<p>My top choice was MIT for roughly six years. Then I visited Caltech. I was pretty sure after the visit that Caltech was my first choice. Then, the week after, I was rejected from MIT so not much of a choice to make :-P</p>
<p>My first choice was originally Michigan State University. I applied in october and got my acceptance in december. I guess I wanted to go because everyone at my HS goes to UM or MSU. I decided to visit MSU and I hated it. It seemed like everyone was a premed, business, or engineering major. No one was interested in what I am (Philosophy, History, Literature, Languages, etc..) The greek scene is also very large and everyone was always talking about big-10 football. So, I decided to go to Bowling Green.</p>
<p>Mine was UMD-CP when i was young. That held true for just about everyone from my elem/middle schools. I didn't realize the opportunities outside of maryland until the admissions process began. Now its Case Western and i'm damn happy about it.</p>
<p>I spent all of high school convinced I wanted -- NEEDED -- to attend a tiny liberal arts college. One of my top choices was Occidental, with its 2,000 student population, diversity, beautiful campus and strong English department. To my delight, I was accepted. Yet upon closer examination, I realized it wasn't right for me. The linguistics and creative writing programs were non-existent, the language offerings were sparse, the tuition was astronomical and it was just too close to home (I live about 10 minutes away).</p>
<p>This fall, I'll be attending Berkeley. :)</p>
<p>My first choice was JHU since I was in the eighth grade. And then, on a trip to see Dartmouth (I was looking at engineering schools), my Dad dragged me kicking and screaming to go see MIT since we were in Boston and we had some time. My friends still laugh about it because I left some rather angry messages on their xangas about how I hated my Dad so much for making me apply to schools that I didn't like and had no chance at, blah blah blah. My dad then proceeded to MAKE me do an EA application. On the outside, I was super angry, but secretly I wanted to go there since my visit was amazing. Which says a lot for me, because if I've decided that I don't like something, it takes A LOT to change my mind. And then, on a sheer miracle, I got in. I got into JHU BME later in the year, but at that point, I didn't even care. So, my first choice college changed in a matter of weeks. </p>
<p>And my friend printed off that xanga, and she has saved it for posterity to show the time that I completely ate my words. :) You should definitely watch what you say or write about things....</p>
<p>For the first 17 years of my life, I constantly told my dad, a UMichigan PhD, that I would go to any other of the 2,000 research universities over the University of Michigan. Talk about eating my words...deciding where to go was hard for me, my first choice changed from UPenn to Cornell to UChicago to Case Western to a debate between Vanderbilt and Michigan in the end (much more money from Vanderbilt). I came to my senses after visiting the University of Michigan math department. The basic average classes at any school are the same: Calculus is taught from the same book and curriculum, there's first year writing seminars, etc. What makes the difference is being at the very top, in the very hardest classes, taught by the very best professors...in the world. That's where the graduate school rankings come in handy.
I don't strive for prestige, money, or any of that stuff that most people go to college for...I really want to learn in the purest form. I realized in the depths of academia, this is what Michigan provides at the top...and it is all easily accessible to me as a student.</p>
<p>So basically, if I could go to any school in the world and if I were capable of succeeding at any university in the world, I'd be going to the University of Michigan.</p>
<p>Nice story.</p>
<p>I've never had a particular school set in mind during my life, but a few prominent names that stuck with me were Harvard and Princeton. It turns out that both of these are quite good for the majors I will likely get into when I start college, so chances are good that I will apply to them.</p>
<p>I highly doubt that I will be accepted despite my qualifying scores, though, but then again, i'm told that I can often be a pessimist. I like to think of it more as being a realist myself...</p>
<p>my first choice was harvard...then University of Beijing...then Caltech</p>
<p>hahaha....just kidding, the college I'm really striving for is Columbia</p>
<p>i have one myself.
Well i'm from brazil and i've always wanted to go to stanford(great weather , academics , location...) so after graduation from high school i decided to apply but later on i discovered that was not easy to get in( i thoyght you just need to pay and have a good english score ) i was damm wrong so now took the SAT got decent score and i'm looking for something more realistic to me</p>