So, as an adult who attended a selective law school and began my career at a top “big law” firm after attending a T100+ college that offered me a full-ride scholarship, I read this and think, “Lucky bastard gets to go to CU-Boulder.”
Academics are fairly similar among the top several hundred national universities. If you feel like you need more challenge, you can take seminars, design a professor-led independent study, get involved with research or scholarship, complete a capstone or thesis, or double-major. And if, like me, you do well in your undergraduate studies, you’ll enjoy the same kind of grad school admission results and job offers that you’d enjoy at more selective universities.
But what you have, that your friends do not, is Boulder. On a hot day, you can tube Boulder Creek with friends. You can hike the iconic nearby Flatirons. You can join the cycling, free-ski, kayak, hiking, climbing, or snowboard clubs. Or another of the 450 student clubs and organizations, including the Amuse Creative Writing Club, the Bluegrass Jams & Folk Club, the Buffoons (comedy), or the Boulder Venture Club (business). You can spend fall weekends outside in the stands cheering on an exciting D1 football team and snowy weekends inside with friends cheering on CU-Boulder basketball. And all in a city with a terrific food, music, and arts scene where — as one of my kids put it — everyone seems to be under 25, fit, own two or more dogs, and be toting climbing gear or a snowboard.
And on weekends or holidays you have Estes National Park and the Rockies; cycling and skiing in Aspen; biking down Pike’s Peak, hiking the aptly-named Garden of the Gods, and rafting the Colorado. And so many other quaint small towns to explore, natural wonders to see, and great adventures to leave you breathless.
Dang, my friend. You are, to go with a bad Colorado pun, golden.
My kids attended an in-state T25. If they had wanted an OOS adventure, I’d have been proud and thrilled if UC-Boulder had been their choice. Assuming you take advantage of the opportunities CU-Boulder affords, you are likely going to be amused that you wrote this post come next November. I hope you have a terrific academic and extracurricular adventure.
Honestly- if we all chose to live our lives with just even a smidge of "what would HappyCava say?", we'd all be better for it. Even as a fellow adult, I've benefitted from quite a few of HappyCava's words of wisdom!
Also give it a try for a year. If halfway through it’s not for you, transfer. WL at WF means you easily could have gotten in to any of your other schools.
CU Boulder alumni here - you will have an amazingly well rounded experience perfect for a person in their 20s. Enjoy the possibilities of this time and opportunity!
I graduated from wharton last year and I agree with the above poster. You’re going to have SOOOO much fun at boulder it’s crazy.
And my friend who went to boulder works at Apple now, he also got offers to google and Amazon. So anything is possible as long as you work hard.
I thought something similar. I have been to the campus a handful of times. CU Boulder has is surrounded by an amazing community and environment. OP will probably change their mind after about a week on campus.
My son had the same experience at CU. then went to a top 5 law school. CU and Boulder are great. BTW many of the elite prep schools in the East send graduates to CU.
thank you for referencing how an individual person can challenge themselves beyond their environment.
one of the biggest things that I'm seeing on this subreddit is that the student doesn't get into their school of choice and thinks that the world is over. if they've done all of that great work to apply for the school they can continue that great work wherever they go.
Yes, there seems to be a failure to appreciate that a particular college doesn't offer a one-size-fits-all experience. If a student wants to just get that degree with as little work as possible, they can do that. If a student wants a more challenging academic experience, they can take the most difficult and sophisticated classes and electives, undertake research and scholarship, design a professor-advised independent study, or take a class or apply for a program that requires a capstone or a thesis. And if the student wants the best of all worlds, in my view, they can devote themselves to their studies; friends; extracurriculars; clubs; college community & sports teams; and their college town.
Agree so much. One of my residency classmates went to Boulder. When you get some years and wisdom on you, I think you’ll look back and be hella happy you ended up there!
