<p>As a college student, the prestige factor is a bit annoying. You have to go to the best college you get into, although it’s not always your first choice. Sometimes people judge you on what college you’re at. It can be positive(for Ivy Leaguers), but also negative.</p>
<p>Congrats on getting into the Program though!! That’s awesome!!</p>
<p>Hi OP!</p>
<p>Some of these points will be a bit repetitive, but I think do bear repeating:</p>
<p>Wow! You got into the Honors Program in Pharmacy at Northeastern, and will have a great profession in 6 years! Congratulations!</p>
<p>Boston/Cambridge is an amazing place for a young person to go to school.</p>
<p>Berkeley is a great school, but much of the country (which is overly focused on HPYSM) would not necessarily call it “prestigious”. And Northeastern is hardly slumming!</p>
<p>Finally…Yes, wait until all your results are in. But you should have absolutely no shame/regrets about going to NE.</p>
<p>Yes, you should wait, because you don’t need to decide now. I can’t tell you how sure you are you want to do pharmacy. If you are sure, Northeastern is a nobrainer, but if you have any doubts it may not be the best place. My son turned down Harvard for Carnegie Mellon, but only because he was positive he wanted to study computer science and that he wouldn’t really enjoy or take advantage of all the great things Harvard has to offer. Try to forget about the prestige, but I know it’s hard, even our son waited till the end of April, and our whole family had a hard time letting go of Harvard, but we all knew CMU was the right choice for our son.</p>
<p>Yeah I do feel better about going to NEU 
Thankyou.</p>
<p>But my dad has been working in another country to support our family here,
and I feel like (my dad never put pressure on me to do well) I’m failing my dad
if I end up in a not so-prestigious univ.</p>
<p>I guess it’s just all in me, and I have to get rid of this ‘demon’ as some people call it.</p>
<p>Thank you for all your help!</p>
<p>Just don’t use alcohol, as Dad II did. :-)</p>
<p>well-no doubt it has been said here already—but—sitting down with you dad and talking to him about how much you love him and your family and how grateful you are for your childhood will go a long long way in helping you and your dad accept whatever decision you make (sorry for the run on sentance). In the very end all parents just want their kids to love them and excel even if they were to wish that their D or S went to the most prestigious school.</p>
<p>“My sister goes to Berkeley and I’m afraid that people are going to compare me with my sister, 'cause I went to a ‘not-so-elite’ school.”</p>
<p>Leaving aside the fact that Northeastern is just fine, Nicorobin, who are the types of people who would outwardly compare you to your sister and make a judgment (esp to your face) that you are “inferior”? They’re LOSERS. So why would you care about “impressing” them? The only thing anyone need say when hearing about your college plans are “I’m so happy for you, have a wonderful time, enjoy yourself.” The kind of person who then mentally calculates “but the sister went to Berkeley and he is only going to Northeastern, I’m now going to look down on him from this day forth” is a pathetic human being. So what is their opinion worth? Nothing.</p>
<p>The most prestigious thing in our society is to make money. Northeastern will position you to do that better than a Folkore and Mythology degree from Berkeley.No offense to all the people who do not need money and can afford fascinating academic indulgences.</p>
<p>Family expectations can be a burden, especially for third generation Asians. People who completely dis your concern about community perceptions don’t appreciate the nuances of micro-cultural inter-generational interactions in some US ethnic groups. I would like to offer a general statement of affirmation regarding your ability to reconcile with your communities’ expectations without compromising your individuality. There I did.</p>
<p>Get through school, find a nice spouse, have some kids, and transfer your parent’s expectations to your kids, their grandkids. It will pay your kids back for the pain of childbirth.LOL</p>
<p>"The most prestigious thing in our society is to make money. "</p>
<p>Ugh, maybe your society / ethnicity.</p>
<p>All good advice above. </p>
<p>I would make sure your dad is well-informed with the facts about Northeastern so he happily can tell people, “I’m surprised you never heard of it! It’s tops in the field of pharmacy, co-op, (whatever) and it’s in the best college city in the world, Boston.” So he can speak with confidence and other people can learn something.</p>
<p>Tell your dad maybe you’ll date people from Harvard? :D</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This.</p>
<p>I understand about the whole community perceptions thing, and that you don’t want your dad to be embarrassed in his community, and that the fact that he <em>shouldn’t</em> be embarrassed is almost beside the point. So give him ammo! Northeastern, aside from being quite a solid school in general, has an extremely prestigious pharmacy program.</p>
<p>You might also see if Northeastern, or the School of Pharmacy, has an Asian-American alumni organization or some such thing with people who are sensitive to the cultural factors involved and would be willing to talk to your dad.</p>
<p>BigG is coming from some weird place in the cosmos with this comment: "The most prestigious thing in our society is to make money. " If this were the "Parents Cafe’ instead of Parents Forum, that comment would put him/her squarely in the Republican/Karl Rove camp. Grrrrrrrrrrr. Thank God Republicans are in the minority in THIS country. (38% of Americans identify as Democrats, 29% as Independents, and 28% as Republicans, 5% other or none)</p>
<p>As you can tell, I disagree totally. Right now the “money is everything” people are being villified because the worship of money is so corrupting. Read the headlines. The Op should do what she/he wants to do, not what someone else considers “prestigious.” This isn’t Asia. This is America. This is a country in which a mixed race, racial minority can become president of the United States. That won’t happen in Asian countries where homogeniety and conformity are prized. </p>
<p>Do what you want Nicrobin90. YOU are the one going to college, not your parents. It’s YOUR life not their’s. This is America. Go to school where you want; live where you want; love who you want. Listen to parents advice, sure, when they share the wisdom of their experience. But when it comes to matters of personal taste, personal ambition and value judgment, make your own decisions. They can’t live your life for you, so don’t let them dictate it and keep you in a cultural prison.</p>
