Hey all,
This isn’t meant to be inflammatory or critical. I’m just asking out of curiosity and to see if my suspicions are correct. My question is what are your REAL motivations for wanting to go to a top school? Is it really much more than the promise of a good brand name and the opportunity to be funneled into the highest paying jobs? I can say that at least personally, I don’t care for much more than the aforementioned points; its all just a means to an end, the end being a good lifestyle. And seeing a top school up close, I get the suspicion that when people are asked “why did you want to go here” or “why do you want this job”, they always feign some sort of passion or intellectual curiosity even though their behaviors don’t typically suggest this. This could just be me projecting, but I am curious to know if I’m just overly cynical or everyone puts on a mask in the spotlight. I know I definitely did/do all the time. I don’t have some innate passion I’m pursuing. I just know I am slightly smart and want a good lifestyle. It’s just you get criticized for saying that, so I never reveal it.
For me, and TRUST me I know this is such a twisted way to look at things, it’s really NOT about job prospects/prestige but more that I’ve convinced
myself that the “best” peers (whatever that means) are at top schools— more interesting people, more intellectual people, more people engaged with whatever it is they are “passionate” (hate that word) about. I know I need to re-train myself to realize that the process college admissions officers use to admit students is very “not-a-meritocracy” (and im defining merit in a broader sense than grades/test scores, actually). In other words, the most interesting/engaged students may not be picked if another student more closely meets institutional needs. I just have to keep reminding myself that I can find good peers anywhere. But yeah, for me that’s my motivation for wanting to attend a top school; many of the people I know who I would consider inspiring human beings attended these schools, and I know it’s not the schools that made them special, but rather that the schools recognized them for that because that’s who they are. But I like to be around decidedly inspiring people.
For me, it would have to be the networking and brand recognition. Those things might seem shallow, but I’ve seen them happen in real life. My mom went to Princeton, and even though my dad has a graduate degree, I’ve watched her get raises and promotions while he… didn’t. Any time she applies for a job, she gets an interview, guaranteed. She knows tons of prominent people, like the head coach of the Cowboys and the producer of The Fault in Our Stars. Seeing her undergrad degree open doors for her would be more than enough motivation for anyone. I also know that a lot of kids face tremendous pressure from their families to go to a brand-name school, purely so their families can have bragging rights. Trying to keep your angry aunts happy can also be a powerful motivator. (Unfortunately, I’m cut from a different cloth and will probably disappoint my entire extended family when I end up at the University of Nevada, Reno)
Disclaimer: I live in Idaho, and I’m almost positive my mom’s experience with her degree would’ve been different if we lived in New Jersey or Massachusetts.
My motivations are actually somewhat unclear to me. I partially wish to go to a top college because of my parents/sister, all of which went/is going to ivys and my mother got a Rhodes scholarship. I feel a very powerful need to at least equal some of the standards they have set, to fail to do so has a profound impact on me. I have given little though to jobs and life after college (honestly I find the prospect somewhat daunting) so basically my only motivation is literally my own expectations.
I’d like to go to a top school because it seems like a good experience but i would be fine with my state school. My real goal is to just get into med school and become a neurologist, top school or not if I work hard enough I know I can get there.
The college admissions game seems to have this stigma associated with it, wherein applicants are expected to have some grand passion or motive in life. Though, the truth for me, and for what I assume is many others, is that I’m just a high school student- still learning my path in life and without a master plan worked out. My motivation for school, instead, stems not from my belief in myself, but from my spite for others. I go to a poor high school, with students smoking on the bus and literally dealing drugs outside the school. It’s not to say that I’m disadvantaged in terms of oppertunities, but the people around me all seem to have an utter disregard for their future. I want my care and attention to detail to take me somewhere in life, and not keep me grounded in this community, where people do not take command for their own futures.