Top 10 List: Most fascinating college vs. college decisions on CC this year

College Search & Selection
1

<p>April is always an interesting time on CC as prospective students reach out for help with their college decisions. Most are pretty typical decisions - one school vs. a comparable school, picking among several LACs, choosing among schools in a limited region, or weighing a more expensive selective university vs. merit aid at a less selective one. </p>

<p>But this year it seems that there have been some particularly interesting decisions being weighed. Having had pretty mundane college choices myself, I've enjoyed vicariously sharing these dilemmas. I've been keeping track of some and now that I have ten, I've ordered them into a Top 10 list of decisions that intrigued me:</p>

<p>10 - Hong Kong U. vs. NYU Abu Dhabi
I couldn't offer any help with it but the global aspect was refreshing!</p>

<p>9 - Stanford vs. Davidson
Once I considered it, IMO not as wide a difference as it first appeared.</p>

<p>8 - Pomona vs. Villanova
Nice schools - I wonder what the common thread was?</p>

<p>7 - Conn Coll vs. McGill
Not that far away geographically, but polar opposites in campus culture.</p>

<p>6 - Wisconsin vs. W&M
It's not just that they're such different public Us, but from the discussion, the perception of the value of each seems very dependent upon regionalism. </p>

<p>5 - Belmont vs. Boston U.
No surprise if this was for a musician, but it was for pre-med! </p>

<p>4 - Occidental vs. Boston U.
They're opposites, and the student likes their different aspects for differing reasons.</p>

<p>3 - UCLA vs. Haverford
Kind of like Stanford vs. Davidson with the size contrast magnified.</p>

<p>2 - Wittenberg vs. U. of Florida
Very different places - very different curricula - very different campus life at each.</p>

<p>. . . and my indisputable #1:
1 - U. of Oregon vs. Hampshire
I'd guess that this is the first time that anyone has been faced with this choice! :)</p>

<p>Did I miss any?</p>

2

<p>I don’t really see Oregon vs. Hampshire as that extreme, especially if the person is an Oregon native. Both have large nonconformist groups, and it could very easily be Oregon in-state prices vs. Hampshire academic quality with a fairly similar social structure.</p>

3

<br>

<br>

<p>Well, they both have Latin names. (Pomona was a minor Roman goddess - the goddess of fruit).</p>

4

<p>my #1 is…Alabama v Lafayette…</p>

<p>anybody wanna try this one? they both have "a"s in their names?</p>

5

<p>I actually considered:</p>

<p>USC Marshall vs. UPenn Wharton :stuck_out_tongue: haha</p>

6

<p>

</p>

<p>Hmmm . . . now that you mention it . . .</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>That’s a good one - very different places - but I’m guessing that the median SAT/GPA for Lafayette is right at the threshold for guaranteed free tuition and fees at Bama.</p>

<p>I really admire kids who aren’t so locked into one particular lifestyle or political focus that they can appreciate the values in differing options.</p>

7

<p>Don’t know if this was an acceptance or still working on the list, but I could not reconcile:</p>

<p>Penn vs. Reed</p>

<p>Other than urban campus?</p>

8

<p>Great thread idea, gadad.
A couple of those caught my eye, too.</p>

<p>Another interesting bake-off is Cornell v. Clemson v. Cal Poly (for Culinology).</p>

9

<p>I don’t see Penn vs Reed as all that extreme. Try Auburn vs. Reed, and you’d really have something to talk about. :)</p>

10

<p>

</p>

<p>School of Hotel Management v. Culinology v. what? . . . (Lots of people do love Clemson, though.)</p>

11

<p>My personal favorite is Chapman v. SUNY Buffalo. What???</p>

12

<p>^^that IS a good one!!!</p>

13

<p>Not on CC, but my friend is deciding between University of Chicago or a scholarship at Auburn</p>

14

<p>CalTech and any other school except MIT, Harvey Mudd and Carnegie Mellon</p>

15

<p>Duke vs. Butler</p>

16

<p>UT Austin vs. Macalester</p>

17

<p>

</p>

<p>You win the thread.</p>

18

<p>^lol</p>

<p>A friend is deciding between Columbia and Amherst (well was deciding, went Columbia). Perhaps not such a strange choice at first for top students, but they differ in almost every way fundamentally–core vs. open, city vs. rural, size, graduate programs, etcetc. Not as interesting as some of the picks on this thread though.</p>

19

<p>Last year my daughter had a three-way final choice between UCLA, Rice, and Dartmouth.</p>

<p>All she needed was a large, rural school in order to have every permutation of large vs. small plus urban vs. rural. Actually, she did have an acceptance from large, rural school (UC Davis), but it was one of her safeties and not part of the final choice.</p>

20

<p>Wesleyan vs Wheaton (Illinois) or BYU vs Harvey Mudd would be fascinating, but I have yet to encounter such extremes.</p>