<p>The two most difficult schools that I've applied to are Brown and Duke, and the past couple of days I've been a little bit remorseful that I didn't apply to schools like Harvard/Yale/Princeton.....I really like Brown and Duke, but I'm just worried that I won't get as much financial aid from them and that maybe I should have reached a little higher....I dunno, anyone want to offer a little bit of reassurance? I know I shouldn't loom over the past and that it's too late and everything and that by thinking negatively about all of this I'm not really doing myself a favor, but has anyone else had this kind of remorse?</p>
<p>The only way not to second-guess yourself about applications is to aggressively avoid thinking about them. Really, don’t worry about it.</p>
<p>And you don’t need to “aim higher” than Brown and Duke; any Ivy League school is, IMO, very much good enough.</p>
<p>It could be worse. My cousin was accepted to Dartmouth ED and ED to MIT. She’s a terrific candidate with everything schools seem to be looking for. I encouraged her to not apply ED and wait to apply to Harvard and Princeton RD, but she kept saying that she could never get into those schools. Now she knows I was correct but she can’t apply to Harvard and Princeton now. She has to go to Dartmouth. That’s a good result but she definitely has remorse.</p>
<p>Took a quick look at your stats in past posts. If your score remained at 2010, Brown and Duke are already pretty big reaches and HYP would have been highly unlikely.</p>
<p>couldn’t you send in your applications and see if they accept them</p>
<p>OP: What you’re feeling is normal. Whenever you make a big decision, like where to apply for college, it’s natural to wonder what would have happened if you’d chosen a different course. But you’re right, it’s not doing you any good either. Just keep reminding yourself that you had good reasons for the choices you made.</p>
<p>hmom5:</p>
<p>Both my scores and GPA have gone up since last posting a “Chance me” thread. I’ve decided not to post any more “chance me” threads mainly because CC people tend to be overly obsessed with SATs (hence why I was asking about remorse and not asking people to chance me for Duke or Brown)…they really aren’t everything. I will note, however, that I am in the middle of the middle 50 percentile for SATs at both Duke and Brown…I’m currently in competition for the Jefferson Scholarship at UVA and the President’s Scholarship at Georgia Tech…don’t mean to sound overly-defensive or pompous, but scores aren’t everything; when you have 20,000 well-qualified applicants, they’re going to look more at what you’ve actually done…there have people with 2400 on the SAT who were rejected from Duke ED this year and people with sub 2000 (and not URM) who were accepted.</p>
<p>But yea, to everyone else, it’s comforting that other people have gone through what I’m going through haha</p>
<p>Thanks mttyler, having worked in ivy admissions, I do have some insight in what is being looked for. </p>
<p>I would agree that remorse is common. But there’s no use worrying about things you can’t change. Brown, Duke, UVA, etc. are great schools. Good luck!</p>
<p>YESSSSS
I did. a lot. not because of aiming higher but because i chose all urban schools with big campuses. Maybe i’d be happier in the middle of nowhere with a tight-knit community? Ahhhh the questions I’ll never be able to know the answers to…</p>
<p>Thanks (and again, sorry about sounding a little bit defensive haha)</p>
<p>Apart from you people on this thread, no one else* in the entire galaxy ever feels any anxiety about the college admissions process, which is renowned as the absolute least stressful part of a high school student’s life.</p>
<p>Granted, by “no one else” I mean “almost everyone”.</p>
<p>“This too shall pass”</p>
<p>I sympathize mttyler7, but my remorse is active. I have applied to about 6-7 top tiers, and a whooole bunch of others, including some Jesuits I am considering, but I continue to apply to more (that have later deadlines). I have definite financial need, and want to go into an international field after graduation/law school without looming debt. so the madness continues. . . .</p>
<p>
Don’t kid yourself, except for the lacrosse team (and other majorly hooked applicants) this is absolutely false. Do you really think it’s a coincidence that you, someone with a low score/high GPA, is one of the few people who see the “truth” that scores don’t really matter that much? You’re just trying to trick yourself into believing that that’s true in order to comfort yourself. But w/e.</p>
<p>My SAT’s are good and my GPA is just a little better than cripplingly bad, and I would gladly trade 300 points of my SAT for a .3 addition to my GPA.</p>
<p>^I think that most can agree with that :)</p>
<p>To the OP, yes, there are cases. I applied to 30 schools and am still a little bummed out that I did not apply to Michigan or U Chicago. I love both schools, but in the end I realized that it was not economically feasible to go to either for an undergraduate education (but both are high on my list of JD/MBA picks :)).</p>
<p>So, you know you applied to schools you like, so that’s waht really matters in the end. If you really want a cheaper school, that what your local CC is for.</p>
<p>It’s human nature to think “I should have done xyz.”
However, applications at Brown rose 20% this year, to almost 30,000. Duke also saw a substantial rise to almost 27,000.
It is going to be a very disappointing admissions cycle for thousands of qualified applicants. I’m not sure “remorse” is the right perspective. An applicant in the middle of the pack who gains acceptance to either of these schools should be grateful.</p>
<p>
Yep! Every time you accept / turn down a job, buy / don’t buy a house or car, you may feel this way. You have to make SOME decision and move on. Good luck!</p>
<p>The “What If” path is the worst road to be on IMO.
I guess now I understand why some people apply to everywhere. (15+ schools.)
If you apply to a lot of different places you probably wouldn’t be regretful, right?
Ugh. Its just so darn expensive to apply everywhere.</p>
<p>Yeah, i feel the same way. I really wish I applied to a few other schools that I’ve always wanted to apply to but my parents thought it’d be stupid. :/</p>