Pomona, Chicago, or UNC (Full ride)

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hi CCers</p>

<p>I got into a bunch of colleges and have narrowed my choice down to these three. </p>

<p>I played football in high school and intend to study linguistics, possibly double majoring in a foreign language. </p>

<p>As for the future, here are some of my options. 1, get a PHD in linguistics, 2, Law school 3, interpreter. 4, NFL player, lol</p>

<p>I have this complicated thing about football. I really intrinsically enjoy football and initially wanted to do it in college. I guess part of it is that you are more recognizable in the school and you instantly have friends that are in the football team. The sad part is that you have to work a lot for it, even during off season. I got hurt a lot and am gradually feeling the tear and wear left by football. I am not sure if my body will be able to handle it. My parents are against football too, they think i will be stupid after playing too much. So I myself am not sure whether I want to make this commitment. </p>

<p>For UNC, I have a full ride that pays tuition and room and board. Also, I am in the honors program. From my AP credits and SAT scores, I will have about 8 classes worth of credits. However, with my full ride, I have no intention to graduate early, instead, I might consider triple majoring. Their linguistics department is decent, but not as good as Chicago's. (but is having a good linguistics department really THAT necessary for undergrad?) Like the social atmosphere there: students are generally intelligent and knows how to have a good time. UNC girls are great and the 40/60 ration just makes it better. Did I mention that I won't be good enough to play football here? I also intend to study abroad, and UNC certainly gives me lots options whether time-wise and place-wise</p>

<p>For Pomona College, I received 23,000 a year. Here, I can play football and study linguistics at the same time. The coach seem to be very interested in me and I will probably start by sophomore year or even freshmen. Also, I really enjoy the SoCal weather. However, being intellectually rigorous as it is, and being a liberal arts college, I am worried whether the social life/parties will suck. I live near a LAC similar to Pomona, so i have some idea about it.</p>

<p>For Chicago, I have received ZERO financial Aid. I will have to pay about 55,000 a year. However, because of the prestige, my parents (and I a little bit)want risk it. There would probably be a major life style change for my family, possibly involving selling a small apartment that we own. However, I am the only child and I intend to work overseas after I graduate. This degree certainly will open a lot of doors. I have also talked to the Adcom about the potential of graduating in 3 years to save money. But I am afraid that I will miss out of so much of social life. As for football, I can participate, but it wont be as big of a involvement in pomona. </p>

<p>For me, I am UNC>Pomona>Chicago</p>

<p>What do you think guys.</p>

2

<p>What specifically do you plan on doing if you work overseas? How feasible is it to do this?
Considering that your parents, and you, may want to risk paying the price tag for Chicago, because of the perceived benefit of the reputation and prestige overseas, I would argue then that Pomona’s international reputation will not be anywhere worth sacrificing UNC’s offer. I don’t know if I’m incorrect in saying this, but I imagine UNC is more well known overseas than Pomona.</p>

<p>With that said, I think it should come down to Chicago vs UNC. I personally don’t think your parents should adjust their lifestyles especially if your terminal degree isn’t going to be undergrad. I would much rather see you go for the full ride. And if after the FREE education, you think UNCs name isn’t taking you far enough, be it in your career or what have you(maybe you’ll blame this on Prestige or whatever) then spend that Chicago money you would have saved, and go on to get a degree(be it a master’s/law school degree/etc) from that big name prestigious school.</p>

<p>I really don’t think Chicago is worth the risk. By trying to graduate a year early, you will miss out on building up a significant resume while in college. Not only that, but assuming you have to take out loans or your parents will, you won’t have as much freedom to be picky about your first job after undergrad, because you’ll be more concerned with trying to pay back the debt.</p>

3

<p>i totally agree, i am again leaning towards UNC. I think i will have a lot of freedom there. it will be like a blank slate, with nothing carried on from high school and I am free to pursue whatever I want. </p>

<p>After again talking to my parents last night, i though if i go to chicago, i would double major and get that famous ECON BA. I know that my education will be kind of ruined because of teh course load I take . I will have almost no electives. So that seems like i am directing myself towards hell.</p>

4

<p>You cannot double major and graduate early at Chicago. I’m pretty sure it’s literally not possible.</p>

5

<p>i mean if i double major, i ll stay four years. sorry for not making that clear</p>

6

<p>Just go to UNC. You won’t enjoy Chicago.</p>

7

<p>Let’s be financially reasonable and scrap Chicago.</p>

<p>Pomona allows you to play football and is arguably the better school academically. For post-grad opportunities, LACs–especially top LACs like Pomona–offer extradinary resources, whereas you’ll have to fight your way to professor access, internships, etc at Chapel Hill. Still, starting with a bunch of credits at Carolina allows you the luxury of light semesters. Atmospherically, they’re different just by virtue of their size, though both are laid back schools in warm locations. </p>

<p>So your two issues to resolve are: football and size.</p>

8

<p>Go to UNC. You are in a major where you can’t expect to make much money or find many jobs, so definitely go with the full ride. Plus, you can watch football games there. They have an up and coming D1 team playing in the talented ACC.</p>

9

<p>I had a similar decision (UNC Full ride honors program, with laptop etc), vs Pomona (and others such as Northwestern/amherst), but I got full rides basically from all of them. I ended up attending pomona, but I am not interested in linguistics. We have a strong linguistics/cogsci program, and I wouldn’t worry about name recognition because top employers/grad schools know pomona very well, and your graduate degree is the one which people will really inquire about once you are in the workplace. UNC is a great school and I was really tempted about the “big school” party/social scene (and girl/guy ratio), but I realized i wanted a smaller environment for college where you can recognize people/friends when you walk around campus. The parties don’t “suck”, and some of them can get pretty raging (especially because a lot of them are 5-c parties, but I’m sure UNC has some of the best/wildest parties. You don’t have to play on the football team for pomona, btw, and I have lots of friends on the team who really enjoying playing on it. Ultimately you should go where you feel the most comfortable and where you would enjoy spending 4 years at the most.</p>

10

<p>slimshady, how committed are you to the linguistics major? Have you ever taken a linguistics course (such as phonetics or morphology)? I ask because there is not too much opportunity for exposure at most high schools. Some students who like learning foreign languages, and who think linguistics sounds interesting, may discover they do not like it very well. </p>

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<p>This is not necessarily true. Combining linguistics with computer science and statistics could open up some interesting, fairly high-paying career opportunities in software research and development.
[Natural</a> language processing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_language_processing]Natural”>Natural language processing - Wikipedia)
[Computational</a> linguistics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computational_linguistics]Computational”>Computational linguistics - Wikipedia)
[Natural</a> Language Processing - Microsoft Research](<a href=“Microsoft Research – Emerging Technology, Computer, and Software Research”>Natural Language Processing Group - Microsoft Research)</p>

11

<p>TK:
I took intro, syntax, and psych of lang at a local college. so I am pretty committed, but as a future ling major, i can completely understand your concern. Yes, I am very comitted to it.</p>

<p>Thank you anon, I am visiting pomona soon and to see how it is, hopefully i can go to some wild parties.</p>