I went to Brooklyn College as an education major. It was a big deal in the family, but really, I was living for Mom and Dad.
I don't wanna learn about more science and math. That's not why I'm going to college.
When I moved to New York out of college, that was my goal. To be a stage actress. And to do dramatic works. Like 'Madea', and 'Night, Mother', and 'Sam Shepard', and all that kind of stuff. That's what I really wanted to do.
I was completely unqualified to get into Harvard. But then I went to my interview for Harvard, and the woman asked, 'Why do you want to go here?' And I took out all of my comedy writing samples that I had done. I couldn't have been more delusional in terms of what I thought they wanted in a candidate for college.
The resources of a university, of a college, should not be wasted in merely academic pursuits.
I was packing to go to Columbia University, and they told me that weekend that I got the 'Pitch Perfect.'
Education was a big focus for me, before the show and during the show. I applied to four or five colleges and universities and got into three and was planning on going.
I got into the Shanghai Drama Institute because my parents, like all parents, want their children to have good grades and to go to a good college. I became a college student because of them.
I really love Duke. My plan going in is to stay four years.
Athletes who take to the classroom naturally or are encouraged to focus on grades should be able to do well in the classroom. I believe the reason you go to college is to get your degree. It's not a minor league or an audition for the pros.
It was always my dream, to do a leading role on Broadway. It's what I went to college to do, in hopes of one day someone taking a chance on me and saying, 'You know what? You're going to be our girl.'
I thought about going to NYU film school - that was this ideal to me. But I didn't make any kind of grades in high school.
My undergraduate years at the University of Nebraska were a special time in my life: the combination of partying and intellectual awakening that is what the undergraduate years are supposed to be. I went to the university with the goal of becoming an engineer; I had no concept that one could pursue science as a career.
I went to Columbia University because I knew I wanted to go to a school that was academically rigorous. I prided myself on getting good grades, but I also hated it.
People would ask what college are you going to, and I'd say, 'San Diego State.' And they'd say, 'Why?'
By the time I got to George Washington University, I had been a straight-A student in high school.
I didn't have good grades until I started dancing, because I didn't try - I didn't see the point. Once I realized why I wanted to go to college, I started to study and do well. I knew I had to have a certain GPA to get in.
It occurred to me in my junior year of high school. I got my first letter from a big college. I still have that letter to this day - a letter from Indiana.
In spite of the fact of my dad telling me that if I did well, I could go to the military, I said, 'No, I want to go to college.'
I just thought Harvard sounded great. So let's see if I get in. I didn't really have a big back-up plan.
My parents weren't stereotypical and pressuring me to go to college. They mentioned it a lot and constantly, but it wasn't a do or die thing, like, 'You have to do this or you're done.'
What college is all about is some kind of 4-year game about who is going to end up with the highest grades. And I don't mean to say that academic achievement isn't important. But it is, after all, a means to an end.
I was planning that whole athletic slide into Stanford rather than actually getting a 1450 on my SATs.
Although professors regard improving critical thinking as the most important goal of college, tests reveal that seniors who began their studies with average critical thinking skills have progressed only from the 50th percentile of entering freshmen to about the 69th percentile.
I wanted to get out of Ashland, and I thought it would be pretty cool to go to school in the East. So I asked my guidance counselor what Ivy League schools were. And I applied to Harvard, Yale and Dartmouth - that was it. My guidance counselor told me I wouldn't get into an Ivy League school. So as my act of resistance, that's all I applied to.
