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Health & Fitness

College Advising: Does it Matter Where You Go to College?

April is the Cruelest month,” wrote T.S. Eliot in his poem The Waste Land, but the same is often said of college admission offers.  The one we wanted most is a crumpled rejection while the ones we agreed to to keep peace in the family are now our best choices. Oh, the indignity! Oh, the cruelty!

Of course we could use our time machines and zoom back to classes that seemed not to matter and … you know, study harder. Or we could zoom back to find our passions earlier and do a great service project with them. But we weren’t ready for either of those things so here we are… Choice A or Choice B.  What does it really matter anyway?

Every year I go to Cal Tech graduation because I have a minor job back stage that I take very seriously. During the down time, I read through the program.  Students who are awarded Phd.s at the number one technical institute in the country have come from all over. It is true that a majority come from MIT, Berkeley, UCLA, Carnegie Melon, and Yale, but many come from less erudite colleges such as The University of Arizona, The University of New Mexico, Arizona State University, Baylor, State University of New York, and even small liberal arts colleges such as Lafayette, and Saint Olaf College. One Phd. who graduated in biology in 2013 started at PCC, went on to Berkeley and then to Cal Tech where he earned his Phd. (You could do that!)

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Wherever you’ve been accepted can be the first step to a great and fabulous future. The choice is yours to embrace the education you’ll be given, do the most with it and think big. Second chances happen all the time and might happen to you too, if you find the inner drive to work hard and stay open to a fabulous future at your new favorite college!  (Choice B)

I’d love to hear your stories and your opinions on this topic.

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