Please Advise! Too Long College List

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Here's what I have so far, ranked by how much I like them (sort of). My problem is that I can see myself being happy at all of them so I don't want to take off a school that I might end up loving. I'll probably major in STEM, but I don't want an extremely techy atmosphere. I'm really trying to trim this down to a maximum of around 15 schools, but if you think I should add a school let me know! I know this isn't much to go on, the problem is that I'm not sure exactly what I want. :P Basically, if you see a university that doesn't really fit with the others or if you have suggestions in general, please comment. Thanks.</p>

<p>Brown
MIT
U of Chicago
U of Rochester
Princeton
Case Western
UC Berkeley
NYU
Harvard
UPenn
Yale
Northwestern
UIUC
Boston U
Stanford
WUSTL
Johns Hopkins
U of Colorado Boulder
Cornell
Columbia
UT Austin
U of Alabama
Rensselaer Polytech</p>

2

<p>Boulder, Alabama and RPI stand out as being very average schools on a list of top ones.</p>

3

<p>Thats exactly the kind of info I was looking for.</p>

<p>RPI - I just took it off, I read a little about it and it seems pretty techy.
Alabama - If I get NMF I’ll use this as a safety.
Boulder - I dunno, it’s setting just seems idyllic. According to US News it’s ranked pretty highly in stuff I’m interested in, but that doesn’t mean much. Would you say it’s definitely less intellectual than the other schools?</p>

4

<p>You don’t want an extremely techie atmosphere (RPI is too techie?) but you have MIT at the top of the list? What gives? </p>

<p>What kind of STEM are you thinking of?</p>

5

<p>Boulder is definitely less intellectual than top 20 colleges. The only renown I take seriously there is the party culture.</p>

6

<p>Do you have any cost constraints? Talk to your parents about cost constraints, and run the net price calculator on each college’s web site to get an idea of how affordable each one is.</p>

<p>Texas A&M is another school to consider if you make National Merit Finalist:
<a href=“https://scholarships.tamu.edu/tamu_scholarships/freshman/national_merit.aspx[/url]”>https://scholarships.tamu.edu/tamu_scholarships/freshman/national_merit.aspx&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Neither Chicago nor NYU has engineering, if that is the type of STEM major you are interested in. Polytechnic Institute of NYU does have engineering, but does not have a particularly high reputation in it compared to most of the rest of your list.</p>

7

<p>Right now I’m looking at some sort of science major (not biology), or engineering or economics maybe. Also, I’m going to start college with a lot of credit so I might double major.</p>

<p>“You don’t want an extremely techie atmosphere (RPI is too techie?) but you have MIT at the top of the list? What gives?”</p>

<p>The overall vibe I get from MIT is that everyone is crazy smart/accomplished, but it isn’t as “nerdy” as places like caltech or rose hulman. Plus, all the people that I know that have gone to MIT are awesome haha. RPI has a way less balanced gender ratio and seems really big on greek life. I haven’t visited or anything yet though, so I might be getting the wrong impression.</p>

<p>“Boulder is definitely less intellectual than top 20 colleges. The only renown I take seriously there is the party culture.”</p>

<p>Alright, that’s probably going to come off then too.</p>

<p>“Do you have any cost constraints? Talk to your parents about cost constraints, and run the net price calculator on each college’s web site to get an idea of how affordable each one is.”</p>

<p>No cost constraints. My parents can pay for my undergrad education.</p>

<p>"Texas A&M is another school to consider if you make National Merit Finalist:
<a href="https://scholarships.tamu.edu/tamu_s...nal_merit.aspx"&gt;https://scholarships.tamu.edu/tamu_s...nal_merit.aspx&lt;/a&gt;"&lt;/p&gt;

<p>I don’t really want to go to school in Texas, UT Austin is just my main safety because I get automatic admission and I have a lot of friends in Austin. I’d probably rather go to Alabama than any other school in Texas.</p>

