How did you guys pick a "dream school?"

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

<p>Well I look around and I talk to people and I hear about their "dream school." The one that would crush their very soul if they weren't accepted to. So I just want to know, what is your dream school and why? Is it;
-the campus?
-tuition/scholarships?
-location?
-weigh certain things less/more in admission? (ECs/standardized tests for example)</p>

<p>or <em>gasp</em> the prestige? oh, the horror</p>

<p>Me, I have no idea where or what my dream school is. All I know for certain is that I want to stay on the West coast...</p>

2

<p>I looked at the US News College Ranking list, saw #1, and BAM!! Instant love.</p>

3

<p>That made me laugh ^</p>

<p>For me I visited UCLA love at first sight but I didn’t apply for financial and other reasons.</p>

4

<p>Lol honestly I don’t remember…</p>

5

<p>Visited campus</p>

6

<p>Columbia <3 because of the location, the core, so many reasons. I want to be in a city on the east coast, and it’s near my grandparents and my cousins, while still a new city than my home. It has awesome professors, cultural opportunities, a great mix of liberal arts and amazing research opportunities. Great offerings in terms of my wants for majors, minors, ECs, etc. ahhhh definitely my dream</p>

7

<p>I visited. I felt like it was a far enough distance from home and it fit my major perfectly. </p>

<p>Sent from my LG-VM696 using CC</p>

8

<p>For heaven’s sake, if you don’t have one, don’t go looking for one! There is nothing more detrimental to a college search than a “dream school”. It keeps you from taking a clear eyed look at a range of schools (reach/match/safety) that you need to have in order to make sure you have good choices when May 1 rolls around. “Dream schools” often aren’t affordable as well. And most of them are very hard to get into – if you are too invested, it hurts a whole lot when you don’t get in. And that hurt can come at a bad time, when you are trying to get applications for other schools done (if you applied to “the dreamy one” EA or ED). Go ahead and have a couple of reaches. But focus a LOT more on finding matches and a couple of safeties you would be happy to attend – because the odds are high that you will end up there.</p>

9

<p>It was everything I wanted in a college, it just happened to be extremely selective…
The things I was looking for was

  • LAC close to a big city
  • High medical school acceptance rate
  • “Nerdy” environment
  • Great financial aid
  • A love of learning
    That being said, something just clicked when I visited my dream school, and I was like “this is the perfect place for me!”</p>
10

<p>I visited Caltech and, after an information session, fell in love.</p>

<p>You’ll know when you’re there. You can feel it. That’s why it helps to visit the campus. :)</p>

11

<p>You don’t choose the dream school…the dream school chooses you.</p>

12

<p>All my cousins this point have all been to UC colleges (LA,SD,Davis,Irvine,Riverside) and I lived on campus for a day (Usually the last day before break) and went down there and stuff. UCSD really stood out to me because it’s a wonderful place, it looks awesome. The weather is nice, it’s just all around perfect.</p>

13

<p>^^Evident by the hundreds of kids that get denied by their dream schools? lol</p>

14

<p>I looked at a college that defined who I was now and who/where I want to be. There are some colleges on my list that I feel will hinder me from getting to my greatest potential, so I weeded them out. I got into my dream school, now time to study!</p>

15

<p>I don’t really have one. None of the places I have any chance of getting into particularly thrill me.</p>

16

<p>@Follow The heart can’t always get what the heart wants.</p>

17

<p>Niquii77 has it right - you don’t choose a dream school any more than you choose your soulmate. You discover it, when you visit, and you know it’s where you want to spend the next 4 years of your life. Those who claim to have several dream schools are infatuated, not in love, and there’s a big difference. You can read about a school, and really want to attend, but that’s not a true dream school either. A dream school is one where you love almost everything, and are more than willing to put up with its “warts” to benefit from the rest. It’s the one where your stomach is in knots opening your acceptance letter, because you’re so afraid your love didn’t show through in your application.</p>

18

<p>Basically I want to get into Purdue which is my dream school. I been denied from a major but I’m not sure it they will accept my reconsideration they offered me. It have not hindered me from applying to necessary colleges. I think as Purdue as my dream school because I’m basically smart enough to get into Purdue but not smart enough to get into anyone above Purdue.</p>

<p>Sent from my LG-VM696 using CC</p>

19

<p>I actually found my dream school unintentionally… I went to see duke which I thought was my dream school, and didn’t realize it wasn’t the place for me until I fell in love with unc chapel hill after only having spent a half hour there… When you’re at the right place you just know</p>

20

<p>For me, it was just a feeling… I went on campus and I knew that it was perfect like the atmosphere, the people the town. That was the first thing, then after I loved the campus i looked into my major and found out that Pace is 1 of 10 schools in the country with TeachLive and they start student observations and teaching in your sophomore year as opposed to the second semester of your junior year, then it was job placement, with education being a tough major to find work in, I was happy to see that pace is able to successfully place 85% of education majors, and they have an inner city initiative. </p>

<p>After my major, I looked into demographics and found that unlike many other schools I had beem looking af pace ( in westchester btw) was very diverse with 11% of the student body being.Hispanic which was a HUGE plus for me, because having other people from my background waa important.</p>