<p>Please hear me out completely before making any comments. </p>
<p>Fortunately, the acceptance/rejection hype has (finally) settled. It has been a stressful four days for all of us, I'm sure.</p>
<p>However, for many people, the process is not over. I applied to many schools, and was very lucky/fortunate to have gotten into some great schools:</p>
<p>HARVARD (Single Choice Early Action)
PRINCETON
YALE
PENN
COLUMBIA
DARTMOUTH
CORNELL
BROWN
RICE (Interim Decision)</p>
<p>Currently, I am completely lost as to where I should begin to decide on a college... I hope I am not the only one in this predicament. I do not solely want to rely on USNews or Statistical Rankings to decide my undergraduate degree. I have not visited any of my schools, but am planning to visit four of them in the upcoming month of April. </p>
<p>Question: What else does one consider outside of financial aid and "campus likability"? What determines "fit"?</p>
<p>Is there an alumni who can provide some assistance in describing how his/her personal experience has been regarding the aforementioned undergrad program(s)?</p>
<p>Much thanks,
(A very confused and torn.) Tri</p>
<p>Proximity to an urban area.
Safety of the neighborhood.
"Pace" of the campus and neighborhood (fast, leisurely, etc.).
Proximity to a major airport (if you live far away and plan on going home fairly often).
Political/cultural/fashion atmosphere on campus (liberal and hippie-ish or conservative and jock-ish).
Type of architecture inspires or bores you.
Compactness of campus (like to walk?)
Hilliness of campus (like to walk up and down hills all day?)
Mass transit available? If you have a car, is parking it on campus a hassle?
Are you a nightowl? Are 24-hour libraries available?
Co-ed/single-sex dorms and bathrooms?
Playing fields nearby?
Do you ski? (Dartmouth)
Do you want to get involved in research?
Are you looking for your proposed major to have a very wide variety of offerings, or will you be happy with a smaller variety?
Are there a lot of bars and restaurants nearby?</p>
<p>You will be amazed how quickly your list will shrink once you visit these places (and try to visit while classes are in session so you can see the students and the pace of the school).</p>
<p>You are obviously very capable. You will likely do well wherever you go. Forget about how some committee ranks this or that. Do figure out where you will be happiest because it is there you will be most productive. Think about it like this: given the choice between an A.Testoni shoe (best, most expensive shoe, italian style and mystique) that doesn't quite fit, versus a Martin Dingman (a mite less expensive, american made style) that fits like a glove, which one would you rather walk in for the next four years? If you pick the A.Testoni you'll have everybody around you oohing and aahing, but you'll have sore feet and you won't walk as far.</p>
<p>It baffles me to think that of nine schools that someone would apply to, eight would just "happen" to be Ivy League schools. Why did you apply to these schools? What did you originally like about each? What are you looking for? You have to look at specifics of each school. As far as I can tell, you've just applied to Ivy League schools based on the fact that they were members of the Ivy League. For someone to give you advice they'd have to know more about what you want out of a school.</p>
<p>obviously all of the schools have amazing academics, so you cant go wrong there... when choosing where to apply early, i chose penn because it has a large enough student body to offer diversity and variety, but is small enough to offer a sense of community. this eliminated the smaller schools on your list from my list... in addition, penn has a beautiful campus in a beautiful city, which for me was only true of harvard, columbia, and penn... finally, penn is supposedly the only ivy with real school spirit and is known for it's great social scene... that is not something everyone neccessarily values in their college decisions, but i find balancing my social and academic life very important... work hard, play hard, if you will... for me, penn came in over harvard, yale and princeton even if newsweek would argue differently. big names may impress other people, but dont let that cloud what truly impresses YOU... good luck!</p>
<p>not to demean at all your choice, B&B, but i would say that all every ivy actually "has a large enough student body to offer diversity and variety, but is small enough to offer a sense of community." and i would disagree that "penn is supposedly the only ivy with real school spirit." i believe, from personal observation, that such spirit (an admittedly nebulous concept) is actually strongest at HYP and dartmouth. u.s. news's alumni giving rate percentages, to the extent that they can, support this claim.</p>
<p>If I were you, I would travel to the schools that you feel intrigue you the most. Contemplate your future while your at the particular school: is this where i want to receive my education for the future?
P.S. CONGRADULATIONS ON BEING EXCEPTED INTO THOSE PRESTIGIOUS, AND RENOWNED SCHOOLS! (many people merely get accepted to three Ivy's)</p>
<p>i guess what one considers large really depends on one's high school experience... i wanted big REALLY big which by my standards is 10,000 coming from an all girls school of 415... you see my bias... in terms of school spirit the harvard yale rivalry is pretty appealing i will say... i just can never admit that anything about yale is better than penn because my boyfriend is going to yale so i have a bit of an inferiority complex... ps is HYP a little abrev for Harvard Yale Princeton? cute...</p>
<p>If you want a REAL focus on the undergrad experience, my vote would be for Princeton, then maybe Yale. Also, it depends on what and how you want to study. If you want a very well-rounded education, Columbia has a core curriculum. Princeton and others have more flexible area requirements, and schools like Brown don't require anything.</p>