<p>“Neither Chicago nor NYU has engineering, if that is the type of STEM major you are interested in. Polytechnic Institute of NYU does have engineering, but does not have a particularly high reputation in it compared to most of the rest of your list.”</p>

<p>That’s good to know, I’ll definitely keep that in mind if I start leaning more towards engineering.</p>

8

<p>Note that UT Austin may be an automatic admit to the campus if your class rank is high enough, but such automatic admission to the campus does not necessarily mean automatic admission to a specific division (e.g. engineering).</p>

9

<p>Which schools have you visited?</p>

<p>STEM…what are your career goals? engineering? medicine? research?</p>

<p>Tell us more about yourself outside of academics.</p>

10

<p>so many students fill up on ‘reach’ schools and complete applications, scholarship apps,fin aid packages, etc for ALL the schools on their list - Our son did 12 - in hind sight, he would recommend focussing not on where - but more so on himself - or in this case, yourself…</p>

<p>you see, looking inward will help you select - after all, virtually every school has truly redeeming qualities - but dial in the ‘fit’ (support, location, local atmosphere, reputation, etc) - utilizing the criteria that is important to you VS other people</p>

<p>THEN, i recommend submitting an early application/early decision if you can - thus allowing you more time to be a HS senior than chasing all those apps.</p>

<p>Then, perhaps two more reaches, a few ‘match’ schools and a couple of ‘safety’ schools. 8 applications and scholarship apps is truly PLENTY…</p>

<p>Remember, if all the schools you are looking into applying for are the same level (reach, match or safety) then you are definitely duplicating your efforts for no reason. </p>

<p>Our son did not do an early decision and wished he did…he applied to 9 reaches and that was way too many…</p>

<p>look for a great fit…you have time to develop that list…good luck and enjoy!</p>

11

<p>Seems like a lot of reaches – as the parent of a senior, we have seen that most of those schools are reaches even for the top candidates. Someone posted a while ago that many students rely on the statistics about admitted students to assure themself they are within range of a school. In fact, the denied student statistics often are not terribly different, so that students should realize the chances, even for the most qualified applicants, are low. </p>

<p>Spend some time visiting schools to figure out what your priorities are in terms of academics, size, location etc. Then put those schools in clusters and reevaluate. </p>

<p>As every parent will tell you, finding your safeties that you love is more important than identifying your reaches.</p>

12

<p>Interesting how brown and MIT are your top two there… Can you really see yourself at both? From what I’ve read, they are basically polar opposites, at least in terms of campus atmosphere. MIT has a very structured, techie feel (lots of schedule requirements, and it has plenty of nerdy types, Hense the incredible stem rankings). Brown seems pretty famous for its laid-back atmosphere (basically, taking whatever classes you want, design majors, less nerdy types, and not super oriented around STEM)</p>

13

<p>Note that UT Austin may be an automatic admit to the campus if your class rank is high enough, but such automatic admission to the campus does not necessarily mean automatic admission to a specific division (e.g. engineering).</p>

<p>Yep I understand, I think I have enough safeties though to be alright I think. And worst case, I’ll just go to Alabama.</p>

<p>Which schools have you visited?</p>

<p>None :frowning: And I don’t know if I’ll be able to visit many/any before applying.</p>

<p>*STEM…what are your career goals? engineering? medicine? research?</p>

<p>Tell us more about yourself outside of academics.*</p>

<p>For career goals, the furthest I’ve thought ahead is that I want to go to grad school. What sort of stuff do you want to know? Like ECs?</p>

<p>*so many students fill up on ‘reach’ schools and complete applications, scholarship apps,fin aid packages, etc for ALL the schools on their list - Our son did 12 - in hind sight, he would recommend focussing not on where - but more so on himself - or in this case, yourself…</p>

<p>you see, looking inward will help you select - after all, virtually every school has truly redeeming qualities - but dial in the ‘fit’ (support, location, local atmosphere, reputation, etc) - utilizing the criteria that is important to you VS other people</p>

<p>THEN, i recommend submitting an early application/early decision if you can - thus allowing you more time to be a HS senior than chasing all those apps.</p>

