<p>This is not another "which school should I go to?" thread. I realize the only person who can make the right decision about my college choice is myself. However, I'd like some more last-minute information about the schools that I'm looking at. While I've been browsing this forum, I've encountered a lot of personal tidbits about certain schools that aren't necessarily in the review books or the websites, so I'm wondering if anyone has anything they'd like to share about these schools. I don't care what it is, just what you think would be very pertinent in someone's college decision. (Obviously, what is pertinent varies from person to person, but I think anything someone can think of can be useful)</p>
<p>These are the schools I'm looking at:</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon (Humanities and Social Sciences)
Claremont McKenna
Emory
Mount Holyoke
NYU (Gallatin)
USC
Vanderbilt
Wellesley</p>
<p>In particular, I'm intending on majoring in Economics, but I think I'd like to make my own major.</p>
<p>We visitied Vandy loved it and nashville. D chose a major they did not have so sadly she didnt apply. It was her dream school
Mt. Holyoke is in a more isolated place. My friend’s d goes there, and although happy, there isnt much going on in the weekends.</p>
<p>What ones are the least out-of-pocket for you?</p>
<p>And what are your 3 top preferences as of now? I know which 3 are my top 3, but that doesn’t really matter does it? Son was an econ major, so he would NOT have been eligible for one of my top choices!</p>
<p>And have you been to visit any of the schools so far?</p>
<p>I’m not asking for advice where to go to college, just some extra info. For instance, one person said that his daughter’s school (Smith) had great interview preparation, so I’d like to hear something like that.</p>
<p>My son graduated from Carnegie Mellon (SCS) last spring. He minored in physics. I think the atmosphere at Carnegie Mellon is influenced that a large portion of the population (the engineers, computer scientists, business undergrads, artists, drama kids and architects at the very least) all know what they want to be when they grow up. Many have said, that as unlikely as it sounds, especially from professors, there’s actually more cross-culturation than at schools which aren’t divided in separate schools. I’d imagine that as an economics major you’d be able to take advantage of Tepper’s offerings. Networking at CMU seems to be particularly strong - my son definitely got internships because older classmates recommended him. There’s a lot of this sort of thing at Carnegie Mellon: [Capture</a> the Flag with Stuff](<a href=“http://www.cmukgb.org/activities/ctfws.php]Capture”>Capture the Flag with Stuff) Carnival is really amazing everyone takes off and has fun and lots of alumni come back and enjoy it as well. Pittsburgh is quite the college town - with five colleges there are lots of business catering to students.</p>
<p>In my personal opinion, Mt. Holyoke is very quiet, and someone interested in these large city schools may find the environment too sleepy/isolated. It’s great for the right person, but you need to be really sure that that person is you. (This is considerably less true for Wellesley, though even it is relatively small/quiet/suburban as your list goes.)</p>
<p>We know graduates of Wellesley, NYU, Carnegie Mellon, Mt. Holyoke, and USC. ALL really loved their colleges but for different reasons…as the schools are not exactly the same! </p>
<p>To be honest, I think you need to look at the locations of these schools and make some decisions. ALL of them are good schools academically, so you may want to consider urban/suburban/rural, warm weather/cold weather, west coast/not west coast. </p>
<p>If I were a female student and I was interested in an all women’s college, I would choose Wellesley off of your list. BUT then if I preferred a more secluded place, I would choose Mt. Holyoke.</p>
<p>@mathmom: I was a bit reluctant to pick CMU and I think I would have a hard time convincing my parents to let me go, but your post reminded me of what I liked about it and the fact that the Econ degree does come from Tepper. The search continues…</p>
<p>I think in pure educational quality, Wellesley is a powerhouse. Very low student-faculty ratio, lots of personal attention, very, very few TAs, small classes, a huge endowment per student, wonderful career advising. I’ve never been a great fan of its location (neither fish nor fowl). Many of the same qualities at Mount Holyoke, in a bucolic location. What I like best about CMU is its location - Pittsburgh is a really exciting town these days, and the co-location with Pitt makes it a very vibrant place. </p>
