<p>I'm a pretty high aspiring student (valedictorian of my school, lots of ECs, attended Conserve School for a semester during my sophomore year, taking BC Calculus as a Junior, loaded up on science, all honors or AP, taking ACT in December and predicting around a 32-33, varsity downhill ski race team since freshman year and will probably be captain this year and next, etc), though I still have an active social life, and desire one in college. I want to go into Environmental Engineering, and seek either a masters or PhD. </p>
<p>I'm really struggling to choose where I'd like to go to college. I was originally looking at places like Stanford and MIT, but I've realized I can't really afford them, and they are sooo massively competitive to get in. Now I'm looking at CU-Boulder, and University of Vermont (among several others). I'm confident I would enjoy myself at these schools, but would I be doing myself a disservice by attending a university of that caliber rather than a higher ranking one? That is my concern. I'm from Wisconsin, so OOS, but I'm hoping that I'd qualify for some big merit scholarships to make the cost manageable. </p>
<p>My next question is about the honors colleges within these universities. They certainly have their perks (like nice resident halls, priority registration, etc) but I'm concerned they would affect my social life. As important as my academic education is to me, I think that as an undergrad (I fully intend to continue to graduate school) being social is just as important. Would joining these honors colleges damage my social potential? Pardon my frankness, but I'm concerned that I would be surrounded by "overly-academic and underly-social" students. Is this a valid concern?</p>
<p>I really appreciate people's advice on this, as I'm struggling to figure it all out. </p>
<p>They’re both good schools, but I would take a look at the individual schools and their area of expertise. If you’re going into business, you wouldn’t want to attend a school that has a crappy business department but an amazing engineering department, kind of thing, you know? I don’t see anything wrong with attending a state U if it’s the financially viable option, especially if you’re 100% sure you’re going to graduate school. There was a thread on CC that was about how doctors sent their kids to state U’s because medical school would be where all their money went! </p>
<p>But moving along, I would say honors… GO. FOR. IT. I regret 100000000000000000000000000% not doing it because registration becomes a war when you’re reaching upper division classes. But in all seriousness, I would check out the individual school and their Honors program. Each school is different. I know for my school, students don’t lose any social aspect, but they do have to take some extremely weird (and some useless) classes like the History of Abraham Lincoln (doesn’t relate to my friend’s engineering major LOL).</p>
<p>Have you selected your safeties yet? Especially since, as you mentioned in another thread, your parents are wealthy enough to disqualify you from any financial aid, but are only willing to contribute about $12,500 per year.</p>
<p>You may want to see if CU Boulder and UVM have large enough merit scholarships before you bother applying.</p>
<p>Dorm in a regular hall, but enroll in the honors college. That way you get the perks of priority registration, but get to live in an environment where more people party. Also are there really schools where it’s tough to get into upper divs? Next semester I’m taking all 2,000-3,000 level courses and had zero issues with getting them despite not being in the honors program.</p>
<p>My DD is in an honors college at a large OOS Public U. She had the same concern about the social aspect. I told her that the social kids in the honors dorm will find each other - and they did. She has a great group of friends that go out on the weekends and often on Thursdays too. She does like though that there is not much “partying” during the week. She has friends that live in other dorms that they do not like the loud parties on Monday and Tuesdays when they are trying to study. So, she says if you want to go out - there is always someone willing to go out with you but there is not pressure to do so all the time - When you visit the school - really ask those questions.</p>
<p>I don’t think UC-Boulder honors offers registration priority. Vermont has priority within the student’s class, not over more advanced non-honors students. Some honors programs offer some form of priority and others not. Have to check each program.</p>
<p>When you were looking at Stanford and MIT, were you concerned about being surrounded by overly-academic and underly-social students?</p>
<p>If you are a junior, then there are still 3 more sets of semester grades between you and a valedictorian status. How can you know that now? Are you at some small non-competitive school?</p>
<p>Ashmuoh, thank you very much. I appreciate your real-life based advice. You’re probably right, the only way to really know is by inquiring/investigating during a visit. </p>
<p>Celestroberts, I was not at all concerned about the social aspect of Stanford. From everything I’ve read, it seems that Stanford has a good social scene in addition to it’s strong academics. Maybe not as social as Boulder, but it was definitely okay with me due to the extreme academic quality and prestige.
