This application season turned out to be very different from what I expected. Back in August, all I could think about was attending a private research institution. I chose Northwestern and UChicago (my ultimate dream school) for ED1 & ED2, but neither worked out. I ended up being waitlisted by most of the T20 schools, including Columbia. I am still debating if I should really fight for it or just accept one of my current offers.
My demographics: female international student who attended American high school
My majors: Comparative Literature & Sociology
My career aspirations: becoming a writer & professor in NYC
Swarthmore: I am heavily leaning towards this option now, even though I didn’t expect myself to be in a LAC before. From what I’ve heard so far, its undergraduate education will be of higher quality than the other two big schools. I also hear people say that it is basically the UChicago of LAcs.
USC: I am insanely grateful for my full ride, and I love the SoCal weather, but I just can’t seriously picture myself being there since I want to be surrounded by philosophically minded students and less of a party culture.
UCB: I am attracted to its social activism culture, but I also heard the class size is really big and the environment is very pre-professional. I definitely prefer smaller seminars.
I would really appreciate any advice, particularly on finding the best fit for a Humanities & Social Science oriented student. I am also considering transferring after freshman year because I do feel that my acceptances are a bit underwhelming compared to what I have worked towards my whole life.
Thank you!
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Also for context, I am planning on attending grad school and financial factors don’t weight too much into my decision-making.
Is your last name Gates or Bezos?
You can go to a top grad school from just about any school in America. And you are talking about 3 of the top 25 undergrad in America. I’m saying you can go to Harvard from #1000.
And USC will have lots of Swat like students in their thinking - and will have many others do who are sporty and want to have fun. It will have it all.
Go to USC - what a wonderful opportunity.
Best of luck.
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What exactly do you mean by that? Getting off the waitlist at these schools isn’t in your hands at all so you can’t really fight for it.
You have other very good acceptances. I suggest you select from among them.
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I would take the free ride to USC.
While its overall academic vibe does not match Swat’s “life of the mind” reputation, I am certain that there are some very intellectually curious, serious students at SC.
Typically, student types are sorted by major anyway. So kids studying Lit at both Swat and USC are bound to be fairly academically serious.
I wouldn’t pay $325k more for Swat than I would for USC.
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Sorry - I missed the WL part.
A wait list means you were rejected. There’s nothing other than following their instructions that you can do - i.e. fill out their form or LOCI.
The reason they have WL is in case they err on yield. It’s for them. Not you.
They typically have more on the WL than accepted. In the last Cornell CDS (two years ago), they WL 7729 and only accepted 2317. - not off WL. Total. Columbia and Chicago don’t post WL but some schools like Case Western WL 30% of applicants. Even Cornell more than 10%.
So move on from those schools after you do the LOCI.
USC - even if you’re rich- what a stellar offer. I have no idea why you’d think it’s lesser of a school -it’s not.
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You have to put a deposit down at one of your acceptances. You have very very little chance of getting in off the waitlist at any of the T20s. A full ride at USC??? Of course you should take this!
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I have a son at USC right now and you can definitely find philosophically-minded students and excel there without the party culture. There is more than enough to do on campus and in LA without partying. Consider applying to the Thematic Option, their interdisciplinary honors core curriculum, where you will have small, seminar-style classes (it’s described as a small LAC within the context of a larger, research university). Thematic Option > USC Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Even if finances are not an issue for you, it would be very hard to pass up a full-ride to USC ($320,000K!). I can’t imagine being disappointed with or underwhelmed by an acceptance to USC. I agree with the other post – assume a waitlist is a rejection and I would not count on getting off any waitlist, any where.
Congratulations on your great acceptances! Good luck with your decision.
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Agreed except one thing. COA is now over $90K 
Not $80K. And rising!!!
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First if all, you have amazing acceptances and your hard work did pay off. Have you visited USC or Swarthmore ? Two very different schools and school cultures.
My thoughts differ from
other posters, but if finances are not a concern - I would pick the best fit school
for you and not go into it thinking you will transfer out. You may transfer or you may thrive - but you need to have an open mind.
