<p>A while ago I accidentally found myself browsing CC's forums for top notch universities and as I was doing it I felt depressed; more specifically, I felt average, unexceptional, unimportant, hopelessly unmotivated and vanquished. Is this feeling normal?</p>
<p>After reading CC? Yes.</p>
<p>why are you crying?</p>
<p>There’s always going to be a “better” school. Either by your standards or someone else’s.</p>
<p>if you went to HYPSM, you’d have oxbridge “beating” you. if you went to one of those schools, you’d have the person who’s top of the class beating you. if you were the top of the class at oxbridge, you’d have no life and be miserable anyway. life just sucks, doesn’t it?</p>
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<p>That makes me feel pretty good actually Senator Noodles =). I guess inevitably all of us are capable of achieving more, but really as mere children, we are incapable of understanding our true potential - yet.</p>
<p>Just focus on how you’re going to use your degree. I know how you feel. I feel the exact same way when I read the majority of the post here on CC, but I really do like the program at the school I’m going to even if it’s “just a state school” or whatever. It doesn’t matter. Make the most of what you have!</p>
<p>Wow, bronson… talk about overreacting.</p>
<p>Just think that the college you’re going to right now is a very special place where you will be able to thrive, meet great people, and be prepared for life.</p>
<p>So what if you didn’t get into Harvard or whatever. You don’t kow if you would have thrived there, met the kinds of awesome people you met at the college you’re at now, and been prepared. You might’ve just been barely getting by and been miserable.</p>
<p>yeah after reading CC, i felt depress as well and useless in the world. but oh well, I’ll just do better somehow.</p>
<p>I’m going to UW Madison next year!!! Haha… suck it!!! you should all be jealous of me!</p>
<p>Remember that it’s never the college that makes the person. Rather its the people that make the college. They teach the same physics, math, and history at HYPSM as they do at a state school. It’s always what a student makes of it. Work hard and make the most out of where you are right now and I’m sure you will be fine.</p>
<p>“They teach the same physics, math, and history at HYPSM as they do at a state school.”</p>
<p>That’s not true. The same courses at state schools tend to be watered down and the professors are usually not as good.</p>
<p>And it makes not one bit of difference where you go to undergrad once you are out in the real world. To get a job you are asked what your degree is not where you got it.</p>
<p>“And it makes not one bit of difference where you go to undergrad once you are out in the real world.”</p>
<p>I wonder if you actually believe that</p>
<p>^ I wouldn’t say that it makes NO difference… but really, it doesn’t matter that much at all, especially in 5-10 years.</p>
<p>The problem with you is that you’ve been exposed to all of that Ivy League hype, AND you’ve let it get to you. You’ve let other people’s opinions make you miserable.</p>
<p>It’s pathetic.</p>
<p>What panic said. It generally does not make a difference. Is it generally easier to get connections in big, high-paying companies if you go to HYPSM? Sure. But you can still get good jobs with a degree from any accredited school.</p>
<p>One day I think you’ll have a revelation that money is NOT everything. When you realize that, you’ll be fine with the school you go to. You don’t need a HYPSM degree to be happy in life. And yeah, after your first or second job, where you went to college really doesn’t matter. Where you’ve worked and how well you did your job matters.</p>
<p>Why don’t you do super well at your undergrad and go HYPSM for grad school, if it’s really that important to you?</p>
<p>Do you realize that no one gives a crap about college admissions or selectivity outside of college confidential? Ask the average college kid what their school is ranked - chances are, they won’t know. They might be able to say “tier 1” or “top 40” or something. the only people that really care about how selective a college is are people who go to or went to selective colleges. That’s why i think it’s funny when people (in real life and on CC) say stuff like “Yeah, I go to ___ and it’s a top 10 LAC…” Chances are most people still haven’t heard of it, and really don’t give a crap. do you think the average person distinguishes UPenn from Penn state? no, and no one cares. </p>
<p>I completely understand wanting to go to a good college, but i think you’re taking the idea overboard. you need to chill a little…college is about having fun and making friends while also getting a degree.</p>
<p>I’d definitely say the sciences are more challenging at the top ranked schools. I doubt that if I were at MIT, Caltech, Chicago or the like, I’d be taught to ignore all but 1 oxidation state for specific elements of Chemistry, or that I’d be taught in physics that I should ignore particulars of particle physics because it won’t be on the exam, and is therefore unimportant.</p>