<p>marlgirl - I know how you feel. I always thought Stanford was my first choice school because it just seemed RIGHT for me. I don't really know though. I guess we'll find out when admission decision time comes -- if you're accepted, perhaps that's because they thought you were a good match. But once again, you just never know. I guess one way to find out is to actually visit the school. That's what I'm going to do in the spring, and then make my decision from then on. Simple things such as even the "atmosphere" you get from there and how it makes you feel, the people you see (do they look like people you can be friends with and just hang out)? and generally the big picture you get from stepping on the campus can strongly affect your decisions.</p>
<p>Have you had trouble narrowing down the schools you even want to apply for? Because I've had that problem... I just can't figure out which ones would be good for my field. They all start to sound the same after a while.</p>
<p>Seeing as I think I want to major in math/physics, but know that I might end up majoring in anything from economics to psychology to philosophy, there aren't that many schools that are really strong in the physical sciences and also strong in the humanities. Eliminate schools that I know just aren't right for me (MIT, Harvard, and Princeton for example) and you have a much smaller selection of schools. I guess I have a pretty good sense of what isn't quite right, I just don't know exactly that is right for me. I will visit the places where I'm accepted in the spring and see for myself what it could be like to be a student there. </p>
<p>They really all do sound the same... most of them at least. At one point I realized that schools from Harvard to Lehigh to Dominican University to like U of Arizona and Alabama all claim to have the same thing- bright students, approachable teachers who care about the undergraduates, small classes, diverse student body, lots of clubs, good sports, etc. So either 1) they really are pretty similar or 2) a lot of schools (if not all of them) are lying to me. Some of the schools on my list, such as U Chicago, Swarthmore, and Williams, don't claim to be everything to everyone. And I like that. A lot.</p>