<p>Hi, I'm Shannon from California. This may seem like a fairly trivial thread to some, but I am truly wondering. How is it that one develops a love for that ubiquitous yet intangible "dream school"? As a rising senior, I'm already beginning the long trek through deciding where to invest the next four years of my life and school. Georgetown is a rather viable option academically, but I don't know if I'm yet enamored. I've only visited a few colleges and they all seem rather beautiful. I'm not extremely picky about programs because I don't have my mind made up on that either (go figure).</p>
<p>So, for those who knew from the start, what is/was it about Georgetown that so captured your attention? And for those who came to love it later, what was the turning point for you?</p>
<p>I'm kind of banking on loving the school that decides it wants to accept me.</p>
<p>Thank you!</p>
<p>For me, Stanford was always my dream school. I’m from the West Coast, I love San Francisco, and there was just something about Stanford since I was young that made Stanford MY school. I applied EA, got rejected, and was literally heartbroken for weeks over it. I hadn’t even applied to any other schools because I hadn’t wanted to think there was another possibility. But I sucked it up and realized I needed to apply elsewhere. I’m attending GU next year and seriously couldn’t be happier. I’m studying government, so that was a huge draw for me being that I’ll be living in DC. You said you’re not sure what you want to do, but GU excels in so many areas that it really doesn’t matter what you end up deciding. Another thing that appealed to me at GU as opposed to schools like the Ivies was that kids at Georgetown have social lives living in an amazing city like Washington, DC. They can root for the basketball team, explore a great social scene, etc.- all while getting a wonderful education. I’d personally much rather live in DC than Hanover or Ithaca. (As you can probably tell, I’m really excited about this whole DC thing.) Just being a part of the Class of 2015 group on Facebook has made me realize the people are real people, who of course are good students but they have varied interests, come from all over the world, and are planning on enjoying four years of college. I have no idea if that was any help at all, but my real advice- don’t get hung up on any dream school type of stuff. Apply, get accepted/rejected, and then when you have all your options in front of you- decide what’s best :)</p>