<p>Then, perhaps two more reaches, a few ‘match’ schools and a couple of ‘safety’ schools. 8 applications and scholarship apps is truly PLENTY…</p>

<p>Remember, if all the schools you are looking into applying for are the same level (reach, match or safety) then you are definitely duplicating your efforts for no reason. </p>

<p>Our son did not do an early decision and wished he did…he applied to 9 reaches and that was way too many…</p>

<p>look for a great fit…you have time to develop that list…good luck and enjoy!*</p>

<p>I have looked inward, the problem is that all I found was where I want to end up, not which road I should take. :stuck_out_tongue: Also, it’s tough to find matches… I have low matches/safeties (Case Western, UIUC, Boston U) and then too many reaches for everyone. It’s hard to find a middle ground. I’m definitely planning on applying EA to schools that offer it, MIT, U Chicago, and Case.</p>

<p>*Seems like a lot of reaches – as the parent of a senior, we have seen that most of those schools are reaches even for the top candidates. Someone posted a while ago that many students rely on the statistics about admitted students to assure themself they are within range of a school. In fact, the denied student statistics often are not terribly different, so that students should realize the chances, even for the most qualified applicants, are low. </p>

<p>Spend some time visiting schools to figure out what your priorities are in terms of academics, size, location etc. Then put those schools in clusters and reevaluate. </p>

<p>As every parent will tell you, finding your safeties that you love is more important than identifying your reaches.*</p>

<p>I know, I want to take off a lot of the reaches but they’re all too appealing. So far I’ve just been able to take out Dartmouth… And I don’t think I’ll be able to visit much.</p>

<p>Interesting how brown and MIT are your top two there… Can you really see yourself at both? From what I’ve read, they are basically polar opposites, at least in terms of campus atmosphere. MIT has a very structured, techie feel (lots of schedule requirements, and it has plenty of nerdy types, Hense the incredible stem rankings). Brown seems pretty famous for its laid-back atmosphere (basically, taking whatever classes you want, design majors, less nerdy types, and not super oriented around STEM)</p>

<p>Yeah, hahaha it’s quite a quandary. I could see myself having a more laid-back 4 years choosing my own courses and exploring my interests, but I could also see myself immersing myself in my studies. I’m too flexible for my own good xD</p>

14

<p>I had the same thought when I saw MIT and Brown at the top of the list. While I can’t speak from personal experience with Brown, I graduated from MIT and it is very techy. Buildings don’t have names, they have numbers. Classes don’t have names, they have numbers (with the exception of the core Aero/Astro class which is known as “Unified” and is feared by all). Majors don’t even have names, they have numbers. All pranks (“hacks”) pulled are techy in nature. Students find engineering solutions to problems in the dorms. If you don’t want a strong techy feel, MIT is not the place to be.</p>

15

<p>Ok, let me revise my statement. What I meant by not wanting someplace techy (techie?) was that I want a more diverse student body, semi balanced gender ratio, not necessarily 110% engineering all the time, ect. I’m mostly basing my opinion on MIT from their admissions blogs, and it sounds like a great fit for me. But I don’t think caltech would be a good fit, and from the little blurb on US News RPI doesn’t sound ideal either. I do fine with numbers :P</p>

16

<p>Seems like you basically have the top 20 national research schools on your list, plus a few match/safeties. </p>

<p>Can you get some visits in to help you gauge your reaction to certain types of schools. For instance, there are a number of urban schools on your list – even if you cannot visit any of these specifically, can you visit, for instance, Rice, to see how you like that kind of urban environment. If you hate it, that is information to use to trim your reaches. If you love the urban feel, then you could take Princeton, Cornell and a few others off your list. </p>

<p>UIUC is an excellent science and engineering school and if your stats are good, would be a good match. Keep in mind with UIUC that students apply and are admitted directly to specific colleges, and it takes higher stats to get into College of Engineering and College of Science than it does College of Liberal Arts. </p>

