<p>Because society has conditioned you to believe that the prestige of an undergrad college actually has some type of real impact on whether or not you can be considered “successful” in life. Surely the only people that have ever lived happy, successful lives are the people that got into Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford and MIT…right? Everyone else lives a life full of misery and poverty.</p>
<p>Seriously though…it doesn’t matter. I don’t know what your plans are…but if grad school is in your future, it doesn’t make a difference. People are going to see your grad school degree and typically not even really care where you did your undergrad. There are hundreds, if not thousands of colleges in this country in which you would be able to get a very solid education. There is nothing to be ashamed of by going to a state school. I used to be dead set on trying to transfer from my CC to UChicago. Because it was a “top” school. I still plan on applying there…but I don’t know if I’d go even if I did get accepted. I’ve researched a lot more…and I’ve found that U of I Urbana-Champaign would most likely be a better fit for me, because they have a far more flexible curriculum with wider options in the fields I’m interested in. Even though UIUC is just a crappy state school (intense sarcasm there), I think it’s where I’d prefer to go.</p>