@merc81 and @MWolf , Wesleyan released decisions a while ago but I wasn’t able to update. I did get rejected haha.
I also got rejected by Vanderbilt and USC.
Based on your acceptances, I would expect you to be accepted to both Wisconsin and Clemson, but, IMO, there is no real reason to consider either, since you have already been accepted to a number of colleges which I think are better choices for you.
Of the rest, I only really think that Duke would be a good choice for you, or maybe Princeton (if you are accepted). NYC is not a good place for a 16 year old living alone, and I think that Dartmouth’s Greek culture can make it problematic for a 16 year old girl as well.
You should know by the middle of next week, though, for Duke and the Ivies.
Good luck!
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I did get into Wisconsin! I’m not sure what’s wrong with Clemson because it seems like almost everyone has gotten their decision and I haven’t heard anything from them. Tried emailing but no response, I’m planning on calling them today.
Well, I was rejected.
Thank you!
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Forget about Clemson - you already have been accepted to at least 4 or 5 places which are better for you than Clemson.
Sorry about Duke.
You’ll likely be able to start making your decisions by the end of the day today.
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Any last minute surprises today (or shall I say, tomorrow, by us in the USA)?
Nope, all rejections.
Not to worry. You’ve got some excellent options, several of which are first choice schools for top US students. An amazing set of acceptances for an international student who is two years younger than the usual age for applying. You should be proud of yourself.
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While it’s too bad about your rejections, you have a bunch of amazing acceptances, and will already have a difficult time choosing between them. You really didn’t need any more amazing colleges in that mix to make your life even more difficult.
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With my last rejection, Stanford, this college application process has come to an end and I’d like to thank all of you on this thread for your constant support and advice, especially @parentologist for the PMs. I really appreciate the time you guys spent on me and to an extent, it helped reduce the stress.
The outcome was much better than I expected but not as good as I had hoped. But I’m really grateful for having been accepted into such amazing colleges.
Of the many that I applied to, I got into 15 and was waitlisted 5 others and I’d love to attend any of these colleges even though I was so emotionally invested in attending Dartmouth.
I’ve been thinking and I’ve pretty much decided that I’ll be committing to UNC, mainly because I’ve made friends there and it’d be nice to know people when I start college. But regardless of the connections I’ve made, I love UNC and it’s only a 4 and a half car ride away from my uncle’s place.
I’m still hesitant to pay the deposit, though. This is a big decision and I don’t want to choose impulsively and regret it later. My friends who live in NC currently told me that they don’t like it there and that they want to move out of there but that UNC is a great place. My uncle thinks that I should consider UCI because he says California is the best place for CS and that I’d have a lot of opportunities. My mom’s fine with anything and I dont really care that much about my dad’s opinion but he wants me to go to UGA. I’m not really sure what to do though, I personally want to choose UNC.
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You can tell your dad that UNC is a much more prestigious university. In fact, both UNC and UVA are ranked in the top 30 universities nationwide, and in the top 10 public universities nationwide. UGA is not, nor is UCI.
You can also tell your uncle that physical proximity is no longer meaningful, and UCI being in California does not provide any advantage. If it were around silicon valley, maybe, but it is not, and North Carolina’s Research Triangle has a lot more going on in Tech than the Irvine area does.
Looking at your acceptances, I do not see that UC Irvine should even be in the running. For CS, you have UIUC, Purdue, UNC, Wisconsin, Davis, Stony Brook, and OSU, all which are better or equivalent for CS and have other reasons to be recommended as well. For other fields in which you have expressed interest, UNC, UVA, Wisconsin, UIUC, and OSU are all better. For being in California and close to silicon valley, you have UC Davis.
If you are looking for a small, intimate colleges experience, Skidmore is an amazing liberal arts college.
So it’s time for you to set of a spread sheet, put all of the things that you want in a college, ranked, as columns, and the names of all the colleges to which you were accepted as rows.
When I say “all the things that you want”, I mean it. It can be classroom size and technology, and it can be food and dorms, proximity to a city and coffee shops.
You have at least 7 universities there which have the academics that you would want and need, so you have the luxury of choosing the colleges among them which are likely to provide you the emotional, social, and physical comfort that will make your life more pleasant.
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I’m still rooting for U Va, because of proximity to your uncle and his family, in light of your young age. 4.5 hrs drive is “She’s having an emergency, and I have to go because she’s family” distance, whereas under an hour is “Let’s go pick up the niece this weekend to bring her home for a home cooked meal, and to do her laundry, and to have her enjoy our luxurious suburban home and some peace and quiet study time” distance, which can happen even every weekend, if you and they want.
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Skidmore is truly an amazing college and I’d probably like it there but I don’t want to go to New York.
If I do choose to go to Davis, it’d mainly because of the proximity to Chase Center, the idea of getting to watch Curry play every other weekend is exciting : )
That’s the thing, I’m not sure what I want, I’m just going off of the vibe that I get from the college and I know that that’s not very reliable but I don’t really have any preferences, I just don’t want to be in New York and preferably not California and Ohio either because I despise beaches and it seems like a lot of social activity in those places revolves around beaches, I could be wrong, I’m just judging based on books, movies, and TV shows.
But maybe the one thing I’d want is good on-campus food options.
I don’t really feel like I’d like it at UIUC and I don’t feel any sort of connection but logically, it’s the best option for me.
Wisconsin is also a good option, my mom’s best friend lives there and her son is currently a Junior there. They’re pretty close, they lived with us for a month when they came to India.
