Say someone has grad school as their eventual goal..

[osucowboys]

<p>No-no-no…you guys missed my idea, which is in order to stay academically focused, I want to buy up some college’s paraphernalia and put it around my study area. That’s all this is for. It’s similar to how at the beginning of the football season some teams will put up plane tickets to the site of the championships, or a countdown calender, or whatever. I know it’s way too soon and this isn’t a practical grad school question, I admit that. It’s just an idea I want to try out when I begin my undergrad. Strong motivation.</p>

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You’re not going to choose your grad school because it’s in a good city and has lots of culture, you’re going to pick it for the academic program and professors there.

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<p>Yeah, that’s an obvious concern that I knew a lot of people would have. The truth is though that all of the Top 25 schools or whatever are pretty much equal in academic quality. Academic prestige, maybe not…but academic quality, yes. Can someone from Princeton really turn their nose up at a Georgetown student? I seriously doubt it. Because there are so many excellent universities, I don’t mind picking one with location being a key factor. Often times the location plays a bigger role than we like to admit and influences the university at every level. Take Tulane for example…fantastic location. Everything about that school is New Orleans with an exclamation mark! Mardi gras, southern, magnolia trees, ivy, St. Charles streetcars, and classy. NYU = NYC. And so on.</p>

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First of all-- “rich, preppy, white” are not qualities you’re going to find in any urban environment except maybe Georgetown, and even then that applies only to the immediate area. Second, where it makes sense to go to depends entirely on your field of study. Third, you do know that a hugely disproportionate number of faculty in tenure-track positions come from schools ranked in the top ten in their field. Fourth, your getting full scholarship may be a lot easier in some fields than others, and is significantly easier at schools with a lot more financial resources. This is precisely why financial resources matters a lot for grad school outside of pure facilities for science.

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<p>Yeah I get you, modestmelody. That’s why I did mention my major which I’m passionate about – political science, as well as my experiences at Georgetown one summer. As for rich, preppy, white … so are you suggesting that Georgetown is the only university out of the ones I suggested that fits the bill?</p>