<p>This is a doozie. Entire college decisions may be changed after reading. You have been warned.</p>
<p>You ready? Here it goes;</p>
<p>EVERY COLLEGE HAS SMART PEOPLE IN IT.</p>
<p>Got that? Yep. You read that right. Every. Single. College, will have motivated, intelligent and thoughtful students eager to prove themselves to the world and their peers that he/she can make something out of him/herself.</p>
<p>A shocking fact I know, but based on the borderline deadly competition to get into college our generations face, it seems that students need a little bit of a wake up call to this surprisingly overlooked little fact that has dictated the course of many students lives in quite possibly more ways than they can even hope to imagine.</p>
<p>How did I come across this extremely confidential information? I looked it up on Wikipedia; where college is explicitly defined as "An Institution of HIGHER LEARNING." You see those last two words? Higher and Learning? That means that anyone who attends a college, whether it be Harvard University or that crappy community college 3 blocks away, is seeking further knowledge about the world. About themselves. About the wonderful world we live in. Those who go to college are there because they want to be there. Some may start more motivated than others, others may have had their parents force them to enroll. But ultimately, college is meant to be a period of life where the world becomes your oyster; where restrictions are limited and chances to improve yourself potentially infinite.</p>
<p>Intelligence cannot be attached to the names given to a series of buildings on a campus; rather, I believe it should be attributed to an individual's desire for knowledge, and they lengths that he/she is willing to go to obtain such knowledge, to be used in whatever way he/she may see fit.</p>
<p>So the next time you look down on that kid who has to go to community college instead of the big private university he initially got into, think of how much more motivated he will be when he leaves with twice the motivation to prove himself to you, and with half the debt to boot.</p>
<p>Or the next time you make fun of dreamer with bad grades who only got into his last-choice safety school, pause and simply consider that you do not know what caused such bad grades; whether it may be depression, familial issues, disabilites or some other form of adversity, and perhaps more importantly, how far he will go in a new environment.</p>
<p>People go through ups and downs all the time in their lives. Many highly motivated and intelligent students simply don't unlock or realize their full potential in high school. Some don't even do it in college. But its whenever those gears start to turn in your head that you can choose to do something with yourself; regardless of whether your admitted college has an acceptance rate of 7% or 107%.</p>
<p>Again, for some, this may seem like trivial information, or words that you have heard before, but in an era where students are physically, mentally and spiritually killing themselves to get into a stellar university, it certainly helps to have a wake up call.</p>
<p>Most people in America do not attend Ivy League Schools. Hell, most probably won't crack the top 50 schools in America. But this does not mean there are stupid people at those 2000+ other universities out there to explore, rather, they simply may be taking a different approach.</p>
<p>So for all of those who get rejection letters, or only get into your second or third choice for a university, or even simply don't even get to go to college, I'll just tell you right now, it's OK.</p>
<p>You will live your life to the fullest whenever you choose to start doing so. The name on the sweater you wear is irrelevant.</p>
<p>Just something to consider :)</p>