<p>Do you know anyone who's very smart at school, but made really stupid mistakes?</p>
<p>Recently, my friends told me that a girl from our school who went to Wellesley last year transferred out because she found out Wellesley didn't have sororities. Seriously, that is one of the easiest things to look up when you're researching colleges. She was smart enough to get in, everyone thought it was funny that she wasn't smart enough to do research on colleges.</p>
<p>one of my friends who was my high school's valedictorian w/ a 1550+ SAT (clearly top-5 school student) ended up at a school (i'm try to keep the name out) ranked between 35-45 because at the time of applying, his girlfriend lived in the city that this particular college was. </p>
<p>They broke up over the summer. Sucks for him.</p>
<p>This one kid at my high school rushed to graduate a year early. Now, he's going to Cabrini.</p>
<p>If he waited a year, he could have gone to a much better school...</p>
<p>A girl in our school, actually are saluditorian, was a very smart girl, but she had her heart set on going to Princeton all her life. So when she applied, she only applied to six colleges: Princeton ED, Columbia, NYU, Lehigh, TCNJ, and Stevens. She ended up getting deferred and rejected from P-ton, waitlisted at Lehigh and accepted everywhere else. So when she ultimately chose to go to Stevens out of her choices of Columbia, NYU, TCNJ, and Stevens, people were all whispering about, "What were you thinking?!?!?!?!?!?". So, hmmm, how could you pass up Ivy League or NYU or best public school in NJ for a somewhere ranked 40's/50's school, and nobody ever got it. Though I'm not knocking Stevens nonetheless being perhaps top 5/6/7 tech schools in the nation. Though many of us think she her ego was cracked when she got rejected from her dream school.</p>
<p>One of the stars of the last senior class made the horrendous mistake of applying to ONLY Ivies...plus the University of Chicago. She was rejected from Princeton, Yale, UPenn and Columbia - and waitlisted at Harvard b/f ultimately being rejected - and accepted at UofChicago. She ended up going to University of Chicago (did she have a choice? LOL), but I think might have been happier at a place like Swarthmore or Amherst...too bad she didn't think about all of the other great options besides Ivies out there.</p>
<p>Someone at my school got into Harvard for football (and got scholarships, don't listen to Ivies who say they don't give money like this). He decided to give up Harvard + a lot of money for Texas A&M. ***</p>
<p>so a girl in my school turned down columbia, dartmouth, brown, and duke for swarthmore</p>
<p>That's not that stupid</p>
<p>Don't you think they are only stupid decisions if the student ultimately is not happy at the "lesser" schools? Many posts after the first one are judgement calls-- describing how "stupid" the choices were FOR SOMEONE ELSE;but the person making the choice may have made the best decision for THEM, and they may be far happier at their first choice school. Just because someone else things the choice was stupid, does not make it a stupid choice. (Now, not researching sororities--that is a bit dumb.)</p>
<p>Kid in my high school chose NYU over Northwestern because he wanted to be in the "city," even though he never visited. HATED it when he got there, luckily he transferred into Cornell the next year.</p>
<p>Yeah, I think the Swarthmore decision was a good one, I mean after all it's in the triumvirate of LAC's with Amherst and Williams. Also, out of those five I think I would have also done that decision with scattered thoughts about Columbia.</p>
<p>Also, with the girl I was talking about before, I merely think she made her "dumb" decision b/c I think she would rather be the big fish in a small pond than the small fish in the big lake.</p>
<p>I wouldn't say these are "stupid" decisions, as I don't know all the factors involved, but I am puzzling over these two - </p>
<ol>
<li><p>Girl in top 5% of her class in science and technology magnet program applied ED and will be attending Florida Atlantic Univeristy. I believe she wants to be near the beach.</p></li>
<li><p>Girl turned down good schools and scholarships to go to a lesser state university because it has the sorority for which she is a legacy.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>But what interests me in a college doesn't necessarily interest someone else.</p>
<p>Here are some of mine:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Boy who was crazy to get into Notre Dame gets in and then, over Winter Break, tells me he's unhappy there. "The place is almost all Catholics!!" he says.</p></li>
<li><p>Many, many instances of the "follow the boyfriend/girfriend" syndrome.</p></li>
<li><p>Girl gets rejected from Williams College. "But my ancestor founded the school," she wails. "Did you tell Williams that?" I ask. "No," says she. "Was I supposed to?"</p></li>
<li><p>Girl goes to Antioch College. Can't understand why she's the only Republican for miles around. Transfers to New School. Seriously.</p></li>
<li><p>Girl comes home from U of Oklahoma and tells her mother, "I hate it there. All anyone does is talk football."</p></li>
<li><p>Boy goes to U Texas Austin. There are 50,000 students. Can't understand why he gets treated like a number.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>That was just a few.</p>
<p>Girl I know turned down Dartmouth, Columbia, MIT for a second-tier LAC, because it's the less mainstream decision.</p>
<p>Applying ED to WashU when she was val, and competitive at Ivies. Loved the school but probably could have gotten at least some merit aid RD but is now paying full tuition.</p>
<p>sal. at my h.s. only applied to Stanford ED (at the time it was ED not SCEA), Harvard, and his backup was Claremont McKenna because his brother student body president there and when his brother graduated from our school he was barely in the top 10% so the sal in my class thought he was a shoo-in...ended up getting rejected by all three and had to apply over the summer to our state school (Arizona State).</p>
<p>my friend chose nyu over stern lol Just kidding</p>
<p>turning down a higher ranked school for another isnt always a stupid decision... i turned down some better known schools for my school because i thought i'd be happier there, and didnt regret it</p>
<p>Val of S's class applied to 2 expensive privates and several state u's. Merit aid was important (both parents school teachers). Was admitted to all and decided to go to expensive private. Val and parents were shocked and dismayed when she got very little merit $ from the school. Her SAT was low by Val standards but they had never checked to see what the minimum SAT score to qualify for merit $ was. They just assumed that since she was a val. the offers of merit $ would pour in. She transferred after one semester to a state u.</p>
<p>My friend's first stupid decision is to get engaged to someone after knowing them for only a few months (they met the summer before senior year). Her second stupid decision is to get married the summer between senior year and college. Her third stupid decision is to give up Georgetown SFS (and she wants to go into international relations) for a Boston school to live with her new husband.</p>