Where did you get in? Where were you rejected?

Accepted at University of Toronto, Queens, Western, McGill, Laurier, McMaster, Guelph (Moo U), York U and Carleton U.

Went to U of T and never regretted it.

Also accepted for Law at U of T, Osgoode Hall, U of Manitoba and Queens.

For various reasons never pursued a law degree although I wonder to this day whether I should have

 

I help run the terrain park at Breckenridge Ski Resort. My official title is Day Crew Supervisor. I pretty much get paid to snowboard, supervise, test jumps, and do photo/video shoots. I know this isn't going to be what I'm doing 25 years down the road; hell, even five years from now, so I guess the old degree helps. I hope to be in marketing by that time (hopefully).

I just wish I would have moved out to Colorado when I was 18, not 26 to do this. There's some small schools out here and plenty of them in Denver. But 10 years ago I didn't know this is what I wanted to do. I wall jacked up on playing college baseball, not being a shred bum.

 

I think, to be a lawyer, much less a good one, you have to have an affinity for arguing a point of view. And, sorry, JR, but you just don't have that. ;D

 

If anything, this thread has reminded me how hung up people were on college acceptances in high school, particularly mine and the circle of friends I was in. One of those friends applied to Princeton early, he was our class VP, maybe a 1500 SAT, and was wait-listed. Kid went bonkers when he found out and wrecked furniture and trash cans in our newspaper office.
A shame, too, because he was forced to go to Yale, then Harvard Law. So pedestrian.


I was the black sheep of that group and didn't even bother with the Ivies. Accepted to Fordham, Rochester, my alma mater, Fairfield. Rejected from an honors program.

 

Accepted: Arizona, U of Rhode Island, Marist
Rejected: Florida

I was very close to going to Arizona. Then my parents and I figured I'd be spending an extra 8 grand a year to get the same education at URI.
I regret not experiencing college at Arizona for the hot chicks and insane party scene - or so I've heard. I would not pick differently. While everyone in the Ocean State thinks URI is their high school part II (sorry schieza, but RIC is much, much worse), I never hung out with anyone I at URI I went to high school and now the seven guys in my wedding party are all friends I've had since sophomore year.
Oh, and if I didn't go to URI, I would have never met the girl I thought I was going to marry, break up with her and meet the woman I'm marrying in sixth months.

 

I don't think I ever "applied" to the two schools I went to. I just decided to go there, showed up and signed up for classes.

Heck, I never took an ACT or SAT while in high school. I remember taking what I figured was an "entrance" exam at the first school. The second school I transferred to and graduated from was in the same state system, so getting in there was pretty much a slam dunk.

As for Zeke's question of would I do it over the same way? Hard to say. We all know so much more now than we did then. Sure, I could have decided to go somewhere else and into something else. And maybe I'd be mega-successful and sitting on a luxury yacht in the Caribbean. Then again, I might have gone somewhere else and flunked out. All I know is that the path I took introduced me to some friends I would never trade in for all the success and money in the world. And that, to me, is true success and worth more than money.

 

Accepted to: Kansas State, Emporia State and Fort Hays State. Couldn't really afford to go out of state and refused to apply to KU, land of the snooty letters "inviting me to apply to their school", even though they couldn't reject me because I had the requirements from the Kansas Board of Regents.
Rejected from: nowhere

I have no regrets. I sometimes wish I had applied to some other schools but I know I couldn't afford it. I got a great education and would not trade the friends I made there for the world.

 

Accepted to the only JC I applied to, which was a few blocks from my parents' house. Loved going there.
Accepted to the only four-year college I applied to, a half-hour away in the big city. Liked going there, but wish I had been more social. I was pretty career-oriented. But I wouldn't have wanted to go anywhere else.
It all worked out pretty well.

 

Accepted: Washington State, Syracuse, Ohio State, Purdue, Wisconsin, Hofstra
Rejected: None

I wanted to go to Syracuse or Ohio State, but the money wasn't there for me to go. I stayed in state, and I married the editor of my school paper. (I was the managing editor.) I made great friends. Heck, I might even go back for a master's (not in journalism, however).

 

Accepted: Local Community College, Nebraska, Nebraska-Kearney, Nebraska-Omaha, TCU
Rejected: None
Visited, Didn't Like: Doane, Chadron State

Ours is not a family of means, so in-state tuition was a big draw. Naturally, I went to TCU, going along with three girls who'd been friends since junior high. I also had eyes for places like NYU, Boston U, USC, and American, but that probably wouldn't have ended well.

If I knew then what I know now, I'd have given more thought to places like Iowa, Kansas, Northwest Missouri, Colorado, Colorado State and Wyoming. Still far from home, but close enough to not feel completely disconnected and more affordable than private schools.

 

Accepted: SMU, Rice, Tulane, Rhodes
Rejected: Stanford

For a long time, I regretted not following the family tradition of going to SMU. But then I realized how different my life would be. And while I sometimes hate this business, I have a pretty great life.

 

Accepted: Michigan State University, CMU, WMU, EMU and Oakland U.
Rejected: None.

I liked my school and made the right choice, but if I could go back and do it again I would have focused more on trying to get better grades and less on trying to get a swim scholarship. The schools I applied to wouldn't have worked out for me to swim at either because they were either way too good for me (EMU) or they didn't have teams (CMU).