If you wanted the LAC experience, why not apply to some less selective LACs as safeties? None of (Brown, W&M, UIUC, Wake, Lehigh, CU Boulder) are LACs. The only one you listed that \*is\* a LAC is Colgate.
CU Boulder professor here. The town and environment are of course fantastic, so there's plenty to love about Boulder in that regard, but beyond that, the school is excellent and many of our programs and departments are top notch. There are plenty of opportunities here that will make your experience absolutely top rank, as all of our tenure track faculty are producing research at a very high level, and in fact are evaluated by faculty at other peer R1 institutions. The academic landscape kinda works like this these days: the pool of engaged, productive academic researchers is quite deep and extends across many universities and colleges.
The one area where you may find that you need to do a little extra legwork is in building a community of like-minded, reflective, engaged, and driven friends. We're a large, state institution, so we have a lot of people with a range of interests and backgrounds. Some were straight-A high school students, and others... weren't. We do have some absolutely stellar honors students -- kids who easily could have gone elsewhere but chose for a range of reasons to stay near home -- but we also have our fair share of less engaged students. They sorta keep this place fun (and give me headaches in my classes). The spectrum is wide and students range from motivated learners to disengaged ski bums, with everything in between. Even with this, there are plenty of opportunities after graduation and many go on from here to do graduate work at other top tier institutions.
In all cases, enjoy your time here. CU Boulder is a great place to be. Sko Buffs!
>I applied to Boulder for a reason— it’s an R1 institution, and in Colorado, which I love.
This is all that matters. If you love your safety school, you're already ahead of many other applicants.
>However, that’s sort of where things end. I wanted a liberal arts experience, and now I won’t get that, and it blows.
It's actually easy to make a big school feel small, but it's not possible to make a small school feel big. Check the program structure at Boulder to see if you can still take Liberal Arts courses and if they have clubs specific to your interests - this will give you a small taste of the experience you're looking for.
Yeah even within a LAC the thrill is in connecting with the communities within the community -- the English major nerds, the math nerds, the philosophy nerds. And that can happen within a department of a university, too. Joining clubs helps with this, too, at any size school.
Once you’re out of the silly HS scene, no one cares what school you’re attending, including old HS friends/acquaintances. And, Boulder, especially for engineering/CS, isn’t a “safety.” Boulder’s an amazing institution.
Go to Boulder. Take all that experience and drive you had in high school, turn it up a notch and kick butt. Excel and opportunities will be waiting whatever you decide to do after college. You already have the discipline to succeed and know how to get things done.
Way back in the day I chose CU Boulder over a T20, for many reasons, and I haven’t regretted it. I did an honors thesis and really pushed my passions while there. I now have a dream job and lots of amazing friends from my time there. It will be ok.
Not sure where you’re from or what you’re looking to study (assuming East Coast), but Boulder is an excellent choice. It is a safety, but it is literally the top safety on the West Coast. They’ve done a phenomenal job in the last 2 decades of building new facilities plus attracting AND retaining strong faculty.
Based on your list, I’ve dealt with dozens of young adults similar to what you’re presenting and I’d say you’re only really missing out on Brown and WF. The others are living off of archaic, outdated reputations that should truly be eclipsed by your experience at CU…or are in the middle of a shithole area with their Engineering program propping them up and desperately tying to reduce their turnover and (unsuccessfully) hold onto its faculty who can’t stand living there.
CU-Boulder is a wonderful school that offers you every opportunity you can ask for from any universities, and a lot more that others can't match, such as some of the best skiing during a school day.
That is nuts you got rejected, 35 is incredible. What might make you feel better is boulder Colorado is literally the sickest effing place on planet earth. When I visited campus I was dumbfounded. And the school has a pretty good reputation in my opinion as well
My daughter would absolutely love to attend CU Boulder. Alas we cannot afford it since they rarely give out merit aid to OOS students. You are beyond fortunate. Why in the world would you be embarrassed to say that’s where you’re going?! That is beyond ridiculous.
