Parents: What did you want and where did you end up?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Brown/Stanford. I ended up loving Stanford and making my home in the Bay Area. Had I gone to Brown, I probably would’ve retained my Boston accent and parochial views as well have been shunned by the euro-trash there.

Well you certainly still seem parochial and narrow-minded, just on the left-coast now.

What’s the DCUM obsession with the term “parochial.” It does not come up nearly enough in life to justify its continued usage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t have a preference. I applied to a bunch of places I liked and picked the one that gave the most aid that I also liked the most.

I think that’s how most Gen Xers approached it. I only knew two kids that had “dream” schools and it was a bit odd.

I second this as well. Parents didn't take me on college tours and didn't even know where I had applied. I recall my father asking me in January if I had even applied to college.

It was a completely random, eclectic list. To this day, I don't even know why I picked the 5 schools I picked other than Penn State as the state flagship safety.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t have a preference. I applied to a bunch of places I liked and picked the one that gave the most aid that I also liked the most.

I think that’s how most Gen Xers approached it. I only knew two kids that had “dream” schools and it was a bit odd.

I second this as well. Parents didn't take me on college tours and didn't even know where I had applied. I recall my father asking me in January if I had even applied to college.

It was a completely random, eclectic list. To this day, I don't even know why I picked the 5 schools I picked other than Penn State as the state flagship safety.

ha ha exactly me too! I didn’t even discuss it with my parents except to go over the financial package to confirm I could afford it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t have a preference. I applied to a bunch of places I liked and picked the one that gave the most aid that I also liked the most.

I think that’s how most Gen Xers approached it. I only knew two kids that had “dream” schools and it was a bit odd.

Really? Even at my mediocre public school, I remember we all had a first choice. Some of us got in, some didn’t. And some who got in to our first choice wound up going elsewhere because we got better aid. But it was t true that we were indifferent or liked them all equally.

Believe it or not, it just wasn’t a subject of a lot of conversation among my peers or my siblings.

[Anonymous]

Was really worried about only getting into my safety. And told my family I would do a PG rather than go there. Ended up 5/5.

Bucknell/Bucknell.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t have a preference. I applied to a bunch of places I liked and picked the one that gave the most aid that I also liked the most.

I think that’s how most Gen Xers approached it. I only knew two kids that had “dream” schools and it was a bit odd.

I'm also Gen X (high school class of 1993) and that's not how it was at my school. Everyone I knew had a "dream school."

[Anonymous]

Ha, only people who attended top 25 schools are responding

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Harvard, Dartmouth

Ha! Dartmouth, Wake Forest

I thought I wanted Ivy, too. Wound up at Wake. Don't regret a single thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t have a preference. I applied to a bunch of places I liked and picked the one that gave the most aid that I also liked the most.

I think that’s how most Gen Xers approached it. I only knew two kids that had “dream” schools and it was a bit odd.

Really? Even at my mediocre public school, I remember we all had a first choice. Some of us got in, some didn’t. And some who got in to our first choice wound up going elsewhere because we got better aid. But it was t true that we were indifferent or liked them all equally.

Believe it or not, it just wasn’t a subject of a lot of conversation among my peers or my siblings.

Same for me, HS class of ‘86. A significant minority of my HS class didn’t go to college, and there were only a handful of us interested in leaving the state (Georgia) or looking at private colleges.

A lot of my family members had gone to Carleton over the years and liked it. A few family friends had good things to say about Oberlin, Swarthmore, and Reed as well. I applied to and was accepted at all four, and went to Carleton. Such an easy process compared to now!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t have a preference. I applied to a bunch of places I liked and picked the one that gave the most aid that I also liked the most.

I think that’s how most Gen Xers approached it. I only knew two kids that had “dream” schools and it was a bit odd.

Really? Even at my mediocre public school, I remember we all had a first choice. Some of us got in, some didn’t. And some who got in to our first choice wound up going elsewhere because we got better aid. But it was t true that we were indifferent or liked them all equally.

Believe it or not, it just wasn’t a subject of a lot of conversation among my peers or my siblings.

Same for me, HS class of ‘86. A significant minority of my HS class didn’t go to college, and there were only a handful of us interested in leaving the state (Georgia) or looking at private colleges.

A lot of my family members had gone to Carleton over the years and liked it. A few family friends had good things to say about Oberlin, Swarthmore, and Reed as well. I applied to and was accepted at all four, and went to Carleton. Such an easy process compared to now!

Just curious if you ever met a single other kid from GA at Carleton when you were there.

Have a friend originally from AZ that attended Carleton because he wanted to experience the most extreme winter he could find.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dartmouth or Cornell, loved both, got in both but parents wouldn't pay. Went to Delaware on a full ride.

Any regrets?

No, went on from Delaware to a top5 law school. My kids wish they had Ivy legacy status but my life has been great!

A HS friend of mine turned down UVA OOS to do UD on a full ride scholarship. She went to Harvard for grad school. This board has told me multiple times that this person doesn't actually exist ;P, but I know she does. And your story also proves that people do go from UD to top schools.

My parents pretty much wouldn't hear of me staying to go to UD, so I went 8 hours away to school. In hindsight, it wouldn't have been the worst thing ever and I probably could have gone for soooo cheap (I think my friend who went for free was like #4 in our class and I was #9). That said, I also loved my college experience and had the best of both worlds - went away to school, but got to be an honorary Blue Hen when I was home.

[Anonymous]

Lehigh / Lehigh. Was leaning that way and the financial aid package there closed the deal.

Helped that my then girlfriend now wife was going to be a sophomore. Enjoyed the experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Was really worried about only getting into my safety. And told my family I would do a PG rather than go there. Ended up 5/5.

Bucknell/Bucknell.

I wish Bucknell had a marching band. It would have been my back up in that case. I really loved our visit there in winter of 94. I still wear a sweatshirt I bought there on my visit - it is very comfortable!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t have a preference. I applied to a bunch of places I liked and picked the one that gave the most aid that I also liked the most.

I think that’s how most Gen Xers approached it. I only knew two kids that had “dream” schools and it was a bit odd.

Really? Even at my mediocre public school, I remember we all had a first choice. Some of us got in, some didn’t. And some who got in to our first choice wound up going elsewhere because we got better aid. But it was t true that we were indifferent or liked them all equally.

Believe it or not, it just wasn’t a subject of a lot of conversation among my peers or my siblings.

Same for me, HS class of ‘86. A significant minority of my HS class didn’t go to college, and there were only a handful of us interested in leaving the state (Georgia) or looking at private colleges.

A lot of my family members had gone to Carleton over the years and liked it. A few family friends had good things to say about Oberlin, Swarthmore, and Reed as well. I applied to and was accepted at all four, and went to Carleton. Such an easy process compared to now!

Just curious if you ever met a single other kid from GA at Carleton when you were there.

Have a friend originally from AZ that attended Carleton because he wanted to experience the most extreme winter he could find.

Yeah, I think there were 5 or 6 of us total from GA, and only 1 that I recall from AZ. There were a handful of students from boarding school who definitely seemed bitter at having ended up there, as well as one person from NYC who lasted less than a week. She said she’d underestimated her ability to deal with the lack of restaurants.

Supporting the notion that many of us did not do a lot of research re colleges back then, there was also a kid from rural MN who, when we were signing up for freshman classes in the auditorium, asked me if I knew where she could find the Intro to Hotel Management classes.

[Anonymous]

Duke/Emory 10 years ago. Ain’t upset about it