Okay. I’m going to start by telling you to breathe. You are more than an SAT score. You are more than an “Ivy.” And the reason I put quotes around it is that Ivy League schools are not the end-all-be-all of superb education. I mean, they are spectacular. I’m at Harvard AS WE SPEAK and I can tell you that the community of scientists and academics here is like nothing I have ever seen. Sure my undergrad institution is wonderful and I have learned so much to get me to Harvard, but the community (for graduate school, mind you) is very different.
Now, the reason I’m saying all this is because I want you to know that it doesn’t matter where you rank in a program. HS kids kinda get caught up in the ranking, but beyond that, it doesn’t mean much. You have to choose a school where you feel comfortable. If that’s Harvard, that’s great! If that’s the University of Montana, that’s wonderful! If your parents are paying for your school, they will have the ability to tell you what they won’t pay for, but you don’t have to go where they want. You can work to find a middle ground. (And not that I’m saying you should do this, but if I REALLY didn’t want to go somewhere and Mom and Dad were going to make me go there if I got in, I would probably sabotage the application. Only if I knew I’d be miserable there.)
But the thing is, you have 2 years to decide what makes you happy. Because 4 years is a long time to hate somewhere. And if your parents weren’t educated at ivies, then maybe there’s a little bit of vicarious living going on. Although they do make me want to introduce the backside of their heads to a Punishment Salmon.
Don’t focus on if you want to be doctor or if you’re going to go to Harvard and if you’ll graduate summa or magna cum laude. It simply doesn’t matter right now. What does matter is finding out what is important to you. So ask yourself an array of questions:
Do I want to live in a city?
Do I want to go to a big school?
Do I want to live on the East Coast or in the South, Midwest, Southwest or West Coast?
Do I want a religious school?
And most importantly, what subject makes me happiest? Is it math, science, writing, history, foreign language, music, art, economics, business, computer science, design, or something else? That’s as specific as you have to be right now. Chances are your goals and interests will evolve in the next 4 to 6 years, and you don’t want to have tunnel vision and miss the rest of everything because you could only see DOCTOR and your parents could only see HARVARD DOCTOR. (And by the way, “premed” students DO NOT STUDY MEDICINE. They study science. So really think if you like science that much to study it for 4 years then go study it some more while being trained to be a physician. Don’t think that you’ll go to university and it’ll be med school. So many people make that mistake.)