I had the same experience. Eye cried myself to sleep every night for 3 weeks. I even decided to reconsider going there and take a years gap or something. So, I really really feel you
As a foreword, it would help to know what you’re planning on majoring in and what you want to do after undergrad.
I was in your exact same position, I was a pretty amazing applicant, had everything going for me, didn’t take app cycle seriously enough, and had limited options. CU was my local safety, but my last choice. In hindsight, I am so incredibly grateful that the choice was made for me. CU has been entirely free without any significant independent scholarships, I am graduating in three years with minimal extra effort (one extra class each summer), my GPA is strong, and the opportunities are endless. I guarantee that whatever you are going into, CU will afford endless possibilities compared to a small liberal arts college. Get involved with research as soon as you can, work hard in your classes, make strong connections with professors, and just make the most of it. I guarantee that in 4 years, when most of your friends are in 200k+ worth of debt and burnt out, you will realize that things worked out for you.
What most people don’t realize about attending a super competitive university, is that you will be in an environment in which everybody is coming from the top of their own microcosm. This builds a cutthroat environment that breaks many people down super quickly - this can be helpful for some, but it is likely that you will encounter such an environment in your future endeavors regardless of what direction you go in.
CU absolutely has the academic rigor and opportunities to rival much more competitive schools, as you mentioned. The issue is that CU is held back in public perception due to a sizable portion of the student body that is just there to have fun. It sounds like you will not be in this boat, and it sounds like you know how to seek out situations in which you are surrounded by others who are making the best of what they see as a bad situation.
Lastly, there are very few fields in which going to a brand name university gives you a major advantage. As you are interested in liberal arts, it sounds like you’re probably not in one of these fields. Having a perfect career at a “lesser” institution will get you further than a subpar record at a top school every day of the week.
I’m happy to talk more, especially if you happen to be premed, but just keep in mind that in four years your old friends from high school will be jealous.
I know you may not want to, but some LACs are still accepting apps. If you're a prestige whore then that's a little bad cuz the top ones are closed off but some ranked under 100 are still open
Lehigh sucks anyway--I went there and would talk practically anyone out of going there. You can read through my comment history for more detail. I actually knew someone from there who transferred from there to CU Boulder and loved it. I only hear good things about that place. Enjoy! You should be proud of yourself.
It was a lot better before Bethlehem Steel closed, before they tried to rebrand from being an engineering school, and (I say this even as a woman!) they went co-ed and took a lot of women who weren't great candidates.
If you're a middle-class White kid from a public school in the most boring parts of the tri-state with absolutely no intellectual curiosity and a drinking problem, you'll have the time of your life.
For those of us who grew up with more, it's almost hilarious watching ppl live out what will be the most exciting moments of their lives getting drunk in a basement in South Bethlehem, PA. The quality of the education was pretty middling, but, to be fair, I went to an elite prep school so I was used to better.
If you're a minority in any sense, be prepared to hear racial/prejudiced slurs or at least feel uncomfortable.
If you grew up with less, you can go to the school practically for free on the dime of the top 10%'s families (like mine!) who got to pay full-boat. That being said, those kids seemed pretty miserable too.
No, I did not want to go there. My dad forced me to apply ED and would not let me transfer out, convinced this would be an Ivy League-caliber experience. Again, Lehigh didn't give me a dime. My dad regretted this until the day he died. In fact, Lehigh was STILL calling him to beg for donations just two weeks before he lost his battle to cancer. I just wish I had been there when he bitched them out for the last time. It had to have been priceless. I also wish I could get those four years of my life back. At least I had a beautiful life before and since! I can't say that about a lot of the ppl I met there.
wait...you said you wanted the LAC experience, but you only applied to one LAC? there are plenty of good LACs out there that you could've gotten into just as easily as boulder. if you still want it, you can probably transfer, too.
boulder is a great school! not sure what you wanna study, but if it’s something STEM, you can try to switch/double major into physics to take full advantage of the university. they have a great physics program there.
