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i applied to columbia because Peter Parker went there, Princeton because bruce Wayne went there, and dartmouth because Michael corleone went there.
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<p>Didn't you ever see or read Love Story? Oliver and Jenny went to Harvard.</p>
<p>I might apply to FSU next year because Burt Reynolds went there .. as well as many other reasons.. but still, going to the same school Burt Reynolds went to is just an awsome thing.</p>
<p>unfortunately i hadnt when i applied. Have now though :-) and jenny went to radcliffe.</p>
<p>My highschool used to bring back gradutes who are now working in the sciences to speak in assembly (my school didn't turn out many science people, I guess they wanted to show it could be done). One of those people said she chose her college because she liked the chairs in the admissions office! (They had elephants on them or something).</p>
<p>I really wanted to get away from what I now see as an idyllic place to grow up and had read (parts of) Look Homeward Angel. All I remember about that book was a description of trees dripping with wisteria. That was enough to convince me to apply to a school in the south, Vanderbilt. That, and the fact that at that time, long long ago, there were not very many women there at all. So I got in with so much financial aid that it was cheaper than big state U towards which I was drifting. Also, now that I think about it, I wanted to go to VU because of the Vanderbilt in France program. I did go on it my sophomore year and found that most of the people in the program were from other schools.</p>
<p>Husband chose Vanderbilt because it was $100 cheaper than Tulane. That was a really long time ago, I guess. Vanderbilt was a good fit for him, as it turned out. I don't think it was for me, but I did not think in those terms at all. </p>
<p>Now, son is looking at Vanderbilt, which has changed and is a pretty good fit for him. He has some other options and may make his own choice based on something arbitrary. But this time, there were college visits, good guidance counselors, lots and lots of analysis.</p>
<p>A fun thread; glad it's revived.</p>
<p>In the late l960's I attended an all-girls public high school, so I knew it had to be coed for college. My search extended to my own front porch.</p>
<p>My big brother was at Oberlin College, the first coed college in the U.S.; also, first to admit Black students. My parents actually set foot off the East Coast for weekends in row, just to discover it, reporting back to extended family like Columbus to Queen Isabella. </p>
<p>Brother brought college friends home all the time. We sat out on our front porch playing bluegrass music, singing our heads off. They could play any kind of music, in fact. </p>
<p>My mom said whatever was good for my brother was good for me, too, so..no search. I applied early and was accepted. Fortunately, I loved it.</p>
<p>Ten years after graduating, I met another Oberlin grad out in the world and we married. </p>
<p>Now this year, our youngest was in the throes of college search for a Screenwriting program. For relief, we went out to see the movie "Accepted" (worth the movie just to see Louis Black as the faux dean). In a scene set on a campus archway, I whispered to my son, "look at THAT campus, it's pretty, isn't it?" </p>
<p>Just accepted to Chapman University, S learned that "Accepted" was filmed at Chapman. Well, now I'm going to be very careful before sending the check. If you've seen the movie, you'll understand. "Accepted" is about a fake college invented by a kid who's been rejected everywhere, to please his family and impress his girlfriend. When the parents come to tour, the students have to set up a faux college to justify the tuition checks...</p>
<p>At 15 I went to Berkeley with some high school friends. Saw "We love you, Tanya" posters with the infamous Patty Hearst-carrying-a-gun photo. A hippie listening to African drums played on lower Sproul Plaza offered me a bite of his alfalfa sprouts sandwitch. The view from the Berkeley hills -- the bay, the City, the graceful bridges -- took my breath away. (Still does.) It was the most exciting, beautiful place I'd ever seen. And it was the only school I applied to and even considered going to.</p>
<p>Unlike most people who did well in high school, I didn't really have a dream college whatsoever. I applied to several colleges for the sake of applying, and I finally settled with one because it was "near the beach."</p>
<p>Yesterday, a friend confided that her D only applied to ONE college (EA) & was accepted (UVa, where both parents attended, met & married). She took some time off after graduating to teach English in China & just applied to ONE grad school, Harvard for her masters & was just informed that she was accepted (she said it was THE ONLY school that had what she was looking for -- applied psychology in the way she wanted to learn it). Her mom said that makes 3 of 3 schools (including the one she went to from K-12) that she applied for & was accepted at. I thought it was pretty amazing, as did her mom.</p>
<p>Yeesh, HiMom, she should run for president, and don't even bother with the primaries!!</p>
<p>I chose NOT to go to Texas A&M, because I did not want to be called an Aggie for the rest of my life.</p>
<p>My daughter refused to apply to a college if their mascot was deemed "lame". To this day, I'm not sure what the parameters were that constituted lameness. She is about to graduate from JMU. Appearantly, the "Duke Dog" is not lame.</p>
<p>My sister picked the University of Denver because she saw a cute guy with great shades during our visit(I was her guardian). The next year she hunted him out and found out he was "not to her liking" (not her words). Overall, she liked the school and it was a good(enough) match.</p>
<p>I only applied to diploma nursing schools and had narrowed my choice to one that was clearly the best in the city and one that had a great looking nurses cap. My parents finally convinced me to attend the better school. Less than 3 years after graduation I became an OR nurse and never wore my cap again.</p>
<p>Now its payback time - D only wants to apply to schools that have a GOOD dance team, that holds auditions in April, so she can be accepted to a team before she commits to a college. :rolleyes: Yikes!</p>
<p>whats wrong with Aggie ? just a question...
rather Aggie than Deacon Demon, Spider, Golden Gophers or some other weird name haha</p>
<p>I didn't really choose my college. I applied to and was accepted to Sarah Lawrence, Wesleyan, Oberlin and Hampshire (I was planning to be a writer or an actress or a film director or a singer). But my father refused to fill out the financial aid form, which was a real pity, since he did not make much money, my mother was a SAH, and I had 4 younger siblings. So I applied to the state university in June, got accepted, I worked over the summer to pay my $3000 tuition for fall, lived at home, and got a full scholarship for spring semester.</p>
<p>Yermom, about lame mascots. Carnegie Mellon students apparently are in the process of trying to get their mascot changed from a tartan to a Scottie dog.</p>
<p>One of my D's toured colleges looking for someone with green hair - a symbol that the school wasn't too preppy and had a sense of humor. At Middlebury we ran into a HS friend of her older sister's and he took her off to meet some of his friends, one of whom had blue hair. Close enough...she's a senior there now.</p>
<p>PS - On the other hand, she refused to tour Harvard because there was a boy in a blue blazer in the front row of the information session and his mother was wearing a puffy hairband.</p>
<p>^^^A mom's puffy hair band--and a mom of the prospie, at that.</p>
<p>Toooooo funny!</p>
<p>I chose USC because it was expensive. I thought all rich kids go there so there will be a great chance of networking. I failed to research on other factors such as how the neighborhood's going to be like, etc. But just because it was COSTLY, I went there! The decision which I regret till date!</p>
<p>I'm an International kid here and I could have gotten into many other preppy colleges...</p>