PSA: If you say “ivy or bust” unironically you likely are hoping to use an ivy to fill an empty personality
For all the high schoolers who say it’s Ivy or bust I want you to know there’s an extremely high likelihood The reason you say this is not because it really would genuinely be important for you and your goals, it’s most likely based on validation because there’s a hole in your heart. If you go to an Ivy, your parents won’t love you anymore than they do now, the comparisons will just get more granular or in many cases is switched to different things. You won’t start suddenly getting popular or cool, at most you’ll have a single year of atta boys and then the unpopularity will start all over again. For a large percentage of you, especially though who apply to 30+ schools, the entirety of your focus is finding a purpose, as if a stamp from the school suddenly make your life worth something. I’ve met plenty of losers who were from Harvard, in fact they’re more likely to be losers because a lot of them use Harvard as the only positive thing they’ve done in their lives.
There are some people who an elite school genuinely would matter to them and their goals. But no, I’m not talking about those who wanna do investment banking or become a lawyer or whatever other high paying career because the money is really the thing that these kids are using to try to make meaning of their lives. This shit ain’t YouTube, you going up to your mom with $100,000 check won’t make her stop roasting you on something else.
I say this as an older person who’s sick and tired of all the talk because high schoolers are just larpers. I’ve met hundreds of bankers who quit because they realize their entire pushing on themselves was worth nothing because at the end of the day they weren’t that guy. Most of y’all aren’t. And that’s completely OK.