<p>Tufts
Cornell
Connecticut College
University of Vermont
Syracuse</p>
<p>I applied ED to Tufts which was my first choice school, was deferred, then accepted and enrolled. Syracuse was my safety. I got in to them all but Cornell. Ironically I now live in Vermont (but grew up in NJ) and have even taught a graduate course at UVM. Also somewhat ironically, my older D became interested in and applied to and got into Tufts and Conn College (I did not influence her college list at all) and even looked at Cornell. My younger one got into Syracuse but is not going. It is funny how they had a little overlap with my list though have different interests. I recall PART of my criteria being my intended interest area which indeed I did stick with when in college and loved my department at Tufts. </p>
<p>For grad school, I was living in Boston and already married and my hubby was in grad school and I only applied to ones in the Boston area and wanted to get my graduate degree before we left Boston (to move to Vermont). I only applied to:</p>
<p>Harvard
Boston University</p>
<p>Got into both, chose Harvard. I guess the idea of just two grad schools sounds a little nutty today.</p>
<p>For 1974, I guess I had kind of a big list but here it is, in order of preference for where I wanted to go:</p>
<p>Colgate - waitlisted
Wesleyan - rejected
Cornell - waitlisted but also accepted as January frosh
William & Mary - rejected
SUNY Binghamton - accepted
SUNY Albany - accepted
Duke - accepted
SUNY Stony Brook - accepted (no way was I ever going there because it meant I’d be living at home and commuting - uh,uh, not in my lifetime!)</p>
<p>I wound up at Duke - got a really good financial aid package and went down to see it for the first time, fell in love with it and never looked back.</p>
<p>I still remember my essay: my parents divorced when I was 6 and at that time it was still somewhat of an oddity. I wrote about the effect of the divorce and how it shaped me into an independent person. I still think the essay is what got me into Duke - I think they needed “parental marital” diversity.</p>
<p>Applied only to University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign…I wanted to go away for college, and it was the only one I could go to, financially-speaking, and then only if I won a scholarship (I did)…other possibilities (which I rejected out of hand) were Loyola (Chicago)–my mother worked there, so tuition was free, and it was only 8 blocks from my home, so no room & board expenses, either; or U of I, Chicago-Circle campus…also would have meant commuting…never occurred to me to apply anywhere else because nowhere else could the money be found to pay my way…my HS GC thought I was “too stupid to even think about college” and so there was no resource for other financial aid options open to me; I’d never heard of financial aid possibilities…by the way, even tho I was “too stupid” for college, I was a National Merit scholar (forget which level…for sure semifinalist; possibly finalist, as I did get a full scholarship for U of I–almost had to have been Nat’l Merit)…later I went to Georgetown law school…don’t remember having any worries at all about my ability to get in to any school (including HPYS, altho Harvard was the only one I knew about at the time–I had straight As and always was my school’s “smartest”–a fact that embarrassed me badly and I strove hard to hide)…My family just didn’t have the money to send me anywhere…</p>
<p>Where I really wanted to go–UCLA–was like wanting to go to Mars–I wanted to go there because I’d heard of it (no doubt because of football, about which I could have cared less) and it was as far away as I could think of…but there was no possible way, money-wise, or so I thought…things sure are different now!</p>
<p>What did you study at Tufts and Harvard, Susan? What do you do now? I’ve read a lot of your posts and your daughters sound like they are going to rule the world, Susan!</p>
<p>After interviewing at Radcliffe/Harvard and being told by them and by my sisters (who both attended Radcliffe) that I would be happier at MIT, I interviewed at MIT and was deeply impressed. I applied there and to Yale, where HS BF got in ED (his brothers were there). I completed the application for Reed, but my mother refused to sign the permission for me to apply (which was required because I was 16 at the time) because of Reed’s “high suicide rate.” (I have since found out she wouldn’t let my sister apply to Stanford for the same bogus reason.) I got into MIT and went there; Yale waitlisted me. </p>
<p>I remember that the college counselor was very distressed because I didn’t have a safety school. Reed was supposed to be my safety, but after my mother refused to let me apply there, I refused to apply anywhere else. I remember Stony Brook was discussed as a suitable safety, for reasons I don’t remember at all.</p>
<p>As you can tell I wasn’t clear at all what I wanted or who I wanted to be! Parents’ only advice was “you can go anywhere you want”. I ended up at Reed, was accepted to Stanford as a transfer, but went back to Reed. No idea what I was thinking, but 25 years later I finally can appreciate what Reed gave me.</p>
<p>USC
I fell in love when the honor society visited the school. that was it, that was were I was going. I think I would have fallen in love with any university-SC just happened to be the one.</p>
<p>Swarthmore
Pembroke (was the “women’s” college at Brown)
Trinity (women’s), Washington, DC
Emmanuel (women’s), Boston
Marquette</p>
<p>Accepted to all. Went to Emmanuel due to a mistaken overweighting of the value of a Catholic school and a non-mistaken weighting of Boston area. Transferred to Wellesley after one year.</p>
<p>Applied ED to UNC-Chapel Hill (journalism major). Rejected. I was devastated. I didn’t know that out-of-state students were limited to 15% of the class.</p>
<p>Then I applied to:</p>
<p>Boston University
George Washington University
Northwestern University
University of Arizona
University of Minnesota</p>
<p>Those last two, they were random. They sounded exotic to a girl from Long Island. I loved hockey (Minnesota) and Arizona sounded cool. Northwestern was my first choice, and my parents and I flew to Minneapolis to tour that campus, then Chicago to tour NU. It was March, and the weather was yucky in Minn., a beautiful early spring day in Chicago. Guess where I wound up?</p>
<p>I didn’t visit BU and GW. I knew many kids from my area went to those schools, so I figured I’d fit in. I was accepted at all schools except UNC.</p>
