<p>Yes to the first and last questions, no to the second.</p>
<p>Wishing I had applied to other schools isn’t a question of underestimating my acceptance potential- in fact, if anything, I overestimated it. Rather, I simply wish I’d looked into a few more schools, thought more carefully about what I really wanted before applying, and made more time to visit the schools I did end up applying to.</p>
<p>I applied to nine schools and got into six. I wish I hadn’t bothered with UC Berkeley, UC San Diego or UMiami- they’re simply too far away from home for me, but I didn’t think about that in time. Visiting Marist (sadly, after I’d already paid for my application) made me realize that it definitely wasn’t the right school for me.</p>
<p>On the flip side, I wished I’d looked into Syracuse as a potential safety- I was so focused on schools in more major cities that I overlooked this one entirely. Tufts would’ve been a good fit for me, even though it’s probably a bit of a reach, but it flew under my radar for too long. And I eschewed the idea of going to Barnard because of the all-women thing, even though Columbia was my dream school (and dreaming I was- Barnard might have been a possibility, but I was crazy to think I’d get into Columbia). I didn’t even bother to figure out how close they really were. So if I could do it all over again, my list would probably look like this: Barnard, BC, BU, Columbia, NYU, Syracuse, Tufts, and UConn.</p>
<p>All that being said, I’m attending UConn in the fall, and I couldn’t be more excited. Take that as a lesson, kiddos: even if you make mistakes along the way, and even if you don’t get into the school you’ve been dreaming of since you were in diapers, it doesn’t mean your life is over. College can still be totally awesome for you. :D</p>