At the convocation for freshman of the School of Computer Science class at Carnegie Mellon the Dean asked for a show of hands for who had applied to MIT as their first choice. It seemed like the entire audience had their hands raised. That really brought home to me that this was a class full of people who thought they were good enough for MIT and there just hadn’t been room for them all. Then the Dean gave a pep talk about what it’s like being number two - and how they try harder because they can’t rest on their laurels. All I know is four years later, our kid had his dream job, loved his college experience and made life long friends. I think that all could have happened at his first choice as well, but it’s hard to imagine him having a better experience than the one he did have.