I'm tired of...

<p>the fact that the majority of my school population only wants to go to local community colleges and state schools (CSUs and UCs). Even the counselors and administrators have this mindset.</p>

<p>Anyone else attend a mediocre school where most students are like this? Please share your thoughts.</p>

<p>So what? Who cares where someone else wants to go…</p>

<p>It’s just that it’s a downer when one person wants to strive for more whereas others around him or her don’t feel that way.</p>

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Some of the UCs are very good, even by the highest standards.</p>

<p>What do you want to “strive” for?</p>

<p>Top 20 universities, yaknow. Ivy. HYPSM. </p>

<p>And those UCs that you are probably referring to as very good, i.e. Berkeley and LA, are really easy to get into if you’re in-state so there’s really not much to strive for.</p>

<p>For some kids that is the best that they can do. With 2.0 or lower where do you expect most kids to go?</p>

<p>Remember that the majority of highschools are not filled with kids who have 3.5, 4.0’s 4.1’s or whatever. Some keeds get like 1000’s on their SAT’s. That is the majority of kids in reg public high schools. So administrartos tend to not think of sending kids to better places because they can not go to better places.</p>

<p>My school is semi like that. You have the kids with a 4.0 then kids with like a 1.0. Some people just do not care, and if the people who do not care are the majority then administrators will not seek for anything higher from their students and it is sad. In my case it means that they put less effort into stuff when they are helping you get into college.</p>

<p>Yes! I know exactly how you feel! My school is the exact same way, everyone plans on attending community college/ state schools, and our counselors encourage it. If you even think of doing more than that, they all look at you like you’re insane. It’s ridiculous… I just want out of there.</p>

<p>Yeah. And there’s nothing wrong with starting at a CC either.</p>

<p>I don’t really see how other people going to “lesser” schools affects what you want to strive for, sorry.</p>

<p>And Top 20? I hate rankings sososo much.</p>

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<p>If you couldn’t understand what I had just said, I obviously feel lonely since I have different goals from what the majority of my peers have. I was never even talking about my path towards my goals. I was talking about my feelings and opinions toward the attitude of my school and how it saddens me that there are not others who share the same aspirations as I do.</p>

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<p>Yeah, the “insane” look part…that hits so close to home.</p>

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Yeah… <em>muffled laughter</em>… you’re right, they don’t have the proper goals. You totally do, though.</p>

<p>Nice job, by the way. The oft-worshiped number of this website is generally 25, but you drew the line right above UCB.</p>

<p>^ same here. They laugh and then smile and then say suuuuurrrreee.
Then they turn around and ignore the fact that you just told them about the great things you want to do with your life.</p>

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<p>The top 20 schools are vastly more difficult to gain admission into than even UC Berkeley, as an in-stater. Thus, one must strive more when applying to the previous type of schools compared to the latter.</p>

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<p>Yes this is exactly what I’m talking about. BillyMC and sophistry, how is it okay that people like me who want to do greater things to gain acceptance into extremely selective schools must be jeered at whereas we ourselves cannot criticize those who settle for less, for schools that require significantly less selection during the admissions process?</p>

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I understand that. But the world will not end if you don’t end up at Hahvahd or another Ivy. (Which are all quite different from each other, btw) I was getting a very pretentious vibe from your posts. (If you couldn’t understand ;))</p>

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<p>Um, are you serious? #21 is Georgetown, not UCB, everyone knows that. And seriously, what would happen if the OP ended up somewhere like CMU, number 23??? omg. -_-</p>

<p>blackrose and truegrit just summed it up perfectly</p>

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Because you make it sound like you are better than those people. And also because you rely on rankings wayyy to much.</p>

<p>I just want to challenge myself and not settle for less, that’s all. My stats already exceed those of even the top state flagships like UCB…what is so wrong with wanting more?</p>

<p>And I’m not trying to make everything about rankings. I just threw out rankings as an example. What I was trying to say, in regards to rankings, are the schools like are super duper competitive, you know. I’m not all about rankings either, in fact I’m only applying to half of the top 20s - not Yale, Dartmouth, UPenn, Brown, UChic, Duke.</p>

<p>^Oh, nothing at all. That’s not what I was saying.</p>

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Why? Regardless of if you’re in-state or out-of-state, you still get an excellent education. But because it’s easier to get in as an in-state student, it’s somehow inferior? How is your education impacted? Or is it your pride, knowing that some of the students you feel are beneath you also want to go there?</p>

<p>The only thing I see as more illogical than this website’s fixation with the Ivy League Sports Conference is this “HYPSM” thing, where so many people believe these are exclusively the best schools. Further, the money-making “rankings” of the US News company have become holy texts or maps of life for some people. If the methodology was so perfect, why would they change the methodology every year? They come up with the top lists first, then come up with a methodology around it (note how this past year, they screwed up with Stanford, “corrected it”, then left it as a large hole in their rankings).</p>

<p>Stuff like this just looks like the rat race on steroids.</p>