I was told I would become an astronaut and that by the time I finished these courses I would have built my own personal spacecraft that I could keep! This is a statement similar to what I have heard from some students. The subject matter has been changed to protect the innocent. When you hear something like this though, you have to wonder, did somebody really tell them something like this or did they concoct a perception in their own mind of where this training would take them? I know that admissions reps are charged with the responsibility of recruiting a certain number of students and that they are typically going to paint the most attractive picture they can, but how do I know if a student is exaggerating or if a rep really did cross the line? In most cases, my feeling is that it is most likely a little of both. What I have seen though is that all it takes is for one student to make a statement like that, aloud in class, and there is a visible negative impact on many of the other students. If the student really was told he would become an astronaut, it is difficult to convince him that greasing the axles on the shuttle transport vehicle is an acceptable substitute. I sometimes use an analogy something like this: Attending the finest music school in the world can not guarantee that you will be a rock star, but it certainly won't hamper your efforts to get there. In addition to that, there are quite a few "astronauts" who graduated from this school.