
@Riversider I can tell you aren’t a parent yet. Of course some of us want to go to our kids’ college. We probably steered them there (subtly or not so subtly) for a reason. Plus, sometimes genetics and a shared environment make parents and kids value the same qualities in a college, and have the same interests. So I see nothing surprising about the fact that some parents would like the same schools their kids attended.
My 17 year old hippie self back graduating high school in the mid 1970s would have gone to UC Berkeley in a heartbeat (Stanford wasn’t as much in my radar, but it was probably a pretty happening place as well and might well have been my school of choice had it been in my radar).
Unfortunately, my parents wouldn’t let me apply to Berkeley –– I think they thought I’d have gone off the deep end and never gone to class and would have spent all my time getting high, attending protest marches and Grateful Dead concerts. (They might not have been wrong, lol.)
I also might have liked either UC Santa Cruz or UC Santa Barbara. Academically, I might have been better off at an LAC, though…someplace like Bard, Oberlin, or Grinnell if they were in CA. I hadn’t even heard about the Claremont colleges (virtually unknown on the east coast back then). I definitely would have picked someplace in CA, though –– if I were staying in the US. Otherwise, I loved my junior year abroad in Spain and would happily have happily studied there for all four years. I also wouldn’t have minded living in Paris. Or someplace in the south of France.
I definitely would NOT choose either of my Alma Maters (I graduated from Georgetown after attending one of the SUNY colleges for two years.)
I only attended the local state college here in South Florida…so, Yes I would love to be able to go…As for would I want to be 18 agsin???
I would visit more colleges, and do sleepover visits, and I’d sit in on classes, and I would think about fit.
Around my work lunch tables we’ve mused that colleges should offer their room and board to retirees. Most have decent food options - fully prepared with all cleaning done for folks. Campuses often have several speakers and events to choose from for entertainment. All lawn care and maintenance is taken care of. Bus systems can be useful. What more can one ask for and all at a less expensive cost than many retirement communities?
If folks tired of one place, the contract is just for a year, so transfer to a different one.
I would totally go back to school now and why is anyone thinking you’d need to go back in time to do so? You don’t have to be 18 to attend college! Unfortunately, for me to go back would require that fantasy full-ride and I’m not sure my score on the SAT would earn any merit dollars at this point! I may have gotten slightly life-wiser over the last 30+ years but I’ve definitely gotten book-stupider.
My re-do would be Grinnell. Or, even though I graduated from Bryn Mawr and did most of my classes at Haverford – Haverford. Both are intellectually engaged, open, warm communities, with strong traditions of self-government (Grinnell) and honor code/plenary etc. at Haverford.
But @merc81 I would avoid all the years of “Reed? Where’s that? Never heard of it” by going to Brown and have more classes to choose from. [Insert snarky emoji of your choice here.] I loved Reed, but I never understand attempts to put down the Ivies. I think I would have liked to test myself in that world – not that there weren’t plenty of people smarter than me at Reed. [Insert smiley emoji of your choice here.]
Stanford.
I was always jealous that my [ future] hubby got in and I didn’t, especially while we lived in the married student housing complex while he was in school there.
I graduated from a conservative college with one of the most pre-professional types of STEM degree. Over 60% of the students were members of a fraternity or sorority and a reasonable number of the women literally wore pearls to class. Not sure how much more outside my freakin’ comfort zone I could get than my do-over pick of Deep Springs, which is a working alfalfa and cattle ranch, offers only a liberal arts associates degree and up to this year was all male (I am female.)
We need an eye roll emoticon.
UVA has it all. Beautiful campus and part of the country. Brilliant kids. Cool town. Great ACC sports. History. Nice weather. What a combo.
@rickle1, which is why Charlottesville is such a popular retirement destination!
^ definitely on my radar list!
My 17 year old self had a dream school - University of Illinois. (reality was a cc for 2 years, then ended up transferring to a decent, though non prestigious private college, which I loved).
My current self would choose Northwestern.
At 17 I had the stats for either school, but not the money. At my age now I have the money, but not sure I’m still smart enough!
Since we are focusing on colleges & universities as they are today, I would consider attending the University of Mississippi Honors College. I would like to participate in Division I track & field and cross country in a very competitive athletic conference such as the SEC.
Although for academic preference, I would like to attend Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service.
But I would also consider the University of Texas at Austin & the University of Alabama Honors College.
When I was young, I preferred cold weather. Feel free to draw your own conclusions from that statement.
Either UNC-Chapel Hill or Dickinson. I just need to sort out whether I want to repeat the large school experience or try the small LAC one instead.
UNC-CH, Georgetown SFS and Northwestern journalism were also on my dream list in HS, but noone from my HS went to those kinds of schools and my family had no $$. Got into Duke, but not enough $$ to go. Also looked at Texas A&M and UMissouri, as I was able to get in-state tuition since my dad was military, but it was still more than I could afford. My decision points were: 1) get out of town and 2) be able to pay for it all myself.
Would be such an exquisite privilege to choose a college using other criteria! That’s probably why I chose such intensely intellectual schools for this exercise. I would love to hole up and study for a few years without having to worry about anything else. Whether my current brain and attention span could handle this is another story! 