<p>I just wanted to thank you guys for your comments in my thread about being rejected from everywhere except Cornell and Cal. I was very upset at the time, and frankly, the absolute worst thing anyone could have done would have been to agree with me. I'm really glad people chose to so spiritedly defend Cornell. Deep down, that was all I really wanted anyway, since Cornell and Cal were all I had and I felt quite inferior because of this.</p>
<p>March 29th was a huge day for me. The whole Ivy League + Duke/Berkeley released decisions that day. I had been waiting for that moment for years, and I was fairly confident that I would get accepted to at least five out of the ten. I had a large group of friends gathered around as me as I opened my decisions after school. I nervously accessed Princeton's notification page and typed in my password. I had been a SCEA applicant who had been emotionally crushed by deferral three-and-a-half months earlier. I could feel I was going to be rejected. Still, I got my hopes up slightly. Sure enough, I was rejected. I felt rather numb, in contrast to the acute devastation from the deferral. </p>
<p>Next up was Columbia. I hadn't loved Columbia the same way I had Princeton, but it was still undeniably a top school. Nevertheless, when I was writing my "Why Columbia" essays a couple of days before the deadline, I realized that there really were no reasons for me to go to Columbia other than New York City and its high US News rank. And so I had simply written satire for my essays in an attempt to stand out. Somewhat predictably, I was rejected. It didn't bother me much since I had kind of anticipated it. In retrospect, writing satire wasn't the brightest idea, but it was worth a shot.</p>
<p>Next up came the University of Pennsylvania. Penn never really clicked for me the way Princeton seemed to. Really, I was intrigued by the heavy recruiting investment banks did at Wharton, and I felt the management skills would help me for the rest of my life. Still, Wharton did seem somewhat redundant were I to pursue an MBA. I wanted to go to Wharton mainly for my career, and not for my personal happiness. In fact, I knew that I likely wouldn't get along well with Wharton students. They seemed a little too smarmy, a little too arrogant, a little too greedy, a little too cutthroat. It didn't feel like it would be a genuine intellectual experience. I was rejected. My heart rate began to rise. This was the third rejection in a row. In addition, I had been rejected from Northwestern and waitlisted at Chicago the week prior, much to my dismay.</p>
<p>I had never been a fan of Dartmouth. I opened the page, and just looking at the picture gave me a rather uncomfortable feeling. Hanover, New Hampshire simply was not a desirable location for me. The college itself just bothered me. It seemed too preppy, too small, too fraternity-based. It didn't really strike me as a diverse place for whatever reason. Like Wharton, I was mainly interested in the banking recruiting. They had never personally offered me an interview; they had a rather pretentious process in which they expected me to drive over an hour on a weeknight to interview in a slot. Not only did this type of interviewing inherently have an impersonal feel, but it wasn't even a personalized E-Mail. It was just sent out to every applicant from Southern California. This just bothered me. It felt like I was being treated like a statistic rather than an actual human. Needless to say, when I was rejected, I didn't care about Dartmouth itself. I cared about the fact that I was 0 for 4.</p>
<p>Harvard had an irksome process in which they released decisions by E-Mail. Mine didn't arrive at 2:00, so I had to attempt to login to their admitted students portal. I couldn't login, so I just assumed I had been rejected. Now I was really starting to get antsy. 0 for 5, and already done at HP. I only had the Y left.</p>
<p>Yale's decision portal crashed, so I couldn't check. My friends and I sat around for ten minutes waiting. I checked Cornell with little enthusiasm. If anything was going to go right for me, surely it would be Cornell. I was confident when checking. After all, people on CollegeConfidential frequently said Cornell was easy to get into. I was almost expecting an acceptance message. I got one. I was briefly excited, but much of my reaction was feigned so that my friends would feel happy for me. People on CollegeConfidential always bashed on Cornell, so it really took away from the feeling of accomplishment I would have otherwise had. I myself liked Cornell. I liked the NorthEastern location, I liked the natural beauty, and I liked the apparent diversity. But still, it was known as the "doormat of the Ivy League." It had accepted 18% of applicants the year prior. It didn't seem as special as a HYP acceptance would have felt.</p>
