Please clear up a senior's probable misconceptions

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I’ve been having a few biases, after finalizing my college list recently. This includes many colleges, so i didn’t want to ask one question in each college section, so tell me what you think of my opinions.</p>

<li><p>The UC’s are full of people that don’t really care about learning, but just go to college for the sake of getting a job later on in life. (I keep thinking that so many people that get accepted into the UC’s are from California and have gotten away in school copying other people’s homework and cheating on tests. I know this is a huge bias… but i just know so many people who have made it into UC’s just by doing this. It bothers me that a person does not need teacher recommendations to get into a UC, because the students without any integrity can still get into a top college.)</p></li>
<li><p>Colleges (with a few exceptions of Rice, Stanford, Dartmouth, and Johns Hopkins) all don’t let you change your major freely.</p></li>
<li><p>I will be stuck with whatever major I choose.</p></li>
<li><p>Rice University has lots of cockroaches, and Houston would not be a good experience and cannot compare with “real” cities like Boston and New York. </p></li>
<li><p>If i go to a small LAC, then I won’t be in contact with the rest of the world for four years (with exceptions to lacs in collegetowns, eg amherst). </p></li>
<li><p>I can get lots of scholarships if im a student from the west coast to go to a school on the east coast.</p></li>
<li><p>if i have a sibling in college, i get financial aid.</p></li>
<li><p>SAT 1 matters more than gpa, ec’s, etc combined.</p></li>
<li><p>sat 2’s don’t matter if you go to a good hs.</p></li>
<li><p>if a school doesn’t have a program/ college for music, music is not prevalent much in the college.</p></li>
<li><p>if in “students review” or something like that, a student writes about their school (eg cmu) and says that the school is strictly for studying, i will not have time to do anything else besides studying. Thus, i’ll have no time to try new things.</p></li>
<li><p>USC gives out lots of scholarships. Ivies don’t.</p></li>
<li><p>I can get into a college without being in student council or any school clubs but have insignificant but dedicated ec’s. </p></li>
<li><p>Cornell University only cares about your SAT 1 score and gpa.</p></li>
<li><p>If i get into UCLA or USC, i will be surrounded by extremely hot girls and i won’t be able to concentrate ever. </p></li>
<li><p>USC is harder to get into than UCLA. </p></li>
<li><p>If I’m not surrounded by 100% diligent, hardworking people, then my attention span will go down and i’ll slack off a lot. For example, if i go to a party school, i won’t study ever. (should i consider usc a party school?)</p></li>
<li><p>I can’t relax at all in college or else i’ll do bad and won’t have any chance to go to Grad school. </p></li>
<li><p>Stanford is impossible to get into unless you have perfect stats AND internships AND awards etc.</p></li>
<li><p>Traveling back and forth across the nation from home to college won’t be that bad.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Yup. That’s it for now.
Sorry, if i offended anyone, some of the phrases are just some i put down verbatim.</p>

2

<p>I find it odd that you would think people would be stuck in their major. Why would anyone want to keep you in a major you won’t perform well in? That makes them look bad too. Switching majors is fairly common everywhere I know of.</p>

3

<p>"Houston would not be a good experience and cannot compare with “real” cities like Boston and New York. "</p>

<p>Ummm, that one’s pretty much true.</p>

4

<p>I wonder how many people won’t realize this is a joke thread.</p>

<p>Did I just ruin it? :(</p>

5

<p>100% of people from my HS, during my year, who went to Berkeley or UCLA did #1. And they more or less did it together.</p>

6

<p>

</p>

<p>Well, in fairness, I think this is true of college students in general. Let’s be perfectly honest - if a college degree didn’t provide improved career prospects, how many people would still go? </p>

<p>I happen to think that the real problem is societal: we happen to live in a world where, with only a few exceptions (i.e. entrepreneurship, professional sports/entertainment), in order to have a strong career, you need a college degree. It doesn’t really matter very much what you majored in, it doesn’t even matter that much what your grades were, what really matters is that you have a degree, for if you don’t, many employers won’t even give you an interview. That’s why employers can demand that candidates present degrees even for jobs that don’t really need degrees. It’s a deeply wasteful system, but employers obviously don’t care because they’re not the ones paying for the waste. The individual has to pay for the waste by getting a degree in a topic that he will probably never really use. </p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Also Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT, Brown, many LAC’s, etc. </p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Well, Boston and NY have their share of roaches too. </p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Or in/near big cities, such as Swarthmore or Haverford (very near Philadelphia). </p>

<p>

</p>

<p>I think you mean merit scholarships. Ivies give out fantastic financial aid scholarships. </p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Or play sports really really well. I know quite a few former Stanford football players who freely admit that they aren’t supergeniuses. They aren’t stupid - they’re actually quite bright, especially for ex-jocks - but they aren’t supergeniuses either.</p>

7

<p>

</p>

<p>Well, I can think of one school that does precisely that. </p>

<p>The issue seems to not be that the school wants to keep you in a major in which you are doing poorly. The real issue is that, if you’re doing poorly, the other majors don’t want to take you. Hence, you’re sadly trapped in your extant major and can’t get out.</p>

