Your criteria are very strange, because name brand and recognizable universities are expensive by nature. The schools where professors can write that type of letter to a T10 law or grad school and be taken seriously are the very schools which I am considering. What you are suggesting simply doesn’t exist in any financially accessible medium.
Moving beyond this fallacy, I think that your suggestions, while well-intentioned and much appreciated, have no relevance to me or my college journey.
My dreams aren’t up for negotiation. I will achieve these things. I will get that fellowship no matter where I go to college. Telling a 17 year old to give up on everything she’s ever wanted isn’t good advice, and I do have that luxury because I will make those things happen no matter what. If my family can get refugee visas to come to the US, escape generations of anti-semitism and extreme poverty, I can handle getting into grad school. I’m not someone who will take this advice lying down, because I can’t not consider it. Your instructions may apply to someone who is shotgunning or whose lofty dreams are just resume padding, but I’m 500% genuine and not willing to “not worry about what happens 10 years from now”.
It’s great that you know people from a variety of majors, but do you know people who work for the UN and went to community college and a no name grad school? No, I didn’t think so, because that’s not how getting a job there works. Of course you are right that my dreams are competitive, but if that were to discourage me it would mean I didn’t really want it in the first place.
As for the international population, sure cliques will form regardless, but I have a bit of a reputation for being able to make friends with anyone. I’m sure that you are correct, but fewer international students just means fewer diverse perspectives when I do interact with them. And at the end of the day, if the only thing my school lacks is international students, I will find that elsewhere. I won’t let a shoddy ratio distract me from my priorities.
Thank you again for your advice! I’m sure I came off quite harsh, and that isn’t because I’m not grateful for your input. I just noticed that you seem to be very dismissive of the things which I hold dearest. My future career is my baby and my (granted, likely very skewed) perception of my own potential is what keeps me shooting that high. I wish you nothing but success, and can only hope that no one ever tells you to give up on whatever it is that gets you out of bed every morning.