As my son winds down his time at Cal Poly, I’m reminded of, and still in agreement with something he said during Parent’s Weekend his first year. I asked if he felt Cal Poly was the perfect fit now that he’d been there for a bit. His response, “I like it here a lot, but I’m sure I would have been fine at any of the schools I applied to.”
In keeping with that theme, @CopperlineX2 reminded me of a post I made in 2016. It has since been closed, so I copy and pasted it here. It’s worth your time to dig through the Inception post within a post within a post. Enjoy! 
Here it is:
The link below was posted by @collgbrwsr and I don’t want it to get lost in the long thread. Plus, there’s some info I want to add.
The gist is that it’s more about what you do than where you go. There’s plenty of evidence to support that notion, notably, 80% of graduates surveyed say they were very happy with their school no matter where it fit on their list, even if it was last place.
Society and rankings have painted a picture that there is a single just perfect school. Anyone who’s been through it though can tell you, no school is perfect and lots will actually be suitable as long as…you make the most…out of your opportunities.
So, neither a CP acceptance or rejection will define your life. What you do where ever you go will.
Here’s the post in its entirety:
Today at 1:23 pm
Congrats to all who have been accepted, and best wishes to those still waiting! I’m assuming that none of you have just applied to one school, and one school only (who does that?) so I am sure you will all have great choices. I highly recommend the excellent book “Where You Go is Not Who You’ll Be,” by NY Times columnist Frank Bruni. Don’t have time to read the whole book? Here’s an article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/15/opinion/sunday/frank-bruni-how-to-survive-the-college-admissions-madness.html
I am doubtful my son will get into Cal Poly SLO, but if he does, we will be absolutely thrilled. If not, at this point he still has two great schools to choose from: San Jose State and UC Riverside, both of which are reputed to have excellent engineering programs. We’re still awaiting other schools, including Cal Poly Pomona and the UCs, but if nothing comes through, we still have some good options.
Reach for the stars, but learn to love your safeties and alternates!
Flaminhaute, I’ve been really impressed with you, and wish you the best! Mills College is an awesome school. I don’t know where you are, but have you also checked out Embry-Riddle? There are campuses in Florida and Arizona, and I believe they do rolling applications.