8

<p>It doesnt matter what anybody else thinks. It only matters what you think, and what YOU want from college. Follow your gut instincts and select your college(s) accordingly. Go where you will be happy and thrive, not be bitter, suspicious, envious or out of place.</p>

9

<ol>
<li>The UC’s are full of people that don’t really care about learning, but just go to college for the sake of getting a job later on in life. (I keep thinking that so many people that get accepted into the UC’s are from California and have gotten away in school copying other people’s homework and cheating on tests. I know this is a huge bias.. but i just know so many people who have made it into UC’s just by doing this. It bothers me that a person does not need teacher recommendations to get into a UC, because the students without any integrity can still get into a top college.)</li>
</ol>

<p>No</p>

<ol>
<li>Colleges (with a few exceptions of Rice, Stanford, Dartmouth, and Johns Hopkins) all don’t let you change your major freely.</li>
</ol>

<p>No, almost all top private schools allow you to change major easily (slightly/much harder if changing across from like College of Art/Science to College of Engineering/Music/Arch/etc.)</p>

<ol>
<li>I will be stuck with whatever major I choose.</li>
</ol>

<p>No</p>

<ol>
<li>Rice University has lots of cockroaches, and Houston would not be a good experience and cannot compare with “real” cities like Boston and New York.</li>
</ol>

<p>Only a few good schools in these “real” cities anyways.</p>

<ol>
<li>If i go to a small LAC, then I won’t be in contact with the rest of the world for four years (with exceptions to lacs in collegetowns, eg amherst).</li>
</ol>

<p>Location matters more than LAC status</p>

<ol>
<li>I can get lots of scholarships if im a student from the west coast to go to a school on the east coast.</li>
</ol>

<p>No</p>

<ol>
<li>if i have a sibling in college, i get financial aid.</li>
</ol>

<p>Depends on income, but for the most part, I assume you will.</p>

<ol>
<li>SAT 1 matters more than gpa, ec’s, etc combined.</li>
</ol>

<p>No, GPA\Rank\Courses > SAT I + SAT II</p>

<ol>
<li>sat 2’s don’t matter if you go to a good hs.</li>
</ol>

<p>No, good HS doesn’t excuse you form anything</p>

<ol>
<li>if a school doesn’t have a program/ college for music, music is not prevalent much in the college.</li>
</ol>

<p>Depends</p>

<ol>
<li>if in “students review” or something like that, a student writes about their school (eg cmu) and says that the school is strictly for studying, i will not have time to do anything else besides studying. Thus, i’ll have no time to try new things.</li>
</ol>

<p>No, but more focused on “studying”</p>

<ol>
<li>USC gives out lots of scholarships. Ivies don’t.</li>
</ol>

<p>USC give out merit scholarships. Ivies don’t give out merit scholarships. HYPS has awesome need based financial aid. The rest of the Ivies give about the same amount as other top privates.</p>

<ol>
<li>I can get into a college without being in student council or any school clubs but have insignificant but dedicated ec’s.</li>
</ol>

<p>Yes</p>

<ol>
<li>Cornell University only cares about your SAT 1 score and gpa.</li>
</ol>

<p>No</p>

<ol>
<li>If i get into UCLA or USC, i will be surrounded by extremely hot girls and i won’t be able to concentrate ever.</li>
</ol>

<p>…maybe</p>

<ol>
<li>USC is harder to get into than UCLA.</li>
</ol>

<p>Wouldn’t know, but I would choose UCLA over USC anyday</p>

<ol>
<li>If I’m not surrounded by 100% diligent, hardworking people, then my attention span will go down and i’ll slack off a lot. For example, if i go to a party school, i won’t study ever. (should i consider usc a party school?)</li>
</ol>

<p>No</p>

<ol>
<li>I can’t relax at all in college or else i’ll do bad and won’t have any chance to go to Grad school.</li>
</ol>

<p>No</p>

<ol>
<li>Stanford is impossible to get into unless you have perfect stats AND internships AND awards etc.</li>
</ol>

<p>No</p>

<ol>
<li>Traveling back and forth across the nation from home to college won’t be that bad.</li>
</ol>

<p>Depends</p>

10

<p>some i just bring up because i was just curious and it popped up in my mind. however, i was completely seirous about the cheating students one, for example. i really hate how so many people have no sense of integrity, but i guess at a large university, i can find students that are cool and really focused.
the one thing i fear most is being released into a college full of students who want to bs their way through college, and i’ll be stuck in that kind of environment for the rest of my four years.</p>

<p>can anyone else tell me a big university that gives lots of financial aid? i heard it’s very hard to get aid from a uc.</p>

<p>another question:

  1. is a college population of 5,000 people big? i go to a high school of probably 500 people…so i don’t really know.</p>

<ol>
<li>rich businessmen are all cheats or have the most boring jobs ever. </li>
</ol>

<p>noobcake, why would you choose usc over ucla? jw. </p>

<p>btw, thanks to everyone for responding.</p>