<p>Honestly, do you consider your friends, not just classmates, "real friends,' as your rivals?</p>
<p>I was just helping one of my best friends for choosing colleges (and his specs was much better than mine, except that he is not fluent in English), and ended up choosing him the colleges that I was going to apply to.</p>
<p>I felt a sense of apprehension, that although I should feel happy for giving him the right colleges that he should I apply to, his specs might result in getting accepted over my rejections.</p>
<p>I could have given him some random colleges but I could not ruin his college years because I just wanted to have a little more chance of getting in for fewer rivals...</p>
<p>Well, this was just my random thought here :)</p>
<p>I know that I SHOULDN’T do that, but let’s face it, it’s easy to start seeing friends as competition. That’s why I try my best not to discuss college applications with the friends who would want to apply to the same places.</p>
<p>No, i dont consider them competition, dont mean to sound mean or cocky but theyre basically idiots, my matches and safeties are their reaches, i dont care or judge them but it makes me feel a bit better about myself bc i got to a competitve school and am overshadowed by a ton of other kids.</p>
<p>No. I was in the same boat as MPD, most of my friends were aiming for much lower schools. I honestly didn’t care if my friends got in over me, because if I didn’t get accepted then I didn’t deserve to go there, it’s that simple. I don’t see getting into the top-ranked university as the be all, end all though either like a lot of people do on here. I applied and was accepted to two instate schools, and am choosing a lower-ranked school over UMich. </p>
<p>Besides, one more kid applying is not going to make or break your app because there are thousands of kids competing for one spot at top ranked colleges.</p>
<p>I don’t really have any smart friends. They’re not dumb or anything, but they’re just the standard AB Honor Roll students that just get by with mostly B’s, some are just average students… Most are aiming way lower than me. Like, I’m not even kidding.</p>
<p>My top choice is W&M; my “BFF’s” top choice is Liberty U. That’s the kind of gap I’m talking about. Most of my “friends” are looking at CC instead of Uni. </p>
<p>The only “competition” in my school is among the top 5, the A Honor Roll students, and none of them are my friends.</p>
<p>As other have posted, I’'m pretty much the only one in my class applying to top 25 universities, so none of my friends could really be considered rivals.</p>
<p>Contrary to the posters above, a ton of my friends are applying to the elite schools with me. In fact, off the top of my head, I can think of 5 friends who will be SCEAing to Stanford just as I will.</p>
<p>Yes, they are “rivals” in the sense that we will all be competing for limited spots at the same universities. However, I don’t think I’d purposely sabotage any of them simply to help my chances (quite frankly, it wouldn’t make that much of a difference). In fact, I view our relationship altruistically (as I have always viewed it the past 4 years). I help them with their essays, supplements, choices, etc. and they reciprocate the deed for me. We actually bounce ideas off of each other and get some honest opinions. I think this way, we all increase our chances a little – as compared to perhaps the rest of the applicant pool that works in utmost secrecy or paranoia.</p>