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I may be wrong, but I interpreted to OP’s comments about “fighting” for the WLs simply to mean doing the typical LOCI (or other emails if she previously had contact with someone else at the college related to a particular interest or field) as opposed to simply not bothering to accept a WL position. It’s definitely good to think of a WL as a no and not hold out for it, but nothing wrong with putting in a little effort in the first days before moving on if one of those schools is really still her top choice. Then forget about it.
I also wasn’t sure if money not being much of an issue was a polite way of saying not an issue at all. If the latter is true and she really wants the small class sizes, nothing wrong with taking Swath over USC. If money is still “sort of” an issue, hard to pass up a free ride to a top school
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You’re right about both! I mean I will try to boost my chances with the WL because I recently won a national title and didn’t get to update colleges on it before.
My family is very determined of sending me to the best fit school so they are okay with me letting go of the full ride if another school end up making me happier.
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I am going to their admitted students events over the next two weeks. I haven’t been in California in years but I go to Philly almost every month so I am very familiar with the environment.
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Waitlist = rejection for most intents and purposes, with a tiny chance of a later admission.
The usual procedure is to commit to a school that admitted you while staying on waitlists. If a waitlist admission does occur, you can then choose to commit to that school while decommitting from the first school (losing the deposit at the first school).
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In terms of the environment being too pre-professional at USC or UCB, this is likely heavily influenced by majors. Business and economics majors tend to be more pre-professional than comparative literature and sociology majors, for example. Pre-meds are heavily concentrated in biology, but some are scattered around other majors. Pre-law students are commonly found in political science, but many are scattered around other majors. Note that highly selective LACs do have Wall Street aspirant students, though they may be less likely to be found as literature or sociology majors than (for example) economics majors.
For class offerings and class sizes, you can check the on-line catalogs and class schedules at each school’s web site.
Why are Swarthmore, USC with a full ride, and UCB “underwhelming”?
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Sorry I didn’t mean this in a rude or invalidating way. I just really really wanted to go to Northwestern or UChicago because of my previous research experiences associated with the two schools.
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I would recommend that any student if possible get their bachelor’s degree with no debt. If you are seriously interested in graduate school, I would also recommend if reasonably possible save enough money in the college fund (regardless of whether a real college fund or just other parent or student investments) to cover a master’s degree. PhD’s are usually fully funded. Master’s are often not funded by the university and could cost $100,000 per year by the time that you get there. USC with a full ride is a big deal.
I think that you will find people like you are any of these universities. I would not be concerned at all about whether or not there will be philosophically minded students at USC. There will be.
One daughter attended a small university (the closest thing that Canada has to a “liberal arts college”). I became a big fan. She had small classes taught by full professors. She got to know her professors. This led to very good research and/or internship options. She returned to the US and got a very good job that to me sounded a lot like what she was already doing in the research labs of eastern Canada. There is a lot to be said for a small school such as a LAC, and Swarthmore is one of the very best.
Personally for a bachelor’s degree I regard the top LACs, including Swarthmore, to be the equal of the very top universities in the world. For a bachelor’s degree I would not think that it was a step down at all even compared to Harvard, Princeton, MIT, or Stanford. It will be a somewhat different experience.
I think that this is a very good idea. We found these to be quite useful and informative (at different schools well to the north and east of you).
Then I think that you talk to your parents about whether the cost really matters to your family. It would matter to us, but I do have friends who really would not care about the cost of four years at a private university in the US (or anywhere else).
I think that you have earned several really good options through your hard work up to now.
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Were you admitted anywhere else?
What perks come with the USC full ride (ie., special program/cohort…)
Sth confusing to me is that what Swarthmore is to UChicago on the East Coast, USC is to Northwestern on the West Coast.
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It’s interesting to see the “free vs. full pay” cognitive dissonance in this thread. Heads are exploding everywhere… could someone actually say no to USC for free?
The OP suggested they are an international student going to a US high school. I took that as code for boarding school. They are already $250k+ into their education. My assumption is that money has no bearing on this decision, other than the possibility of feeling completely stupid by not accepting USC’s offer. Great school…free…am I crazy to say no?
Loans? Fear of paying for Grad school? Not in the conversation for this kid. This is truly the exception to 99.9% of the conversations on CC.
If money were no object, these discussions always run toward “best fit”. @LulunoLemon …if indeed it’s not about money, go where you think you’ll fit in. They’re all great choices.
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This: you could go to Harvard from 1000. So true.