<p>im not sure what to do
im interested in mechanical engineering if that makes a difference</p>
<p>please help me!
only a week and half left to decide!</p>
<p>If you’re serious about engineering, go to Penn. Penn is much stronger in the sciences and engineering. If you’re interested in the liberal arts education and environment, go to Swarthmore.</p>
<p>It’s possible that you can receive more financial aid from Penn by submitting an appeal to their financial aid office.</p>
<p>sadly the appeal did nothing
the financial aid people said that unless my parents loss their job, got divorced,
or a death occurred that our EFC wouldn’t change 
im going to see if they will increase my work study</p>
<p>AND</p>
<p>what do you mean by environment?
physical environment or social environment?</p>
<p>i also received a scholarship from Harvey Mudd…
is that a school to consider or would UPenn be the better school overall?</p>
<p>Penn is in a city and Swarthmore is in the suburbs, so there is a different physical environment. Penn is much larger, whereas at Swarthmore you’ll quickly know most of your class. Penn’s engineering program is much larger than Swarthmore’s, so you’ll often be surrounded by fellow engineers. At Swarthmore, because it is a liberal arts college, more students will be interested in the liberal arts. Still, you can take courses within the College of Arts and Sciences at Penn as electives, so you can still get a broad education at both schools. Also, both schools are part of the Quaker Consortium with Bryn Mawr and Haverford, so you can cross-register at any of the 4 colleges if you attend one of them.</p>
<p>In terms of research, because of Swarthmore’s size and lack of graduate students, many students end up going to Penn or other large universities nearby. This may be a problem if you want to do a ton of research and go to Swarthmore.</p>
<p>I don’t know a whole lot about Harvey Mudd. What I do know is that it’s excellent for engineering and you should definitely see if it’s a better fit for you than Penn or Swarthmore.</p>
<p>why did you rule out harvey mudd originally? Because if you leave penn out of the equation, because you want to be an engineer, harvey mudd >>> swarthmore.</p>
<p>I think you need to tell us more what you want so we can help explain things about the schools that might factor into your decision.</p>
<p>Swat–because college is not merely vocational. It is about making your mind an interesting place in which to spend the rest of your life.</p>
<p>If every kid who started out in engineering, got a degree in it, there would be zillions of engineers. If you can honestly exceed what Swat has to offer, you are truly extraordinary.</p>
<p>well the thing is that i am considering between these four schools for the following prices:</p>
<p>Swarthmore: 15k
Harvey Mudd:16k
Princeton:24.5k (8k in loans)
UPenn:22k (5.5k in loans)</p>
<p>I wanted a school that had a variety of people (diversity), a small and strong engineering program, opportunities for research, and close to the city. I feel like out of all of these schools UPenn is the best overall. </p>
<p>Harvey Mudd has the strongest engineering program, but i dont like the environment.
Swarthmore has a nice community but not a strong enough program.
Princeton is out of my ball part to pay and i didn’t really like the people.
UPenn seems right in the middle (excluding class size - though their engineering school is quite small) and i really like the possibility of submatriculating into the IPD program.</p>
<p>I dont know if these observations are accurate. What do you guys think.
I really need help figuring out if i’m making a good choice or if there is anything that I am overlook or have judged incorrectly.</p>
<p>
Who can argue! Good reason to reject it!</p>
<p>
Who can argue! Good reason to reject it!</p>
<p>
You didn’t like the people. Who can argue with that. Good reason to reject it!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I think you have a clear winner. Send in the deposit. It’s not a lot of money to borrow. You will surely be able to pay that back. Congrats on a well thought out decision.</p>
<p>Wait, did you get a scholarship to Swarthmore, as opposed to need-based financial aid? Because I’m honestly really surprised that Princeton would have given you the worst aid, considering they’re known for giving out the best financial aid, pretty much in the country.
