I applied (and was accepted) to Stanford, Cal, and UCDavis. UCD was my backup, since they'd all but told me I would be accepted before I even applied (apparently they liked me a lot from what they saw in my grades and SAT's?). Truth is, I love Stanford and couldn't really imagine having spent college anywhere else. Having said that, I would have ended up at UCD had I not gotten in because Cal just wasn't for me. I remember visiting and staying over and thinking to myself,
why am I here? This place doesn't fit me at ALL.
Had I been more adventurous about the weather and being away from home, I just might have filled out the application MIT sent me or applied to Princeton, Harvard, or Yale (or any number of places where it has freezing cold winters). Truthfully, though, I don't think I would have survived the freezing temperatures...and I knew it way back when I was applying, so I saved my parents the money on applications and ended up spending it on an education at a school 40 minutes from home. I don't regret it one bit.
