Narrowing the List

College Search & Selection
1

<p>So I've been lurking this section of cc for a while, and there seems to have been a few successful narrowing threads lately, so I'll try my luck at things :)
My stats are typical of CC, but here are my stats for anyone who's interested: Me</a>! | being wayy too neurotic . The stat profiles here are too restrictive and formatted.</p>

<p>Here are some things I'm looking for in a college:</p>

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<p>Here's my current too-long list:
Brown
Caltech
Carnegie Mellon
UChicago
Columbia
Cornell
Duke
Harvard
UMich
MIT*
UNC
UPenn
Princeton*
URoch
RPI
Stanford
Williams
Yale*</p>

<ul>
<li>are my current favorites. Emphasis on current.</li>
</ul>

2

<p>Oh my God. You have a webpage. I'm seriously twitching just looking at your stats.</p>

<p>That being said, I would question:</p>

<p>Caltech (too one dimensional?)
UChicago (no, not based on the stereotypical "where fun goes to die" thing, but from what I've heard it's hard to do lots of ec's while at UC)
Williams (as a city person, I pretty much see Williams as the edge of civilization. Gorgeous campus, but waaaayyyy rural)
Columbia (Columbia is not a self-contained bubble. To like Columbia you have to love NYC)</p>

3

<p>I would also question RPI. Might contradict bullet #6 there...for one thing, the M/F ratio is like 4:1 or something ridiculous like that.</p>

4

<p>Thanks- but with RPI, wouldn't that be somewhat a positive thing? Though I guess like with all tech schools.. the odds are good but the goods are odd or whatever. :)</p>

<p>I'm sure you agree that Williams though is gorgeous and it's also really only an hour outside of Albany, though the roads are steep and windy (I rushed my trip at the end and did RPI and Williams in one day.)</p>

<p>Any other opinions?</p>

5

<p>If you found Dartmouth too remote, you probably want to rethink Williams. Your wanting to have a social life pretty much disqualifies Caltech.</p>

6

<p>Is williams really that remote? When I visited, it definitely seemed like a self contained community but it seemed as if you really wanted, you could easily drive into albany. What about duke? Os everyone there constantly in a hangover?</p>

7

<p>Williams College is a one hour drive from Albany. But again, if you don't want a college where drinking is the main passtime (and judging from your comment about Duke, I would say that's the case), Williams probably isn't for you.</p>

8

<p>The thing is I'm fine with drinking, as long as it's not excessive and overdone...</p>

9

<p>Bump. :) 10chars.</p>

10

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<p>Yes, but after that hour you're in . . . Albany, for gosh sakes! I'd say that in itself is enough to qualify Williams as remote. I seriously doubt that Williams students make the trek into Albany all that often. It strikes me as a self-contained and more-or-less isolated little academic community, stuck off in a beautiful, mountainous, wooded corner of Massachusetts.. Some people find that atmosphere idyllic because it means plenty of opportunities for studying, on-campus sports, on-campus socializing, and outdoor recreation. Others prefer a more urban environment. For the latter, Albany generally doesn't cut it.</p>

11

<p>Well I like relatively self-contained. Princeton comes to mind. Although it's not too far from both philly and nyc, it's pretty self-contained in that students generally stay on campus and college life isn't centered around city life. However, Princeton is also a travelable distance to visit a city (and home!). </p>

<p>Any other opinions?</p>

12

<p>Why isn't Stanford one of your favorites? It fits everything you want perfectly...</p>

13

<p>It's also in California. While I'm pretty fond of California myself, I spent last summer there, I'm from New Jersey and my mother's not too fond of me traveling that far. I also didn't want to star HYPSM, because that would look somewhat... (well that and I'm not all THAT big of a fan of Harvard.) Also, I plan on attending graduate school in Stanford in the far future (uh pending acceptance), and I want to experience different schools. But that's planning really far in advance. So in summary, it is a great school and I love it, but I'm not quite ready for it.</p>

14

<p>I've heard some people say that MIT students have so much work to do during the week that their parties are just around for you to drink and forget about life. Doesn't seem to fit your criteria. Also, the whole work thing also means that few ECs can be accomplished unless you only want an academic life (which contradicts your list).</p>

15

<p>MIT has a very good orchestra..
compared to non-musical institues.</p>

16

<p>umm.. from my skim i havnt seen anyone else mention it but.... you need some safeties!! i would say take AT LEAST 10 off of that list and add 3ish safeties.</p>

<p>i would take off caltech cause you said you want somewhat of a party atmosphere. and columbia too becuase it doesnt have very much of a campus (very small).</p>

<p>this might be bad advice but go look at the college pr***er book and look up each of the colleges and strike off some of those by the dorms, student body, and what hte social scene seems like at hte school. if you cnat visit before applying read the college visits here.. theyre real good</p>

17

<p>I have thought about the safety predicament. I will be applying to UMichigan rolling early in the year and will hear back hopefully before december. If I don't get in, I will apply to two instate public schools that are decent and I'm basically guaranteed to be accepted into. I also feel that that list is already pretty safe with RPI, URoch, and UMich. I'm not really too worried about not getting in anywhere- I used to be very worried, but the whole UMich plan seems to be failproof.</p>

<p>I'm pretty sure I'm not going to apply to Caltech, but I'm still not sure about the others. Williams was one of my first choices for a long time so I'm a bit reluctant to cross it off. Columbia I'm not AS excited about, but it has great engineering and creative writing programs (I'm not sure about being able to do both...) and probably great job recruitment as it's in NYC. </p>

<p>I have a guidebook about colleges- it's the yellow book written by students at the "top 100 schools" and compiled by a couple of Wes students. My list is already a product of that and guidance from my father. My guidance counselor, while extremely nice, compassionate, and hardworking, is new and doesn't really have the experience and knowledge to help.</p>

18

<p>class, Re Williams: Williamstown is definitely rural -- a pristine mountain village, really -- but at the same time the town and the campus are a self contained, vibrant community and the insularity can be very appealing for that reason. If you visited and responded positively I'd leave it on your list as your gut reaction is most likely reliable.</p>

<p>Williams has excellent sciences, excellent music (including piano) and in my opinion some strong creative writing instructors. No engineering, though.</p>

<p>Access to Albany is helpful for transportation connections but otherwise you wouldn't have much occasion to go there.</p>

19

<p>You must be a god. Perfection!! You can get in to almost anywhere with stats like those.</p>

20

<p>I tend to think Carnegie Mellon (CMU) is a perfect fit for you. It is a middle-sized school which is exceptionally strong in operations research (probably top 5 in the US in this area) with very strong programs as well in creative writing and music. </p>

<p>The downside is that CMU is an expensive school that offers little financial aid, but, considering you mentioned money is not an issue for you, that shouldn't be a problem.</p>