UConn is much more rural than UMass. So if you don’t like rural, UConn probably wouldn’t rank high, unless they gave you a good scholarship.
What’s your visit schedule like?
If you have 30K guaranteed from your parents + 5.5K guaranteed + whatever you saved from your job. THat’s a good budget, especially if you get scholarships. SUNYs would likely be no-debt.
Ask your parents what colleges from your list they’d be willing to spend 35 pr 40K on though.
BU isn’t “that” prestigious though. It competes with lots of colleges in Boston and doesn’t really have the prestige that Harvard/MIT have, nor the niche that Northeastern has, it can’t even claim the sisterhood network that Simmons (a much less selective school) has… So, a good, nationally known school, but with low endowment per student and more prestigious neighbours. It doesn’t meet need, so you’d likely have way more than a 5.5K loan for freshman year (well, your parents). I’d say that in the Boston ecosystem it’s a bit like Fordham in the NYC ecosystem.
I’m so glad you are rethinking how much money you want to take on as a loan. Having big student loans out of college can significantly reduce your options in life - what if you want to change majors and spend an extra year in school, what if you want to go to grad school, what if you fall in love with a career that doesn’t make a lot of money?
I really wish I applied to less colleges to be honest. I actually got a 16k scholarship from UMass plus what my parents will pay will give me very little debt. I looked at UConn, it’s higher up my list because of its solid name and I like the campus but I am not amazed by that rural area. But UMass is a fun school? I heard there isn’t much to do.
If all the stats are your level or above then you’ll be in the bottom 25th percentile which means you’ll be the one with the lower stats. How do you think those higher stats students feel about that?
Bottom 25 percent of what? Which schools am I in the lower half of? I am certain I am average or above at most of those schools. What are you trying to say? Are you referring to BU? In that case, I am a pretty hard worker, my GPA literally increases each quarter, I’m hoping to keep advance in every field. I take that actually pretty seriously. @austinmshauri
I was just browsing this thread and saw that one of your concerns was attending a college with “prestige” or a good reputation. I understand this inclination, but I have to say that the name of your school will only really matter for grad school (if you attend). If you plan on continuing your education after your undergraduate degree, don’t stress too much on where you end up. All of the schools on the list that you shared are good schools and will provide you with a solid education.
Whoever told you there’s not much to do in Amherst is either clueless or lying. Do you really think that if you put together 60,000 college students and five universities, three of which are extremely wealthy and spend a lot on their students, there can be nothing to do? There are films, concerts, parties, speakers, outings, games, etc etc.
All in all if you’re serious you’ll be busy on campus studying, participating in clubs, at your job, etc. from 9 am till midnight every day. And on Friday night and Saturday there’ll be plenty of keep you busy doing about anything you can think of.
Btw, UConn is not more prestigious than UMass and in several fields UMass is well ahead of UConn.
Have you been able to check out the Fiske Guide from your school library?
Any of the schools you listed will be absolutely fine for applying to grad schools. If you skip over to the threads that talk about HS kids who want to become doctors, you will see the most common piece of advice is to go to their state school or other school where they will get good merit money. That advice is often two-fold. One is that they will have saved their money for med school. The other is that they will usually be in the top 25% or higher of their college class and will presumably have an easier time graduating college at the top of their class. And that’s what med school looks for, kids who graduate at that top. This advice given on CC is based on the med school equivalent of the common data set, which sets forth the weight that the med schools give to each factor for admissions, so it’s data-driven advice. So please, don’t think that your chances of getting into a top grad school will be limited if you don’t go to a top prestige college. It will be all about your MCAT, LSAT, GRE etc, your grades, the rigor of the college courses you took, and your internships/research/extra-curriculars that show your background. You will find at any of the colleges that you’ve applied to that there are classes with plenty of rigor, just as you’ll find at any prestige college that there are some classes with low rigor.
“I have been accepted into all my safeties, plus Stony Brook and UMass.”
“I got a big scholarship at UMass.”
I will admit that I tend to evaluate schools at least partly by the quality of the graduates that I see who came from each school. In the specific case of U.Mass Amherst I also visited and toured it twice – once with each daughter.
I work with many U.Mass graduates. The best graduates from U.Mass Amherst that I have worked with are as strong as graduates from MIT and Stanford. I know several very impressive people, mostly software engineers with specific additional expertise, that graduated from there. I don’t know quite as much about Stony Brook, but I think that it is also a very good university.
