Washington University in St. louis vs. UC Berkeley vs. UCLA vs. Vanderbilt vs. UMich Honors vs. Emory (15 K Scholarship)
I have no idea which one to choose. Please help.
Intended major: Biophysics or Molecular biology
How do prices compare?
What do you like to do when you aren’t studying?
Do you prefer to be near your home state or far, and where is that?
Have you visited any of them? If so, what did you like or not like?
@washugrad
Prices are all the same except for the scholarship from Emory, but I am going to try to bargain with other schools. I don’t think that price is really an issue though.
When not studying, I like to do athletic things, like play soccer or go to gym, sleep, go out, and party
Location from home doesn’t effect decision much, but i definitely prefer warm weather. Im from New Jersey.
Visited all of them except UCLA, but going to visit in a few weeks. I can’t really point to anything I particularly did or did not like
I taught math at Wash. U. for many years. The students are very bright, but the administration wants “retention” and “no problems”. Here is a summary of what happened when I taught differential equations at a level similar to MIT.
The chair of the math dep’t told me that he wanted me to make the class the normal “cookbook” course, telling me to teach students only the steps to work problems like those that will be on the test. He said to do this so that he wouldn’t have “problems”.
An Engineering Assoc. Dean (and Dean of Student Academic Integrity) was concerned about students doing poorly on an exam. I wrote him that almost all of the ones who had done poorly had cheated on the homework. He wrote back: don’t “discourage” them, “retention” is important.
Though the Math Chair kept refusing to show me the “complaints” he was “dealing with”, I finally managed to get a copy of them. Here is what I saw.
An Engineering student tutor “complained” that he “…cannot do…most [MIT} problems …and [he] received an A [in the standard “cookbook” version of the course]…”
An outraged father wrote the Deans that his “understanding” was that the average on a test was 47, and that I didn’t even curve! It was actually 67 – several points lower than the other three tests, and about 40% of the class made A’s, no one below a C. The Deans responded to the parent by asking for his son to report on whether I had “improved”. The student’s “report” made it clear that he did not even recognize that homework problems were on the test – some word for word!
The Chair of the Math Department told me that Math had just “wrested” a course from Engineering, and they weren’t going to let Engineering “wrest” this course from Math. Clearly, there was a competition to see who could meet the “wants” of a few students to the detriment of all students. The course was worth a lot to the winner’s budget. (A Dean had told a previous Chair that he wanted “no complaints”, even if that meant a reduction in standards. That is apparently how the winner is determined.)
I give this example because I was there, not because Wash. U. is the only school behaving this way. There are schools that are ok, though, but you have to beware of those that aren’t.
I wouldn’t be comfortable with Vanderbilt either. Advice: Look at course pages and tests, especially in math. (look at grading, too. Moderate tests, but easy grading should make you suspicious about whether a school is trying to teach you, or just make you think you are learning.
Emory apparently is thousands of dollars cheaper per year than all the others.
The weather seems to be the only other significant, distinguishing feature you can identify that matters to you. Atlanta weather is relatively mild.
So pick Emory.
What do you want to study? That’s very important
@MegaMetalHead OP said Biophysics or Molecular Biology
Go for Emory. It’s a strong school with what you want to do. It’s cheaper plus you’ll have plenty of opportunities in Atlanta to do research/internships/whatever.
Emory is already way cheaper than the others with a $15K scholarship, and if you really can’t make a decision that seems like the best way to to make one honestly.
Scratch UCLA and Berkeley, they’re highly ranked but research focused and hard for undergrads to get a good education especially with budget cuts in California. So that leaves Wash U, Emory, and Vanderbilt. If money is a factor, easily go Emory. If not, go where you feel that you fit best. Good luck