<p>You know, the people who actually make something out of themselves in life, even if they came from disadvantaged circumstances or had obstacles in their way, aren’t the ones obsessing over how to appear smarter or whether their school is prestigious enough. Why> Because they’re too busy improving themselves and doing amazing work. Einstein was a damn patent clerk, certainly not a job where you’d expect a genius physicist to come from but he developed the theory of relativity. He didn’t sit around and wonder how he could get ahead of Hans, his former friend at the Gymnasium who graduated from Stuttgard University. He just worried about how he himself could improve.</p>
<p>Best advice: screw Rob, screw your strange desire to be recognized as intelligent by other people, stop pitying yourself and go. You want to be a top notch lawyer? Study for LSATs. NOW. Read philosophy books, review famous cases, develop some discipline, and try to get an internship with a local law firm. Don’t sit around on forums and read stupid books to try to increase your IQ by 2 more points. So you’re a minority and you didn’t have a good high school career. So? I know people less fortunate who came out farther ahead then you’re even dreaming of. </p>
<p>Once again, you can tell me I don’t know what I’m talking about or that my advice is ****, but I really don’t give a damn. I’m giving you advice because you have potential but you’re wasting it. Last time you said you ‘saw the light’ and weren’t going to worry about Rob anymore. I guess that’s changed. Either change your viewpoint or spend the rest of your life regretting it.</p>
<p>You have the worst mindset I have ever heard. I really hope you are joking, because you need to have your priorities straighened our. I’m not like OMG, I GO TO WAKE FOREST, IT IS ONLY TOP 30, THERE ARE 28-29 schools RANKED HIGHER THAN MY SCHOOL AND THAT DOES NOT EVEN INCLUDE LAC’S OR SERVICE ACADEMIES!!!</p>
<p>Suck it up, seriously. You are going to a tier 1 American research school. That is pretty damn good, especially compared to the rest of the world. Stop **<strong><em>ing and just work hard in school and don’t worry about what everyone else is doing, but in all honesty you are one *</em></strong>ed up individual.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for your input, (sometimes brutal, yet timely) advice, and comments.</p>
<p>I don’t know what has given birth to my inferior complex, but I promise to root out the cause of it. For a while, memories of Rob (my former Notre Dame graduate friend) did seem to vanish, but since school restarted a couple of weeks ago, the thoughts of his accomplishments seem to worsen - thoughts about his “superior life” over mine occur frequently and without warning. They are now very distracting and seem to be breaking my concentration even while in school.</p>
<p>I think it’s time for me to take a break from this board and dedicate myself towards my goals and how to bring my SMU Matriculation Strategy into fruition.</p>
<p>please consider counseling via a professional. Print out some of your threads (including this one) in their entirety and show them to the counselor.</p>
<p>First of all, coming to a website like this one to get information on a university is a bad idea. You should visit a website that gives actual facts and stats about a university. Also, while every school carries some baggage, coming to a website like this one to discover it is probably another bad idea. These posts are from teenagers, rejected applicants, people who never went to college, people who don’t know anything about colleges, Harvard junkies, liars, and immature children who post out of emotion and anger, or just because they have nothign better to do.</p>
<p>SMU is an outstanding school, and I think people forget how new the school is. SMU was founded in 1911. Notre Dame was founded in 1842. Thats almost 70 extra years to build its reputation and make a name for itself. SMU has jumped from a school known for its football scandal to a top 100 university, very quickly, and it’s gaining more prestige every year. The admission rate has dropped to a low of 50%, and it continues to drop. People who give SMU (or any school for that matter) a bad reputation are those are were probably rejected, don’t look at that stats to see that SMU’s academics are improving dramatically, or just hate the fact that another school is just as good, or better, than theres. </p>
<p>People have done a good job as bashing SMU and giving it a bad rap because they don’t want to accept that SMU is moving up. The school is still fairly new compared to its competition, and I think its impressive how a school like SMU can compete academically with a school that has a 100 more years under its belt (not necessarily referring to Notre Dame, but others that people have compared SMU to). Just look at the STATS!</p>
<p>There is always going to be a better school, and someone else is always going to think the school you are goign to sucks compared to theres. WHO CARES! If SMU is a good choice for you, then so be it. It’s definitely a great school.<br>
ANY SCHOOL IN THE TOP 100 IS A GREAT SCHOOL. Geeze, there are thousands of universites and colleges, if SMU makes the top 100, it is obviously a good school.</p>