I have no idea what school is right for me!! Please help!!

College Search & Selection
1

Hey guys! Hope everyone’s doing well! I’m a junior guy in high school, and the college search is therefore in full gear. This has left me spending hours and hours trying to decide what college would be best for me, bugs i truly can’t come to a conclusion. I was hoping you all could help guide me a little bit. First, a little bit about myself:

  • I’m an avid theater participant (as I’m sure you can tell by the username). I’ve been in multiple productions throughout high school. I’ve directed two shows and I’m currently in the process of writing my own musical that I plan to put on in the spring (I’ll be directing and acting in it)
  • I’m a pretty good student. So far, my unweighted GPA is a 4.0. I’ve taken mostly high honors classes, and am taking 3 AP courses this year. I’m two years ahead in math, currently taking Calculus BC
  • I haven’t gotten it back yet, but my SAT score should hopefully be somewhere in the low to mid 1500s.
  • I love Chinese. I’ve been taking the language for 7 years and have won many competitions that I’ve participated in.

With that background knowledge, here’s what I’m looking for in a college.

  • A really really good school for computer science (thinking about a career in that topic)
  • A school where theater is definitely present on the campus, where there are a lot of extracurricular theater opportunities
  • Prestigious and incredibly impressive, but not a (for lack of better word) snobby kind of school where it’s a “you’d be lucky to be here” mindset vs a “we’d love to have you here”.
  • A private university of size 4,000-16,000 (preferably somewhere in the middle there)
  • Preferably suburban
  • Small student faculty ratio and small class sizes
  • Preferably decent sports
  • A school where the student body isn’t always out getting drunk, but also not always studying. I’d love a school where the student body is just a lot of normal, very impressive, social people.

If you’re still reading at this point, thank you so much. You have no idea how much I appreciate the help. So with all of this in mind, the schools I’ve been thinking about are (and I know that almost all of these are high shooting):

  • Stanford
  • Yale
  • Northwestern
  • USC
  • U of Chicago
  • Cornell
  • Princeton
  • Carnegie Mellon
  • Dartmouth
  • Vanderbilt

Do any of these schools jump out as fitting everything I’ve said and who I am as a person? Are there any that aren’t on here that fit me better? I appreciate any feedback I can get. Thanks so much!!

2

A lot of those schools are good.:slight_smile: Case Western Reserve U in Ohio works with Playhouse theatre in Cleveland, offers less drinking and more service oriented fraternities and sororities,
and very strong in CS, as well as control theory in EE and offers an undergrad data science major as well.
It has more of a normal middle class feel than some of the schools on your list where there will be more of a super rich
and inner city kids that are recruited specifically to diversify. I like that about CWRU, its more middle of the road,
normal kids, not super test takers so much, but it does have a lot of Premeds and a really wonderful focus on computer science for medicine, if that interests you, so medical records, MRI Data analysis, its a very good to combine medicine and CS, and you can do that at CWRU.

CWRU is possibly too urban though, but Carnegie Mellon is in a very similar gritty city.

You may need a safety as well, choose a larger state program like UIUC or Purdue are probable fits for you. Those two schools tend to take every highly qualified applicant, (Purdue even busts their own numbers and accepts students like you, and finds housing somewhere for all the kids) but also your in state flagship should be considered as your safety. All large public programs have CS covered and some will have theatre covered. Do a search on theatre and public schools. Class sizes will be large, but you need a safety with the list you are developing.

Note that USC is larger than most of the others and offers spring admission to borderline candidates.

If you say you want to study CS, then its harder to get in, especially CMU, as their have a very tiny separate CS school that is half girls and half boys already. And at most schools on your list, because of the popularity of the major. Look into control theory and data science at each of
your schools, and come up with a unique slant to your interests.

Finally GaTech has one of the best CS and Chinese language programs in the USA,
with many summer programs in China, that are technically focused,
if that would be of interest. Its a public school, but class size is reasonable. It is more urban than you may want, but
it stands out as maybe a fit with your interest in Chinese language. There is a lot of spirit with the YellowJackets football and basketball, strong fraternity life, but also a pretty academic type place in spite of Greek life.