<p>And so my nerves persisted. I checked Duke at 2:53. The decisions weren't quite up yet, but the page automatically refreshed every second. A former teacher called me over to ask me something (which was very unimportant considering my anxiousness to see my decision). When I got back, someone told me that my decision had loaded. Nobody would tell me what it was, and everyone seemed kind of quiet. I realized it was a rejection. I read the screen just to make sure. How had I been rejected from Duke? Duke rejects Valedictorians with 2300+ scores? It was mind-boggling to me. Chicago/Northwestern/Duke had felt like low matches to me. How had I missed them all?</p>
<p>I was very scared at this point. I only had Yale and Brown left among the Ivies. My friends left since Yale took so long to load. Eventually, I managed to see that I had been rejected. It was kind of expected by this point. And just like that, HYP was gone. The pinnacle of prestige which I had aimed for since day one was no longer within my grasp. I was dejected.</p>
<p>I went home. I checked Cal Berkeley later on that day. I knew that I would get in, and I did. No excitement whatsoever. It had been my safety school, and the prospect of actually attending my safety school felt like the biggest underachievement in my life.</p>
<p>Brown had some idiotic password recovery system, so I couldn't check for a couple of more hours. I felt that it was going to be another rejection. True enough, it was. </p>
<p>And with that, I only had Cornell, Berkeley, and UCLA. That was it. Three choices. Sure, I had Stanford the next day, but I realized that that too would be a rejection for whatever reason. I simply wasn't as strong of an applicant as I had thought I was. For someone who had over three years of chancing others, it was highly surprising that I hadn't even been able to chance myself correctly.</p>
<p>And so I felt awful about myself. I was too depressed to do anything, even read the decisions threads I used to look forward to every year. I was an Ivy-reject. And as I remembered how people on CollegeConfidential had laughed about Cornell and called it a school for rejects, I understood that I was now a part of that legacy.</p>
<p>I'm Asian. There is no "good enough" here. Harvard is better than Yale, which is in turn better than Princeton. Princeton is superior to Stanford, which is above Columbia, which is above UPenn, which is higher than Chicago. Chicago is a greater school than Northwestern, which trounces Duke. Duke and Dartmouth were seen as basically equivalent. Brown allegedly has some major prestige that I'm not aware of, and so it is exonerated from being seen as a bad school despite its #15 rank.</p>
<p>Berkeley was a safety school, but at least it was world famous. Cornell had been stigmatized as the lowest Ivy, and my dad was the first one to let me know. He didn't congratulate me. He merely asked me why I hadn't been able to get into any other schools. He told me that Cornell was for losers, and that people committed suicide there because of its isolated location and tradition of failure.</p>
<p>I knew Cornell was #15. To me, this meant I was a third-rate loser. I wasn't good enough for #1, or #2, or even #3. I wasn't good enough for anything until #15. I'd worked hard to get as far as I did, but in the end, I was only good enough to be a member of #15. Everyone at higher ranked schools was better than me. After all, who would choose Cornell over Dartmouth? Or Duke? Or Yale? Or even Brown?</p>
<p>I had utterly failed what the sole purpose of high school had been for me. To get into a top college. If only I had a Chicago or a Duke, I would still have my dignity, I thought to myself. Those were undeniably top schools. Nobody laughed at Duke and called it a doormat. Nobody depicted students at Chicago as being too stupid to get into a better school.</p>
<p>It was a seemingly impossible choice to make. One was supposedly the "lowest Ivy," and the other was the best public school. I felt so lost and defeated. I hadn't gotten what I was after. I just wanted people to bash on Cornell and I, and tell me how we we both never should have existed. I wanted people to say "Welcome to the worst Ivy, idiot." Or "At least if you pick Cal, you can maintain some degree of self-respect, and then tell people you meet later on in life that you went to public school for financial reasons." I knew the college you attended didn't define who you were or what you could accomplish. But at that very moment, it seemed to.</p>
