Going to college is an amazing, life-changing experience and people that make the decision to pursue a higher education should be supported regardless of what school they attend, which is why it frustrates me when people rag on others for not attending a "good" university.

As someone that attended a ridiculously high-achieving high school, it has always bugged me when my neighbors and former peers look down their noses at me because I attend WSU and don't spend $60,000 a year attending some renowned university.

I hate that they simplify the process of selecting a university to spend multiple years of your life down to the question of whether or not it is a "good" school. Not only is it pretentious, but it completely disregards the fact the people have very different lives, look for different things in a university, and come from different socioeconomic backgrounds.

What many of these people forget is that people look for very different things in a university. Some like large public schools while others prefer small private schools. Others look for schools in specific locations or within certain price ranges. Some look for a university that excels in the specific field they wish to study, regardless of the overall prestige of the university (fun fact: WSU has one of the best HBM programs in the country).

When I decided to go to WSU it was largely because I wanted to attend a large PAC-12 school with the feel of a college town while avoiding a significant amount of debt. They had programs that interested to me and I felt that living somewhere drastically different from my hometown was a new and exciting prospect. WSU's reputation as a party school and nickname of "Washington's Stupid University" did nothing to deter me from committing to WSU, as it shouldn't, as I felt that WSU and Pullman were where I wanted to be for the next four years. What matters most should not be which school you decide to attend but what you do once you are there.