so if you don't mind me asking, what colleges did you apply and get into? :D

oooh boy... that was a long time ago! but lets see, off the top of my head, I was... accepted into College of William and Mary, waitlisted at Tufts and Northwestern (but was later accepted into Northwestern -___-), and deferred from UChicago. I don't think I was denied admissions anywhere, but no one wanted me first round either =( But to be quite honest, I was accepted early into Rutgers, and I pretty much gave up on some of my applications after that point... I think I always knew I would end up at Rutgers. Ironically, I didn't apply to any of the Ivy Leagues, or even NYU for that matter, because

1. I knew my family wouldn't be able to afford it (my dad made it very clear that I would be eventually footing the bill), and
2. A whole slew of the same AP kids I went to high school with were applying to those schools, and I wasn't excited about the prospects of going to COLLEGE with half of them - having competed with them throughout all of high school, I'd had enough of proving myself to other people, and didn't want college to be a continuation of that.

I'll admit, Rutgers was definitely not my first choice - I was looking for the textbook example of the quaint, academically-oriented private college with my small circle of equally nerdy friends. But what I found here at Rutgers is worth so much more than I think that could've ever given me - it gave me a chance to explore who I was beyond the books and the competition, to see what I was capable of. I found a HUGE network, an incredible set of friends and sisters I know I could always trust and fall back on, and I found a new perspective to look at myself and the people around me and the world I live in.

Sometimes I see the friends from my hometown that have gone on to attend the "desired" schools, and not changed or grown one bit. They still rely on each other as their main source of friendship, ever tied to their high school days and ways and perspectives. And while I still keep ties to them and join them whenever I can, I can't help but think what would've happened if I had joined them at their schools. Would I have been as inextricably tied and unwilling to push myself forward? Would I have been the same as I used to be, just a passive observer of the action that I wanted to partake in? (no dirty innuendos intended!) Or would I have found my way out of the shell of what I used to be, all the same?

HOLY CRAP that was a friggin essay LOL. Sorry if I went way past what your expectations were of this answer. But I tend to wax philosophical around this time of the year...

Ask away!