<p>Instead, people told me to shut up. They told me to get over myself. Honestly, those weren't very helpful because they seemed overly-defensive and almost confirmed my suspicion that Cornell was a lesser school. But other people really seemed to love Cornell. They chimed in about what an amazing school it was, and how it didn't matter that it was ranked #15. It really just seemed like consolation rather than actual truth. </p>
<p>I went to sleep borderline-suicidal and didn't even wake up to go to school the next day. I did nothing but sleep and read about Cornell, desperately trying to convince myself that it was the best. But as hard as I tried, it was nearly impossible to objectively prove that Cornell was the best. But then I realized something, something which had eluded me for my entire life:</p>
<p>I just wanted to thank you guys for your comments in my thread about being rejected from everywhere except Cornell and Cal. I was very upset at the time, and frankly, the absolute worst thing anyone could have done would have been to agree with me. I'm really glad people chose to so spiritedly defend Cornell. Deep down, that was all I really wanted anyway, since Cornell and Cal were all I had and I felt quite inferior because of this.</p>
<p>March 29th was a huge day for me. The whole Ivy League + Duke/Berkeley released decisions that day. I had been waiting for that moment for years, and I was fairly confident that I would get accepted to at least five out of the ten. I had a large group of friends gathered around as me as I opened my decisions after school. I nervously accessed Princeton's notification page and typed in my password. I had been a SCEA applicant who had been emotionally crushed by deferral three-and-a-half months earlier. I could feel I was going to be rejected. Still, I got my hopes up slightly. Sure enough, I was rejected. I felt rather numb, in contrast to the acute devastation from the deferral. </p>
<p>Next up was Columbia. I hadn't loved Columbia the same way I had Princeton, but it was still undeniably a top school. Nevertheless, when I was writing my "Why Columbia" essays a couple of days before the deadline, I realized that there really were no reasons for me to go to Columbia other than New York City and its high US News rank. And so I had simply written satire for my essays in an attempt to stand out. Somewhat predictably, I was rejected. It didn't bother me much since I had kind of anticipated it. In retrospect, writing satire wasn't the brightest idea, but it was worth a shot.</p>
<p>Next up came the University of Pennsylvania. Penn never really clicked for me the way Princeton seemed to. Really, I was intrigued by the heavy recruiting investment banks did at Wharton, and I felt the management skills would help me for the rest of my life. Still, Wharton did seem somewhat redundant were I to pursue an MBA. I wanted to go to Wharton mainly for my career, and not for my personal happiness. In fact, I knew that I likely wouldn't get along well with Wharton students. They seemed a little too smarmy, a little too arrogant, a little too greedy, a little too cutthroat. It didn't feel like it would be a genuine intellectual experience. I was rejected. My heart rate began to rise. This was the third rejection in a row. In addition, I had been rejected from Northwestern and waitlisted at Chicago the week prior, much to my dismay.</p>
<p>I had never been a fan of Dartmouth. I opened the page, and just looking at the picture gave me a rather uncomfortable feeling. Hanover, New Hampshire simply was not a desirable location for me. The college itself just bothered me. It seemed too preppy, too small, too fraternity-based. It didn't really strike me as a diverse place for whatever reason. Like Wharton, I was mainly interested in the banking recruiting. They had never personally offered me an interview; they had a rather pretentious process in which they expected me to drive over an hour on a weeknight to interview in a slot. Not only did this type of interviewing inherently have an impersonal feel, but it wasn't even a personalized E-Mail. It was just sent out to every applicant from Southern California. This just bothered me. It felt like I was being treated like a statistic rather than an actual human. Needless to say, when I was rejected, I didn't care about Dartmouth itself. I cared about the fact that I was 0 for 4.</p>
<p>Harvard had an irksome process in which they released decisions by E-Mail. Mine didn't arrive at 2:00, so I had to attempt to login to their admitted students portal. I couldn't login, so I just assumed I had been rejected. Now I was really starting to get antsy. 0 for 5, and already done at HP. I only had the Y left.</p>
