<p>“First of all, it always amuses me when people’s first requirement is “good program in ___.” I mean, it’s one thing if you are planning to major in engineering or nursing becaue you pretty much need to major in that to work in those fields, but with anything else the major program should be the least of your worries. Many, many college students change their major (sometimes two or three times) before they finally settle on something that they want. And most solid schools have good reputations in all of their departments, or at least most of them.”</p>
<p>First, was one of the two main ones I said not engineering? Second, the reason I listed so many majors was for that exact reason, so that the school had a decent program for me to switch into. Third, many solid universities are missing some of the major, well, majors (like business; UCLA is an example of that).</p>
<p>“As for partying, a lot of people here say “I’m not a partier.” You’re still in high school, you don’t know WHAT you are. I wasn’t a partier in high school either, and I partied a lot in college. Besides, even if you go to a huge university like Penn State that’s known for partying, there are ALWAYS going to be a contingent of people who only party occasionally or not at all. Just like at schools that aren’t known for partying, there are going to be a few wild partiers.”</p>
<p>That is actually really good advice. I will take that requirement off my list. Thanks</p>
<p>"Anyway, I thought of</p>
<p>Duke (good engineering, warm weather, great D1 sports, beautiful campus - you’ll find a range of students with the whole partying thing here)</p>
<p>Georgia Tech (engineering powerhouse, warm weather, the campus is all right, dorms and food are not nice though, and they have good but not spectacular D1 sports)</p>
<p>Harvey Mudd (great for engineering, not so known for business, hear the campus is nice, not known for partying, beautiful weather, not D1 sports)</p>
<p>USC (great journalism, good business, nice campus, D1 sports, warm weather, again so huge you’ll find some kids who don’t want to party)</p>
<p>University of Georgia, Vanderbilt, UF, UT-Austin, Rice, Miami, Tulane, LSU, UVA might be some other schools to look into as well – all of them have at least one or two things on your list."</p>
<p>What are Duke’s and Vanderbilt’s business undergrad programs like? USC is definitely on my list. Would you consider it a safety, match, or reach for me? UT-Austin and Miami also made my lists, do they have good engineering programs?</p>
<p>"Where do you live?</p>
<p>UVA was the first to come to mind.</p>
<p>UVA’s a heck of a recommendation. Most everything you want + warm but with mountains and skiing nearby. Yeah, that’ll be hard to top."</p>
<p>I live in MD so I have already visited UVA. EXTREMELY nice. However, is it worth 40K+ more than UMD? Another problem is I am scared I wouldn’t get into their business school after a year or two there. I’d much prefer to go to a school where I can apply directly to my school of interest so that I can make sure I can get in somewhere. Also, their dorms are terrible but that is being picky haha</p>
<p>Thanks to the people who have responded so far.</p>