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Just to reinforce how good UIUC theatre is , read this, UIUC is one of the best football watching schools in the nation, and the very top CS program equivalent to MIT. Its suburban, with a lot of performing arts to watch and you will get in, its a match but you will have to deal with big class sizes. Interestingly, there is also a large student population from China, so that may also interest you.

https://theatre.illinois.edu

And if you want more Chinese classes, see this amazing program-
https://ealc.illinois.edu/academics/programs/chinese/about-program

Don’t overlook the fact that public schools have some of the strongest CS programs.

Yale is trying to beef up now for years in CS, I saw a lecture at FIRST Robotics by Yale, and they were
desperate to hire CS faculty, back in 2015 . I am sure they have succeeded in that.

Illinois beat Yale any day for CS research, CS publications, CS interdisciplinary work.

Yale has other fine academic programs, and a much more east coast/sailing/rich boy culture.
Yale educates a large number of US politicians for instance, but certainly the undergrad programs are
A + overall, but remember its not too likely, without a hook, that you can get into Yale.

4

I’m thinking Carnegie Mellon. Pittsburgh is NOT a “gritty city,” hasn’t been for at least 30 years, and CMU is in the suburbs, in Shadyside, a mile from Pitt. They have a world-class theater program, but what I’m not sure to what extent you can be a part of that as a non-theater student. However, and despite the incredible computer science and robotics programs, it isn’t as prestigious as some of the other schools on your list (which obviously are more of a crapshoot to get into).

One thing I’m unclear about is your statement that you’d preferably like a school with “decent sports.” Does that mean for you to participate in, on the club level? Does it mean a big Div-I program where everyone cheers on the football team? Or is it enough to be in a city where there are professional sports to watch? (more accessible to attend in Pittsburgh and Cleveland than a place like L.A., for example).

Anyway, it sounds like one key is what I raised with CMU–whether non-theater majors can participate in the campus productions, or whether it’s considered a completely separate school with separate admissions requirements. My recommendation would be to look into that, and maybe your list can be whittled down a bit.

5

Students and parents get caught up in finding THE perfect school. I can assure you, it doesn’t exist. They all have strengths and weaknesses. You’ll only find the weaknesses after you get there. Focus on making a list where ALL of the schools, even your safeties are good enough. That way, you will be happy where ever you land.

6

All the schools you listed are hard enough to get into that the majority (sometimes even vsst majority) are NOT “normal, very impressive, social people.”

They have a lot of students who come from wealthy families, went to swanky private high schools, stuck out as somewhat special academically even as kids, and/or often travelled extensively before college.

Calm down, I’m not saying ALL their students are like that, or that there is something wrong with having had luxuries or privileges growing up. What I AM saying is that if you go to any of those schools expecting to find a significant % of low-maintenance kids with wardrobes from Target who are saying things like, “Aw shucks, I sure am happy to be here,” you will be disappointed.

Public universities (e.g., U of Iowa or Va Tech) would jhave a much higher % of the type you seem to be looking for.

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UIUC is not a safety for CS.

8

A bit smaller and more rural than your targets, but Hamilton is known for both theater and Asian Studies, and it has a good computer science department, so maybe worth a look.

I’d be cautious about Carnegie Mellon. It has elite programs in both theater and computer science, but I’m not sure there’s much way to combine the two. As others have said, look closely at the opportunities for non-majors in theater before you decide.

What about Wesleyan? It’s strong in all your areas of interest - a little smaller than you think you want, but worth considering.

Like CWRU, U of Rochester might be a good not-quite-as-reachy addition to your list. Strong performing arts culture, good options for fulfilling the humanities concentration with Asian Studies, strong STEM/CS, DivIII sports. (Not sure if you meant you want to play or be a spectator?)

And it really might be worth considering UMichigan. This could be best-of-both worlds in terms of public vs. private attributes - majority-OOS student population, top-tier academics, but with the spectator sports and relative unpretentiousness of a public U. Fantastic Asian languages, fantastic performing arts, top-notch STEM, and you’d likely get into the Honors program which would give you a similar classroom experience to the elite privates.

(Also, re: the GA Tech suggestion up-thread, look closely at their Honors program which is quite small and could also provide the private-esque experience you’re looking for. I have no idea about performing arts there, but could be worth looking into.)

From your list, USC stands out in terms of encouraging and facilitating cross-disciplinary pursuits.