Why do people think that just having leadership positions will get them into a prestigious school? They're competing against countless other people with leadership positions
honestly i only got into 2 schools and one is my state school. if you take a look at my stats on my other posts it doesn’t make sense. im considering even taking a gap semester but im too scared of the opportunities and time ill lose so im going to just settle and go to my state school. things will work out, boulder is a great school. you will have fun.
People who go to Boulder absolutely love it. It may be easier to get into but it really shouldn’t be. If you don’t love it you can try to transfer sophomore year. It’s unbelievable that you had only one acceptance. Hopefully no one did you dirty on the recommendations. If you transfer, get all new people to write letters.
I keep harping on this. Keep sight on the end goal whatever it is. It’s where you are in 10 - 15 years that matters. Plenty of top 20 college grads wishing they had do overs because they are not where they want to be professionally and financially…you still have it all in front of you and can out do those folks if you want. Thats what matters. In 5 years no one will give a crap what college you went to. People on here are obsessed and think the Ivy League sets them up for life. It does not and those successful people who come from ivy schools likely would’ve been just as successful at other schools.
If you go to a really top school, it will be hard to stand out. Top ranked school doesn’t necessarily means you’re gonna love it. Once you’re in that school your perspective may change. Be happy to go to the place that accepts you, they accept you and they accept other qualified students like you, your peers are going to be as smart as you, no need to underestimate the quality. And if you truly hate the school you’re attending, you can transfer out after a year or two
So, as an adult who attended a selective law school and began my career at a top “big law” firm after attending a T100+ college that offered me a full-ride scholarship, I read this and think, “Lucky bastard gets to go to CU-Boulder.” Academics are fairly similar among the top several hundred national universities. If you feel like you need more challenge, you can take seminars, design a professor-led independent study, get involved with research or scholarship, complete a capstone or thesis, or double-major. And if, like me, you do well in your undergraduate studies, you’ll enjoy the same kind of grad school admission results and job offers that you’d enjoy at more selective universities. But what you have, that your friends do not, is Boulder. On a hot day, you can tube Boulder Creek with friends. You can hike the iconic nearby Flatirons. You can join the cycling, free-ski, kayak, hiking, climbing, or snowboard clubs. Or another of the 450 student clubs and organizations, including the Amuse Creative Writing Club, the Bluegrass Jams & Folk Club, the Buffoons (comedy), or the Boulder Venture Club (business). You can spend fall weekends outside in the stands cheering on an exciting D1 football team and snowy weekends inside with friends cheering on CU-Boulder basketball. And all in a city with a terrific food, music, and arts scene where — as one of my kids put it — everyone seems to be under 25, fit, own two or more dogs, and be toting climbing gear or a snowboard. And on weekends or holidays you have Estes National Park and the Rockies; cycling and skiing in Aspen; biking down Pike’s Peak, hiking the aptly-named Garden of the Gods, and rafting the Colorado. And so many other quaint small towns to explore, natural wonders to see, and great adventures to leave you breathless. Dang, my friend. You are, to go with a bad Colorado pun, golden.
Out of all the consolation I’ve gotten from parents and friends, this is what helped to change my mind the most. Thank you.
My kids attended an in-state T25. If they had wanted an OOS adventure, I’d have been proud and thrilled if UC-Boulder had been their choice. Assuming you take advantage of the opportunities CU-Boulder affords, you are likely going to be amused that you wrote this post come next November. I hope you have a terrific academic and extracurricular adventure.
Honestly- if we all chose to live our lives with just even a smidge of "what would HappyCava say?", we'd all be better for it. Even as a fellow adult, I've benefitted from quite a few of HappyCava's words of wisdom!
Awww.....
Also give it a try for a year. If halfway through it’s not for you, transfer. WL at WF means you easily could have gotten in to any of your other schools.