<p>Yale's decision portal crashed, so I couldn't check. My friends and I sat around for ten minutes waiting. I checked Cornell with little enthusiasm. If anything was going to go right for me, surely it would be Cornell. I was confident when checking. After all, people on CollegeConfidential frequently said Cornell was easy to get into. I was almost expecting an acceptance message. I got one. I was briefly excited, but much of my reaction was feigned so that my friends would feel happy for me. People on CollegeConfidential always bashed on Cornell, so it really took away from the feeling of accomplishment I would have otherwise had. I myself liked Cornell. I liked the NorthEastern location, I liked the natural beauty, and I liked the apparent diversity. But still, it was known as the "doormat of the Ivy League." It had accepted 18% of applicants the year prior. It didn't seem as special as a HYP acceptance would have felt.</p>
<p>And so my nerves persisted. I checked Duke at 2:53. The decisions weren't quite up yet, but the page automatically refreshed every second. A former teacher called me over to ask me something (which was very unimportant considering my anxiousness to see my decision). When I got back, someone told me that my decision had loaded. Nobody would tell me what it was, and everyone seemed kind of quiet. I realized it was a rejection. I read the screen just to make sure. How had I been rejected from Duke? Duke rejects Valedictorians with 2300+ scores? It was mind-boggling to me. Chicago/Northwestern/Duke had felt like low matches to me. How had I missed them all?</p>
<p>I was very scared at this point. I only had Yale and Brown left among the Ivies. My friends left since Yale took so long to load. Eventually, I managed to see that I had been rejected. It was kind of expected by this point. And just like that, HYP was gone. The pinnacle of prestige which I had aimed for since day one was no longer within my grasp. I was dejected.</p>
<p>I went home. I checked Cal Berkeley later on that day. I knew that I would get in, and I did. No excitement whatsoever. It had been my safety school, and the prospect of actually attending my safety school felt like the biggest underachievement in my life.</p>
<p>Brown had some idiotic password recovery system, so I couldn't check for a couple of more hours. I felt that it was going to be another rejection. True enough, it was. </p>
<p>And with that, I only had Cornell, Berkeley, and UCLA. That was it. Three choices. Sure, I had Stanford the next day, but I realized that that too would be a rejection for whatever reason. I simply wasn't as strong of an applicant as I had thought I was. For someone who had over three years of chancing others, it was highly surprising that I hadn't even been able to chance myself correctly.</p>
<p>And so I felt awful about myself. I was too depressed to do anything, even read the decisions threads I used to look forward to every year. I was an Ivy-reject. And as I remembered how people on CollegeConfidential had laughed about Cornell and called it a school for rejects, I understood that I was now a part of that legacy.</p>
<p>I'm Asian. There is no "good enough" here. Harvard is better than Yale, which is in turn better than Princeton. Princeton is superior to Stanford, which is above Columbia, which is above UPenn, which is higher than Chicago. Chicago is a greater school than Northwestern, which trounces Duke. Duke and Dartmouth were seen as basically equivalent. Brown allegedly has some major prestige that I'm not aware of, and so it is exonerated from being seen as a bad school despite its #15 rank.</p>
<p>Berkeley was a safety school, but at least it was world famous. Cornell had been stigmatized as the lowest Ivy, and my dad was the first one to let me know. He didn't congratulate me. He merely asked me why I hadn't been able to get into any other schools. He told me that Cornell was for losers, and that people committed suicide there because of its isolated location and tradition of failure.</p>
<p>I knew Cornell was #15. To me, this meant I was a third-rate loser. I wasn't good enough for #1, or #2, or even #3. I wasn't good enough for anything until #15. I'd worked hard to get as far as I did, but in the end, I was only good enough to be a member of #15. Everyone at higher ranked schools was better than me. After all, who would choose Cornell over Dartmouth? Or Duke? Or Yale? Or even Brown?</p>
<p>I had utterly failed what the sole purpose of high school had been for me. To get into a top college. If only I had a Chicago or a Duke, I would still have my dignity, I thought to myself. Those were undeniably top schools. Nobody laughed at Duke and called it a doormat. Nobody depicted students at Chicago as being too stupid to get into a better school.</p>
