<p>I was recently accepted to: Cornell University, SUNY Stony Brook, NYU-POLY (is this considered NYU?), Manhattan College, CUNY City College, Stevens Institute of Technology & Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute. I think I've applied to way to many schools and I have no idea where I want to go. </p>
<p>Please help me out by giving your opinion of which school is my best choice.</p>
<p>Info to help you out:
-I want to stay semi-close to NYC (if possible)
-I am going for chemical engineering
-I want to go to a well-respected school
-I have a 20k scholarship and I want to avoid loans as much as possible</p>
<p>Help me – a 20K scholarship – is this to any school? I think you need to wait to see finaid package from each school. The NYU Poly merged just happened, so it will take a while to take effect, but it is part of NYU. btw, NYU had an engineering school that they sold back in 72 – the old guys are thrilled about this.</p>
<p>Well Cornell’s the best school out of all of those for Chemical Engineering, and I’m sure you are aware that it is about a 5-6 hour car trip from NYC to Ithaca, so it’s not terribly far away. If that $20k is available to any of those schools, then I would go to Cornell in a heartbeat. With their Financial Aid program, any money that you receive in outside scholarships just takes away the amount they will make you pay in loans, so you can’t lose there. Then again, I’m pretty biased towards Cornell. I’m probably going there come fall. Maybe I’ll see you there. :)</p>
<p>Let me make one thing more clear:
The 20K is my assumption of what my financial aid will be-- My brother applied last year to 5 schools and got TAP, Fed Grants and Fed Loans from 24-18K per school. My grades/honors…etc far excel his so I’ll probably get some scholarships too. I am still waiting to get my Finaid pkg tho.</p>
<p>Yes, Cornell is the most attractive, but I’ve heard horror stories about how much work it is/where it is/the professors.</p>
<p>I would have suggested RPI for the academics, since it’s a pretty good school. But if you want to avoid loans that might not be the place for you. If you want to stay close to the city then, no to RPI and Cornell. I’ve been to Stony Brook. It’s like and hour and half on the LIRR, which will get you straight into the city. And I know it’s respectable from all of the information I’ve received on it, and the scores of kids I know who attend. So, Stony Brook would probably be your best bet. Oh. And SBU is like 15 K a year. So your scholarship would have you covered.</p>
<p>rebanne1119-- very helpful, this is the conclusion I keep coming to also. The only thing is that I graduated high school with a 80 gpa, no ec’s, SAT-1060 M& Cr, no honors or AP’s. Then I joined the honors program at my local Community College started working VERY hard and now 2yrs later I have a 3.9, retook SAT 1320, started a club, won like 5 national awards, spent like a month writing my Cornell essay and I got into an Ivy League School! Now I feel almost obligated to go their, like this is my chance to move up… Stony makes the most sense, but not-Cornell seems foolish. What do you think?</p>
<p>Stony cares a lot about the rigors of academics. Not necessarily that a person excels beyond reason in them. Stony is somwhat lenient and loves students who show character. ( which for a fact can be seen in an application) Cornell isn’t foolish. They also look for many of the same characteristics. The only exception for Cornell is that they happen to be an Ivy that receives a ridiculous amount of apps every year. They just have the option of picking whoever the heck they want. Financially, stony is easy to pay for, if you’re working or receive a scholarship. However, Cornell has their amazing fin.aid policy of 65K and below and no loans. So It’s more about what you feel would best in the long run. Take note that cornell is rumored to be a lot more rigorous than stony.</p>
<p>Cornell is the class of the lot. If you can swing it financially, are ready to work hard, and are perpared to go upstate, I can’t see passing the opportunity up. If you are unhappy there, it should be a simple thing to transfer out to one of the others.
Have you visited Cornell?</p>
<p>I visited Cornell like two months ago. It’s HUGE. The engineering facilities are top-notch, but there was allot of tension in the air. I can see why they have a high suicide rate.</p>
<p>I would recommend RPI if you do not want to expericence Ivy league type competition. although I heard RPI is pretty competitive in academic wise also. However, if you feel confident and think that you can do well in Cornell, go with your instinct and choose Cornell. Both are really good engineering schools. And pretty much same distance from NYC.</p>
<p>I’ve had two friends leave RPI because of the “girl” problem, but it is a fantastic school</p>
<p>Cornell is clearly the best academically… both RPI and Cornell are pretty far from NYC.</p>
<p>You do realize your family’s EFC is cut in half if there are two kids in college at once…?</p>
<p>Stonybrook is a great science school, but there’s mass exodus from campus on the weekends-- like almost no one stays on weekends and socially people tend to have hard time because of that.</p>