I committed to University of San Diego (47% acceptance) over Georgia Teach (14% acceptance OOS).
Making the decision was one of the hardest things I had to do. I was so conflicted. No one else from my school (620 students class of 2019) got into GT. I was the only one, and somehow that made the decision even harder.
Ultimately, USD gave me 9X as much merit aid, a place in the honors program, and the opportunity to earn an engineering degree within a liberal arts institution.
While GT is one of the best engineering schools in the world, I knew that I wanted to do more than just STEM, and that was going to be harder at a tech school. Not to mention, GT wasn’t nearly as pretty of a campus as USD (lol).
At GT, I would be a smaller fish. I would have to fight for internships and other opportunities that at USD, I would just be handed. I would be more valued and noticed at USD, and I know that it would be the best place for me to thrive not just as a student, but as a person.
The hardest part is that I felt like I would impress more people if I went to GT. I thought somehow it would better validate my accomplishments in high school and more people would care. What I HAD to do was stop caring about what other people would think of me wherever I went. It had to be a decision for me and only me.
College is more than just an acceptance rate or a more well known name… it’s where you belong. Where you feel the most appreciated and where you feel like you can thrive the best. USD is the right school for me. It always was. I just had to ignore the fact that less people will care about me going to USD as opposed to GT. And that’s ok because it’s not going to hold me back from being successful and being happy.