<p>It was a seemingly impossible choice to make. One was supposedly the "lowest Ivy," and the other was the best public school. I felt so lost and defeated. I hadn't gotten what I was after. I just wanted people to bash on Cornell and I, and tell me how we we both never should have existed. I wanted people to say "Welcome to the worst Ivy, idiot." Or "At least if you pick Cal, you can maintain some degree of self-respect, and then tell people you meet later on in life that you went to public school for financial reasons." I knew the college you attended didn't define who you were or what you could accomplish. But at that very moment, it seemed to.</p>
<p>Instead, people told me to shut up. They told me to get over myself. Honestly, those weren't very helpful because they seemed overly-defensive and almost confirmed my suspicion that Cornell was a lesser school. But other people really seemed to love Cornell. They chimed in about what an amazing school it was, and how it didn't matter that it was ranked #15. It really just seemed like consolation rather than actual truth. </p>
<p>I went to sleep borderline-suicidal and didn't even wake up to go to school the next day. I did nothing but sleep and read about Cornell, desperately trying to convince myself that it was the best. But as hard as I tried, it was nearly impossible to objectively prove that Cornell was the best. But then I realized something, something which had eluded me for my entire life:</p>
<p>Sometimes... There is no such thing as "best."</p>
<p>Cornell is not a Lexus, because a Lexus is clearly inferior to a Rolls Royce or a Bentley. I didn't enjoy hearing that analogy at the time, and I find it highly inaccurate right now. Nobody in their right mind would choose a Lexus over a Rolls Royce, or a Bentley, or a Porsche, or even a Mercedes. What's worse is that a Lexus is really on the borderline of luxury. It is clearly inferior by objective standards.</p>
<p>Choosing a college should be like choosing a spouse. Some will be more intelligent than others, some better looking. Some might have a more desirable personality, and some might have a higher-paying job. Some don't excel at anything in particular, but are well-rounded and just seem to fit. You ultimately marry the one whom you want to, and not the one others rank as "the best looking," or "having the highest IQ," or "the richest." It simply doesn't matter, and trying to rank everything isn't conducive to happiness and well-being. It promotes inferiority complexes and envy. </p>
<p>There are a myriad of threads on CollegeConfidential attempting to rank the Ivies, and Cornell is at the bottom the majority of times. But it doesn't work that way at all. You cannot use objective means to evaluate the subjective. The Ivies should be judged based upon which one is the best FIT, and not by endowment or acceptance rates.</p>
<p>Think about the concept of diminishing marginal returns. There exists a certain Mendoza line at which point, all undergraduate educations are essentially of the same quality, barring certain departmental strengths. Of course you would pick Harvard over Arizona State under all circumstances. Of course nobody should pick the University of Central Florida over Yale. But we are not arguing about good vs. bad schools here. Ivies are ALL in the TOP 1% of the country and the top .001% of the world. Differences in the level of instruction are marginal at best, and non-existent at worst. Newton's First Law is the same everywhere you go. The U.S. Senate has 100 seats when you learn about it at Harvard, and 100 seats when you learn about it at Cornell. Do you really think that secrets are being kept? At the graduate level, sure, pick based upon rankings. At the undergraduate level, seriously, don't. Maybe on average, HYP students are smarter than Cornell students. So? Cornell is not filled with morons who are unable to multiply properly. We are talking about the absolute best students in the country here. And besides, Cornell is larger, so our combined intelligence outweighs that of any member of HYP. </p>
<p>Maybe Cornell professors are not as distinguished as HYP ones overall. Again, so what? Cornell professors are ALL brilliant anyway. Why do we always have to compare? They are all experts in their respective fields, and their knowledge far transcends anything an undergraduate will be learning anyway. Economics is economics. Political science is political science. Argue about who's smarter at the doctorate level, not when you are just skimming the surface as you are with an undergraduate education. Another point is that the most intelligent academics aren't necessarily the best teachers. Case in point: Paul Krugman of Princeton. Reportedly comes unprepared to class and is uninspiring. Possibly the best economist in the world. Shouldn't mean a thing to undergraduates. It is all psychological.</p>
