<p>I turned down Yale, Columbia, Brown, Georgetown, UVA, Tufts, Lehigh, UC Berkeley, and UCLA for UPenn.</p>
<p>Most people berate me for my choice, as people were like “You got into Yale and are not going to attend? You idiot!” But I thought UPenn was a better choice for me. I liked the idea of getting a dual-degree from Wharton and the College, and my girlfriend was a huge influence as well. She is going to Princeton and Yale would be a little too far away. </p>
<p>Besides, it’s not like you can win off a college’s name for your whole life and expect prestige to carry you on its back. UPenn is a damn good school and I think its “prestige” is not as “high” as say HYP because it admits more people. Anyone notice the trend between admission rate and prestige? Did you ever consider that sometimes schools are just smaller than others? Just because UPenn is bigger doesn’t mean it can’t be a better school than a more-selective, smaller school. Sometimes there just aren’t enough spots. </p>
<p>Not only that, but prestige changes depending on where you are on the globe. Columbia wasn’t all that well known at my hometown in Oregon as an Ivy, but it’s quite a different case in the New England area. If prestige is a major factor in your decision, are you considering where you will live afterwards? I don’t know which schools have the strongest “worldwide” recognition, including recognition by the “layman”, but I would say Harvard, Yale, and MIT would be the most recognized. A lot of people I know didn’t really know that Princeton, Columbia, Penn, Brown, Dartmouth, and Cornell were Ivies. A lot of people don’t know about, say, Georgetown until you tell them “Georgetown is prestigous”. But they won’t know why or how. Besides, you shouldn’t define your self-worth by what college you went to. </p>
<p>Yale’s a wonderful school, one of the best. But so is UPenn and it fit me better. I just think it’s funny when people call others idiots for turning down a certain Ivy for another – they’re ALL prestigous, strong universities. They’re all Ivies… I remember thinking I would get rejected from everywhere I applied. I would have been so happy just to get into one or two schools, let alone one Ivy, and I ended up with four Ivies to choose from as the top four on my college choices and I was very ecstatic and grateful.</p>
<p>When it comes to choosing between Ivies, it just becomes a personal preference. You’ll get an amazing education at any of them.</p>