For many students here, Northwestern was not their first choice. Everyone at NU jokes about how many of our students were not accepted into the much lauded Ivy League.

And it’s at least partially true. According to a 2007 survey of incoming freshman, NU was not the first choice of nearly 40 percent of students.

NU was my first choice and, actually, my only choice. I did not apply, let alone even consider attending, any of the Ivies, because I didn’t think I had a chance of getting in.

But here I am, on my Journalism Residency in New York, just eight months away from graduation and, throughout my three years as an NU student, I never thought anything negative of our student body. I always thought the key-shaking at football games, the “state school” chants and the constant campus-wide worrying about our rankings accompanied attending any school of NU’s caliber. At least until last weekend when I visited Yale.

I went to Yale with two expectations: the campus would be absolutely beautiful and the people would be utterly pretentious. Turns out the campus was incredible, but the people were completely normal.

I spent the day with a good friend from high school, and she introduced me to nearly 20 people throughout the day. All of them were extremely friendly and down to earth, neither overtly nerdy nor the least bit pretentious. In fact, Yale felt like a much happier place. Though I did see a large bunch of people studying in the library at 1 p.m. on a Saturday, this isn’t out of the ordinary at NU, considering we have free tickets to football games in an attempt to fill Ryan Field’s student section. And Yalies know how to party, too. Two words: naked parties.

Then at the end of my trip, I had a conversation with five students about how they don’t tell people outside of Yale where they go to school. Instead, they tell people they go to school in Connecticut. They said they don’t even take their Yale hoodies home with them. This floored me. Here are students who go to one of the best schools in the country, and they don’t flaunt it, let alone mention it to anyone. They told me that people automatically treat them differently when they know they go to Yale. And rather than allow someone to prematurely judge them, they feel it’s better not to talk about where they go to school, regardless of how privileged they are to attend such an institution.

On my way back to the city, I realized that NU students suffer from a lack of perspective. We’re constantly worrying about where we stand in the national rankings. We’re very cliquey. We wear our Northwestern hoodies even when it’s not that cold. We walk down Sheridan Road with our headphones and don’t say a word to anyone on our way to class. And when we tell people we go to NU, we’re always ticked when they think we go to school in New England. This lack of perspective seems to stem from an inferiority complex amongst students who they feel the need to impress people because Yale didn’t want them.

And to all of you, look, I understand your hard feelings. Yale really was amazing. But as one Yale student told me, college admissions is a “crapshoot.” We all know it, so let’s just get over it. Many people are here because NU was their first choice, their perfect fit. Whether you realize it or not, you’re bringing the rest of us down. NU is not Yale, nor will it ever be. It’s about time everyone stops complaining about how they weren’t accepted into the Ivy League and embrace what we have here. Because really, it’s my senior year and I don’t want you all to ruin it.