<p>Hi all, I'm a current high school junior going into senior year.
I was wondering if I could get help with some college questions, because now is when I'm making a final list of schools I'm planning to apply to. I go to school in CA and wanting to do something in science or engineering, though preferably engineering. I have a 4.29 W GPA and a 3.97 UW, 7 APs so far, 2210 SAT and 800 SAT Math 2 and 790 SAT II Chem. I'm part of my school's NHS, and am president of Chemistry club.
We did not live here forever, and neither of my parents are very familiar with colleges.
Some questions I had:
Is an Ivy League worth for engineering? Assuming I get it, is it worth it? I'm also planning to apply to Cal, though most of my college list consists of Harvard, Princeton, Dartmouth, Cornell because of the brand name.
How hard will it be to stay in a higher-level school like Princeton, with grade deflation and all? I'm confident in my abilities in high school and all, but I keep hearing stories about schools like MIT which make me not put it on my list. I mean, I don't want a courseload that it TOO difficult.
I'm not worried about leaving my home state but I want a good deal that I will not regret and will not end up with all Bs or so on my grades. Financially, we'll probably be able to carry through with most universities with help and all, so it isn't too much of an issue.
Sure, at my high school I'm one of the top students but I don't want to go to a U where I don't even do that well. I'm planning to continue to get at least a Masters degree after
Any thoughts, comments, advice?
Any help really appreciated, thanks!</p>
<p>If your parents aren’t really very familiar with colleges, then you MUST run the net price calculators to find out what colleges will want to charge your family. Nothing else really matters much because you can get into a lot of schools but if you cannot afford them it’s been a wasted exercise.</p>
<p>Parents often won’t want to tell a child how much money they make, what they do with it, etc. But part of the process of applying to colleges is recognizing that your child is old enough to know many of these things. Parents don’t want to say “no” to their high achieving child, but they may have no choice. The feds and colleges are going to demand what your parents are able to pay because they have a limited amount of money to dispense and they don’t want to give a lot of it to families who don’t need it and none to those who do.</p>
<p>Get back to us after you run the net price calculators for a half dozen colleges, shown the results to your parents, and gotten some idea of what they will contribute. Then you will know what colleges to begin to examine for financial aid, merit, etc. </p>
<p>Hi jkeil, I talked to my parents and was able to sort some things out.
Thank you for your explanation, and we will be able to manage with cost.</p>
<p>You should not have a school on your list because of the brand name. Harvard and Cornell are two very very VERY different colleges. I can’t imagine someone having the both of them on one list.</p>
<p>If you don’t want a school that is academically demanding and competitive, the Ivy League is not for you. Most students at Ivy League schools hate their time there are a lot of students develop mental illnesses AFTER attending them. They only go there for the prestige. You don’t seem like the type of person who can handle that pressure. Look at other schools. And college is more than just getting a job. It’s getting the experience and learning about yourself and growing. </p>
<p>@AnnieBeats where the hell did you get that info? Do you have ANY credible sources that say most students hate their time at Ivies and that they ONLY go for prestige? That’s a rather broad and probably incorrect stereotype. Just because a school is prestigious doesn’t mean it has nothing to offer but prestige. It’s probably the opposite </p>
<p>AnnieBeats, you have no credibility! I’ve known loads of people who have had Cornell and Harvard on their list. . Those that get into both tend to choose Harvard but not always. Both are powerhouses academically. Both have traditional style campuses although obviously Harvard’s is in Cambridge-a city-while Cornell’s is in a beautiful town of Ithaca. I’ve known few people who went to either of them…let me begin again, I’ve never met anyone who attended either Cornell or Harvard (or both, with one as a graduate program) who did not love their college experience. Most students who attended either school loved their time (exams aside) there. And I know plenty of people who attended Cornell and Harvard. I see, Annie Beats, that you have posted nearly 600 messages. I hope you know more about the other topics you have written about than you do about the IVY league schools.</p>
<p>OP, I don’t want to beat a dead horse, but I will. If you haven’t run the net price calculators and shown the Expected Family Contribution to your parents, we cannot be much help. Affordability is one of the fastest ways to determine where a student should apply. There’s no accuracy and little help in someone’s saying, “apply to [ivy/near ivy]–you have a chance” if your parents will balk at paying 50-60K for four years. You will not find out what the schools will actually cost you until March and April. Then it’s too late to find out, as people do, that none of their preferred schools is financially possible. Happens all the time because parents in June say, “don’t worry about it; we’ll talk about it when you get your offers.” This is particularly true of parents who’ve recently come to America. So help us help you to form a list that will fit you financially as well as in every other sense. </p>
