<p>Hi Everyone, and thanks in advance for your help. I am a New Zealander with American Citizenship and will be attending university in the US as part of the class of 2013.
I applied to 7 universities: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, MIT, Columbia and University of Chicago, and was accepted by all except Harvard, where I was waitlisted.</p>
<p>I am looking for any advice as to which of these would be best based on the following parameters (I have to make my own decision on what is best for me but would love to have some varied perspectives). The following things are quite important in my decision:</p>
<p>Location: I would like to be in or near a Major city.
Major: I want to be able to do a mixture of Economics, Mathematics and possibly Politics and Ethics. Both the availability of such a customised degree and the quality of the Undergraduate department in that area are of importance.
Core Curriculum: I want quite a bit of flexibility to choose what specific papers I take as part of any core curriculum (i.e. pick a language instead of take a specific language, same applies for language etc.)
Community: Ideally I would like quite a communal feel as opposed to a college where everyone is completely on their own.
Accessibility of Professors to Undergrads and Overall School focus on Undergrad: As an undergraduate, the ability to talk to and be taught by the people who are the very best in their field is very important as are undergraduate privileges to access all facilities.
Extra Curricular Clubs: A strong debate club is important to me as well as political organizations (Ideally strong parliamentary debating).</p>
<p>At the moment I am leaning towards Yale and any advice would be appreciated. If you need or want any more information about me I am happy to provide it.
Cheers.</p>
<p>Wow great choices. I think you need to narrow down your concentration a bit. If you want to pursue an economics/mathematics distinction i think your clear cut choice would be University of Chicago which is world renown and the faculty cannot be matched (Princeton maybe). For political science and ethics I think Yale would be the best choice.</p>
<p>I’ve always thought that Chicago’s undergrad economics is overrated. The big name companies do still scout talents at HYPSM+UPenn,UMich. </p>
<p>The best choice here would have been Harvard. But since you didn’t get in, MIT is the second best choice here, in my opinion. Princeton is also superb for economics. But for undergrad economics, you won’t be wrong in choosing any of the school in your list. </p>
<p>Personally, minus Harvard from the list, I would go for Stanford. I thought it is the most balanced amongst the choices. It has a great academic prestige, beautiful campus, superb student body, state-of-the-art facilities, top-notched professors/teaching staff, wonderful climate and excellent connection between the school and industries/private companies.</p>
<p>People will say Chicago, but honestly…for undergrad, all of the top 20-30 schools will give you basically the exact same knowledge…just different packaging. lol. Go where it feels right. An undergrad econ major from Chicago is not going to look too much better or different from one at, for example, northwestern, and vice versa. etc. If it were grad school, this would be a different story.</p>
<p>Thanks you guys, I have also heard Chicago, while a great postgrad school for economics just isn’t quite as good for undergraduate, still a consideration however.</p>
<p>One other questions is: just how big i difference will there be between the different schools in terms of a) education b) job prospects after graduation? Is the difference large enough that it is worth going to a school that I may not like as much as a place to spend 4 years?</p>
<p>DO NOT go to a place you do not like. That will be a big mistake for you in the long run. If, for example, you dislike Chicago, don’t go there jsut bcuz ppl are going to recommend you do.</p>
<p>Go somewhere you can see yourself waking up every morning with a smile :)</p>
<p>And also, to clarify my post from above: Do people see an undergrad econ major from Chicago as superior to one from Yale or Columbia, even though the latter two are much harder to gain entrance at?</p>
<p>Thanks Hope2getrice - I am in a dilemma at the moment, where the university that ‘feels’ best (Yale - possibly even compared to Harvard if I get in off the waitlist) is considered the second worst of my choices, in my chosen field.</p>
<p>“And also, to clarify my post from above: Do people see an undergrad econ major from Chicago as superior to one from Yale or Columbia, even though the latter two are much harder to gain entrance at?”</p>
<p>I’m going to assume you mean from the perspective of a recruiter? Columbia, maybe? Yale, no. Its the UG level not graduate, rankings don’t matter as much. </p>
<p>Personally I had a great time in my Econ work at Princeton, the professors were pretty fantastic, and I had the opportunity to work with and study with many notables, including some nobels </p>
<p>That being said, subject rankings really dont matter much for UG and all these schools would serve your needs. Go with fit and good luck.</p>
<p>I would go for either MIT, Princeton or Stanford. Those three schools are all among the top 5 in both Economics and Mathematics and as overall universities…and all three are located in great areas.</p>
<p>Thanks you guys. What if I were to say that Micro and Econometrics are most important to me and that I am not a huge fan of Macro? Stanford has been by far most generous for financial aid, and Yale has not yet told me of financial aid.</p>
<p>If Yale can’t match Stanford’s financial aid, then I’d say pack your things and go to Stanford!!! It’s a great university. I doubt if you won’t like it very much there.</p>
</p>