As May rolls around, so does decision day. A day for all seniors to announce what college they are committing to: stressful and exciting. At South, we will see seniors sporting shirts with Cornell, Duke, Oxford and other schools of that caliber’s logos. We will also see seniors in Oakland University and Central Michigan University shirts. All of these schools have the potential to offer students an exceptional experience.

What makes an Ivy League university appealing to many students is the guarantee of an excellent education. As seen in the hit show “Gilmore Girls,” Rory Gilmore and Paris Geller, high school students at a private high school, work themselves tirelessly for 4 years in hopes of getting into an Ivy League. Leading clubs, retaking the SAT multiple times striving for a 1600, joining sports, and having above a 4.2 GPA are all things that Rory Gilmore and Paris Geller did to achieve the acceptance letter from Yale. The main motivation for this relentless studying: reputation. The reputation of these schools are what drives hundreds of thousands to apply each year.

When attending an Ivy league school, you are subject to benefits that other schools may not have to offer to students, that is a given. Students will have access to highly educated professors, most of which have attended prestigious universities themselves. Students will be surrounded by peers that worked just as hard to get there, leading to constant academic competition and pushing students to work hard. Once students have completed their education, there will be an infinite web of opportunities from alumni. But all of this can only be possible if you put in the work to get the results.

These highly selective schools may be sought after, they should not be the absolute end goal for all students. Although universities like Oakland and Central Michigan may not offer all the same resources, students are still given an exceptional education. Professors have backgrounds from all over the world and all levels of education. In the 1997 Oscar winning movie “Good Will Hunting,” two of the main characters are college professors, one from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a highly competitive school, and one from Bunker Hill Community College, a local community college. By the end of the film, it is clear that the professor at the community college is at par, if not above, the MIT professor when it comes to the art of teaching. This attests to the fact that there are great resources anywhere. Schools with high acceptance rates can still offer a wonderful education to whomever is applying: it matters if students are willing to put in the work to get the results.

Although prestigious schools may seem like the more appealing option, the experience all depends on what the student is willing to do. If a student attends a prestigious university but is barely passing their classes and doesn’t put in the effort, the outcome of their education will be incredibly different than an overachieving student at a less competitive school. The outcome of any education is the amount of work students are willing to put into it.