Need Help with Choosing College

College Search & Selection
1

Hello everyone,

As the college admission came to an end, I am now struggling deciding which college to choose from those I was admitted to. I was hoping if you guys could give me some help or advice in deciding which college to go. Here below I will list some aspects - in order of importance - that my ideal college would have. After this, I will list all the schools I got into (waitlisted included). I would prefer if you guys could rank the colleges (please include the waitlisted ones too) that fit the aspects I will mention below the best, but any suggestion/comment/advice is welcome : ). Thanks!

ATMOSPHERE
I am a very creative and entrepreneurial guy, and I have started and led my own company during my high school years. Therefore, I hope to study in an environment where entrepreneurship is celebrated and widespread on campus. I want to meet multi-faceted people (not just business majors, but also engineering etc.) and discuss ideas with them, and I want the college to have the necessary infrastructures/faculties/tools to help me pursue my entrepreneurial goals, such as starting a company. In addition, I really like the college to have a big international student body. Being an international student myself, I want to explore other cultures and languages besides those I am surrounded by. In turn, this will also help expand my business horizon beyond American borders.

STUDENT BODY
Just like the atmosphere, I would like my classmates to be talented people with a common interest to create and share ideas, to be entrepreneurs. Also, I would also like that students come from wealthy and respected family. Now, I am not saying this because I am a spoiled rich kid who just wants to hang with equally rich peers. I am saying this because I want to use these connections to eventually succeed in the business world. As many of you may know, connection to “big” people is a vital business asset.

ACADEMICS
For the past few years, my academic focus has been on business. As I mentioned above, I want to be an entrepreneur, and I believe that a strong business education will help me pursue that career. Therefore, an undergraduate business school/program would be ideal. However, I would also like to explore other subjects and expand my intellectual horizon. Who knows? Maybe business isn’t for me. I don’t want to go to a school where only business education excels, but a school that excels in every aspect, in every branch of academics. I want to go a school that gives me the flexibility and freedom to take all sorts of different classes, even if there are remotely related to business.
I am also interested in studying one year in china to improve my chinese language skills, so i want the college to offer some study abroad programs.

LOCATION
I love living in big cities, so I would love if the college is located on or not too far away from a big city, especially a city with strong business opportunities and a colorful social life. Examples of such cities are NYC, San Francisco, Chicago etc.

REPUTATION
I know that a school’s name, reputation, or ranking should be the least factor in deciding which college to go, but if all things are equal, I would definitely prefer the higher ranked one (or the more renowned one), even though I know it is almost never all things equal. The reason I put reputation is because I also intend to do international business/internships, specifically in China, where my parents are from. Therefore, a higher ranked, or more renowned, school might help me secure a job/internship domestically and abroad more easily.

SCHOOLS I GOT IN:

  • UCLA (college of letters and science)
  • UCI (merage)
  • Boston College (Carroll)
  • USC (Marshall)
  • carnegie mellon (tepper)
  • UC Berkeley (colleges of letters and science)
  • NYU (Stern)
  • georgetown (McDonough)
  • dartmouth college

WAILISTED
-harvard college
-stanford
-columbia college
-Upenn (wharton)

2

My daughter faced similar choice, but after visiting schools, she quickly eliminated most from contention. She is now a sophomore at USC and loves it. She is very thankful that she made the decision to travel from FL to USC. The opportunities at USC and within the greater LA area are almost endless. The USC alumni network is also amazing. To me personally, I would have only encouraged my daughter to potentially consider Stanford, Yale, Princeton and Brown over USC. My younger daughter, now a HS junior, has already decided that USC is her first choice. And I am very thankful regarding her decision. As a parent, my impression of USC has only grown over the last two years. They are excellent at all of the things that are important to parents… from communication to financial aid to all of their various online portals related to registration, assistance, tracking, housing, etc. They are just quite simply a well-funded and well-oiled machine. USC has mastered the college experience, in my opinion, including everything related to the exchange of information. My final suggestion would be to look at the survey details provided by students themselves comparing the two colleges at https://colleges.niche.com/rankings/best-colleges/ I have found their rankings and parameters to be far more useful than other college ranking services. Good luck with your decision…

3

Offhand, it sounds like Stern would be a great fit for you.

4

Sounds like you would be an excellent fit for NYU Stern based on your priorities:

NYU attracts the most international students out of any school in the country. Entrepreneurship is a big part of the culture and NYU invests a lot into programs which allow students to pitch their ideas for significant amounts of money ($200,000) and introduces you to potential business partners and venture capitalists. Regarding study abroad, no school in the world has a better study abroad program. You can easily spend a year in china or almost any other country you want to because of the highly flexible curriculum requirements. Lastly, NYU has a lot of top departments in other schools (very good at Film Producing, Philosophy, Applied Math, Economics, English, History, Comp Sci, etc.)

5

NYU Stern, Georgetown McDonough, or USC would match your requirements the closest.
All in all, though, NYU and its campus in China would probably give it an edge over the others.

6

…

7

@qwertyzxc @MYOS1634 @happy1 How about UC Berkeley? I actually like it a lot. It has a much better business program (although admission to it is not guaranteed), it is famed internationally in every branch of academics (which will help me secure internships/jobs abroad), and its close proximity to silicon valley would be ideal to my entrepreneurial ambitions. The only thing that concerns me are the large classes, which will make it difficult to learn materials, and the current bad financial situation of UC schools (I’m worried that i won’t be able to graduate in 4 years or that significant cuts will cause the elimination of certain programs).

8

UC Berkeley is a great school. I happen to not love the idea of gong to a college without an assurance that you will be able to study what you want, but many do go that route. And if you want to work in CA that is a positive for Berkeley.

9

I wouldn’t go to UCB from OOS. Not only isn’t it guaranteed at all that you’ll get into Haas, but 60K is too much to pay for what you get (the cuts will make the undergraduate experience compare quite unfavorably to what you can get for 60K elsewhere) - go to Haas for a Master’s and attend USC if you want CA, or NYU Stern forNYC+ NYU-S or McDonough for capital + wealthy kids.

10

I agree - it sounds like you would love Stern.

11

@MYOS1634 just wanted to remind you that cost is not a problem at all. I can afford to go wherever I want. All I care about is the whole package.

12

Yes but do you want to pay Lexus price for a civic just because you have the money ?
For instate students, at 13k a year tuition, it’s a bargain and they can deal with the less than ideal learning conditions. But for 60k…

13

@WWWard how can that niche ranking give USC a B on health & safety and give U Michigan Ann Arbor a C+?!? That was one of my criteria in comparing the two and I find that hard to agree with.

14

@choirsandstages As I understand the niche ranking matrix, it is primarily derived from student-submitted survey responses. So my assumption would be that USC students, past and current, have a higher opinion of the health and safety factors at USC than those who answered similar surveys for UM. My D’s reply for that topic at USC was a B-.