Congratulations!
D and I visited Stanford, MIT, Rice, and UChicago. Even though I am an MIT grad (and happen to be on campus as I am writing this), UChicago was clearly the best fit for her. She just returned from the overnight completely excited to attend.
Your parents have their priorities wrong. Everyone who matters knows about UChicago, and perhaps outside of CS startups, there are zero opportunities you are missing relative to your other schools . You should visit if you can.
California Blvd or Massachusetts Ave.
The OP has no more time to add another variable to the equation. Go to where you like.
I liked Caltech. My son preferred MIT. And felt sad when I heard his decision.
At this point it is about fit. Both finalists on your list are amazing academically. There’s no right or wrong answer. Weather at Boston is very hard for a California kid. My DD survived winter by spending IAP back home externing for a startup in CA. I can only speak about intensity of MIT, but with unlimited amounts of opportunities school and Boston location offer outside of academics, absolutely insane amount of workload doesn’t leave much time for anything else.
Congrats, you have some great choices there. MIT and Caltech are known as very serious/intense places – which is fine, if it’s right for you. Since you have them as your top choices, after learning about them and visiting them, you are probably aware of this and feel that’s the the kind of environment you want to be in. That’s great.
To echo some of the other replies, MIT is probably stronger in non-STEM subjects than Caltech.
I wouldn’t worry too much about missing out on things at a school you don’t pick (unless they’re specific things that you’ve identified as very important). Every school has their own unique characteristics, and you pick one of them because you feel its characteristics make it the best option for you. But you can’t have everything.
But I wanted to bring up Mudd again. Mudd is also very strong in STEM, and is known for a similar level of seriousness/intensity as those other schools. In addition, it has the advantage of being part of that consortium (i.e., with Pomona), which would help greatly in access to non-STEM subjects. You say your parents nixed it because of apparent lack of prestige, but I would encourage you to revisit this with them, and see if you can make them realize what a top school it is, and what an opportunity it presents.
This is all assuming you haven’t completely eliminated Mudd yourself at this point. You’re in southern California, so maybe you can work in another visit there.
@dsi411 One more thing you may want to keep in mind is what you plan to major in. MIT has more choices than Caltech, check the list from both and see if they offer the major(s) that interest you.
It’s a shame when a child gets into a top school like Pomona which may be a great fit, but gets overruled by a parent because none of there friends recognize the name, Pomona, and ends up at an Ivy that they don’t fit in at all.
Thanks for the help everyone. I’ve committed to MIT! My mother contacted the financial aid office and after reviewing more documents they will reduce the price.
Congratulations!
@dsi411 Congrats
I think MIT will be a very good fit for you. Congratulations!
Prestige will have the majority of you drowning in debt. MIT is clearly a top notch school, Stanford as well. But in your case, will going to the first two make any difference in your life? Will going to cal tech make life hard? No. If your parents don’t care about price, then go right ahead. But cal tech is top notch, might not be as big as mit… but you’ll still get a quality education
Campaign time is over. Let’s the OP have a good meal and good sleep.