-_- continuation of hs .. 13th grade?? (another help me decide thread)

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Ok so there's about a week left to decide where to go. I've narrowed my choices down to UCB, UCLA and NU. A "brief" summary of pros and cons, with an emphasis on location @_@; mostly for berkeley</p>

<p>UCB
would major in economics/polisci/english/philosophy with the intent to apply to haas. so double major busadmin+something else..probably
So berkeley is located about 30 minutes away from my house. And as a guesstimate, a huge number of people from my high school is going to ucb (~50-100). If i do matriculate to berkeley, i would room with a friend from hs. We're not like bff or anything and I think we're relatively unattached to each other so it would allow me to make new friends. However, some of my really good friends are also going to berkeley and we're probably going to visit each other and hang out in college, which i think may impede my ability to make new friends. And its likely that someone i know will be on the same floor as me x_x or have the same class as me gheck. 13th grade?? Oh and a relative of mine also attends Berkeley. Currently this is my biggest reservation about going to berkeley. I feel socially secure and relatively placid and unexcited about going to berkeley (compared to going somewhere new). Would it be better if i forced myself out of the comfort zone and went somewhere completely different? Or will it not matter very much and I should just go to berkeley because I like it. </p>

<p>UCLA
no idea what i would major in. bizecon?
I was actually going to visit today but due to complications D: It's postponed and may not even happen. However, I did live at UCLA for two weeks during a summer camp and did not think it was that fantastic, but i think it's more telling to visit a college when classes are in session. A lot of people I know are going to choose/have chosen UCLA over other good schools and there are other people i know who didn't like UCLA and went somewhere else. So i kind of want to see it @_@ who knows maybe ill love it and go there. If anyone has visited, please share your thoughts!</p>

<p>NU
double major in industrial engineering and management science/economics
Completely out of comfort zone. Maybe I will die of a midwest culture shock but maybe i'll like it a lot. i plan to visit next week @_@ although i have heard bad things about teh admin and their website/visiting policies etc have not improved my impressions. But basically teh polar opposite of going to berkeley, in terms of ppl i know. If anyone can offer info on the NU environment, please post !</p>

<p>Ok so this is a huge long post and teh info on northwestern and ucla was not that importnat. But basically if it were based on academic program alone, i would pick berkeley mainly because its strong in a wide variety of majors in case i decide to change majors. Also it has a really strong b major. But my greatest concern is the large number of people i know who are going to berkeley. I am actually at the moment okay with that but I think maybe in the long run it will be better for me to have gone somewhere completely new, made new friends, etc? Should this factor even be important (will the sheer size of berkeley's 2012 class mitigate/eliminate the impact?) Or is it a really good thing to maintain high school connections?? ugh help!! ._.</p>

2

<p>I understand completely your concerns. You should definitely go to Berkeley. Room with someone else (a stranger picked almost at random) if you want to get out of your comfort zone. Or go for a triple with two strangers you don't know. Berkeley is a huge campus with so many different things going on, there is plenty of opportunity to make new friends if you want. </p>

<p>Going to UCLA or NU just to try something new doesn't make sense.</p>

3

<p>I completely disagree, how does that not make sense. That's one of the most important things to get out of college. Obviously though, if you end up disliking NU, then don't go there.</p>

<p>If you do like it when you visit, and money isn't an issue, then you should consider it.</p>

4

<p>I mean, if neither UCLA nor NU is really appealing to you (which appears to be the case), and you really want to go to Berkeley (which appears to be the case), but you the only thing holding you back is the fear of being around too many people you already know, that's not a good reason to reject Berkeley. You just need to go to Berkeley and make a concerted effort to get involved with new things and new people. On a campus as large as Berkeley's, that's not hard to accomplish.</p>