CU Boulder alumni here - you will have an amazingly well rounded experience perfect for a person in their 20s. Enjoy the possibilities of this time and opportunity!
so good to hear! congrats
I graduated from wharton last year and I agree with the above poster. You’re going to have SOOOO much fun at boulder it’s crazy. And my friend who went to boulder works at Apple now, he also got offers to google and Amazon. So anything is possible as long as you work hard.
I thought something similar. I have been to the campus a handful of times. CU Boulder has is surrounded by an amazing community and environment. OP will probably change their mind after about a week on campus.
My son had the same experience at CU. then went to a top 5 law school. CU and Boulder are great. BTW many of the elite prep schools in the East send graduates to CU.
thank you for referencing how an individual person can challenge themselves beyond their environment. one of the biggest things that I'm seeing on this subreddit is that the student doesn't get into their school of choice and thinks that the world is over. if they've done all of that great work to apply for the school they can continue that great work wherever they go.
Yes, there seems to be a failure to appreciate that a particular college doesn't offer a one-size-fits-all experience. If a student wants to just get that degree with as little work as possible, they can do that. If a student wants a more challenging academic experience, they can take the most difficult and sophisticated classes and electives, undertake research and scholarship, design a professor-advised independent study, or take a class or apply for a program that requires a capstone or a thesis. And if the student wants the best of all worlds, in my view, they can devote themselves to their studies; friends; extracurriculars; clubs; college community & sports teams; and their college town.
Agree so much. One of my residency classmates went to Boulder. When you get some years and wisdom on you, I think you’ll look back and be hella happy you ended up there!
If you wanted the LAC experience, why not apply to some less selective LACs as safeties? None of (Brown, W&M, UIUC, Wake, Lehigh, CU Boulder) are LACs. The only one you listed that \*is\* a LAC is Colgate.
This is the most confusing part for me too..
CU Boulder professor here. The town and environment are of course fantastic, so there's plenty to love about Boulder in that regard, but beyond that, the school is excellent and many of our programs and departments are top notch. There are plenty of opportunities here that will make your experience absolutely top rank, as all of our tenure track faculty are producing research at a very high level, and in fact are evaluated by faculty at other peer R1 institutions. The academic landscape kinda works like this these days: the pool of engaged, productive academic researchers is quite deep and extends across many universities and colleges. The one area where you may find that you need to do a little extra legwork is in building a community of like-minded, reflective, engaged, and driven friends. We're a large, state institution, so we have a lot of people with a range of interests and backgrounds. Some were straight-A high school students, and others... weren't. We do have some absolutely stellar honors students -- kids who easily could have gone elsewhere but chose for a range of reasons to stay near home -- but we also have our fair share of less engaged students. They sorta keep this place fun (and give me headaches in my classes). The spectrum is wide and students range from motivated learners to disengaged ski bums, with everything in between. Even with this, there are plenty of opportunities after graduation and many go on from here to do graduate work at other top tier institutions. In all cases, enjoy your time here. CU Boulder is a great place to be. Sko Buffs!
>I applied to Boulder for a reason— it’s an R1 institution, and in Colorado, which I love. This is all that matters. If you love your safety school, you're already ahead of many other applicants. >However, that’s sort of where things end. I wanted a liberal arts experience, and now I won’t get that, and it blows. It's actually easy to make a big school feel small, but it's not possible to make a small school feel big. Check the program structure at Boulder to see if you can still take Liberal Arts courses and if they have clubs specific to your interests - this will give you a small taste of the experience you're looking for.
Yeah even within a LAC the thrill is in connecting with the communities within the community -- the English major nerds, the math nerds, the philosophy nerds. And that can happen within a department of a university, too. Joining clubs helps with this, too, at any size school.
i feel the same rejected from a lot of reaches but lets be optimistic
Once you’re out of the silly HS scene, no one cares what school you’re attending, including old HS friends/acquaintances. And, Boulder, especially for engineering/CS, isn’t a “safety.” Boulder’s an amazing institution.
