<p>Yes. It just took me a while to realize it.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone. I think dream schools may change over time.</p>
<p>I never wanted a Dream school to being with , ,but the more i Looked at Penn the more i wanted to go. However I didnt get in ED. In fact I didnt get into ANY of the colleges i actually wanted to go… I eventually went to a backup LAC that I had and all I can say is that the past year was FRIGGIN AMAZING! I dont really know how my year would have gone had I gone to those other colleges i had wanted to go to, but I DONT CARE ANYMORE I loved this place. However I transferred to Nyu Stern due to some reasons and as it turns out, it is better than upenn (cas) for what I actually want to study!</p>
<p>Haha sorry about that disorganized paragraph 
But id like to conclude my post by saying that alot of ppl on this forum really focus on graduating from a particular place. Id just like to say that over the past year i realized its the journey, not the end (some ol corny quote lol I know) that matters. Ive had so much fun this year and im sure next year will be as good or even better and now I dont give a ***** about penn lol. Maybe Ill go there for grad school , but after the end of my freshman year, I realized just how much potential I have and dont need to go to your dream school to enjoy or be successful, all of that lies within you!!!</p>
<p>I wanted to go to UNC/UMich/Wisconsin/UF/UT, but I didn’t try very much in HS, so applying would’ve been a waste of time.</p>
<p>Great post som1!! :)</p>
<p>My dream school had been Barnard…rejected. However, I’m starting NYU in the fall and, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that NYU was probably the better school for me after all! I am very excited to be in Washington Square in the fall and not Morningside Heights!</p>
<p>I never had a dream school really… I just decided to attend the cheapest local school with the best business program… And those variables, bear vicinity and business school prestige, are highly dynamic.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, I am highly satisfied that I will be attending Boston College this fall.</p>
<p>My concept of a dream school since HS freshman year had alternated between Harvard and Yale, mostly because of the common image we all have of these schools. Yet by the time I was a junior, the more research I did, the more I realized that Yale was genuinely the right fit. That’s where I’m headed this fall. I’m extremely blessed and humbled, but uber-stoked at the same time!! Go Bulldogs!</p>
<p>My dream school throughout high school was the University of Chicago. I did get in, no wait list or anything, but the financial aid was so bad that I went to Swarthmore.</p>
<p>Hi Eidda. S applied to Grinnell ED-it was instant love the day he visited. One year later: Picked him up at the airport and his first words were that although he was glad to see us, he was really missing school already and couldn’t wait to go back in the fall!</p>
<p>That’s great M’s mom. I hope I get to a school I enjoy that much and hopefully it won’t be another 4 years of high school. <em>No wonder I don’t want to go to UGA</em></p>
<p>Yes. But it took me a while to actually start admitting (first to myself, then to others) that Penn was my dream school. I had spent a summer there, many of my relatives had attended, it fit everything that I said I wanted in a school… it seemed like the obvious dream reach school for me to want to attend, but I was trying so hard to not put myself in too much of a bind. When we did our formal visit it was rainy and nasty out so I said that I didn’t really like it all that much, hah. It took so much to admit that I really wanted to apply ED, but I’m glad that I got over that fear!</p>
<p>Having a “dream school” can be really risky and tough, but trying to trick yourself out of going after a school that you love in ED just because you’re scared of that type of disappointment would, in hindsight, be a hell of a lot worse. If you love a school, you have to chase it. Just keep your obsession to a healthy minimum and spend a lot of time researching your other schools.</p>
<p>i guess you dont get accepted there because they dont think you’ll fit in, not because you are worthless. When you get accepted, those places think you are right for them and want you to contribute to their society.</p>
<p>Yes, I had two dream schools during my senior year, and got into one of them, Pomona, and am super excited to attend.</p>
<p>No, I did not get into my dream school. It was Cornell and I was rejected- I am going close to home to SUNY Stony Brook instead. Very disappointed, but I’ll graduate with no debt!!! Gotta look on the bright side!</p>
<p>Yep you got two and no debt, good for you. :)</p>
<p>That’s good, am I guessing NYU?</p>
<p>My dream school changed so many times over my life, it went from like Columbia/NYU (7) to FIT (9) to Providence to Brown to American to GW to Georgetown and I don’t even know how many times where I thought my dream school was changed but by the middle of my senior year I knew what I really wanted was a Catholic school in an urban setting which is what I will be getting. So to an extent I did end up at my dream school.</p>
<p>Yes…and yes? My original dream school was Columbia. By “original” I mean around 11th grade…I didn’t even consider going to college until 11th grade when I was encouraged by my high school teachers (I was totally clueless y’all - I didn’t know what an SAT was and I thought that anyone who wanted could go to Harvard as long as they paid, but I was a good student and did very well on the SAT even though I didn’t know what it was, lol) and then I started looking up schools and came across Columbia. It was prestigious, it was in my home city which I had wanted to move back to since I moved away at age 12, it was beautiful, and it seemed to match my personality and style very well. I craved Columbia. I hid the brochure under my bed and pulled it out at night to look at the pictures. I wanted to stay in Carman.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, I knew that my parents couldn’t afford it, so I revised my dreams a bit when I applied. My “new” dream school was a small women’s LAC in the South, nearby where my parents lived, and yes, I went there. I absolutely loved it, and I grew so much. But honestly, I say “dream” school very loosely. Any of the colleges I applied to, I would’ve been very happy at, and at my top three choices it was really a crapshoot. I loved them all; they all had characteristics that I liked and I would’ve thrived at any of them.</p>
<p>Then I got into THE original dream, Columbia, for graduate school. And I love it here, too. But I’m glad I waited to come to graduate school here. I love the experience here as a graduate student. Sometimes I wish I went to a place like this for undergrad, though. I think my experience would’ve been even more enriching. I began to recognize why places like this, and Harvard and Yale and Princeton, are so coveted. They really do have the resources to help you get to wherever you want to be.</p>
<p>I agree with the people saying that I don’t think it’s a good idea to have one “dream” school that one focuses most or all of one’s energy upon. Being able to see yourself at, and dream about, virtually all of the schools on your college list is a healthier approach.</p>
<p>Until I applied to school I never really had a dream school, the closest would have been MIT and UC Berkeley. Then by the time I had submitted applications I knew that Harvey Mudd was my dream school (the main indicator being how easy it was for me to write the “why do you want to come here?” essay). I ended up being waitlisted at Mudd but I was accepted at Princeton. After visiting Princeton it became my new dream school and I decided to enroll there.</p>