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<p>Wow @AnnieBeats --generalize much? Got any data to back that up</p>
<p>@jmnva06 You’re welcome. <a href=“The myth of the Ivy League | Parenting”>The myth of the Ivy League | Parenting;
<p>@kei04086 Have you visited both schools? They couldn’t be more different. It’s practically impossible to have both without caring about prestige. You would have to be completely impartial to campus life when researching colleges to have those two schools on your list.</p>
<p>@Anniebeats-- someone’s blog post about their miserable experience doesn’t count as data. The 2 data points she cites don’t get the the level of supporting “Most students” or “a lot of students…” At risk of sounding like another CC poster, I have a relatively large # of friends that are Ivy grads and they wouldn’t trade their experiences there with anyone</p>
<p>Op,
you should also try posting your question in the parents forum and in the college majors/engineering forum
<a href=“Engineering Majors - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/</a></p>
<p>For CA, don’t forget to include Cal Tech; also include other UCs besides Cal, such as UCLA and UCSD. You might want to consider Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. You need a safety school like 1 or 2 middle level UCs. Carnegie Mellon is great for comp sci; it may also be good for engineering. Don’t forget Stanford.
If you are full pay, then the UCs will run about 30K per year = 120K while the private schools will run about 60K per year = 240K. If your parents run one of those net price calculators, they can see if they can spend less than 240K for a private school education.</p>
<p>To address your concerns about going from being the top student to being a small fish in a big pond, yes, there are some people who find this difficult. There are others who do not find it difficult. </p>
<p>OP, are you still around?</p>
<p>Clearly you didn’t read the entire thing. Because if you did, you would have seen the various studies on Ivy League students and their mental health. Since the article had so many citations, I figured that you would be able to click on them and read them rather than me posting all of them. Reread it. @jmnva06</p>
<p>Except for Cornell, I’m not sure that the ivies are the way to go for eng’g. Your instate UCs (cal, ucla, davis, etc) and S are likely all better. </p>
<p>Calif has other very good engg schools, including the Cal Polys, some CSUs, and a number of privates.</p>
<p>Hi all,
Yep, I’m still here.
And anniebeats, I have to say I do really count the prestige factor in my decision-making thoughts.
jkeil911, the price will not be an issue with us.
I never really understood the whole “campus life” thing with enjoyment and all either. Could you guys please explain more about why you should feel like it’s a “good fit”, and more about that, and how you know it’s a good fit?
Btw, thanks to all of your for your words. They’re already greatly helping. I just have a lot on my mind these days.</p>
<p>OP, campus life is the reason why people visit colleges. It isn’t enough to google national rankings and decide on schools from there. It makes a huge difference. Do you want to spend your winters snowboarding at Cornell? Or do you want to spend your winters shopping or at Broadway plays or going to professional games at Columbia? Do you want to be in the suburbs or in a big city? Do you want a campus where the the buildings are fairly close together in one region? Or do you want to be on a campus where everything is spread out? Do you want harsh winters? Do you want to be in a place with a lot of students? Campus life is HUGE. It could be the deciding factor for where you want to go to school. Because you could be an engineer in the California sun, and hate your time at Cornell because you can’t do anything you are accustomed to doing. You could be in an academically competitive environment and literally hate your 4 years at the school. Because when you go to college, you aren’t just learning all day for 4 years. College students typically have very few classes each day. So what are you gonna fill up that time with? Please visit colleges and don’t make the mistake of only seeing prestige. Because it could end up being a $200,000 mistake.</p>
<p>okay, OP, glad to see you’re still hanging around. sometimes members of the CC community can go off on tangents and co-opt your thread. I’m as guilty of this as the next person.</p>
<p>I’m reading over your thread again and I get the feeling that your parents are immigrants and that prestige is very important to them, but I don’t have any sense of what’s important to you other than going to a very good college where you won’t be out-competed by other students. Life could be a good deal more than prestige and keeping your head above water.</p>
<p>In your plans for your life after high school, is there any room for you and for fun?</p>