<p>^^^Really? People aim for UCSB and UCSC? Hmmm, I guess they aren’t so bad. People at my school would have you believe those schools are terrible the way they talk of them. They look down on them as “party schools” and very few people from my school go there or even admit to applying there. Only the people who don’t have very good grades go there from my school. But after seeing your post, I did a bit of research and it was quite the eye-opener. They’re actually pretty good schools. Don’t know why everyone is so against them.</p>
<p>I’m in Orange County too, by the way. Most people stay in-state, but no one is shocked either when you say you want to go out of state.</p>
<p>As for random strangers asking me where I want to go to college? Hasn’t happened yet…But if they did, I wouldn’t mind telling them. I don’t see what the big deal is about telling them you want to go to a top school. Who cares if they give you a look? ESPECIALLY if they’re a random stranger, lol. I couldn’t imagine them giving you a condescending look for it. I feel like if anything, they would look at you admirably.</p>
<p>If I told anyone what half the colleges that I’m applying to were, they’d probably freak out and say that I have no shot of getting in. I don’t even want to tell my friends where I’m applying, because if I don’t get in, then they’ll know that I was rejected. I’m not scared of getting rejected, but I would hate for people I know to know if I was rejected from my dream schools. So far, my response has been, “Oh, I don’t know yet… maybe a college here or a university over there. I don’t have a first choice, etc.”</p>
<p>OMG I hate this! I love asking people where they are applying, with genuine curiousity but my I feel so awkward telling them my own choices because I feel they will judge me and think I’m a poor delusional kid who will get in there or that I am a show-off.</p>
<p>They don’t aim for UCSC, it’s like the universal saftey at my school that everyone doesn’t want to go to. </p>
<p>Some people REALLY want to go to UCSB becasue it’s located right on the beach, but others are turned away because of the party reputation. But a lot of people still apply there. </p>
<p>Pretty much everyone at my school wants to go to UCLA (smart kids) or SLO (less smart kids). We had like a combined 55 people this past year end up at UCLA and CP SLO.</p>
<p>It’s not like they really are shocked that you want to go OOS, but it’s as if they can’t see themselves leaving the beach so they don’t really approve of it. I’d say that 85% of this years graduating class went in state or to school in Oregon, Arizona, or Washington.</p>
<p>The sad part is without this site I would have been just like them. I asked for people to suggest schools to me on this site and I had new found interest in schools that I had considered briefly just because I liked their football team. Four of the schools suggested to me on this site are actually among my favorites right now (I have 6 favorite schools, the other 2 had long been my dream schools). Visiting different schools also helped me find my type of school and without pushing my parents to take me to visit schools, I would just be looking at mostly UCs.</p>
People from the grocery store, cashiers or otherwise, don’t usually ask me this, thank goodness
Anyway I don’t like to share this out of CC, it’s just… not what people talk about where I live. Most people think I’m the plain uninteresting person, so if I tell them I want to go to Yale they’d be like, “Yale?” and think of how I’m not ‘the Yale type’.
Still, it’s not like a lot of them know who should be ‘the Yale type’, seeing as they’re ignorant about colleges (a meaner way of saying that they’re not as interested in top colleges as I am).</p>
<p>Let’s raise the bar a little. What if I know where I’m going but am not there yet (primarily athletes who commit early I suppose)? Do I still go with the “I don’t know” and not just be vague but lie about it at the same time? Do I say “oh well actually I’m going to so-and-so on an athletic agreement,” and see how they react to that surprise? Complicated stuff!</p>
<p>Honestly, (I’m a pretty math and science oriented person, like I took calc bc last year as a freshman), people usually see me, somehow notice my intelligence and are like “Woah, are you going to MIT or something”</p>
That seems like the right thing to do in that situation. And if they feel a little inadequate because of the school (I don’t think people should, no matter what school they went to, if any. Everyone has different opportunities), they’ll just comfort themselves with “Oh, they just got in because they’re an athlete.”, however untrue that may be.</p>
<p>As for me, I just prefer not to discuss it. I do get embarrassed, my college list sounds more reasonable in my head. The only people I personally know who know my full list are my parents, my girlfriend, and my counselor. And he agreed on my list and said that I had a good grasp on the process, as opposed to those students who come in and say, “I want to go to UCF or USF or UNF.”</p>
<p>I was asked today in debate, and just said I didn’t know where I wanted to go (I don’t, it’ll be a tough decision, whether I’m accepted to 2 or 10). Someone made a gators sign, so I said I was applying to UF (I am) and complemented their huge list of history courses. Then I got the “I bet you get mail from Harvard” and I said “Yeah, but they send that to so many people who score well on tests. They call and email me, too, but that’s just because I’m low income.” “Low income?” “They define it as under $80,000/year.” “Oh, okay. You know, my uncle was the youngest person to get into MIT! He’s still there.” Haha, not sure if that’s true or not, but it diverted the discussion from me.</p>
<p>Nobody has heard of the schools I want to go to, and so after I explain some things about the schools to them, they just look at me weird and stare at me as if I was applying to a community college or somewhere indecent. :(</p>
<p>I usually have awkward moments when people ask me because they usually don’t know of those schools ( no name-brand Ivies for me).</p>
<p>I try to avoid this by instead of naming them directly, I just name the things that they have in common something like:
“I’m looking at a few schools instate and out of state but close by. They are each private, religious schools with a strong program for people who want to study to be teachers…”</p>
<p>That way, I’m telling the truth, and I answered the whole “So why do you want to go there?” question, too.</p>
<p>the kids at my HS are cut throats. Most kids don’t say what their dream schools are because others kids will apply to that school to screw them over. half of my class wants to prove that they are better than everyone else, so why not in college admissions?</p>
<p>There was this one kid who’s dream school was UVA. He was very enthusiastic about telling everyone else about it. As a result, a bunch of other kids applied just so the original guy would be beat by the competition. Sure most of the people who applied did not like him, but it was still a very cut throat thing to do because none of them even wanted to go. They just wanted to mess with the guy.</p>
<p>^That’s really messed up, some kids need to calm down and gain some maturity.</p>
<p>Kids at my school are impressed if you say you’re going to ANY college. The closest college, (45 mins away), is the number one choice for 75% of my grade. It’s extremely unknown out of our state, and not even considered one of the better colleges for our state. They mostly just assume everyone else is going there too, and when I mention that I’m not even applying, they’re appalled.</p>
<p>I’m applying to Penn When I say that, people don’t realize at all what it is and wonder why I wanna go out to Pennsylvania so badly. Of course, I’ve only said it like twice, because I don’t want them all to realize it when I’ve been rejected My school has never, ever, sent a kid to a top private school. About two a year are lucky enough to go to our state’s flagship, UVA. But besides that, no top schools.</p>
<p>I have two top choices, Dartmouth and Cornell. When people ask, I tell them Cornell and it’s not too awkward because everyone has assumed that I would go there since middle school (I come from a “Cornell family”). Now I better get in or else I’ll have some 'splainin to do</p>
When I say that, people don’t realize at all what it is and wonder why I wanna go out to Pennsylvania so badly. Of course, I’ve only said it like twice, because I don’t want them all to realize it when I’ve been rejected