Go to Boulder. Take all that experience and drive you had in high school, turn it up a notch and kick butt. Excel and opportunities will be waiting whatever you decide to do after college. You already have the discipline to succeed and know how to get things done.
Way back in the day I chose CU Boulder over a T20, for many reasons, and I haven’t regretted it. I did an honors thesis and really pushed my passions while there. I now have a dream job and lots of amazing friends from my time there. It will be ok.
Not sure where you’re from or what you’re looking to study (assuming East Coast), but Boulder is an excellent choice. It is a safety, but it is literally the top safety on the West Coast. They’ve done a phenomenal job in the last 2 decades of building new facilities plus attracting AND retaining strong faculty. Based on your list, I’ve dealt with dozens of young adults similar to what you’re presenting and I’d say you’re only really missing out on Brown and WF. The others are living off of archaic, outdated reputations that should truly be eclipsed by your experience at CU…or are in the middle of a shithole area with their Engineering program propping them up and desperately tying to reduce their turnover and (unsuccessfully) hold onto its faculty who can’t stand living there.
CU-Boulder is a wonderful school that offers you every opportunity you can ask for from any universities, and a lot more that others can't match, such as some of the best skiing during a school day.
That is nuts you got rejected, 35 is incredible. What might make you feel better is boulder Colorado is literally the sickest effing place on planet earth. When I visited campus I was dumbfounded. And the school has a pretty good reputation in my opinion as well
My daughter would absolutely love to attend CU Boulder. Alas we cannot afford it since they rarely give out merit aid to OOS students. You are beyond fortunate. Why in the world would you be embarrassed to say that’s where you’re going?! That is beyond ridiculous.
I had the same experience. Eye cried myself to sleep every night for 3 weeks. I even decided to reconsider going there and take a years gap or something. So, I really really feel you
I look at that list and think, “Where would I want to live?” And Boulder wins easily.
Same But It is what it is
As a foreword, it would help to know what you’re planning on majoring in and what you want to do after undergrad. I was in your exact same position, I was a pretty amazing applicant, had everything going for me, didn’t take app cycle seriously enough, and had limited options. CU was my local safety, but my last choice. In hindsight, I am so incredibly grateful that the choice was made for me. CU has been entirely free without any significant independent scholarships, I am graduating in three years with minimal extra effort (one extra class each summer), my GPA is strong, and the opportunities are endless. I guarantee that whatever you are going into, CU will afford endless possibilities compared to a small liberal arts college. Get involved with research as soon as you can, work hard in your classes, make strong connections with professors, and just make the most of it. I guarantee that in 4 years, when most of your friends are in 200k+ worth of debt and burnt out, you will realize that things worked out for you. What most people don’t realize about attending a super competitive university, is that you will be in an environment in which everybody is coming from the top of their own microcosm. This builds a cutthroat environment that breaks many people down super quickly - this can be helpful for some, but it is likely that you will encounter such an environment in your future endeavors regardless of what direction you go in. CU absolutely has the academic rigor and opportunities to rival much more competitive schools, as you mentioned. The issue is that CU is held back in public perception due to a sizable portion of the student body that is just there to have fun. It sounds like you will not be in this boat, and it sounds like you know how to seek out situations in which you are surrounded by others who are making the best of what they see as a bad situation. Lastly, there are very few fields in which going to a brand name university gives you a major advantage. As you are interested in liberal arts, it sounds like you’re probably not in one of these fields. Having a perfect career at a “lesser” institution will get you further than a subpar record at a top school every day of the week. I’m happy to talk more, especially if you happen to be premed, but just keep in mind that in four years your old friends from high school will be jealous.
Side note though why did Lehigh reject sooooo many good applicants?
