<p>my mistake i was reading tomservo’s post and confused it with yours, but which top 20 school, I’m curious…</p>
<p>and the joy of pton’s financial aid is such that i’m paying a few grand a year coming from a middle class family, no loans; it keeps me from excessive weeping</p>
<p>Actually my GPA is a perfect 4.0 
And what are you saying ib, that calculus and physics at Princeton is some different kind of extra-hard calculus and physics that they don’t teach us commoners? I studied my keister off to get my grades! And my teacher in multivariable calc told us that he showed the exams he gives to teachers at OSU (a top-25 engineering school) and they thought the exams we had at CC were much harder than the ones they were giving at OSU. And I know for a fact that our exams were tougher than those at Purdue (which are multiple choice!).</p>
<p>Community colleges are a totally awesome, underrated place to get a lot of credits in before getting your degree. To this day I have never sat in a giant lecture hall. All of my classes have been with fewer than twenty or so students, I can always ask a question from the professor during lecture, they know my name, etc. I get the small class sizes and personalized attention from my teachers that many people pay through the nose to get. CC-bashing seems like a popular thing to do, by my experience has been more positive than the people who went to super-elite schools for undergrad have told me about <em>their</em> schools. And I’ve saved a ton of money.</p>
<p>The only circumstances under which one should go to an elite school like Princeton FOR UNDERGRAD are:</p>
<p>1) they are getting a full ride, either scholarship or tuition discount from the endowment or some such thing so they aren’t paying anywhere near sticker price
or
2) they are wealthy</p>
<p>Well, first, if you’re going into engineering… you should probably like Calculus. Not saying that it is mandatory, but it helps. As far as classes, it doesn’t necessarily get “harder”. Classes build on each other, so really it’s just like when you went through high school or middle school in that things get relatively “harder”. It’s just the nature of learning. I mean, when I was a freshman in high school, I was scared of calculus. Then by junior/senior year, it was a lot easier than it seemed. It’s nothing to fret about. I’m actually a ChemE major too.</p>
<p>I have to agree with TomServo about thinking that Calc and Physics are different at other schools. I mean, really? I have a friend who goes to the University of Chicago and goes on about how hard his Calculus class is because they have to go into proofs and all of that sort. My thought is, are you really learning more? I don’t think so, at least not more that would be useful to me. I really don’t think that one school is teaching Calc or Physics in such a different or revolutionary way than another.</p>
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<p>I get all of this at my university… Yes, community colleges are sometimes underrated, but the truth is that they typically don’t have the same quality of professors that major universities have. Many “elite” universities do have those large lecture hall classes initially, but the classes that people typically need more attention in are small.</p>
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<p>Eh… Princeton actually isn’t as well-regarded in engineering as many other schools. But the school is known to give a quality education, so why wouldn’t people want to go there instead of a not as well-regarded university? Ivies actually give some of the best financial aid. I do agree with you though about trying to get a brand name for undergrad. If it’s going to put you a great deal of money in the gutter… it’s not really worth it. If a person plans on going to grad school, then your undergrad may give a little edge but is not a determining factor. Ultimately, grad school is the one used to impress.</p>