<p>What about differences such as semester vs. quarter system? People say that the quarter system at Chicago drives the pace of the program. Or the open curriculum (Brown) vs. core curriculum (Columbia)? These are characteristics of schools you can investigate and consider. Or consider the social aspects of schools that may matter to you – frats at UPenn and Columbia, eating houses at Princeton, the residential colleges at Yale, houses at Harvard. </p>

<p>These are the type of factors, in addition to academics, that you will want to consider over the next 6-9 months to help you refine your list. </p>

<p>Good luck, it is an exciting time.</p>

17

<p>I’d second the suggestion to visit, visit, visit. If you can, spread it out so that you have a couple of 3-4 day trips. Schools that look like perfect fits on paper can just not feel right. I think my son saw 20 or 25 schools over the course of high school (he went on his older sister’s college visits with us), and still, the summer between jr and sr year, we went on one trip just for him to see another 10 schools. He didn’t know if he wanted more math/physics or more engineering, or how much he was willing to go to a “dude” school where the ratio is very male. We found he didn’t like large schools (UWMadison, Canegie Mellon). He liked some urban schools (MSOE, IIT, Case) and some suburban (Ursinus, Harvey Mudd). Didn’t like Caltech. Liked MIT but it was too much of a reach. Most schools had wrestling so that made a search easy in some ways, but it wasn’t his only criteria. He didn’t look at schools with no merit money as he’d seen his sister really torn by getting into Tufts and Barnard with no financial aid offers. Bottom line – see as wide a variety as you can, apply early so you have at least one safety you like, and realize that even with the common app, senior year is very busy and you may just burn out before completing 15 applications!</p>

18

<p>A couple of thoughts – First, Midwestmom makes a tremendous point that is often overlooked – Brown’s (with its open curriculum) has a fundamentally different educational philosophy that many of the other colleges on your list. I think this is key (and in many ways more important tahn a visit, even).</p>

<p>Based on what you’ve written – I probably wouldn’t recommend MIT for you (though it’s a fantastic school). I think you’re likely to find it much less academically diverse than many of the other schools on your list. Ditto for RPI (or any ‘institute’). In my mind, Chicago may also fall into this category, though it wasn’t on the list of schools my D considered, so I know less first hand, and may be very wrong.</p>

<p>… ummmm was Dartmouth on your list? If not, worth consideration.</p>

<p>Otherwise, it’s a good starting list. Heavy on top 20 schools, but certainly enough realistic (match) and safety choices to be viable. </p>

<p>I think you have to visit a few places and begin to see what you like or don’t like.</p>

19

<p>Thanks for the advise everyone! Hmmm I guess I’ll reconsider MIT, I’ll still probably apply either way though because it has non restrictive EA. Getting in EA would be amazing and probably cut down on my apps a lot so it’s worth the bad odds. </p>

<p>I honestly don’t know if I’ll be able to visit any of the schools before applying, I live a long way from all of them (none are a reasonable day trip away, by car). Brown’s open curriculum is probably the thing I like most about it. I would not like a very heavy core, but I will have a lot of AP credits so I don’t know if I can get credit for a lot of that? No matter what though, I don’t want to have to deal with a lot of requirements (especially writing and foreign language), I’ve had enough of that in highschool. Also I don’t see myself joining Greek life, so I don’t want to go anywhere where I’d be missing out on a lot of the social aspects without joining. Princeton’s eating clubs sound cool though, from what I’ve read.</p>

<p>Dartmouth was on my list, but it seemed very secluded and Greek. I feel like if I went there and didn’t like the social scene I’d be screwed, because there’s nothing really around it. Also, that hazing frat scandal thing made it sound like an investment banking cult or something… Rural or urban is fine, but preferably not completely in the middle of nowhere.</p>

20

<p>Once you have a school on your list that fits your needs and is certain to accept you, you can go to town on the others. Hopefully you get accepted to that school early, through rolling or early acceptance. Perhaps a couple of the others on your list are EA too. Once you have an early accept, anything you don’t care as much for, can go off the list, so that would cut down the number of schools.</p>