<p>I don’t get NYU (unless at Tisch, or maybe Stern). If New York City is important to you…</p>
<p>I got into Gallatin. It’s a unique program that completely centers on having a self-developed curriculum with about 1000 other students, so that sets it apart from other create-your-own-major programs at other schools. Of course, price is an issue.</p>
<p>I have heard that Carnegie Mellon is excellent in comp sci. as well as the arts, but that there is a pretty big divide between these two communities. I haven’t heard anything about economics.</p>
<p>Maybe you already know this, but at Wellesley you can take classes at MIT and I think Harvard. Obviously, it’s not terribly convenient (about 45 minutes away by bus if I remember correctly.) But you could take a class or two from world-leading economicists at MIT while still enjoying the excellent teacher-to-student ratio at Wellesley.</p>
<p>My sister’s step son in an econ major at Vandy. He loves the school and as far as I know he is quite happy with the Econ program. He is planning on applying to most if the top business schools in the country so I assume he thinks coming from Vandy he should be able to get accepted based on the strength of his academics and his GMAT score.</p>
<p>My S is looking at CMU as well - he’s been accepted to H&SS but wants to transfer to SCS for which he was waitlisted. From what I understand, it’s the hardest school to transfer into. You should be able to transfer into Tepper though. I also hear that H&SS is not as academically challenging as some of the other schools.</p>
<p>Good friend’s son is an econ major at Claremont-McKenna. He was one of a group of students who CMC selected to fly out to NYC to interview with several Wall St. firms offering paid summer internships. He also flew to SFO and, indeed, has an amazing summer internship there. He speaks very highly of the econ dept. there and how hands-on they are in the career/counseling guidance dept. fyi</p>
<p>My D chose Wellesley but also visited Mt. Holyoke (and feels like 30 other schools). I don’t think Mt. Holyoke is as strong academically and not near a fun large city like D wanted. She also got a bit of a creepy feel during the presentation after the tour at Mt Holyoke. The lady speaking was “way too drippy nice” hard to describe, but I also left feeling the same way. D also was being recruited and didn’t connect with the coach.</p>
<p>That being said, the dorms we saw at Mt Holyoke were very spacious and interesting and I personally like the area and the 5 college consortium (more relative to attending Amherst tho).</p>
<p>I hear Econ at Wellesley is strong - would like to see D change her major from BioChem to Econ!!!</p>
<p>Good luck to you!!! Great choices to have :)</p>
<p>Congratulations! Those are all great schools!</p>
<p>Here’s my two cents about Emory where my daughter is completing her freshman year. I think the advising is absolutely appalling. I was expecting the kind of experience I had at Smith (which is obviously dumb to do – they’re very different schools) – where the advisor tries to get to know you as a person, they know the requirements of the school and ask you what you’re interested in studying, and they help you find classes that will meet your interests. At Emory, I am getting the very strong feeling that they really don’t care if you learn or not, and they don’t value teaching either. It’s much more of a sink or swim environment. It’s very tough to get into classes, and the advisor will let you sign up for advanced classes (where you will fail) without pointing out you should take an intro class first. </p>
<p>If you want to be at a place where people care about you, care that you learn, care that you challenge yourself but do well at the same time, you will be better off at Mount Holyoke or Wellesley (just based on my experience at Smith).</p>
<p>CMC - I have to admit that I don’t really “get” CMC; there’s something slippery about it (it’s business-oriented – but, it’s not business-oriented; it’s competitive but, it’s not competitive; it’s like a fraternity but, it’s not, etc, etc.) The college is approximately the size of two Yale quadrangles shoved together, and, if you major in anything other than Government or Economics, chances are you willl be spending most of your time on one of the other campuses in the consortium. The irony here is that, despite attending what is, in essence, a medium-sized university of 6,000 students, the many separate identities within the consortium almost guarantee that it won’t have the same name recognition. Just like a typical NESCAC student, you’ll be explaining to people where you go to college. OTOH, the weather is so different from the others on your list that it probably trumps everything else.</p>