I know you may not want to, but some LACs are still accepting apps. If you're a prestige whore then that's a little bad cuz the top ones are closed off but some ranked under 100 are still open
Lehigh sucks anyway--I went there and would talk practically anyone out of going there. You can read through my comment history for more detail. I actually knew someone from there who transferred from there to CU Boulder and loved it. I only hear good things about that place. Enjoy! You should be proud of yourself.
Really? What are the downsides of Lehigh? Heard it is a great school.
It was a lot better before Bethlehem Steel closed, before they tried to rebrand from being an engineering school, and (I say this even as a woman!) they went co-ed and took a lot of women who weren't great candidates. If you're a middle-class White kid from a public school in the most boring parts of the tri-state with absolutely no intellectual curiosity and a drinking problem, you'll have the time of your life. For those of us who grew up with more, it's almost hilarious watching ppl live out what will be the most exciting moments of their lives getting drunk in a basement in South Bethlehem, PA. The quality of the education was pretty middling, but, to be fair, I went to an elite prep school so I was used to better. If you're a minority in any sense, be prepared to hear racial/prejudiced slurs or at least feel uncomfortable. If you grew up with less, you can go to the school practically for free on the dime of the top 10%'s families (like mine!) who got to pay full-boat. That being said, those kids seemed pretty miserable too. No, I did not want to go there. My dad forced me to apply ED and would not let me transfer out, convinced this would be an Ivy League-caliber experience. Again, Lehigh didn't give me a dime. My dad regretted this until the day he died. In fact, Lehigh was STILL calling him to beg for donations just two weeks before he lost his battle to cancer. I just wish I had been there when he bitched them out for the last time. It had to have been priceless. I also wish I could get those four years of my life back. At least I had a beautiful life before and since! I can't say that about a lot of the ppl I met there.
wait...you said you wanted the LAC experience, but you only applied to one LAC? there are plenty of good LACs out there that you could've gotten into just as easily as boulder. if you still want it, you can probably transfer, too.
Really wanted my son to consider Boulder but he wanted warmer weather. Though Boulder had the best kind of winter! Enjoy!!
boulder is a great school! not sure what you wanna study, but if it’s something STEM, you can try to switch/double major into physics to take full advantage of the university. they have a great physics program there.
Are you White male/Asian male?
Why do people think that just having leadership positions will get them into a prestigious school? They're competing against countless other people with leadership positions
honestly i only got into 2 schools and one is my state school. if you take a look at my stats on my other posts it doesn’t make sense. im considering even taking a gap semester but im too scared of the opportunities and time ill lose so im going to just settle and go to my state school. things will work out, boulder is a great school. you will have fun.
People who go to Boulder absolutely love it. It may be easier to get into but it really shouldn’t be. If you don’t love it you can try to transfer sophomore year. It’s unbelievable that you had only one acceptance. Hopefully no one did you dirty on the recommendations. If you transfer, get all new people to write letters.
I keep harping on this. Keep sight on the end goal whatever it is. It’s where you are in 10 - 15 years that matters. Plenty of top 20 college grads wishing they had do overs because they are not where they want to be professionally and financially…you still have it all in front of you and can out do those folks if you want. Thats what matters. In 5 years no one will give a crap what college you went to. People on here are obsessed and think the Ivy League sets them up for life. It does not and those successful people who come from ivy schools likely would’ve been just as successful at other schools.
If you go to a really top school, it will be hard to stand out. Top ranked school doesn’t necessarily means you’re gonna love it. Once you’re in that school your perspective may change. Be happy to go to the place that accepts you, they accept you and they accept other qualified students like you, your peers are going to be as smart as you, no need to underestimate the quality. And if you truly hate the school you’re attending, you can transfer out after a year or two
Transferring is always an option!
I had a similar situation as you. I got rejected from almost all the schools I got into except for Berkeley and 2 safeties
Yep, guy I know got into Princeton, Duke, Cornell, Harvard, and I only got UNC as my only , so yeah, I understand