Well, it's not really as bad as some of these folks might be making it seem - the ones who say that what matters is what you can do more than where you went to

Well, it's not really as bad as some of these folks might be making it seem - the ones who say that what matters is what you can do more than where you went to school are more right than wrong. If anything, you'll worry more about your own "lower tier" education than anybody you actually work with. There'll be a few snobs, but their opinions won't matter enough to hurt you. I started taking classes in community college while I was still in high school (they had a special program for kids with an aptitude for math and science), and had completed an associates degree from a "junior college" before I finished high school. Only thing was, my two-year degree GPA was nothing to brag about at that point. Maybe if I was smarter, I would have just started back over as a freshman at a four-year university, but I wasn't either that smart or that motivated, so I transferred to a four-year college that would accept me with the academic transcript I had. (Also one close to home). Although I managed to bring my GPA up before I graduated, I still went to a college that doesn't even show up on the "US News and World Report" list of the "smart people" colleges. I don't think it's really hurt me; it might have slowed me down just a bit and cost me some opportunities that I'll never know I would actually have had, but I'm very comfortable where I am - don't sweat it, study hard, learn a lot, and enjoy being young.