Don’t sweat your Ivy League rejection, go to school down South

The students are happier and the weather is better


Why do so many students compete for the right to be cold and miserable studying at colleges up North?

If you’ve ever lived up North, you know better than anyone what “competition” really means. If you were lucky enough to go to high school there, you were tasked with growing up under pressure to be smart, talented, disciplined, successful, and most importantly, better than everyone else. Going to a great college was probably expected of you, and if you’re like me, you dreamed of studying at an Ivy League school.

At my high school in Connecticut, our lunchroom conversations were peppered with humble brags about how little sleep we got the night before, how “horrible” our essays were that we’d stayed up until 3am to write, and how we totally “failed” last week’s physics midterm on which we actually got a 90%. It was the perfect combination of any self-respecting Northerner’s favorite activities: complaining and letting everyone know how much harder you’re working than they are.

In sophomore year, I rolled into school one morning completely disheveled, but proud, showing off that I drank seven cups of coffee the night before so that I wouldn’t fall asleep. My friend and I had thought it necessary to pull an all-nighter in order to finish a history project, so naturally we’d agreed to a coffee drinking competition. Don’t worry. I won.

Keep in mind that behind these slightly concerning “brags,” many of us were taking handfuls of AP and honors classes and had been trained by teachers, parents, and peers to obsess over maintaining A’s in all of them. After school, most of us played at least one sport, worked a few jobs so that our college apps would reflect a little grit and tenacity, and volunteered building schools for communities in third world countries every summer. Some of us even played an instrument or two.

I’d spent all 18 years of my life living in New England thinking that a pretty toxic level of stress and competition was completely normal. And had I been accepted by any of the Ivy League schools I’d applied to, I probably would’ve spent another four more. Instead, I got a chance to study down South and see things a little differently for once.

To summarize what I’ve discovered while living down here, contrary to popular Northern belief, success doesn’t depend on how beaten down, stressed, and exhausted you are. When you’re living where the sun almost constantly shines and you’re surrounded by friendly, positive people, it’s actually possible to get kick-ass grades, work a job or two, and go out every so often while staying physically and mentally healthy.

Apparently, stone-cold discipline, sleepless nights, and unattainably high standards are not necessary ingredients for success. All you actually need is a little bit of sunshine, some good food, and a few friends who can make you laugh.

If you want to work hard and do great things, who says you’re not allowed to do them in 70 degree weather? When you’re studying down South, you get to learn what you need to know, earn your degree, and make lifelong connections without suffering in freezing conditions or buckling under the pressure to be the best at everything.

Not to paint with a broad brush, but the students I’ve met down South work insanely hard, are incredibly talented, and excel at what they do. They rarely complain about the long hours they spent practicing flute or the three days they went without sleep in order to study for Organic Chem. They smile and tell you how excited they are about what they’re working on. People here are happy. It might be from all of the vitamin D most of us Northerners grew up deprived of.

Save yourself the brain damage, the stress, and the fear of not being “good enough” and go to school down South. It’s one of the only places where you can work on becoming a neurosurgeon with a passion for gardening, world travel, and banjo playing without going clinically insane.