Davis is a great option but my uncle suggests otherwise but that’s probably because of it’s higher acceptance rate.
Stony Brook is another great option, I got into the WISE program and they gave me an amazing scholarship offer which would reduce my COA by half BUT they aren’t willing to let me live on campus till I turn 17. So that’s crossed off because I don’t want to live off campus.
OSU is ranked highly for CS as well but again, doesn’t really appeal to me.
I feel like it’s down to UNC or UVA, I’m not sure I’d be willing to go to another college but Skidmore would have been in the running if it weren’t located in NY.
Makes sense. I made a short pros and cons list for UNC and UVA but honestly, they’re both pretty similar. The only big difference is the cost and that I know people at UNC, and these work in favor for UNC. But like you said, being closer to my uncle’s family is a pro that works in UVA’s favor.
UNC-
Pros:
Ranked highly nationally and for CS as well
Amazing research opportunities
Made really good friends
Great housing communities
On the cheaper side
Good food
Appealing location and campus
Not very far from my uncle’s place
Active social life
Apparently, not very stressful
Cons:
Nothing that I can think of but that’s probably because I’m biased
UVA-
Pros:
Highly ranked nationally and for CS as well (lower than UNC though)
Very close to my uncle’s place
Nice people
Amazing professors and opportunities
Pretty close to VTech so I can meet my best friend on the weekends
Cons:
More expensive
Don’t know a lot of people
Don’t really feel a connection
Sounds like you are really leaning to UNC. That would be a great choice.
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What’s the net cost/yr for you for UNC vs UVa? Also run the cost if you live with your uncle’s family for the first year at least, thus saving on room and board - that’s gotta be 15K at least that you’d save.
I was 17 when I went to college, about 3 hrs public transportation home to my parents’ house. I was really quite jealous of the kids who would just disappear to go home to study intensively in a quiet house, and be fed and have their laundry done by their mothers. And this was an Ivy, most definitely NOT a commuter school.
There is a lot to be said for being very close to a relative’s house, when you will have just turned 16 when you start, and be in a new country, thousands of miles away from home.
Is
Out of curiosity, why not?
It’s always been funny to me how unfamiliar people are with California and that people assume that California is one long, beach.
UCDavis is in the middle of farmland. If students, without cars, want to get to the coast, they take a train from Davis to San Francisco. Then, they have to Uber to the areas that are NOT cliffs and have passable roads to see water.
California is very diverse in its geography:
Yosemite and Sequoia are in the Sierras of Central and Northeasterly California.
Lake Tahoe is in the Northeastern part of the state. The water is very, very cold because it comes from melting Mountain Sierra snow over the year.
The Redwoods are on the shores of Northern California.
Northern California is green because there’s a lot of rain.
Death Valley is a complete desert. Hours away from any nearby Coast.
A small fraction of the state, Southern California, has the beaches, the palm trees, and a lot of the warmth.
California has VERY large, vibrant, agricultural farms of every type; most of these farms are in Central California. It’s produce can feed the whole state, as well as the exports it sends to other countries.
UCD Is in between San Francisco and Sacramento. It is southeast of the Napa Valley, where the big vineyards are located. The Napa area is home to some of the best domestic wines in the country.
Our daughter attended UC Davis. I think she actually went to the coast about 2 to 3 times.
You appear to be basing your opinions on what you see on TV. Please don’t base your opinions on TV. Everything is vastly different and you will be extremely disappointed if you continue to base the US, and our colleges, on how you see television portraying it.
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Ohio? Beaches? Where did you get that idea? Yes, there are undoubtedly some beaches along Lake Erie, but virtually no one in the US would associate Ohio with beaches. Farmland, yes; industrial cities, yes; rolling hills in some parts of the state, yes; actually Ohio is quite varied. Have you actually done research on Ohio or California?
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I think having the benefit of more time to research the areas of the schools, would make more sense, but this OP is in a hurry to “get out of dodge” and is basing her limited knowledge on limited research.
As a parent, I know that my children at the age of 16, were very, very bright but in no way would I have allowed them to go to another country by themselves. They wouldn’t have been prepared, at that age, especially to a country like the United States, that is so diverse, even within itself, in opinion, culture and law.
I remember, in my pre-law classes, where the professors were always emphasizing, “ignorance of the law, is no excuse”.
As an under-aged minor, international student, in an unfamiliar country with preconceived opinions, the shock and change will be hard.
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Yoshacurry, you need to take the time to do your research. You’ve already made one rash decision (the withdrawal of that Yale application based upon some article saying that it was too dangerous there). You do NOT want to make a mistake here. First of all, there’s the issue of money. Then there’s the issue of location and quality of school for the major that you want. For example, you’re saying you don’t want Skidmore because it’s in NY. Do you realize that NY State is ENORMOUS, and has many different types of environments in it? Saratoga Springs, where Skidmore is located, is about as far away from NYC as one could get, in terms of environment - it’s a smallish town that still has horse racing, used to be a ritzy summer resort area a hundred years ago. UC Davis is in northern California, over 80 miles from a beach (where the water is too cold to swim, anyway), a totally different environment than southern California. One can say for sure that UC Davis has NOTHING to do with beach party culture! Ohio State is a large midwestern flagship state U, has absolutely nothing to do with beaches.
It’s not each of these particular unfounded prejudices that is the issue. You need to seriously consider the realities of the finances, the location, the quality, to make a decision. Perhaps you could speak with your relatives and friends in the US to get some feedback, especially from those who may have gone to college in the US, or whose children are going to college in the US, or have recently been graduated.
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