I'm in a weird position.

unalove
Fri, 30 Jan 2009 00:52:10 +0000

I’m going to play devil’s advocate here (which is ironic, because hmom5 doesn’t seem to have a particular affinity for Chicago while I’m pretty much a Chicago booster) because I don’t see other people up for the task.

1) Study abroad and international experiences don’t have to be hosted through the school. One of my friends says that applying for fellowships (Peace Corps, Fulbright, etc.) can be a bit like dominoes-- once you get one, it’s easier to establish your street cred and get others. This piece of advice coming from a friend who is currently a graduate student at Chicago who came from a college I promise 95% of CC members have not heard of.

2) If the $80,000 is a monkey on JB’s back, then it’s really two monkeys is JB feels that that debt will drive him into a high-paying job he doesn’t love. That’s like four years of paradise for ten years of hell. There are many, many, many ways that JB can experience the “big city” and “the world” and it doesn’t have to be working for Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong.

3) People win things based on what they DO, not where they GO. One thing that people don’t talk about much is how a lot of the headliner scholarships-- Trumans, Marshalls, Rhodes-- go to kids who attend schools you haven’t heard of. The selection committees could EASILY fill ALL the ranks with the Ivies and friends, and they don’t. That’s because you don’t have to go to an elite school to do significant, important, interesting things. There are opportunities at schools like Birmingham-Southern and Xavier. The aspiring student just has to find them.

Of course I’d be thrilled if OP chose Chicago, but I want the OP to choose Chicago only after a very intense thinking period and I want the OP to come to Chicago without any regrets about other college options.