<p>So, I'm already accepted to Swarthmore and Yale... and I applied to Princeton (no letters yet)... So I'm wondering, how do people decide between schools like these?</p>
<p>I want to do environmental engineering, if my major factors into your advice....</p>
<p>First, congratulations on your acceptances to Swarthmore and Yale. Clearly all three schools are great. I believe, however, most would say Princeton’s engineering program is the strongest out of the three. Princeton has also recently received $100 million from an alum to further develop its environmental engineering program. If you have the means to do so, I suggest that you visit all three schools.</p>
<p>How have you been accepted to Swat and Yale? Isn’t Yale single choice early action?</p>
<p>I was wondering the same thing as xatuuatx. Yale is single-choice. Did you just get early acceptance or a likely letter or something?</p>
<p>I only applied to Yale Early Action, which means it is not binding. I found out Dec. 15th. But, I was still clueless as to what school I wanted to go to. So, I also applied to a bunch of other places regular decision. I found at early from Swarthmore because I was a finalist for some scholarship at the school, so I had to go interview again, but I ended up being an alternate for the scholarship. They still accepted all the finalists (I was like yes!, thank you for softening the blow of alternate, oh gods of college admissions =))</p>
<p>In order to decide, I guess I’ll just make a bunch of Xcel spread sheets. I’ll consider all factors - weather, strength of engineering school, location, housing, size!
It will be great and totally nerdy, but maybe it will calmly help me make a rational decision!
Hah. Still clueless. And perhaps too lazy to make spreadsheets… We’ll see.</p>
<p>Floating,</p>
<p>I work with a lot of engineers:). Spreadsheet sounds good. However, I suggest that you set it up like this.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Specific academic strength fit, i.e. what are the course offerings, undergraduate program, facilities such as labs etc., and faculty research like in the department you are aiming for. The department websites have great information.</p></li>
<li><p>General academic program fit, i.e. are you in a separate school for engineering, what sort of core courses or distribution requirements do they have, how strong are the courses for non-majors to meet distribution requirements, will you have large lectures, small seminars, or a mix, etc.</p></li>
<li><p>Social fit - culture, i.e. what is the rooming program like, how cohesive is the student body, how much large parties vs. small parties vs. no parties, how many kids in black vs. kids in pink vs. kids in school colors vs. kids who are too busy thinking about algorithms to notice what they put on:).</p></li>
<li><p>Social fit - location, i.e. in a city, in a suburb, in the country, architecture style, east coast west coast, proximity to home etc.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>For all of the colleges you have listed, prestige and reputation and caliber of the institution is high enough to be statistically insignificant in your comparison spreadsheet.</p>
<p>Thanks, that sounds like really great advice!
It looks like College confidential already has some great resources to help for this exact problem. (like statistics and actual reviews from students).</p>
<p>Probably the easiest way to figure out what courses I’ll be taking at the school is to get in touch with an environmental engineering student at the school and ask them what they’ve done, how they’ve enjoyed research etc.</p>
<p>You really have to do an overnight visit to assess fit. I know that’s tough for an engineer-in-training to put a value on something that’s not mathematic, but there are differences in these schools that you will not find on your spreadsheet. I have a son at Swarthmore, and he just loves it. You really should do more than the school tour to make a decision. How nice you have such great choices!</p>
<p>Princeton>Yale>Swarthmore if you’re a sciency type
Swarthmore>Yale>Princeton if you’re a liberal artsy type</p>
<p>^
Just out of curiosity, what do you mean when you say one school is better than another in the liberal arts? I think your statement is a bit unfounded</p>
<p>Engineering at Swarthmore is general, so if you want to do something more specific (e.g. environmental engineering), you’ve pretty much got to go to graduate school. I think it’s best to try to visit all these schools if you can (fortunately Swarthmore and Yale aren’t too far away), try to see what engineering is like at these places, and then decide.</p>
<p>hallowarts,</p>
<p>That would be based on % of faculty dedicated to humanities/science. I guess liberal arts is a misnomer.</p>
<p>if you went to swarthmore over yale, i’ll kill cry, then kill myself</p>