Need help choosing schools to apply to!!

<p>There are three categories of lists that I need to choose from. One school from each. Here are some requirements. Please help me out!</p>

<p>Generally I want to go to schools with international recognition & outstanding alumni, abundant research opportunities and places with plentiful internship opportunities. Aiming law school for grad</p>

<p>*List 1: Columbia, Duke, UChicago
*List 2: Brown, UC Berkeley
For List 1 & 2, my anticipated study areas are sciology and psychology. </p>

<p>*List 3: U Michigan (will apply for pre-program to Ross School if admitted and attending), NYU Stern
For List 3, my anticipated study area is Finance</p>

<p>Can you afford all those schools? Why international recognition?</p>

<p>yep, I think I’ll pay full tuition
just thought international recognition is important…</p>

<p>I’m having trouble with your criteria. They just don’t seem very meaningful, especially given your goal of eventually attending law school.</p>

<p>International recognition just means that they have graduate schools, usually in business, science or engineering which have been attended by a lot of international students. Berkeley is probably the best known of the lot for this reason. Not sure why this criteria is relevant to a future lawyer unless you are an international student or planning to work internationally.</p>

<p>Plentiful internships usually just means urban or suburban with good public transportation. Not much of a criteria.</p>

<p>And what kind of research are you keen on doing if law school is your goal? Most PhD programs and med schools want to see some research, but I didn’t think this was the case with law schools.</p>

<p>@M’s Mom: now that you mentioned it, yeah, I think there are lots of inconsistence between my criteria and future plans. I did wanna work internationally but then it is the law school I go to needs international recognition. And I would like to do some humanity research.</p>

<p>You sound like an international student. Am I correct? Your approach to choosing schools is unusual…</p>

<p>Is there some reason why you need to pick only one out of each of these categories? Usually people apply to at least half a dozen schools (more if they are applying to schools of this caliber/level of selectiveness), unless they are certain that they are going to their state school and are sure they can get in.</p>

<p>Also, its a bit unusual that your area of study changes based on the school you are admitted to. Usually people pick an area of study that appeals to them and then look for schools that offer it. </p>

<p>Perhaps if you explain your situation more fully, you’ll get better advice. As is, all the schools in your list are both highly regarded and highly selective. And expensive.</p>

<p>yeah I’m an international student :)</p>

<p>actually, I already have some safety schools to apply to but couldn’t decided among those listed in #1</p>

<p>As for the study area…I want to study Business in college then go to law school initially. From where I come from, it is quite usual for college students to get business majors. But I assume in US, liberal arts education is more encouraged. And when I look at undergraduate rankings, most top 20 schools does not have undergraduate business majors except for Wharton, Berkeley…Some school did offer relavent courses but not majors. So then I think perhaps this is the trend in US, I mean not doing professional studies during college. And perhaps studying in sociology, which is what I love as well, will be a nice choice. My final decision is to apply to schools with good fames(both some to Business schools and Colleges) and then see where fate leads me:) Is it not wise to do like this?</p>

<p>btw thanks for your help!</p>

<p>Most of the top private universities and liberal arts colleges are not pre-professional (with the exception of engineering) so students interested in business often major in economics. But that is not required to attend a graduate business school here. Wharton is an exception to this rule and Berkeley is, of course, a California state university.</p>

<p>If you require financial aid to attend school here, it will significantly impact which schools you should apply to. Berkeley, for example, probably does not offer any scholarships to international undergrads.</p>

<p>As for your list, all the schools you mention have solid psych and sociology depts. so it really depends on where you are able to get accepted and what kind of environment you are happiest in. Search and post in the international section of this forum for more insights on getting into these schools as an international.</p>

<p>Thank you so much!</p>

<p>I recommend you apply to Berkeley for business (Haas) instead of sociology. Just my two cents.</p>