<p>thanks a lot hadsed, just want to clarify my third question though, do you form better relationships with teachers at a “better” school?</p>
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I mean I didn’t say I would get into all those on my list, I was just saying that I will probably be faced with a decision between a school like MIT and then a scholarship at a school like UConn. Not presumptuous to predict I’ll be accepted to at least one of my reaches.</p>
<p>What is your financial situation like? You probably will get need based FA from MIT/Harvard/Stanford if you can get in.</p>
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Who knows? You can’t know. You could go to a small liberal arts college and be legendary throughout the department and that would provide you with, at the very least, 3 stellar recommendations. Also at a smaller school like that it would be much easier. Also, if you have a good relationship with your teachers then you’re more likely to be able to make good impressions on them and you can ask freely to do research or they may ask you and they’ll have the time and they probably would be willing to help you succeed in research.</p>
<p>That being said, a place like Stanford has top researchers in the field. This could be a good or bad thing, it depends on a few things. What you will not find at Stanford is a lack of research opportunities, nor will you find a lack of expertise. Just remember though, if the nobel laureate and/or giant in his field doesn’t know you well then he can’t really say much about you other than you aced his class and you did some project of which the topic he hardly remembers.</p>
<p>In my opinion, it balances out. Stanford is hard, just like the other top schools. If you do well at Stanford, it is quite impressive and it may or may not help if you are deficient in other things. You can’t predict these things, all you can do is try to give yourself the best opportunities and everything will work itself out. Just work hard, learn a lot, and don’t scoff at grunt work because it could turn into something really good.</p>