Deciding on a School

Colleges and Universities A-Z Carnegie Mellon University
1

Hi Everyone!

I am a recruited athlete, so at the moment I am trying to decide between my top schools: NYU, Georgetown, and Carnegie Mellon. I’ve finished all the applications for them already, and I’m not too worried about getting in (Obviously I do know I’m applying to very highly-selective schools, but I’m trying not to stress); Since I am a recruited athlete—as well, I have a 35 ACT, 4.7 Weighted GPA (3.9 UW) (Having taken a total of 15 AP classes), and I’m 1/4 Pacific Islander, 1/4 Native American, 1/4 Japanese, and 1/4 Caucasian, and I will be the second in my family to go to college (after my sister who attended UCLA and is now at grad school at Johns Hopkins)!

Though, I’m not trying to brag—just give a sense of my stats. I’m looking for a school that’s not a party school, though I understand any college I go to is going to have parties. I just don’t want to be pressured into going to parties and stuff. I definitely don’t mind a competitive environment because I do like to work hard, but I do want to be able to enjoy myself since that’s what college is about. I also would prefer a left-leaning environment, since I am gay and very diverse ethnically. I am planning to do pre-med / pre-business in college and in the future would like to do research while working up the administration side of research institutions. I would prefer a mid-size to large school. I visited Pomona, Caltech, Williams, and Amherst and they all felt too small for me.

So as I said before, my top choices at the moment are NYU, Georgetown, and Carnegie Mellon. I also sent in applications to UVA and UMich as back-ups. And just in case I suddenly decide I don’t want to go to any of my top three schools (though I’ve visited them all and loved them), I’ve completed applications RD for Yale, Cornell, UChicago, Columbia, and Duke. As well, I’ve already been accepted into University of Toronto and University of British Columbia since they are rolling admissions.

So basically, I just wanted to hear y’all’s thoughts on NYU / Georgetown / and CMU, since I’m having a lot of trouble deciding. I know I can’t make a bad choice here, I just want to make the “best” choice for myself.

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Hey! I’m a current student at CMU right now, and I’d say it’s a pretty solid mid-size school. I really like how I can walk into a room and know a few people, but it’s not like you see the same people everywhere! Campus is actually quite small though (I don’t know if you’ve visited). As for parties, there definitely are if you want to go, but people are quite chill with you whether or not you go.

I’m actually not quite sure what else to say, but let me know what you want to know about CMU! It’s the first place I really felt at home, so I do want to be careful in giving you the impression that it’s perfect. (Even though it kinda is ;))