<p>“This is why I am considering the highest-ranking schools in the first place.”</p>
<p>Be sure that it’s your ranking for your purposes and not some magazine editor’s.</p>
<p>“Not matter where you go, the experience will be what you make of it.”</p>
<p>Yes, but each school has its upper limit of the experience it can provide.</p>
<p>alright, stop pretending all schools are equal pierre. stop comparing UGA to MIT. stop trying to make yourself feel better about not being top school material.</p>
<p>I’m not comparing UGA to MIT…I’m just telling the OP that there is nothing wrong with attending a school that is not among the top schools in the country especially when her real plans are graduate school</p>
<p>You also want to factor in your college experience. Someone said that Duke is arguably better than Brown; I beg to differ. Not only does Brown have a great quality of life + social life, it also boasts the Open Curriculum. Personally, that is single most important reason that I want to go to Brown. With OC, I can explore ALL of my interests (be it film, music, polisci, english, whatever) and not be penalized with some Core or Distribution Requirements.</p>
<p>Just a thought.</p>
<p>OP, your original post seems to scream LAC</p>
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<p>I agree that top-ranked schools can be a Good Thing, but you are getting carried away here. Linus Pauling went to Oregon State and James Watson went to grad school at Indiana, and they’ve got three Nobel Prizes between the two of them. </p>
<p>You can find plenty of academic challenge, probably more than you care to handle at any decent first or even second tier university. Not all the smart kids go to the Ivy League. It is likely that pretty much any university has a surprising number of kids who can kick your butt academically. The proportion of very smart kids is probably higher at a top school, but there are still plenty to go around at the other schools too.</p>
<p>To OP</p>
<p>Well don’t overwork yourself where your health takes a toll etc… if everything seems fine from there ( and your likely please/ happy) than likely at the moment everything your doing is right… the right approach to your goal/ Ivy League degree. </p>
<p>I myself is having a hard time as if I’m taking 16 classes a day, this is all due to my allergy I’ve had for years ( likely since birth) and ignored it ( didn’t know was due to allergies)… and now have only followed with other health complications. I’m likely back to the road of better health, though I guess you can say much issues were a result when speaking of my academics. So I’m now putting more interest in my backup universities ( ASU, UofA, UC-Boulder, etc…). So reguardless of not going to a Ivy League, you still can have a bright/ just as great of a future ahead etc…</p>