(This isn’t a ‘go to princeton’ comment, rather just a question because I’m curious. It seems you’ve already decided that Penn will make you happy, honestly).</p>
<p>Princeton’s financial aid does seem odd, but if you’re set on engineering and not a fan of Harvey Mudd, Penn is a great choice! Really, among the four schools, you can’t make a poor decision. </p>
<p>I don’t know too much about Penn Engineering, but the senior project sounds like a lot of fun (the toast zamboni, self-filtering water bottle & robot baseball pitcher come to mind) and the engineers that I met on my Preview Day were some of the nicest people I’ve encountered during my many trips to campus. They seem like a great bunch, and they’ll be lucky to have you next year! Congratulations & best of luck!</p>
<p>^ I agree Engineering had the nicest people when I visited also, though everyone at Penn was nice imo when I visited during Penn Preview days.</p>
<p>Don’t Penn and Swarthmore have a cooperative program? Go to Swarthmore and take the extra classes you want at Penn.</p>
<p>Penn imo, especially since it’s your own personal preference.</p>
<p>Even though you can technically take classes at Penn if you go to Swarthmore, I don’t think many do, and I haven’t met any Swarthmore students. Unless you have a car, I imagine it’s really difficult to get from one campus to another and takes quite a bit of time…aka it’s very inconvenient and would be really hard to schedule in. So it’s not that simple.</p>
<p>to scribbler91:
i received an merit-based scholarship from both Swarthmore and Harvey Mudd
I was surprised by Princeton as well since I have heard that they have good aid
but to the contrary UPenn came out with the lowest EFC</p>
<p>
I met 2 in my time at Penn, and they were both in 1 class with me.</p>
<p>My D got a much better financial package from another LAC, but decided to go to Penn. As you know loans at Penn are optional, and the financial package without loans is pretty reasonable. We thought about getting loans, but intead she decided to work to earn her share of contribution, $2,400.</p>
<p>We considered loans because we thought she could easily pay off once she gets a job. On average, Penn engineering graduates earn about $90,000 a year including salary and bonus.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices/undergrad/reports/SEAS_2010cp.pdf[/url]”>http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices/undergrad/reports/SEAS_2010cp.pdf</a></p>
<p>We decided not to take the loan option this year since I have some savings, but may as well take advantage of it in the future.</p>
<p>for me, UPenn costs 22k (EFC) w/o loans
they offered by an option of 5.5k in loans (16k EFC)</p>
<p>my parents can only pay 12k
i will have to take care of the other 10k
i have 8k have been able to save these past 2 years
and am trying to get 2 summer jobs (will give me about a net sum of 5k to 6k)
one as a recreation assistant and the other as a tutor</p>
<p>if i do that and separate the 10k amongst my 4 years (2.5k per year)
i will be able to pay about 7k to 8k out of the 10k i will be responsible for
thereby being able to pay off 2k to 3k of my loans immediately</p>
<p>(or I hope it all works out that way if i choose Penn)</p>
<p>Does this work seem overwhelming? Is it work it? </p>
<p>I keep trying to encourage myself by saying “this will teach me about what its like in the real world without your parents paying for everything” but i dont know if that is the right mentality for undergrad. Every single one of my friends is getting all their undergrad paid for by their parents so they will only have to take loans in medical school or grad.
Am i making a mistake? The more i research about the school (aside from Christopher Abreu’s article about racism) i fall in love with it. I just dont know if its worth all this trouble or if my plan is really any “trouble” at all. </p>
<p>I mean i’m trying to find a way for me to pay all of this without digging myself into
a deep “loan hole”. </p>
<p>Any suggestions or comments on the plan i’ve laid out?</p>
<p>I keep trying to encourage myself by saying “this will teach me about what its like in the real world without your parents paying for everything” but i dont know if that is the right mentality for undergrad. Every single one of my friends is getting all their undergrad paid for by their parents so they will only have to take loans in medical school or grad.
Am i making a mistake? The more i research about the school (aside from Christopher Abreu’s article about racism) i fall in love with it. I just dont know if its worth all this trouble or if my plan is really any “trouble” at all. </p>
<p>I mean i’m trying to find a way for me to pay all of this without digging myself into
a deep “loan hole”. </p>
<p>Any suggestions or comments on the plan i’ve laid out?</p>
<p>I’m a bit confused by what you’re saying. Is it that you could graduate from Penn pretty much debt-free? Or is it with $10,000 in debt? Either way, it seems to me that the debt issue isn’t enough to determine whether you should go to Penn. If I’m reading your posts correctly, I’d recommend that if Penn is your top choice, you go there.</p>