Hey everyone,
I’m currently in the process of trying to decide where I should apply to college. I’m Canadian, graduated from a NE prep school this past spring and am taking a gap year. I’m sort of all over the place and am having a hard time picking where I should go. The choices I have are:
Amherst College - am being recruited for swimming and my admission is basically guaranteed if I apply ED (need to notify coach if I’ll be applying ED in a few days!) if I apply here. I’m thinking of dome some pre-med courses, majoring in Econ or Econ&Math and looking at either medicine or investment banking as a career.
Harvey Mudd College - am being recruited for swimming, though my admission isn’t guaranteed (coach said if I apply ED admissions told him I have “strong chances”). Would be majoring in engineering here, no intent on premed or anything.
U of Toronto - since I’m a domestic student, will be much cheaper than the previous two. Would be majoring in Chemical Engineering here, possibly swimming (though it’d be more of a time commitment than the other two).
As a bit of background, I enjoyed math and chemistry in High school. Not much of a humanities guy (didn’t like history especially), though I’m fine with the odd religion or english class. As for the different locations/settings of these 3 schools, I’m pretty indifferent.
My end goal, for personal & professional reasons, is to work in the States (which is making me learn towards Amherst/HMC). My parents & I agree that an engineering degree would be useful, in the sense that I won’t really have to go back to grad school / can start working immediately after graduation in Silicon Valley, assuming I do well. I have a few friends going the investment banking route, so I’ve been wondering about that, too (and I’m thinking that the LAC vibe at Amherst will help me since I’m undecided about my career – I don’t know if this is true, though). And then there’s medicine… when I was younger I always had a vision of becoming an sports orthopedic surgeon, since I’m an athlete, love working with people and enjoy science - obviously, this will require lots of $ and time (10-15 years till I become a surgeon! Don’t know if I’ll be able to study that long). However, I have no prior experience in finance (wasn’t part of an Investment club, etc.), engineering and medicine (never had the opportunity to shadow a doctor, etc.), so I don’t fully know what each job entails. Essentially I’m unsure which career will suit me best. My parents are willing to pay the $ for HMC or Amherst if it will be beneficial for my career aspirations.
Has anyone been in a similar position as me before? Could I hypothetically get to to Wall Street if I decided I wanted a career change, with a degree in engineering from HMC? Would an Amherst BA be useful / could I work in Silicon Valley with one? Anyone have any advice for someone like me who’s all over the map, when choosing where to apply?
I only have 2.5 weeks till applications are due and need to inform coaches if I’ll be applying or not, so I’d really appreciate any and all comments / guidance. Thank you in advance.