As for the valedictorian question: though you’re correct, I cannot be 100% sure I will graduate as valedictorian, I would argue that it is likely. I do go to a large, competitive high school, though I am considerably above all but one other student who is a good friend of mine.</p>
<p>As for the valedictorian comment, I come from a school of about 2600 people, with 630 in my senior class. Last year, the number one student was sure he would get valedictorian, but then a kid transfered to my school for his senior year with an excellent transcript and took the spot. Point of the story is, don’t be too sure, and never stop working for it if that is your goal.</p>
<p>I would look into both programs and see what they offer and if they appeal to you. I have been in the honors college at my university for 4 years now and the only real perk I got was priority registration. Other than that, the honors college really did not do much for me. After I registered for classes for the last time (I graduate in the spring) I withdrew my honors status. That being said, the experience is what you make it.</p>
<p>anvera, you didn’t want to do the honors thesis so you could graduate with honors? Or your GPA isn’t high enough to graduate with honors even if you do the thesis? There is value to having that tag on your transcript when you are finding jobs.</p>
<p>EE, It’s hard for me to imagine that already beginning of junior year one or 2 students would be so far above the others at a large competitive HS. But we don’t have val/sal at our schools since grades aren’t weighted and no +/- so I guess I just don’t understand the process. The 2 top HSs in our area usually end up with 20 or more kids each with 4.0. All or almost all of them have taken all the most rigorous courses available, be it AP or honors or college courses once the AP runs out, and no study halls, so I don’t know how one would distinguish between them to say one is way above the rest in GPA even if it were changed to some weighted scale. How do you get so much above the other top achievers at your school? Do you get some bump from EC awards? And how do you know your rank? Does the school publish lists of rankings for freshman and sophomore year already so you know where you stand? I’m pretty ignorant about this stuff.</p>
<p>Celestroberts, we have a weighted scale. It’s on a 4.0, and for each semester of an honors corse you take, you get 0.025 added to your gpa. I’m so far ahead because I started taking honors high school courses in Middle School, I’ve taken more honors courses than administrators have seen before, and I’ve done a semester at Conserve School, which gave me a bit more boost.</p>
<p>^My D is in Barrett and likes it very much, but I have an idea you are looking for schools with closer proximity to skiing than Phoenix.</p>
<p>So what you do in middle school counts in high school GPA. That’s interesting. We don’t do that, though lots of kids take HS level math in middle school and a few do science early also.</p>
<p>How did Conserve give a bump? Can you take more courses there than at your regular HS? </p>
<p>Do you have +/- and extra for A+?</p>
<p>I thought that weighted scales added some points to the particular AP/honors course, not the GPA as a whole. I looks like there is the potential to go above a 5.0 with this method of calculating if you have enough honors classes. Do you take all the classes at your school, or bring in online or college courses from outside HS? Do most courses have an honors version, or can you turn any course into honors by doing embedded stuff?</p>
<p>It looks like this whole thread is ignoring the elephant in the room: money.</p>
<p>In a previous thread, you (the OP) mentioned parents are wealthy enough to disqualify need-based financial aid (even at Stanford), but the parents are only willing to contribute $12,500 (half the cost of in-state Wisconsin, putting it a few thousand dollars more than a reasonable expectation of student self-funding through loans and work earnings). This means that all of these out-of-state public schools will be financial reaches or out of reach if there are not any large enough (probably at least full tuition plus a few thousand) merit scholarships that you can get.</p>
<p>Better would be to make the application list from these lists:</p>
<p>Otherwise, you’ll be back here in April with a bunch of admission letters to colleges you cannot afford and wondering if there is another alternative besides going to the community college.</p>
<p>ucbalumnus, I appreciate your concern, though I’d really much rather keep the two threads I’ve started separate. I know money might not be the easiest thing in the world for me to deal with, but that doesn’t mean I’m willing to settle for a school I’d never even considered before. So if we could please keep money out of this thread, and focus on CU-Boulder and UVM’s Honors Colleges and Residential Academic Programs, I’d really appreciate it.</p>
<p>Celesteroberts: I took Honors Algebra 1 and Honors Geometry in middle school. Though algebra 1 did not show up on my transcript, Geometry did. So I got an early start there. Conserve gave me a bump after a lot of coordination between it and my regular school’s counselors on how the credits would transfer. As you seem to have picked up on, my school does GPA rather uniquely. I was able to take more classes at Conserve than I would have taken during that semester at home.
Most courses have an honors option. I suppose I may be able to bring in outside sources, though I haven’t needed to yet (unless you count Conserve). Yes, with our system (even though it is on a 4 point scale), you theoretically could wind up with over a 5.0 (weighted)GPA.</p>
<p>Money cannot be kept out of it since you are nowhere close to being able to afford either CU Boulder or UVM with only $12,500 from your parents (if you can come up with $10,000 in direct loans and work earnings, that puts the outer limit at $22,500).</p>
<p>CU Boulder’s COA is $48,929 (engineering). The biggest non-resident scholarship is $15,000 frosh/soph and $12,500 junior/senior, bringing the cost down to $33,929 or $36,429.</p>
<p>Some of the automatic scholarship deadlines at full tuition or full ride schools are coming up soon (December 1). Unless you have decided to go to community college as your safety, you are setting yourself up for a big let-down in April when you find that you cannot afford any of the schools you get into.</p>