<p>I go to a very small high school and am in the first graduating class. All of my friends and myself are the high achieving students in the school, so all of us have been competing against eachother for 4 years. We all applied to Ivy league schools, expecting that each member of our clique would be at a different one from the other. But...</p>
<p>I'm the only person from my school who got accepted into any Ivies (Dartmouth and Penn, Waitlisted at Brown) while all of my friends were rejected. I was also accepted into UChicago, Rice and Carnegie Mellon, which are prestigious sub-ivies in their own right. I'm very glad an appreciative, but I feel kind of guilty that I've outperformed my closest friends and am "leaving them in the dust" so to speak. Now their going to UC's. And they have higher class ranks than I do (I'm 4/72) and higher test scores.</p>
<p>But that's not it. I'm going to be in the local news (San Francisco Chronicle) because I'm one of the few African American males from my school district to get accepted to an ivy league school WITHOUT an athletic scholarship. And since I'm in the first graduating class of my fledgling school, they are going to thrust me in the spotlight and use me as a poster child of success. That's kind of rubbing salt in the wound. What would you do in my situation? I feel proud and guilty. This has been the best and worst week of my life.</p>
<p>First of all, be gracious and humble. And you are not leaving your friends "in the dust". They will be just fine, get excellent educations and go on to live happy and fulfilling lives...or not, but it won't really matter where they went to school. </p>
<p>Be prepared for the fact that people will say you only got in because of your race. Just because someone says it doesn't make it true. You have earned your acceptances and should be proud of them. If your friends are good friends they will be happy for you. Just don't spend time talking about it to them if you can avoid it. You cannot control anything at this point accept your own behavior. If you are gracious, others are more likely to act that way as well.</p>
<p>And congratulations!</p>
<p>And remember, everything is pretty raw right now, its like they got punched in the stomach....this will last about a week, and then the hurt will not be so bad, they will start to get excited about their schools, and things will settle back to its routine</p>
<p>Your acceptances weren't flukes, by having a some very nice schools recognized you, it shows you deserved to be at anyone of them</p>
<p>My D goes to a school in SF, that sends many to the Ivies, but also tons to the UC and State system, to some very fine schools</p>
<p>Be happy for yourself, be happy for your friends, but for a bit, you can be proud, but humble, it is a fine balance, but I think oyu can do it</p>
<p>Congrats!!! btw</p>