<p>Columbia is a joke anyway. they have a red light rating for free speech, no sense of community, super high cost of living, frustrating core…</p>
<p>ok I can’t find this anywhere, what does LAC stand for?</p>
<p>Liberal Arts College</p>
<p>I’ve never understood the allure of NYC for undergrads…everything is too expensive to enjoy, you can’t get in the good bars, etc. Seems like it might be good for grad school or life as an adult. For undergrad, I think Amherst (the college and the town) are a wonderful choice.</p>
<p>I had an inkling you were talking about Columbia lol. I think Amherst will be awesome for you! Columbia is great, but NYC isn’t going anywhere, you can always live their in the future!</p>
<p>Look, you have your whole life to live in NYC, but only 4 years to experience the true undergraduate college experience. You made the right choice.</p>
<p>PMed you :)</p>
<p>Deciding on where to spend the next four years of your life–where you’ll devote your energies to learning, having fun, and making lifelong connections–is a process that demands a great deal of maturity, the ability to critically assess trade-offs, gains, and losses.</p>
<p>It appears that you have demonstrated what I believe to be a very special knack for personal introspection. You understand your own wants, and you have made your decision relying solely on rational thought, suppressing irrational motives.</p>
<p>You’ve made a very reasonable decision. :)</p>
<p>If you had picked Amherst over Penn, I’d say yes you made a huge mistake 
But picking it over Columbia for undergrad is a perfectly rational thing to do.</p>
<p>hahha nice ilovebagels.</p>
<p>dude, amherst is pwnage. no worries you’ll be fine :)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Schmaltz I couldn’t agree more. I think the appeal might be for people who live far away from NYC and have rarely if ever been there. For them NYC is some near-mythical shangri-la of fabulousness. Having grown up in a city right next to NYC and visited more times than I could count, I’ve.</p>
<p>If you were to draw a graph of ‘love of NYC’ based on geographic proximity, I think you’d have a peak of self-interested New Yorkers at the epicenter followed by a ring of disinterest in surrounding cities (Boston, Philly etc) and then an upward trending as you get farther and farther from NYC and it becomes more and more remote and unobtainable.</p>
<p>Second guessing yourself is a very normal process that happens to many kids the summer before they start college! Llook at the positives of your school and remember why you chose it. You will have fun once you get there and start meeting people and getting involved. Relax and enjoy the rest of your summer:)</p>
<p>Yeah, I went through a horrific fit of this last month. I lost a lot of sleep agonizing, but I think I’ll be happy. If not there’s always transfer…again.</p>
<p>Wow, thanks all for your responses and help! I’m feeling a lot better about this year after hearing you from you guys :)</p>
<p>It’s a common phenomenon, called “buyer’s remorse.” Often when we make big and seemingly irreversible decisions—buying a house or an expensive new car, moving to a new city, taking a new job, choosing a spouse, choosing a college—we have second thoughts and wonder if we made the wrong decision (or convince ourselves we did). This is perfectly normal after making such a big decision. Live with it a few weeks, focus on the positives of the choice you made (“Well, it may have been the wrong choice, but I guess I’m stuck with it; at least it gives me X, Y, and Z . . .”) It usually goes away after a while. If it doesn’t, see if you can transfer to the other school.</p>
<p>I’m in the same situation as you. I chose Princeton for ORFE over Harvard for Econ, but now I’m reading all these articles about how hard it is to get into Harvard and how like 75% of cross admits at these schools choose Harvard and I am now really worried I made the wrong choice…</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I made a similar decision (not between Harvard and Princeton of course, haha) that went against the normal decisions of cross admits and had similar feelings for a while. I just tried to remind myself that those admits had their own reasons for choosing school A over school B, just like I had reasons for choosing school B. </p>
<p>Have you been back to Princeton for a summer program or anything? I felt a LOT better after going back to campus and meeting other new students.</p>
<p>Well the thing is and what makes it even harder is that I’ve never visited either college because I just didn’t have time in the spring :(</p>
<p>Amherst versus Harvard, Yale, or Princeton is a tough call. Amherst versus Columbia, from the standpoint of undergraduate resources and academics is a no-brainer. It’s really not even that close.</p>
<p>cb,
Did I read that you received a significant scholarship to Amherst?? Congratulations!! Take all the $$ you will save and take a few fun trips to NYC or Boston! Amherst is a wonderful placve, where you will have the opportunity to work closely with your professors. Those I know who went to Columbia said there wasnt as much “on campus” cohesion because everyone does things in The City. Give Amherst a chance. I bet you will love it.</p>
<p>Slik Nik-
Congrats on the right decision!! While Atlanta is , IMO nicer than Houston, both are great cities, but head to head, I recommend Rice over Emory. The res college system is wonderful and Rice is a gem. Duke is a different type of school, and hard to compare head to head. You will LOVE Rice!! Enjoy it-- time will fly by!! Do you know your res college assignment yet?</p>