<p>I'm a junior at Penn. My little brother is waiting for his Princeton letter just as many of you are. Needless to say, he is freaking out, and, unless you are a Buddhist or heavily medicated, you probably are too. I wrote him a letter, but it more or less can apply to all of you as well...</p>
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<p>If you were accepted, you have my most sincere congratulations. I need not restate the virtues of Princeton University; though its infinite gayness cannot be denied, nor can its institutional excellence. I take full credit for your success.</p>
<p>If you were deferred or rejected (debatable which one is actually worse), don't sweat it, because elite admissions at this level is at best a witches' brew of nepotism, college ranking/admissions game theory run amok, and random luck. </p>
<p>As [unimpressive Princeton alumni we've met] have made painfully clear, association with Princeton does not automatically equate intelligence, success, or attractive offspring. (I distinctly remember in high school being extremely underwhelmed with the Princeton students running Princeton Model Congress) In fact, it probably makes it worse because you can just sit around thinking how great you were for getting into Princeton which doesn't exactly motivate you to go out there and work like your life (and even more importantly, your ego) depends on it. It may very well be a blessing in disguise.</p>
<p>It is without a doubt true that a Princeton undergraduate education has more elitist cachet than a Penn undergraduate education. However, it is also undeniably true that the actual quality of the education is identical (the real discrepancies come into play at the grad school level). At academic conferences in Korea (the mother of all prestige-whore countries) the scholars and students of the top universities were treated no better than the scholars at <em>gasp</em> state schools! At the HPAIR conference in Tokyo I have seen Harvard Yale Princeton professors speak; I have read their written work inside and outside of the classroom and they are all no more brilliant than a Penn, Columbia, or even Cornell professor. Logically, unless among 6 billion people humanity cannot produce a few dozen excellent scholars of a subject, there will be enough excellent professors among ALL the top American schools. A Princeton diploma mounted on your wall may draw a few more 'ooh's and 'aah's than a Penn diploma, but the quality of the education that much-heralded piece of paper represents is going to be identical, be it orange and black, or red and blue.</p>
<p>Here's a lovely story: A Penn Glee Club alum who went to Harvard for undergrad and Penn for grad school was ultimately denied a job and belittled by a Drexel (shudder) alum. There are thousands of alumni of crappy schools all over the world who happened to be successful in spite of their non-prestigious educations, and are just itching to get some revenge on those damn snooty Ivy League brats they've held a grudge against for years (meanwhile, I'll probably be safe because they'll think I'm a fellow Penn State alum).</p>
<p>So take a deep breath and relax. The very fact that you are smart enough, talented enough, and courageous enough to have applied to Princeton in the first place shows that you already have the makings of a successful person, "In the nation's service."</p>