No thanks, Harvard

College Search & Selection
661

<p>
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i know a girl from San Francisco who turned Harvard down b/c she wanted a better engineering program

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</p>

<p>Because I have seen just how many people come into college intending to be engineers, and then never getting an engineering degree (either because they change majors or they just flunk out entirely), coupled with the fact that plenty of people who get engineering degrees end up not taking engineering jobs (i.e. 25% of MIT EECS grads end up taking jobs as management consultants or bankers), I would consider turning down Harvard for a better engineering program to be an extremely risky maneuever. You better be pretty darn sure that you want to be an engineer. Apparently even many MIT engineers don't really want to be engineers (for why would so many of them go to consulting or banking?).</p>

662

<p>my friend who got accepted to yale turned it down to work at best buy. not on purpose. he was poor and didnt have the money.</p>

663

<p>soon going to be turning down columbia for cuny honors. reason = money. no financial aid vs. full ride? i think i pick full ride.</p>

664

<p>I know someone who turned down MIT and Harvard for Grinnell. He hasn't thought about it twice and he loves grinnell so he made the perfect decision.</p>

665

<p>a girl at my school turned down Harvard AND Yale for Emory-- she got a scolarship though</p>

666

<p>I <em>might</em> turn down Wellesley and University of Chicago for Washington and Lee (full ride). We'll see...</p>

667

<p>My grandma turned down harvard for the university of michigan (full ride)</p>

668

<p>soon going to be turning down columbia for cuny honors. reason = money. no financial aid vs. full ride? i think i pick full ride.</p>

<p>don't do that man, that is a mistake u will regret</p>

<p>150 K of debt is worth it to go to columbia over cuny, the opportunties that columbia provides are boundless</p>

<p>i wouldn't go to cuny honors if they gave me a full ride or my entire family line a full ride</p>

669

<p>To the OP, yes. Last year a student at our school turned down Harvard to go to Deep Springs. He wanted the unique experience that Deep Springs had to offer. I also believe some have turned down Harvard or Yale for the Morehead Scholarship offered by UNC, but I don't know them personally.</p>

670

<p>"This I would say is extremely short-sighted, for the simple fact is, the vast majority of people who go to college intending to be doctors never become doctors."</p>

<p>"Because I have seen just how many people come into college intending to be engineers, and then never getting an engineering degree..." </p>

<p>Whoop-de-friggin-do</p>

<p>Just because a large amount of students who go into engineering or plan to go to med school end up doing something else doesn't mean they're "short-sighted" for not wanting to pay off loans for half their lives. I think it's a bit silly and "short-sighted" to fork out $40,000 a year for a stupid name, myself.</p>

<p>I'm majoring in Biomedical Engineering and, honestly, sometimes I do worry about what I'll end up doing if it doesn't work out. I can't see myself doing anything else, though, so you can be sure that I'll fight tooth and nail to do well in it. </p>

<p>Most of the people who drop engineering either didn't realize what they were getting themselves into or were in it for the wrong reasons. The same thing goes for aspiring doctors. </p>

<p>Would you say that it's pointless for people to go to college because so many flunk out? Of course not, so stop putting down their decisions to attend a school better for their major based on faceless statistics.</p>

671

<p>A girl at my school is turning down Stanford for the Jefferson Scholarship at UVA.</p>

<p>Another girl at my school is turning down Rice and Vanderbilt for the Park Scholarship at NC State.</p>

<p>Another girl at my school is turning down Duke, Columbia, and WUStL for the Ingram Scholarship at Vanderbilt--not a HUGE drop or anything.</p>

<p>A guy at my school turned down UNC-Chapell Hill for a full ride to UGA.</p>

<p>I'm sure there are more that I don't know about, and my school did real well with merit aid this year...</p>

672

<p>Oh, and a guy who turned down Cornell for the presidential scholarship (25k) to American University.</p>

673

<p>4 years ago, a kid from my school</p>

<p>turned down MIT and Stanford for Cornell engineering, his gf was coming to cornell</p>

<p>wat happened in the end: they broke up
he ended up at Stanford for some type of a dual degree, i think between MBA / engineering</p>

<p>his gpa at cornell: 4.2</p>

674

<p>
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his gpa at cornell: 4.2

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<p>4.2!? how is that even possible?</p>

675

<p>From what i've seen of math, even imaginary numbers can exist :-P</p>

676

<p>cornell has A+s, they are rarely rarely given out, however, in curved classes, if ur at the top, u get an A+</p>

<p>he was brillaint, 1600 SAT, 800 x 7 SAT IIs absolutely brilliant</p>

677

<p>Ah, that makes sense.</p>

678

<p>
[quote]
My grandma turned down harvard for the university of michigan (full ride)

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So Grandma is only 35? It was Radcliffe for women until the mid 1970's. Unless you've seen acceptance letters from all these people, I would assume most of them are a crock.</p>

679

<p>would turning down dartmouth for duke be considered turning down a "more prestigious" school? because that's what i'm doing, and my friends/family seem to think i'm taking a step down in prestige. i don't see it.</p>

<p>(for the sake of ego-stroking, i'm also turning down JHU, UNC, UVA, BC, UMD, Rutgers, TCNJ.. other than rutgers/tcnj (in-state), duke gave a lot more $$$ :-P)</p>

680

<p>Go Dartmouth</p>