Hello everyone! I thought that I would share my college results. I’d like to thank everyone that previously commented on my “Looking for Intellectual Schools” post, and I especially want to thank @LoveTheBard for helping me every step of the way—helping me with my supplements, helping me organize my thoughts, and helping me with so much more. I applied to way more schools than I originally intended to, but luckily, a lot of these schools had free applications which made me feel a bit less guilty about the fact that I was applying to so many. So anyway, here are my results:
Accepted:
- Boston College
- McGill
- Georgetown
- Carleton
- MIT (Accepted EA)
- Swarthmore
- Brown
- Yale
- Stanford
- Princeton
- Columbia (Deferred ED, Accepted RD)
- Reed
Waitlisted:
- Davidson
Rejected:
- UChicago (Deferred EA, Rejected ED2)
- Haverford
Since I know there’s a good chance some of you will ask for my stats, here you go:
SAT: 1320 (I didn’t submit it to most schools—only the ones that required a full testing history)
ACT: 35 (36E, 36M, 36R, 33S, and an 11 on writing)
SAT2: 800 Math 2, 800 Lit, 780 Bio-M
UW GPA: 3.93
W GPA: 4.53
APs: Latin, Bio, Chem, Lit, Lang, U.S., Physics, Calc AB, Calc BC, Psych, Euro — I didn’t submit AP scores anywhere.
Also a NMSF having gotten a 1510 on the PSAT (it didn’t seem to translate to my SAT, though, eh?) — I also got a 240 my sophomore year of high school fwiw.
I’m currently deciding between Princeton, Yale, and Swarthmore.
The other schools didn’t quite offer me what I want. A LOT of people continually asked why I didn’t pick MIT because it’s, well, MIT, but given that I want to major in the humanities and social sciences, I think there’s a lot better options for me in that regard, and while MIT does have great humanities/social sciences programs, the departments are very small, and I’d feel slightly ridiculous telling people “yeah I go to MIT, and I’m majoring in Philosophy” or something like that.
The other school people asked about that I turned down incredibly quickly (well, I turned them down tonight—and was never in the forefront of my mind in the first place) was Stanford. Now this may sound kind of ridiculous, but I think the biggest reason for me turning down Stanford is the weather. It extends past that, but while I love Stanford’s academics, I like Yale, Princeton, Swarthmore, whatever other school’s academics just as much, but what gives one of those schools the edge over Stanford in my mind is the weather. I love seasons, and I love the experience of bundling up in a parka and boots every winter and attempting to survive the sub-freezing weather. As well, not going to lie, I’m not a fan of Stanford’s campus. Fun fact: I never learned how to ride a bike growing up. I don’t really consider that campus to be walkable, and I’m not a huge fan of the architecture either. Basically, I just can’t envision myself at Stanford, and I think that’s what it comes down to: where can I envision myself the most?
So what am I looking for in a school? In terms of the more “superficial” things that are kind of my last criteria for making a decision, I want seasons, to be located near a large metropolitan city, old buildings with distinct architecture (I love Yale and UChicago’s gothic architecture, but my favorite has to be Columbia’s Beaux Arts architecture). My most important criteria, however, is an “intellectual” atmosphere. Many of you likely saw post back in the fall, “looking for intellectual schools.” I was a relatively introverted person during high school, but not because I’m a shy person, but because the conversations I want to have with people are comparing an ontological versus epistemological death, discussing policies of reforming the US education system, debating whether Nabokov’s modern or postmodern novels are better, etc… While I know I’ll likely be able to find people like me in this regard wherever I go, I also know that it’ll be easier at some schools more than others. Furthermore, I love to read, and I was searching for a Great Books program (e.g. Yale’s Direct Studies, Princeton’s Hume Sequence, UChicago’s and Columbia’s Core, etc.). As well, the other major thing I was looking for was flexibility. I go back and forth pretty regularly on what I want to study in college. For a long time I debated different sciences and wanted to do pre-med, but I’ve now settled on humanities/social sciences because while I know I love STEM, I know I love the humanities/social sciences more, and I think I would regret it if I majored in STEM. So while I’ve settled down on this broad range of subjects, I change my mind from Econ to Comparative Lit to Poli Sci to Classics on a weekly (and sometimes daily, hourly, minutely) basis, so flexibility was a major factor for me which most of these schools do a great job of regardless. I’m essentially interested in liberal arts education to explore all sorts of interests. Although, that’s interesting to look at as well in regards to how different schools approach this. Obviously, there’s a school like Brown that has the open curriculum, and then there’s a school like Columbia who has a strict core curriculum—both arguably achieve a liberal arts education, but in vastly different ways. I personally was leaning toward the very structured environment initially (simply because I am so indecisive and I thought structure would be good), but I think I’d be fine with either at this point.
In terms of FA:
1.Carleton (offered ~$53k)
2. Swarthmore (offered ~$50k)
3. Princeton (offered ~$35k)
4. Yale (offered ~$30k)
5. Columbia (offered ~$30k — but Yale is cheaper overall)
6. Georgetown (offered ~$28k)
7. MIT (offered ~$27k)
8. Stanford (offered ~$25k)
9. Boston College (offered ~$19k)
10. Brown (offered ~$15k)
Again, I’m currently deciding between Swarthmore, Princeton, and Yale. Feel free to give your thoughts on them. I’m also currently petitioning for more aid, but FA isn’t a major factor in my decision—unless you’re going to compare Swat’s FA to Brown’s which is a pretty big difference. I care a lot more about fit though as my family is pretty well off, and my 529 has quite a bit in it. As of right now, I’m kind of leaning toward Swarthmore at the moment, but I intend on visiting those three (and Columbia) in April.