I Need Help Choosing A College! | STEM Major | Publics, Liberal Arts, and Ivies

College Search & Selection
1

I just received all of my college decisions. I’m beyond grateful because I was accepted to 10 great universities! I know that no one here can give me a final answer on where to go for college, but I would like some advice and feedback on the schools that I got accepted to:
UMiami
UF
Case Western
Wellesley
Harvey Mudd
Yale
Columbia

My top three choices are Yale, Columbia, and Harvey Mudd. Finances are not an issue. I plan on visiting each school sometime next month, but if you guys have any suggestions on what I should look out for while I’m on campus, that would be greatly appreciated!

I know for sure that I want to be a STEM major. I either want to major in Mathematics or engineering.

If I major in math, I would like to minor (or maybe even double major) in economics. Afterwards, I would like to attend grad school and obtain a Masters in mathematics. Afterwards, I would like to work as a data analysis or a stock trader.

If I major in engineering, I would most likely major in electrical or biomedical. I would probably minor in business or math. Afterwards, I would like to attend grad school for engineering as well. I’m not really sure what I would do in terms of jobs but I would like to work for a big company such as Lockheed Martin, Boeing, or NASA.

I know for sure that I want to major in either math or engineering so I would prefer a school that is great for both of these majors.

Below I’m gonna type my view on my top three colleges and please correct them if I’m wrong! This is simply how I view the colleges at the moment.

Harvey Mudd: Great school. It’s very STEM based, which I don’t mind at all. My only concern is that I’ve heard this school is extremely difficult in terms of workload. I’ve been told it’s extremely competitive and I’m concerned with the issues they had a few years back where they had to cancel classes because students were so stressed.

Columbia: It’s in New York City!!! I think it’s great in terms of location because there are just so many connections around. Of course, I personally don’t like the city and don’t know if I’ll like the environment. But I really don’t want the city to stop me from attending any school. I heard it’s great for engineering, I know that it’s ranked above Yale for engineering. But do the rankings really matter? This is a serious question like I don’t know how much weight rankings should actually hold in my decision.

Yale: Yale really surprised me with an acceptance. I’m beyond grateful for this. I’m worried that I’ll end up choosing Yale because of prestige and that I actually won’t like it if I choose to enroll. I know that Yale has a really small math department but if I recall correctly, some of the faculty are field medalists, which really captured my attention. I really don’t know much about Yale for engineering.

I’m really interested in conducting research so how are these three schools when it comes to research? Are they filled with opportunities?

This came out longer than I intended it to be. I would appreciate any advice and feedback from any of the schools, not just my top three.

Thank you guys for reading this and giving any advice and feedback!

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@Schuh07 I was lurking in the Harvey Mudd thread and saw you got accepted there. So you got in Yale and Columbia too! Amazing! Great job. From what I’ve heard about Harvey Mudd, I think you would be happy there. But Ivies are Ivies. Take your time and do your due diligence. This is an important decision, but obviously this is the kind of problem that most CC-ers would love to have. Good luck!

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This is a good question, particularly in the way that you’ve phrased it. To the extent that you consider rankings, I think you should look at scores, rather than ordinals. For example, Yale by score, 3.5 in its engineering category, is closer to Columbia (3.8) than Columbia is to Cornell (4.2). If you were just to consider ordinals (32, 18 and 9, respectively), the actual differences in program reputation may be less apparent. With this type of analysis, you’ll have a better understanding of which differences might be meaningful and which might be best ignored.

https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/engineering-doctorate

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For engineering, I would pick Harvey Mudd. For math, I think any of the three would be great.

Congrats on your acceptances. Great options!

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Do you have a preference for the HMC core, the Columbia core, or Yale’s distribution requirements?

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@allyphoe I’m more interested in Yale’s distribution requirements since it seems more relaxed compared to the other school’s requirements.

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I just finished visiting these schools and I’m pretty sure I’m going to commit to Yale! I don’t really like the HMC core or the Columbia core. Yale’s social environment seemed to be the best fit for me. A lot of Yale students told me how they were able to balance courses, extracurriculars such as research and competitions, and a social life just fine. I also loved the suburban vibes and I’m not really a fan of cities, which is a con for Columbia. I know that Yale has a small engineering program but it has such a huge endowment and it really does seem like Yale will spend money on its STEM department if students want to host specific projects, research etc. As side note, my Yale admissions officer actually recognized me when I told her my name. I could go on with reasons why I’m choosing Yale but that’s basically a summary lol thanks for everyone who chimed in!