<p>By the way, I’m a parent of 19, 18 and 15 year olds. My 19 year old is in college where SHE wanted to go; my 18 year old is at a similar place as the OP–trying to make up her mind. Should she go Ivy? Elite LAC? Or flagship state U where she might be happier and graduate with zero debt. I’ll brag about her no matter where she decides to go to college. I’ll brag about her because of the kind of person she is not what she does for a living, how much money she makes, or where she went to college.</p>
<p>Being an asian myself, I can relate to your struggle. Friday nights at my house were sometimes torturous having to listen to the parents talk about the kids over maj jong games. The hype only lasts for a short while. Things calm down after decisions are made and kids are off to school. While I didn’t appreciate having to live up to such high expectations, I do appreciate my parents desire for me to succeed. </p>
<p>In the blink af an eye, your college experience will be over. Choose the one you want and enjoy the time you spend there!! Then your parents will be bragging about their daughter, the pharmacist.</p>
<p>I’m Malaysian and a first generation college kid. I got into Northeastern and my parents are really happy; they don’t care where I go to as long as I like it. If they had it their way I’d be in Australia because it’s closer to home.</p>
<p>I have family friends in the US who immigrated there and told my parents that name is not everything and I think that kinda swayed them. Everyone only knows the name of the Ivies here and heck, I’m staying away from the Ivies like bugs stay away from bug spray. My results may not be good enough, but even if it is I wouldn’t want to go to an Ivy. Just sayin’.</p>
<p>I think it’s an asian thing, and I hate it. Just because the school has name doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily the best for YOU.</p>
<p>In the end, it’s how good the program is and how YOU like it, because you’re going there, not anyone else. And the bragging can come when you graduate and are doing really well :)</p>
<p>It drives me nuts when people automatically think that the most “famous” or “prestigious” university is the best for every. single. major. and every. single. student. (In my major the best programs are almost all at state universities and the only Ivy worth considering is Cornell, and then only if you want to specialize in birds.) </p>
<p>OP, if you like NEU and it has the program you want, go to NEU and have a great time. ^_^</p>
<p>If you can afford to, you might consider sending in your enrollment fee to Northeastern while waiting to hear from the other school. That way, you can still put in your dorm request and maybe registration time and get your first choice. If you wait, some options may be gone.</p>
<p>If you do get into the other school, would you want to go there? If you heart is with Northeastern regardless of acceptance at the other school, then you already know the answer. Especially if you are really sure about Pharmacy. If money/scholarships are a big issue, that would need to be taken into account, but that can be looked at separate from “prestige”.</p>
<p>We are not an Asian family, and so my daughter does not have those expectations weighing her down. However, of the 4 schools she has been accepted to, she may very well like the “least prestigious” best. Since she is graduating from a private HS with honors, and is a merit scholar finalist, she sees the other girls at her school with similar talents applying to some of the more prestigious schools. As a result, she has questioned what others would think if she didn’t choose on that basis. Just read tons of the posts on CC, and you’ll see that so many people worry about the prestige of school A vs. school B - what a lot of pressure to take on, on top of everything else a graduating senior is dealing with!</p>
<p>No matter which school you choose, it is likely that the issue of pleasing your father will continue to be a factor in your life - take it from a 50 year old who still struggles with it from time to time! Work hard, make responsible decisions, be a good person, be a good daughter…that’s enough to make any parent proud. And just know that you won’t be able to please him in every way all the time…that’s how it should be…you will be able to learn to live with that, and be stronger for it. Best of luck, and congratulations!</p>
<p>“f you can afford to, you might consider sending in your enrollment fee to Northeastern while waiting to hear from the other school. That way, you can still put in your dorm request and maybe registration time and get your first choice. If you wait, some options may be gone.”</p>
<p>Yikes! Bad advice moxymom.</p>
<p>Students should NOT be encouraged to deposit unless they are ready to commit. Students don’t have to decide until May 1. No need to deposit anywhere until she is ready.</p>
<p>“If you can afford to, you might consider sending in your enrollment fee to Northeastern while waiting to hear from the other school. That way, you can still put in your dorm request and maybe registration time and get your first choice. If you wait, some options may be gone.”</p>
<p>You may be right, cadbury, I might be wrong, but I would like to know why that might not be a reasonable thing to do in some cases. Many colleges let prospective students put in dorm requests, etc. before May 1 if a deposit has been made. This is a disadvantage to students who wait until May 1.</p>
<p>I’d like to hear from others on the topic as well.</p>
<p>I am sure this has no impact but pretty campus, you are talking about Northeastern University, right ? It is an urban school in a metro city (Boston). It enjoys a good reputation if you intend on living near Boston. But as Pharm D it doesn’t matter where you graduate from. So it’s all back to the prestige asian thing as OP stated.</p>
<p>nicorobin- You’ve gotten a lot of good advice here. I will add: My older sister went to a more prestigious university. I went to a less resepected state school. Yes, she received more accolades, etc. We both have carrers we like, but I make a lot more money than she does. My goal wasn’t to make money, it was to enjoy my work (and life.) Somehow, going to work is not work when you really enjoy what you do. I went to a school that had a program I was interested in. You follow your own path in life, and I think as long as you make well-thought out decisions and relate to your father how much you love him and appreciate his hard work, he will be proud of you.</p>