I have a very first-world but very big dilemma. I got into a lot of my top choice schools and now I have no idea where to go. I’ll reach a conclusion for about an hour or so and then the next day I’ll start thinking about my other schools again and the decision will change. I’d really appreciate any input you guys have, it’s hard to talk about it with people I know because I don’t want it to look like I’m rubbing it in anyone’s face or looking for an excuse to brag.
I’m thinking of going into something economics or business related and want a school that places well with investment banking or consulting firms. However, I’m not 100% set in stone that that’s what I want to do and would also like the opportunity to take classes or do research in Biology, particularly epigenetics, as well as explore writing and maybe minor in creative writing or something. I’m not looking to play sports in college but a school with a lot of spirit would be a very refreshing change from my high school. I’m not interested in going into grad school so I’m really trying to figure out which of these schools will be the best for the job market. Basically I want to figure out which will make for the best undergraduate experience while still giving me a competitive edge in the job market, and which has the most flexibility of majors/available courses and research opportunities. I know they are all great schools and I have no idea how to decide. I did overnight weekends at Hopkins, Amherst, and Pomona and day tours at Tufts and Brown and loved them all. Still waiting on financial aid from Brown, but Hopkins/Amherst/Pomona/Tufts have all given me very affordable financial aid. Would have to take out loans at Hopkins at Tufts, but Hopkins caps it at 5k in the full four years and Tufts at 14k. I guess Tufts would be the weakest financial aid of these, but still not horrible, plus I could try and appeal it. All and all any insight you have into these schools would be extremely appreciated! Please no hate, I’m trying my best here.
Amherst and Brown both seem like great choices, especially without a core curriculum. That will give you more flexibility in taking courses in various areas. For IB, probably Amherst but your interests are sort of all over the board – not a bad thing, you just might not want focus on IB or consulting if you are not going to end up there. All schools are outstanding so choose where you feel most comfortable.
I just gave a fairly detailed answer to a question about Amherst and finance in this thread: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/amherst-college/1878790-wall-street-recruiting-at-amherst.html#latest
It offered a course in epigenetics in 2014, not sure what’s happening since then: https://www.amherst.edu/academiclife/departments/courses/1314S/BIOL/BIOL-460-1314S but Amherst students can register for classes at any of the other 4 schools in the consortium and UMass a would have more courses in that specific sub of Bio.
Brown and Amherst both have the open curriculum, I don’t know much about the gen-ed requirements at Tufts and Hopkins and how much they might limit double/triple majoring and taking a lot of courses that just interest you.
You should think about whether or not you want to pursue a career in academia or industry when evaluating your options and deciding what weight to attribute to “academic reputation”.
Of the schools listed, Tufts tends to feed fewer graduates into “academia” and more into “Industry”.
According to Pomona’s annual report of student outcomes (see page 4 of link), applicants from Tufts experience twice the success rate of applicants from Pomona and a 50% higher success rate than applicants from Johns Hopkins in securing job interviews when applying to the same college recruiting program.
School…Success Rate
Tufts,28%
Hopkins…19%
Pomona…14%
https://www.pomona.edu/sites/default/files/annual-report-2014-2015_0.pdf
What great choices you have. The first thing you need to decide is whether you want the intimate LAC experience or the larger university experience.
If you want an LAC, Amherst is extremely flexible in curriculum, places its graduates very well in the finance fieldand has one of the best English departments anywhere.
Pomona is also great - a west coast version of Amherst or Williams.
Of the two large universities, Brown is more flexible in the curriculum. JHU is stronger in the hard sciences but weaker in English and is places fewer people in finance. It’s also less fun to attend.
In a similar situation, my daughter chose to go with the LAC experience, and is very happy at Amherst.
You must have a gut feeling about this. If you do, whatever it is is probably the right call.
One correction to the above, hopkins is strong in english and higher ranked than brown too. Fun is a subjective word. I wold argue it is more fun given there are trendier spots in downtown bmore than providence. Debatable however.
Personally, I believe LACs tend to give a superior undergraduate experience, so I would go with Amherst or Pomona.
In any case, you can’t go wrong with picking any of these universities. Any of them will prepare you well for your career/etc. and what you make of your time at these universities will matter much more than which one you pick. So at the end of the day, don’t stress too much about your decision.
I just want to put this out for future applicants who see this thread (I know I looked them up when comparing colleges):
The source above from @Mastodon97 is correct. But it’s highly variable. The very next year, for the very same recruiting process, Pomona did much better than JHU and better than just about any other school in that process (42%, https://www.pomona.edu/sites/default/files/cdo-annual-report-2015-2016.pdf pg 5, CIC recruiting)
But then you take a look at SLAC winter break recruiting on the left, and Pomona is one of the worst performers.
These statistics are heavily influenced by the students who apply, and when schools are so small/so few are applying in the first place, they are not telling or reliable metrics of overall employment prospects. That only 19% of SLAC Pomona apps turned into interviews is pretty awful. Same for just 17.7% of CIC Johns Hopkin apps. But when there were only 7 SLAC applicants in the first place, it is more likely there were one or two students who were not submitting good applications to a lot of places, skewing the ratio entirely. The interview rate for SLAC was 34% the year before for Pomona, and 13.5% for CIC. Did Pomona suddenly get viewed that much worse by SLAC employers and that much better by CIC employers in just one year? Highly improbable.
The point is really just to exercise caution with trying to generalize post-grad statistics, especially at small schools.
OP, I hope you made a good choice for your own needs. Would love to know where you ended up attending, and how you’re finding it.
For IB and your great choices, I’d go with the Ivy. Plus, as mentioned, the open curriculum would serve you well given what you said about uncertainty.
BTW - did you end up taking a gap year? You mentioned great choices a year ago.