<p>I'd love to see you do that, willywonka (and I'm being serious). I agree with you that these boards have an Ivy-mania complex =) </p>
<p>What I don't like is the notion that rejecting an Ivy is always the "admirable" choice because one is more enlightened than the Ivy-bound "prestige-whores." </p>
<p>I can understand that people who turn down popular schools feel the need to justify themselves (hell, I've been getting crap for considering Yale over Harvard!), but there are a million valid reasons that one might value an Ivy eduation as well. As you've demonstrated, different schools fit different people for different reasons.</p>
<p>"What I don't like is the notion that rejecting an Ivy is always the "admirable" choice because one is more enlightened than the Ivy-bound "prestige-whores." "</p>
<p>I'm going to NYU and it doesnt matter what I turned down because ranks are changing so fast that who the hell knows what which education is gonna be worth in 10 years... because yes, some of us will still be in school then hahaha.</p>
<p>That's a good point, actually. 10 years from now, who knows what will happen to the rankings? Maybe we'll all luck out and USNews will go out of business and we'll be able to choose schools based on desire again.</p>
<p>I turned down Dartmouth for a combined medical program at Rice University (and Baylor College of Medicine). But if I hadn't gotten into Rice (which is a fairly prestigious school, albeit not ivy league), I probably would have turned down Dartmouth for a combined medical program at the University of Rochester, which is a bit of an "unknown." A bunch of students in the multiple degree forums are going through the same dilmena - prestigious ivy league school or less prestigious school with combined medical program (the programs are guaranteed acceptance into a medical school + undergrad, straight out of high school). </p>
<p>So there's an instance in which one might turn down a prestigious school.</p>
<p>I am turning down Yale and Duke for a Robertson Scholarship at UNC Chapel Hill. The Robertson is similar to the Morehead, but differs in subtle ways (i.e. $4,000 for one summer of community service in the Southeastern United States and $6,000 for two other summers of community service anywhere in the world).</p>
<p>three of my guy friends are turning down cornell, caltech, and stanford respectively for UMD with scholarship, mainly because of money issues. although they do say that "it's grad school that matters most, anyways!"</p>
<p>I turned down the business schools at BC, Villanova, and BU Honors to go to Fordham, mostly because of money and also because I really liked Fordham.</p>
<p>Plus, I hope to kick butt there, get some good internships so I can get a good job and go to a more prestigious grad school</p>
<p>I have rejected Cornell university, NYU and Stevens Inst of Tech. The main reason was money - I didn't want to take a loan. I will go to CUNY: The City College of New York - and I like it.</p>
<p>i turned down yale,princeton and mit for harvard. although harvard is somewhat of a TTT(third tier trash), Boston just appealed to me way more than the other 3 mega-elites. I hope i'll be able to get a job after college.</p>