<p>Just exactly what the title says ....</p>
<p>goldie, I am a parent, quite old and you can shut me up right here and now since you wanted a student's perspective. But it is good to get someone's view who has a wider perspective in terms to time-horizon than you, I'd assume. I am also assuming you are a HS student who has been admitted to multiple colleges and universities. If I'm wrong, I'm sorry again.</p>
<p>Once you are in college what you turned down, Harvard, Yale, Brown etc. matter SO LITTLE that you'd be really surprised. Of course, you are welcome to savor this sweet moment when the fruit of all your years of labor are coming true.</p>
<p>Once you are in college, all that matters is how you work, what you learn or wish to learn and what you make of the opportunities given to you. Your day-to-day existence will consume your life and you won't be thinking of these things again.</p>
<p>achat, thanks for your opinion.</p>
<p>goldie,</p>
<p>I turned down 7 schools to come to Swarthmore. Some were Ivies, and some were not. The decision was very tough. With every withdraw card I sent out, I knew that I was forgoing something special and unique that each place had.</p>
<p>However, most of the college students I talked to never dwelled on these things. In the words of one, "No matter where you end up, you will feel like that place was ultimately the right choice for you."</p>
<p>Besides, to put the value of Swarthmore in terms of some other school is a little unfair, don't you think? At any rate, people turn down different schools for different reasons--some of which may not align with what you are looking at specifically. (For instance, I looked very heavily at financial aid--something that not everyone might have to consider when picking a college.)</p>
<p>Anyways, I wouldn't think about this too much.</p>
<p>-Jimmy</p>
<p>For what it's worth (and at the risk of seeming disrespectful to the original poster in ways that I don't really intend), I think it speaks highly of Swat's incoming students that this particular thread has gotten so little play. </p>
<p>On some of the Ivy boards, by comparison, it seems that folks can't get enough of this sort of thing: "what places did you turn down to come here" or - perhaps more curiously - "what did you turn this place down to attend."</p>
<p>Why should one possibly care what places other incoming students turned down to go to Swat? Alas, it's now time to start thinking about your life in terms other than pecking orders. </p>
<p>You're in, you're going (or not), that's great. End of story.</p>
<p>epistrophy:</p>
<p>I think it's generically typical of LACs that things like "pecking orders" would be downplayed. After all, the trophy hunters aren't likely to enroll at schools that "nobody has heard of" to begin with. I think this is especially true at Swarthmore. The culture of the school frowns on outward displays of status. </p>
<p>It's safe to assume that virtually everyone attending Swarthmore (or any other very selective college) probably got accepted into other really good schools and has a lot on the ball. Each one chose a final school for his or her own personal reasons -- probably 372 different reasons in Swarthmore's case. Reasons that probably wouldn't even make sense to anyone not sitting around the kitchen table with each student's family.</p>