<p>Cornell's acceptance rate is misleading. At 16.2%, sure, it's over double that of HYP. First of all, that rate is inflated because of the Hotel, Labor, etc. schools. Those are non-traditional fields of study which fewer people are interested in, so OF COURSE they will be easier to get into. They are the world LEADERS in those fields, so high acceptance rates don't mean a thing! Cornell CAS has only a slightly higher rate than Penn CAS. And if you look back ten years or so, my formerly beloved Princeton had the same acceptance rate as Cornell CAS does now. Cornell REJECTS more applications than ANY OTHER Ivy League school. We have more spots available, and a lower yield rate. That is it. If we eliminated half of the available spaces and dropped our rate to 8.1%, would we become a drastically better institution? What if we only let 5% in? Would that change anything? No, it would in fact make us WORSE.</p>
<p>Acceptance rates are not indicative of quality. They merely show how difficult it is to get in. I think this has become a point of pride for CCers: "Oh, I got into a school with a 7% acceptance rate, so therefore I am special and talented." You are either special and talented, or you are not. No college acceptance past a certain point will change that. What you makes of the resources around you can. This "HYP or bust" mentality really shows inner insecurity and an astonishing lack of self-confidence. It was something I suffered from several days ago.</p>
<p>Selectivity only matters up to a certain point. It doesn't matter who has the lowest rate. There is again a certain point at which high standards turns into country club elitism. Why are people proud that their institution denies education to more individuals than another institution? Why are they proud that their liberal ideals are wholly belied by ridiculous exclusivity?</p>
<p>Cornell has a very inflated 16.2% rate. Even not counting the statistical inflation, is that not low enough? All we need to recognize is that most students here are very academically capable and each have something unique and valuable to bring to the community. We are not letting in idiots, and we are not letting in robots. We have a highly intelligent student body with an array of talents. And that's enough, it really is. It is an absolute TRAVESTY that shams like US News and World Report use selectivity as a criteria for ranking. </p>
<p>Endowment is another major factor in rankings. Yes, I'll admit that this part still bothers me. Okay, Cornell is not as wealthy as HYP. So what? A better measure than overall endowment or endowment per student is AMOUNT SPENT PER STUDENT. Just because they have large endowments doesn't mean they are actually using them. Furthermore, while Princeton boasts a large endowment for each student, it does not benefit from the same economy of scale that Cornell does. Regardless, I will concede that the undergraduate attention and focus is likely better there. Still, again, does it matter at this level? Do you really need to be coddled past the age of 18? If you can't find enough attention at a school like Cornell, then you will have a hard time in the real world. Initiative is key.</p>
<p>For me personally, Cornell is possibly as close to heaven as I'll ever get. For another person, maybe it's Dartmouth. For someone else, maybe it's just getting the opportunity to go to college at all. I don't care that it's #15 anymore. And anyone who does look down upon Cornell because it's the easiest to get into or the lowest rank is honestly a shallow, self-important ******bag. Cornell is prestigious enough to let people know that I am an intelligent individual, but it also will allow act as a repellant for people so full-of-themselves that they feel they are superior due to the UNDERGRADUATE COLLEGE they went to. I used to be afraid that they would look down upon me. Now? Go ahead, you are not worth my time anyway.</p>
<p>As I stated earlier, you cannot objectively rank the subjective. But for me, Cornell is truly the best fit. You won't believe this, but I was initially torn between SCEA to Princeton and ED to Wharton. I felt that Wharton was recruited better, and taught more practical knowledge. Pure Economics seemed too theoretical. At the same time, I didn't want to sacrifice a liberal arts background for a vocational one, as it may have inhibited me in the future. Cornell has the best of both worlds. I can major in Government and take some AEM classes on the side. It is absolutely perfect, and it's unbelievable that such an amazing opportunity fell into my lap. </p>