At least for me, if I got accepted to both BU and U.Mass, and if I were going to need to be full pay at BU with a scholarship from U.Mass, then I would go to U.Mass.
There will be some students at U.Mass or Stony Brook who will goof off particularly the first year. Relatively soon they will either turn themselves around and start working hard or they will be gone. There will also be some students at U.Mass and at Stony Brook who are very smart and very hardworking. You can find them and work with them if you want to. There will also be a lot to do in Amherst. As others have said there are four or five universities and colleges in the area and a lot of students. Businesses will cater to this very significant market.
I think that you already have great options where you have already been accepted. You should expect these schools to be academically very challenging. Show up planning to work very hard and determined to stay ahead in all of your classes.
I also agree with other comments that if you do very well at U.Mass then you will have good chances at excellent graduate schools or at medical schools. You can get a very good education there and graduate schools know this.
You’ll be busy even if you never leave the UMass campus, never mind if you actually go out to Amherst or Northampton, or go to stuff at one of the other colleges. Whoever told you that there’s nothing to do at UMass has no idea what they are talking about.
What I’m saying is that if you go to a school where everyone’s stats are “(your) level or higher” then you’ll be among those with the lowest stats. Would the higher stats students then feel justified thinking the school wasn’t prestigious enough for them? If your stats are average for the schools you applied to then they’re a solid match and their students are your academic peers but if you want to apply to more reach schools then send out the applications or apply for the honors programs at the colleges that accepted you.
OK, up for consideration are UMass, UConn, Syracuse, BU, Stony Brook, Penn State, SUNY-Buffalo, and Temple, which you’ve rejected despite the fact that it ticks two of your main boxes - urban and diverse. You say it’s too expensive, though, which is a perfectly good reason to remove it from consideration.
There is nothing wrong with wanting to be surrounded by academically ambitious and capable students who will challenge you. However, as others have reiterated, the assumption that you won’t find such students at your target schools is simply wrong. All of these schools have good reputations. A degree from any of them would not hold you back in life. These schools seem appropriately challenging for a student with a 3.65 W GPA and a 1250.
U Mass is not a lesser school than U Conn. It’s not a city but there is plenty to do and the towns of Amherst and Northampton are nice.
Penn State is expensive for out of state and not worth the uncharge. Fun college town in the middle of nowhere
Syracuse is in a small city; likely to be expensive like BU
BU - too expensive
Temple - too expensive and you don’t like it
I don’t know the SUNYs.
If it were me, I’d pick U Mass. I guarantee you won’t be bored and you got a nice scholarship.
p.s. Back in the day, as valedictorian and NMF with a near 4.0 UW GPA, I ended up at Rutgers for reasons of cost. It was not the dream. However, I was challenged by both my professors and my peers and was accepted to top 20 grad schools. I had fun and made great friends. Try to keep an open mind.
So say you get into a reach and you are in the lower stats for that school. That’s okay with you? What about those other students who didn’t want to be at college with lower stat students, yet there you are and they have to interact with you, a student who might not be their intellectual peer.
I don’t understand you wanting to be in the lowest tier only with people of your same stats or higher. Why wouldn’t you want to be at the top, the leader sometimes, the student needing help other times?
I think that IRL, most students at the same school are intellectual peers and learn from each other, benefit from other points of view. The average is just that, and there are some students at that level but most are either above or below. A few are way above and they could have gone to a school with higher stats (that match their own) but there is a reason they wanted this school. Financial, a special program, scholarships, location. My nephew picked U of Florida over Brown, Cornell, NYU and others ranked much higher. He liked UF. You want diversity of all types, race, religion, SES? Go to a public school.
I don’t want to be at the top because I want to challenge myself. And also, I should keep my narcissism in check, I don’t want to view myself as smarter than other people. I’ve akways been in environments were my grades were average or below, both of my schools growing up had average high stats. Is that a bad thing to want to challenge myself? If I could get into a school with stats my average and higher, my work won’t be in vain also. @twoinanddone
There is nothing wrong with wanting to challenge yourself and be with peers who are motivated, driven etc. The issue as I see it… is that you don’t think this will be possible at the schools you were accepted to, and that is false.
