<p>I agree, Bennie. My parents never went to college and my guidance counselors were usually useless when it came to actually “guiding” a student in their college application process (we only had two or three for about 1700 students at my public school). So I made several mistakes when I applied senior year. Five of my applications were ivy league, and the remaining three were “safety” schools that really weren’t all that safe, in retrospect, and which I never allowed myself to even like all that much. I wasn’t as strong an applicant as I’d thought and was rejected by all schools but the three “safeties”. I matriculated at Boston University last fall and, mostly, things have been fine, but I’ve never been in any state of bliss here because of the hectic environment and lack of academic challenge, which I believe are legitimate reasons for wanting to transfer.</p>
<p>At the beginning of the year, I couldn’t let Harvard go, so I applied to it as one of my three transfers. It’s taken me this long (until a few weeks ago) to realize that the apparent prestige of a school just doesn’t mean much in the bigger picture. I know that anything I can say now would be pure speculation, but I honestly don’t think I’d take Harvard’s offer, even if they accepted me. </p>
<p>But that strange hankering to go to a “top school” is still in me. I applied to Cornell, Chicago, and Harvard – rejected from Cornell, almost definitely rejected from Harvard, but I’ve been accepted to Chicago and I plan on making it home. </p>
<p>If I could do the entire thing over again, I would have skipped HYP and looked toward more liberal arts colleges, and I would have allowed myself to fall in love with less selective institutions. </p>
<p>If you’d asked me where I wanted to go to college in 7th grade, I would have said Harvard or Stanford because those were the only two names I’d heard in a family that didn’t have much college experience. My grandmother always spoke of family friends who were going to Harvard or Brown or Yale. It was all I was aware of, and I guess it must have stuck through my high school years. </p>
<p>This is such a poorly written post and I apologize for it. haha</p>