What was your second-choice school?

I picked Tennessee over Auburn and LSU. Guess you could say I like football.

What's funny is I visited the College of Charleston and didn't think there was any way I would pass, so I stopped considering it. Little did I know at least two of the three schools I really thought about (don't know about Auburn) make it really hard to pass your freshman fall semester with everything going on. Somehow I made it to my sophomore year.

 

Cal, but I couldn't fathom not seeing a prof until my junior year, couldn't deal with having to change my major (no comm/journalism major) and didn't want to take classes with 800 of my closest friends.

After going to a commuter school with the college atmosphere of a business park, I've probably regretted this decision more than anything else.

 

My 2nd choice was Middlebury College in Vermont (great Russian Studies department, and I was seriously considering foreign service).

 

The first time around, Memphis (State) was my safety school. It was the furthest I could get from home and still pay in-state tuition. When I went back to finish a couple of years ago, Jacksonville State was No. 2 with a bullet.

 

I went 5-for-5 on applications. Missouri, Drake, Marquette and Texas Christian were the "other" schools.

 

I went 3-for-3, attended my first choice, then transferred to my third choice.

I went to grad school at my dream school, the one I didn't even bother applying to for undergrad for distance/financial reasons.

 

Thanks to my dear, old domineering pops, I only had one choice and therefore one application: Purdue. I dropped out after a few semesters before heading off to the school that would become my alma mater.

My first two choices out of high school would've been Cal-Berkley and Michigan, had they been options. I toyed with the idea of going to Wabash or Depauw just so I could play in the Monon Bell game. Then I realized that was a stupid reason to choose a college, particularly an all-male one in the case of Wabash.

 

The College of Charleston was my second choice and most days I wish I had gone there.

 

Second choices: University of Portland and Valpo

 

I was offered a scholarship to Point Park College (now University) in Pittsburgh.

That seemed a long way from my home, though, and I was barely 17 when I started college.

My dad had a heart attack after I got out of high school, so I'm glad I stuck around and went to school in my hometown.

My second choice should have been Rhode Island School of Design. As pointed out previously, I coulda been a Talking Head!

 

Second choice was San Diego State. If I'd gone there, I might still be sitting on the beach down there. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

I gave it a lot of thought, but then decided to see what the Midwest was like. It was cold, except when it was really hot.

 

Cool topic, especially with colleges starting up soon.

My backup was Central Connecticut State University. Yes, I re-define the suck.

I was quite familiar with it since both my parents graduated from there and since two of my best friends went there...one of whom would host us in her dorm room every Thursday for keg parties. Which was funny since CCSU was a dry campus *cough* bullshit. It also met my criteria--Division I school so I could say I covered a D-I athletic program; CCSU just barely qualified.

Plus, the school I wanted to attend was far more expensive, so I knew my parents--who initially said they wouldn't pay for my sister or I to dorm at an in-state school other than UConn, and since everyone I knew from high school went to UConn, there was no way in hell I was going there--would eventually bend and allow me to dorm there and get out from their totalarian reign.

Alas, I was as eager to attend CCSU as I was to get a raging case of herpes. Nothing against the school, but the out-of-state alternative was so much more enticing. The day I learned I got into my first choice still ranks as one of the five best days of my life. As soon as I told my parents, my mom started making a list of things we had to do before I left. This was February, I left at the end of August.

The school I ended up attending wasn't nearly as good as it was portrayed, but I immersed myself in student life and it felt like my friends and I had the campus to ourselves over the weekend. It was a commuter school (just like CCSU) and a majority of those who lived on campus packed up for the weekend. Fine by me. There was plenty of fun to be had and those that left were just missing out.

Met my wife at college, and more than 10 years after graduation  :-\ we still hang out with the same group of friends we had back then. No regrets at all.