I have been accepted to Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA, the honors program at Miami University in Oxford, OH, Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC, and Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, TX. I am having an extremely hard time deciding which one I should choose! I’m interested in hearing any thoughts about any of these schools and any possible comparisons!! (Especially interested in student life, grad school acceptance, and job application prestige)
What are you intending to study?
I’m not sure; that’s the problem… Probably something in the Chemistry/science field
“Job application prestige” will depend in large part on the area of the country in which you would like to work after graduation, unless you go straight to grad school, in which case the prestige of your undergrad alma mater matters very little.
Are there cost differences between these schools?
@juillet I was offered money from a few of the schools and have ways of paying for the others; my family doesn’t want me to choose my school based off of the price
Well, if money is no object, I’d eliminate TCU altogether and decide between Wake Forest, Lehigh, and Miami.
From there the decision for me would be based upon fit. You can get a job from any of them - although these schools do all have more regional than national prestige and Lehigh might be a better fit if you want to work in the Northeast, Miami for the Midwest, and Wake for the South. They’re all excellent. You can get into grad school from either of them. So it’d be more about offerings and student life.
Miami is a medium-sized public research institution that’s also noted for its undergraduate teaching; you’ll get extra benefit from that with the honors program. There are nearly 15,000 students; with that comes a lot of student organizations and things to do on-campus. D1 sports lead to a lot of school spirit, so if you want to go somewhere you can cheer on the team at games every Sunday, tailgate, etc. that’s a good choice. Greek life is pretty strong there - there are 21 sororities and 30 fraternities, about 20-30% of the student body is in a Greek organization. Oxford is a small college town that was founded specifically for Miami U, so the town’s livelihood will revolve around the university. Depending on your preferences, that could be good (vibrant campus life, students don’t go far for fun, lots of perks in the surrounding town) or bad (nowhere else to go party, not really a lot of places to get off campus, limited access to city-based internships).
Lehigh’s smaller - the 5,000 undergrads will give the place a sort of LAC-like feel. Bethlehem is a medium-sized town/small city in close proximity to Allentown; the Lehigh Valley is a pretty populated area and you’d be relatively close to Philadelphia, New York, and other cities on the Northeast Corridor. Athletics are strong but not as big a deal as at Miami; however, Lehigh students do still seem to have a lot of school spirit and a long rivalry with Lafayette College. Lehigh also has strong Greek life - fewer organizations, but about 40-45% of the student body joins a Greek organization. The education is, of course, excellent, and Lehigh is a research institution too.
Wake Forest is probably the best known of them; it’s also located in a small and rapidly growing city (Winston-Salem) which is also close to other cities in NC. Greek life is also strong there (45% of the student body). Academics are strong too and WFU also has the research university designation. There are a lot of strong professors and figures associated with Wake Forest, like Melissa Harris-Perry (who teaches political science there, IIRC). It’s about the same size as Lehigh so will also have a more LAC-feel. Apparently about 72% of WFU students study abroad (or at least receive credit for study abroad programs); they have 400 different study abroad programs in over 70 countries. So if you want to study abroad, that’s a perk. I get the sense that WFU also has a strong school spirit and they do have D1 sports, and rivalries with Duke, UNC and NCSU.
If I were choosing, I’d choose Wake Forest - for location, reputation, quality of the education, weather, overall campus, social life/athletics, and where I’d want to end up post-college.
I agree with the basics but the last sentence is just personal bias irrelevant of the points above
Geography of the three is important depending on where you would want to be after college