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most of them are jealous, because they couldn't get in. Don't let them bother you.
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<p>Not me, Bescraze. I got into an honors program at Penn and turned it down for (gasp) a non-Ivy.</p>
<p>nvrmddddddddd</p>
<p>The Ivies are all great schools. A person who is very flexible might reasonably have all of them on his or her list. Also, a student whose primary criterion is to go the schools where the very most capable students tend to go will reasonably look at the Ivies and five or six other schools.
It would be pretty silly, of course, to have only those schools on your list. And let's be honest: the Ivy League is more than just an athletic league--to many people it still symbolizes a certain level of academic prestige. If you go to Stanford, you will have prestige, but you won't be an "Ivy Leaguer." That may not matter to you, but it probably does help in some business and social settings.</p>
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The Ivies are all great schools. A person who is very flexible might reasonably have all of them on his or her list. Also, a student whose primary criterion is to go the schools where the very most capable students tend to go will reasonably look at the Ivies and five or six other schools.
It would be pretty silly, of course, to have only those schools on your list.
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<p>Right, which is exactly the point. It's one thing to say I want to go to the best schools and wind up looking at Ivies and a handful of others. It's another thing to say before the fact that I just want to look at Ivies. It's dumb.</p>
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Right, which is exactly the point. It's one thing to say I want to go to the best schools and wind up looking at Ivies and a handful of others. It's another thing to say before the fact that I just want to look at Ivies. It's dumb.
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<p>Agreed. </p>
<p>Who cares if your an "ivy leaguer"? I bet stanford helps more than brown or darthmouth in some business or social setting. </p>
<p>I mean seriously the name tells you everything: brown=poop.</p>
<p>Stanford's a pretty good school.</p>
<p>yeah. stanford's just an example. You wouldn't go to dartmouth or brown for engineering instead of CMU because it's an ivy league school would you?</p>
<p>It depends on what kind of overall education you want.</p>
<p>Interestingly I applied to urban Ivies and ruled out the more campus based schools, largely because I thought the urban Ivies were more "liberal" and diverse. I ended up going to Columbia. During the fall I spent a couple weekends with friends at Princeton, Dartmouth, and Bucknell and I realized I actually wanted the opposite - a campus based school with a strong social life and a more LACy feel. I also realized that places like Dartmouth and Princeton were far more diverse and open-minded than I had imagined back in high school. </p>
<p>I applied to Dartmouth, Brown, Duke, and Harvard as a transfer. Ended up choosing Dartmouth over the others. Best decision I've ever made. A very personal choice, but it shows how priorities can shift and high-school perceptions can be incorrect.</p>
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yeah. stanford's just an example. You wouldn't go to dartmouth or brown for engineering instead of CMU because it's an ivy league school would you?
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Actually I would....if I cared about egineering..</p>
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Best decision I've ever made. A very personal choice, but it shows how priorities can shift and high-school perceptions can be incorrect.
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<p>Which also goes to show how pointless the concept of One Best (or a ranking of The Best) is. What's "better" - an urban, diverse campus or a bucolic rural one? Neither is objectively better -- it's all in what you prefer.</p>
<p>i'm applying to HYP just to see how i'd do</p>
<p>probably won't go there even if I get in because I refuse to take out loans for an undergrad education</p>
<p>Actually, HYP have one of the best financial aid programs, with no loans which is what attracts many people. That is certainly what attracts me. If it wasn't for their great no-loan financial aid packages, I wouldn't even be thinking about them, because I know I won't be able to afford them.</p>
<p>swimguy--then y r u applying?</p>
<p>Bragging rights if I get in..</p>
<p>Who knows..maybe I'll get into one and decide to go.</p>
<p>^haha a lot of ppl want bragging rights so they apply to top colleges when they know all along they'll be going to their safety b/c they want to.</p>
<p>interesting thread. any other personal stories?</p>
<h2>i'm applying to HYP just to see how i'd do</h2>
<p>First ranked kid at my school said that was his reason to apply. I respect him for his decision. He didn't get in to any but got lucky and got off waitlist to Columbia. </p>
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<p>Bragging rights if I get in..</p>
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<p>This is the main reason people apply to "brand" name schools. Its sad and I will admit to it too. It took me a while to get over this and I am completely satisfied with going to my "lesser" UC state school.</p>
<p>Wow, that's a lot of essays...even if they all use the common app.</p>
<p>It's d-baggy to apply to Ivy League schools just for the sake of doing so.</p>
<p>At least have legitimate reasons besides: "I want prestige and a good education." Well, duh, everyone does.</p>
<p>While I don't know anyone who has applied to ALL of them, I have a cousin who applied to HYPSM (attending CUNY), and several classmates who had applied to the big three (all now attend one of the three).</p>
<p>If you don't have a reasonable shot, don't waste your effort.</p>
<p>People seem to want to disconnect "prestige" from substantive quality. Why? </p>
<p>Do you think prestige comes from... age? Clearly not, as there are many schools older than Cornell (btw, NOT the lowest ranked Ivy) and Dartmouth that are not ranked Top 30.</p>
<p>Do you think prestige comes from ... geography? Certainly not, as there are hundreds of schools in between Princeton and Dartomouth that are not ranked Top 300.</p>
<p>Do you really think the eight Ivy league schools are rated (currently) from 1 to 16 in the USNWR undergrad National University rankings for no substantive reason?</p>
<p>Did it ever occur to you that prestige can be, and is in this case, a natural result of quality? </p>
<p>So if a person said: "I'm going to apply to the 20 colleges and universities of the highest quality (which might include all 8 Ivies) in the U.S.", would you be up in arms and call them "quality whores!"?</p>
<p>P.S. I did not attend an Ivy.. I'm more into "farm"ing.</p>