<p>I saw the movie "Rudy" the other day. The kid in it devotes his entire life to getting into Notre Dame. I didn't know whether to admire his determination or scoff at his pathetic worshiping of a school.</p>
<p>Would any of you go to such lengths to get into a particular college? Which one? And why?</p>
<p>Many students apply to service academies more than once. It is a highly competitive admissions process.Candidates who do not receive an admissions offer during senior year of high school have options. They can attend a civilian college with or without joining ROTC, enlist in the military, attend a specialized prep school, or take a gap year. The service academies require strong academics, a rigorous fitness test, a physical exam that presents challenges for many, and a grueling process to obtain a nomination (except for the US Coast Guard Academy which does not require a nomination). Many candidates begin their 2nd year of applications as soon as they are rejected. And keep in mind, no matter how much college they have, they will begin as freshmen. </p>
<p>You are right to admire Rudy's determination.</p>
<p>A friend of mine who is going to Notre Dame just tried out for that MTV show Made to try to be the place kicker for the football team.</p>
<p>Rudy part 2.</p>
<p>For some people apparently, to paraphrase Sam Spade, going to Notre Dame is "the stuff that dreams are made of."</p>
<p>Yeah, Sam Spade never got the memo about ending a sentence with a preposition.</p>
<p>When I started this thread, I was hoping someone would identify some types of people and some specific colleges that would generate the type of obsession Rudy had with Notre Dame. I would agree West Point and Annapolis would qualify (I was a non-Academy officer in the Navy for a decade, and the loyalty the alumni have for those places is really amazing, and people really go through a lot of hoops to attend them).</p>
<p>A lot of colleges have loyal alumni...what I'm curious about are colleges that people become devoted to BEFORE they attend--to the point that they move Heaven and earth to get accepted at them, and ONLY them. Is USC that type of place? Or Duke?</p>
<p>I guess Bogey/Sam Spade preferred poetry over prose.</p>
<p>I wouldn't look to the Maltese Falcon for grammar lessons</p>
<p>I think Harvard, Yale, or Princeton would be those types of places.</p>
<p>Example from TV: Gilmore Girls- Paris prepares her whole life to go to Harvard, as does Rory (even though neither one goes there)</p>
<p>Also, Julliard seems like a place people would obsess about and spend their whole lives trying to get in.</p>
<p>There is a book called Opal Mehta which concerns a girl desperate to go to Harvard.</p>
<p>I've never seen the movie, but I'd have to say there's a limit to what I would do to get into a dream school. For me, school is the means to the end (career), not the end in itself. Obsessing too much about one particular school would be sort of pointless and might actually be detrimental to achieving my long-term goal.</p>
<p>Yeah, and How Opal Mehta Got Kissed was written by a Harvard student, go figure.</p>