<p>I loved Princeton's beauty. Cornell is arguably more beautiful. I was always a fan of Princeton's architecture, but that pales in comparison compared to waterfalls and canyons. Everything Princeton has, Cornell also has it. And more.</p>
<p>It is truly lucky that I was rejected almost everywhere else, because I probably would have picked based on US News rank rather than understanding where I truly belong. It would have perpetuated my feelings of inferiority and not allowed me to experience Cornell. Below are my feelings on each school I previously would have ranked above Cornell:</p>
<p>Princeton-- Truthfully, I'm still quite sad that I didn't get in. It was my dream school for years. But Princeton's eating clubs, and the horror stories of elitism, and the location in New Jersey were all undesirable to me. So was its now infamous grade deflation. It also seemed a little too small and not diverse enough for my tastes. But again, a lot of the reasons why I loved Princeton were shallow. #1 rank on US News. #1 Econ and Political Science. Again, meaningless as the undergrad level. Access to New York City? Nice luxury, sure, but I can always live there later on in life, and it's not like I would be taking a train there frequently, anyway.</p>
<p>Harvard-- Harvard was not special to me at all aside from its selectivity and prestige. It simply had nothing that wasn't available anywhere else aside from these two factors. Better connections? Maybe. Not like those at Cornell are bad by any means. And besides, 61% of classes are taught by non-ladder faculty. The undergraduate focus is awful. Harvard is a graduate school.</p>
<p>Yale-- Hated the city of New Haven. Would have been terrified there. Intellectually, maybe it would have been a good fit, but there are apparently a lot of stuck-up people there.</p>
<p>Wharton- Just an awful, awful fit. Whartonites seem like some of the most undesirable people to be around for obvious reasons, and I don't like the city of Philadelphia. I would NOT have been happy there.</p>
<p>Columbia- There was nothing special to me about Columbia aside from New York City. And honestly, that's a pretty lame strength to have since it isn't really exclusive to the college. The "Core" is one of the most overrated things ever. Really, you need a rigid core because you aren't disciplined enough to take those classes out of your own free will at another college?</p>
<p>Brown-- Possibly a good environment, since I am very liberal. I liked the open curriculum. Location isn't as nice as Cornell's, and it's very possible that I would have become lopsided at Brown by sticking with my strengths rather than exploring. Not going to bash on Brown's ideals, but it does seem to have the potential to exacerbate poor motivation.</p>
<p>Dartmouth-- As I said earlier, awful fit. Horrible location. The atmosphere seems terrible. Too preppy. Too small. Just wrong for me.</p>
<p>Chicago-- Eh, would have been an alright fit, but I didn't like that it was known as "The place where fun comes to die." It just seemed too rigorous and serious for me. The main bonus was the intellectual ambiance, which I am sure is also available at Cornell. Also not in the safest neighborhood.</p>
<p>Northwestern-- It would have fit well for the most part, unlike the others on my list. Only problem is perhaps being overshadowed by its reputation as a Journalism school.</p>
<p>Duke- Dear God, I don't want to live in the South. Ever. Even if it is in a liberal bastion... Just no. I hate the South. And Duke's student culture apparently isn't the greatest, either.</p>
<p>Stanford- Never felt right. I have lived in California for my whole life, and I hate it here. Everyone thinks this is some paradise where it's sunny all the time. It IS sunny all the time in Southern California. It REALLY gets to you after a while. It drives you insane. There is no weather. It is always the same. You cannot tell December apart from June sometimes. And it can also be blisteringly hot. Granted, Northern California tends to have more variation in weather, but it's still California. I despise the west-coast flavor. I also hate Stanford's campus. Feels too much like a "desert jewel."</p>
<p>I would have picked any of those schools over Cornell due to ranking. It is simply unbelievable luck that I was prevented from doing so. Someone out there is on my side...</p>
<p>I'm very proud to be a member of the Cornell University class of 2016. For me, we are the best in the world.</p>
<p>Go Big Red! :)</p>