I chose Yale over ...

T26E4
Mon, 12 May 2008 10:57:52 +0000

I’ve hesitated posting to this thread. Please suffer an old alum OK?

EVERY matriculant to Yale this year (except those who got in and accepted Yale through EA), turned down other schools.

It’s safe to assume that the schools turned down are a mix of top caliber schools, some solid public programs and maybe even some lesser known schools. Other Ivies, other top 50 schools, maybe some out of the way but otherwise wonderful smaller schools.

My concern (and it may be unfounded – please ignore if this is so) about threads like this is it may become a vehicle for saying : “look at the schools that I consider less than Yale.”

While no one might explicitly say this, ask yourself this question: Let’s say Student A accepted Yale but turned down Princeton and USB. Student B accepted Yale over UCSD and a Rose-Hulman.

Why does student A feel more likely to share with others that he turned down P’ton and USB rather than student B about UCSD and RH? What would you call this?

I think it’s vanity. Have you noted that no one listed their “Safeties” or schools w/o top shelf prestige? Are we to assume that people ONLY applied to and were accpeted by Harvard, Stanford, GTown, NWU, Princeton? Curious, no?

I turned down four other schools for Yale. Three top engineering schools and another Ivy – Michigan, Purdue, Rose Hulman and Brown. To this day, I can honestly say I would have been honored to attend and graduate from any of those other four. For some arcane reason, Yale accepted me and I’m 100% happy with that.

To say that you ARE a Yalie doesn’t necessarily mean brandishing the fact that you AREN’T a Princeton Tiger, Michigan Wolverine, Stanford Cardinal, etc.

If this doesn’t apply to you and you only posted because this thread piqued your interest – then great. However, in your Yale career and afterwards, expend the necessary energy not to boast. What’s boasting? Only you can determine that. Best of luck to all of you. Enjoy New Haven!