Where did you get in? Where were you rejected?

Accepted: Troy, Auburn, 'Bama, University of Montevallo
Rejected: None

Went to Montevallo on a baseball ride, played one year, partied, flunked out and lost my scholarship.

Wound up at Ye Olde George Corley Wallace Community College for two years.

About seven years later I finished at Ole Miss.

 

Accepted: Mizzou, Missouri-St. Louis, Truman State, Marshall.
Rejected: not me!

Not sure I'd attend the same place if I had it to do over again.

 

Accepted: Arkansas State, Arkansas, Lyon College (small private in Arkansas), Ole Miss, Missouri, Central Arkansas, Memphis

Rejected: Stanford (only because I wanted to go there when I was a kid but I knew I had no shot).

I ultimately attended Arkansas State because I lived in Jonesboro, AR my entire life and they paid for the tuition. Arkansas was my first choice but ASU was willing to pay for everything and Arkansas wasn't. I was really wowed by Lyon College but the cost of going to a private school was something my family could not afford.

If I could do it over again I would pick Missouri and try to get in the Journalism school. When I originally started college I had no intention of being a journalist (high school history was my career choice), but that changed after my sophomore year. ASU is still a good journalism school, although its better known for its Radio/TV department.

 

I wasn't rejected. Had to choose between Williams and Wesleyan. Picked Wesleyan. Best decision I ever made, and it was a close call -- they're both wonderful schools.

 

Accepted: Central University of Iowa (now Central College), University of Iowa
Rejected: None

I looked around at a lot of schools, including a few in Florida, but decided to stay in Iowa. I was accepted by Central early in the spring of my senior year, but Iowa didn't give me it's OK until a week before I left for preseason football camp.
Though Central was, and still is, private, I wound up actually paying less to go there.
Loved Central. I wouldn't change going there if given the chance.

 

Accepted: University of Rhode Island
Rejected: Brown

My mom works at URI, and part of being a state worker means you get free tuition. While I still ended up with about $12k in debt - I still had to pay for room and board, student fees, etc. - it saved a significant amount of money, and I knew I could get in, so I didn't really look at other schools.

I applied for Brown because they sent me a brochure after getting a report of my SAT scores. However, they were apparently less enamored with my HS GPA, which was something like a 2.4. I can absolutely demolished standardized testing - I qualified for MENSA as part of a first person journalism story a few months ago - but actual class work is mind-numbing to me. So, I empathize with the person who said they never went to class. I didn't either, because I was spending the time to work on the college newspaper or do my reporting internship instead.

 

Absolutely. Plus WSU had a lot more to offer like top-5 Comm school (though I later learned the strength was broadcasting which makes sense since Edward R. Murrow went there), a solid honors program and more. Plus being 300+ miles away from home sounded better than being 30 miles from home at that age.

 

Accepted: Northeastern and Davidson as frosh, Providence and George Washington U as transfer.

Rejected: nowhere, but had the essays for seven college applications "misplaced" by a bumbling guidance counselor who insisted that I apply through him rather than send out apps myself.

Looking back I'm glad I went to Northeastern and might've stayed but I wish that I worked harder in high school. I ended up with a little over 3 GPA which is a lot less impressive than it used to be, crushed the ACT/SATs, and probably should've thought out my college choices a lot more than I did.

I love GW despite all its faults but when you have to work 20 hours a week on top of taking loans it basically makes an internship impossible. Unfortunately most internships in DC during the school year are 30-40 hr/wk commitments. That and I wanted to play a sport and sleep more than four hours a night.

 

UNDERGRAD
Accepted: Ball State, Franklin College
Rejected: None

LAW SCHOOL
Accepted: Michigan, Notre Dame, Indiana, Illinois
Rejected: Harvard, University of Chicago, Columbia
Took myself off the waiting/hold list: UCLA, Vandy, Duke, Northwestern

I would and wouldn't do it differently if I had to do it all over again. Starting with a clean slate, I would probably shoot higher in undergrad. I knew I wanted to be a sports writer, but underestimated the value of a degree from somewhere like Northwestern or Mizzou or an Ivy - or even the experience of covering sports at a name Big Ten school (like Indiana or Wisconsin or Illinois).

 

Reading this thread makes me realize I'm too damn stupid to be here if you people are getting into Ivys and Virginia and Michigan and Northwestern and I had to beg George Fucking Asshole Mason to give me a second look.

 

This feels like a long time ago, but I believe I got into American, Boston U and a host of SUNYs, including my alma mater (New Paltz). I really wanted to go to American or BU, but my parents said they would pay the equivalent of a state school and I'd be on the hook for the rest. So, New Paltz it was. Fifteen or so later, I'm eternally grateful, not only because I have no loans, but because New Paltz was a great school for me. It's got an artsy, hippie reputation, and while I'm neither, I did find it was quite possibly the most accepting place I've ever been. I didn't drink, smoke or do drugs, and that was never an issue with anyone. People would invite me to play drinking games, subbing water for alcohol, and would laugh just as hard when I was about to burst from drinking so much as they would at their own drunken antics. Plus, it is beautiful country there.