I loved college, too. Of course, my small town high school experience was so stifling that almost any college probably would've been an improvement, but going to a fairly big college in a great big city was heavenly for me--a whole new world at my fingertips.

Of course, if I had it to do over again, I would've majored in history rather than marketing, taken French instead of Spanish for my language requirement, and spent a bit less time in my Christian fellowship group and instead done something like band or an a cappella group, but I can't blame Penn for the fact I didn't know I was going to grow up to be a mainline rather than a fundamentalist Christian or an aspiring historical novelist who'd find proficiency in French handy for research.

David is me. Except I didn't drink beer.

Megan is me. Except she's way prettier and she doesn't drink beer.

I applied to four colleges and got into two (the other two being, honestly, sort of out of reach for me), one of which was my top choice, NYU. But it wasn't very ... college-y. It was a decent school, but most of the freshman I knew were excited about being the city and finding so many bars that served minor. I grew up twenty miles from NYC and had been hanging out in the Village (and drinking) since high school, so it was sort of a letdown.

Later I went to Hunter, also in the city, but I was living with Stephen by then and not really looking for the whole "college" experience. I mostly feel like I didn't have one in the traditional sense.

::blushes::

1987. Applied to 5, got into 4, probably for the best that I didn't get into the 5th because I would've gone and it wouldn't have been nearly as good as the place I ended up. Had "college experience" in spades, including beer.

I had the same type of college Hec describes, but I despised most of my fellow students and the tiny town we were in and the culture shock was so great that I didn't get as much out of it as I could have. On the other hand, I got a very well-rounded theater education, which was what I wanted.

If I did it again, I would have tried to go to a college in a big city, so interning and seeing theater would have not been so difficult, as well as cutting down on the spoiled suburban legacy kids.

Congratulations on the job, meara! Seattle will be lucky to have you (while the rest of the country pouts).

Happy anniversary, Susan and Dylan!

Happy, happy moving-in-together, Tep!

I applied to one school. I knew I'd get in, knew I could afford it and had a great time while getting a decent education.

Dude. McGill.

Totally rocked.

I applied to the 5 universities in the UK, and got into 4 (I never bothered to show up to the interview for the #5 because it was in a different city and Oxford had already given me an offer I'd be pretty sure to hit). I applied to 4 or 5 US universities and got into 1 which told me they wouldn't give me any money, but they'd be happy to have me anyway. I applied to 2 in Canada and got into both--Waterloo is way better for Comp Sci, but that's mostly why I didn't go. Their acceptance letter was so geeky that my fillings ached.

Dude. McGill.

I got into all but one of the colleges I applied to (waitlisted at that one), but it came down to my top two choices, and I had a hard time deciding.

Basically, I figured I'd be more normal if I went to Georgetown and had to be around all the preppy people I didn't have much in common with, and had to fit in to that. I figured if I went to UChicago, there'd be more quirkiness, and I would express my weirdness to the max.

I think that probably worked out like I planned, but I'm not saying it was necessarily a good plan. I was a pretty big geek in high school, though, and I...hide it better now?

I had a good time, and it was very much the traditional college experience, but I still wonder what my life would be like if I'd gone somewhere else. But that's more a "what if?" and less an "OMG bad choice"