<p>I visited and only applied to Tufts ED. Looking at colleges now with my D, I realize that there are plenty of schools I wish I had visited and applied to. My parents did not think it really mattered where you go to college. They said a state school was adequate. However, I feel sorry for kids today who have lists of like 10 -15 schools. It is crazy. I was valedictorian and applied to only one school. You have all A students who are over achievers in their EC’s burning the candle at both ends and they can’t even get into one school they want. What is this world coming to?</p>
<p>My list had no thought whatsoever. Was pretty much whoever sent me mail after I took the PSAT, and their mailings caught my eye:</p>
<p>Oklahoma State
Tulsa
LSU
Miami (Fla)
Cornell (as an afterthought when I was recruited for a sport)</p>
<p>I was a first generation college attendee. Basically, had NO idea what I was doing, and neither did my parents. Unfortunately, neither did my Guidance Counselor!</p>
<p>No one but my career officer father had been to college and he had no sons. We had already moved twice in high school, including senior year, but whining or ever referring to those moves was not tolerated. The fact that I was going to be sent to a residential college somewhere was gift enough as only four members of my senior class ended up in residential colleges…and most later put themselves through local colleges on their own dime while working for a living or joined the service. My school GC was a timid graduate of Bob Jones University and he seemed to be socially challenged and very unfamiliar with colleges that were actually accredited. It was 1974, Nixon had just resigned and morale in the military was very low. So of course my college trip began with a slow drive around Dad’s alma mater, VMI. He seemed distraught that I could not attend, but more from the standpoint that it is more blessed to be born a boy. Criteria for schools visited: Do they play VMI? Visits commenced at the top with my dream school William and Mary. I wore a hopeful but loud plaid pantsuit. We did not know or compute that we would not be considered Virginians (not residents) so the waitlist and offer to attend in January was a shock. My parents always stated they were Virginians when we moved around the USA! Pilots do not use road maps, so next stop was Wake Forest, NC. Did you know that Wake Forest University isn’t in Wake Forest, NC? ##**&&!! when we arrived and were in the wrong town. A scene took place. Next stop Davidson, which had been coed for about ten minutes; very few women there then. Then we drove to Greenville, SC, since there are good military bases in Charleston, and we drove through Furman. Green, verdant and fountained on a hot summer’s day. My father vaguely knew about Bob Jones but was unclear about the facts, so we made our way across town to the fortress, and even he was dumbfounded by the guarded gate and the barbed wire and the white shirts, shined shoes and crew cuts. Scary. We did not get out of the car and drove back out the gate as fast as possible.
Arrived at college in a truck with a kitchen sink on display in a trailer. The sink having been rescued from a demolition. I was the first woman on either side of my family to be given the privilege for four years in college. It was a beginning. One of my favorite things is a photo of myself and Pat Conroy.</p>
<p>I don’t think it occurred to me to apply out of state (or that my parents would allow me to go):</p>
<p>Austin College
Southwestern University</p>
<p>Accepted at both, got a nice scholarship at SU. And here’s my stupid HS counselor story: At the end of my junior year, I decided I was sick and tired of math and didn’t want to take Calculus my senior year. The counselor would not allow me to change my schedule until I got my father involved. She said that there was no way I could get into college without Calculus. Imagine my surprise when I met my freshman roommate and learned she couldn’t add negative numbers.</p>
<p>Mel5140, Hey I did not know you went to Tufts! So did I. I was in the class of '79 but graduated a half year early (though went to my graduation in May with my class). My hubby was in the class of '76 but graduated half a year late and went to the graduation with the class of '77. </p>
<p>eng_dude:
Uh, you are being too kind about my kids…they likely are no different than other kids represented on the parent forum…we all think our children are pretty special. To answer your questions, at Tufts, I majored in the Eliot-Pearson Dept. of Child Study. At Harvard Graduate School of Education, I was in the area called Teaching, Curriculum, and Learning Environments and my main focus was on both staff development and curriculum development. Some things I have done in the education field in the past are an elementary school teacher, supervising student teachers, staff developer and education consultant to schools/teachers in my state, and adjunct faculty member in the field of education on both the undergraduate and graduate level at five different colleges in my state. For the past 19 years, I have worked part time on and off in these areas. I am now working in another facet of education, a little different than before. </p>
<p>interesting thread…here I was thinking that I must have been the most naive high school student ever regarding college selection. I was the first in my family to go directly to college, my guidance counselor was of no help, and I filled out Fin Aid forms myself. Applied to : Emory, UVA, George Mason U, James Madison U, and Boston U. Accepted to all, went to UVA and paid my entire way via savings from work and student loans. (zero aid from the school) Pretty much impossible for kids to do that these days.</p>
<p>Michigan - 1st choice
Michigan State -safety
Notre Dame - parental pressure
Amherst - to be different</p>
<p>No assistance from guidance counselor.</p>
<p>Attended Michigan.
Only visited Michigan and Michigan State for football games. 1st time I really set foot on the Michigan campus was for orientation in the summer.</p>
<p>Have never set foot on the Notre Dame campus to this day.</p>
<p>Only drove through Amherst two years ago while killing time on the way to a family event. Originally picked it out of a catalogue. Sometimes think about how my life would have turned out had I gone to Amherst.</p>
<p>Amherst and Michigan - talk about different ends of the spectrum!</p>