OT: What was your second choice school?

Southern Cal - have to imagine my life would have turned out very different 

If I did not get in, I guess CMU was my distant 2nd. Though, I'm glad I got in.

Cornell but couldn’t afford it.   Given that, If M hadn’t have worked out maybe Sparty or Syracuse...

U of Chicago. They had no chance once Michigan came through.

None. I applied to only Michigan. 

Early enrollment, I got in to UM before I applied anywhere else.

Michigan was stupidly my second choice. Got accepted to GMI in early September of my senior year, and thought I wanted to go somewhere completely different from everything else. Didn't help that my visit to Michigan sucked for a lot of different reasons, so I was a bit disenchanted.

 

Michigan Technological University

Naval Academy was first choice but Vietnam was over and all  of a sudden it got real competitive.  Not taking the ROTC scholarship at Michigan was probably the biggest mistakes of my life.

I didn't know much about life back then.  Michigan Tech was my second choice.  At the time, I had no idea why anyone other than a farmer would apply to Moo U.  

I got accepted to Michigan but living out of state my parents couldn’t afford for me to go.  I ended up at Purdue (Industrial Engineering Major) and was able to play baseball as well.  I was fortunate enough to get several scholarships to Purdue.  It turned out ok but I really wish I could have went Michigan.  

I was admitted into UofM, but I had narrowed down schools to Tennessee and Iowa because out-of-state was much more reasonable. Then, I received a last minute athletic scholarship to an in-state school.

I got a ration of shit from my counselor over only applying to one school. I freely admit thoroughly enjoying showing that twit my acceptance letter, received before Christmas vacation.

I applied to Michigan (Flint) but the only other option I had considered was Mott.

My parents were shop workers who never went to college (except for my dad taking an agricultural continuing education course through Michigan State). When my junior and senior years came around, they really didn't know what to do for me, and basically said "just pick something we can afford."  We weren't poor, but we weren't exactly flush with money for a top notch school either. 

In retrospect, I could have done something with scholarships, but again, it wasn't encouraged and really wasn't explained.  People kept saying "apply for scholarships" and I was like "Great! How?" and not much else was said (keep in mind that I graduated in 1992, so the Internet was in its infancy at that time). My school was a small private school; not a bad school, but they had their "pet colleges" they endorsed and played dumb with every other post-high school option. 

So I ended up going to UofM Flint. 

MSU. Only applied to two schools. Glad the first one worked out. 

After my first degree, I decided to head across the Atlantic and applied to a handful of US grad schools. Before they replied, I was awarded the annual exchange scholarship between my university (Queen's in Belfast, N. Ireland) and Michigan. For many reasons, it was a great year (1964-65) and a wonderful learning experience!  

Intended to keep heading west to Australia, but got side-tracked when I decided to check out Canada first. Met my wife, settled here, and raised a family. Never did make it to Australia.

Visited the campus with my grandson last fall (we beat Iowa). He would like to go to UM, but out-of state fees are steep (he lives in Illinois). But who knows?

Looking back, I recognize that I just took advantage of the most promising opportunities that opened up. And I was very fortunate.

I went to a community college for two years, then a friend and I went to EMU for a campus visit, intending to transfer there and room together. On our way back home we decided, for grins and giggles, to visit the Michigan campus. After seeing Angell Hall, the Law Quad and Michigan Stadium, we both decided to scrap Eastern. We only applied to Michigan. We both got in, but he decided to save money and live at home. He graduated from UM-Flint while I went to Ann Arbor. 

I applied to MIT and UNC. I was waitlisted at MIT but ultimately didn't get in. That was a blessing in disguise as I was able to graduate without an ounce of debt.

Applied at UM, Syracuse, Wisconsin (Looking back, I'm not actually positive I ever submitted the UW application), and EMU. Got into Syracuse and EMU, went to Syracuse.

I’ll let Tom Cruise sum it up:

https://youtu.be/mzN2z6MM_G4

Pretty sure I was the LAST person in off the waitlist my year. I think it was late April or something. I already had housing at U of I. It took me all of five minutes to change my plans. I got very lucky.

Vandy....

Georgia Tech was my second choice.

U of Washington was third.

Stanford. Fuck ‘em.

:0

No backup.  I only applied to Michigan.

Boston College. I actually used to root against Michigan because I was jealous of their success (I remember laughing hard about the Webber TO game).
 

That all changed once I got accepted into U of M of course! 

I only applied to MSU and Michigan. I got in to both but Michigan offered a partial scholarship so I choose Michigan. My daughter only applied to Duke, Northwestern and Michigan. She wanted to go to Duke but she only was accepted early enrollment to Michigan so she went to Michigan.  

Michigan was my first choice.  I was accepted / admitted, however I had zero money and zero support from my family.  Also, the program which I was interested in, Michigan was not very strong at time in.  So I passed on it and went to Central.  I often felt out of place at Central, though I had a good time there.