HELP!! Final Decision: UCLA or CMU??

<p>As May 1st deadline is approaching, I am still struggling with choosing my college between UCLA and Carnegie Mellon. My intended major is applied math. UCLA has a very strong math department, but CMU has a very nice campus culture as well as academic atmosphere. LA is better than Pittsburgh in my opinion, but UCLA is too big while in CMU I can get better attention. I'm really having a hard time deciding which one to go to, can someone give me some advice?</p>

<p>What I care about is academics 1st for sure, but location definitely matters. According to most widely accepted values, I don't really have a life, but I do need means of relaxation on weekends. Also, I am seriously thinking about changing my lifestyle to having a life lol. UCLA has lots of people, but I think CMU also has over 10,000 people. Do I really get that much better of an attention at CMU?? is getting attention really that important or it's more about how I study myself? My dream school for grad school is Stanford(im adding this just in case choosing undergrad will have a slight influence on grad school).</p>

<p>Thank you so much for reading this and please respond!!</p>

<p>If I remember correctly, you were initially down to NYU, UCLA, and CMU, to which I remember stating that I loved these choices. Since that time, it appears you’ve eliminated NYU, which saddens me a bit because I love both UCLA and NYU quite a bit. </p>

<p>Also, if I remember, you’re an International student who hasn’t had time to visit Pittsburgh or NYC, but have visited LA, and that ‘you liked the parts you visited,’ or something to that effect. </p>

<p>(Disclaimer: If any portion or the entirety of the prior two paragraphs are incorrect, please ignore them, which one should probably do in any case, as they are both irrelevant to the topic at hand.)</p>

<p>Between CMU or UCLA, as you’ve stated here, I think a lot of your happiness will probably depend on your adapting to either school as you’ve stated/intimated. And either will help you quite a bit in your ultimate quest of attending Stanford grad.</p>

<p>-Do you want to experience CA? Is this big on your list?</p>

<p>-Will the cold weather of eastern PA winters deter your happiness? </p>

<p>-Can you find your niche at the larger school, UCLA?</p>

<p>The answer to all of the above would probably be ‘yes.’ You’ll find your adaptabilty as being quite adaptable. Besides adding visiting CMU, which you should do in the little time left, there isn’t a bad choice here; you should just think of it similarly.</p>

<p>Best of luck…</p>

<p>Correction:</p>

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<p>Attend UCLA for under grad and post grad at CMU</p>

<p>while at UCLA, join lots of club organizations and get involved…</p>

<p>Cold winters places people in their dorms more for the weekends off…while you are writing your post grad thesis and focussing to the degree that you will need to then, sunshine and the outdoors will not be a necessary.</p>

<p>get some now - get that life AND be a focussed student…UCLA is an amazing school :)</p>

<p>Good luck and enjoy!</p>