this is my first post so im just gonna see how this goes.
i am a current high school senior trying to make the big decision between three great schools: indiana university, university of michigan, and ucla.
the most important things to note in my decision are these:
money
- i have instate tuition for iu and received 9000 in scholarships, making it financially the easiest choice
- i did not receive any financial aid or scholarship from michigan or ucla, making them both very pricey choices
location
i am absolutely in love w ucla's campus and location in la, despite the fact it is 3000 miles away from home and nowhere near any family. is it worth it to push myself that much out of my comfort zone or is that too crazy for an 18yo?
michigan is the perfect distance away, however idk if i can subject myself to even worse winters than i already have had my whole life
i'm not in love with the idea of going to that small of a college town and it seems as though everyone i know is going to go to iu
dance
i am not going to major in dance, however i do want to be able to continue with it. i have danced for 10 years and want a school that will allow me to take classes at an advanced level without having to be a major
study abroad
how are study abroad options at each school?
major
i am deciding between international studies/relations and physics..... ik they are very very different but how are they at the three schools???
greek life
i do not plan on rushing and don't want to be surrounded by people who all plan on doing so... how big is greek life at each school in comparison to the other schools (ik that all three have v big greek life scenes)
as you can see, i have quite the dilemma with pros and cons for each great option.
what are everyone’s thoughts on each subtopic?
"the most important things to note in my decision are these:
money
i have instate tuition for iu and received 9000 in scholarships, making it financially the easiest choice
i did not receive any financial aid or scholarship from michigan or ucla, making them both very pricey choices"
I did not really go beyond this. If cost of attendance is important, and IU will cost roughly $160,000 less than Michigan and UCLA over four years, and cost is a concern, there is nothing else to discuss. Go for IU and laugh all the way to the bank.
i am also going to add that if i wasn’t instate for iu, i would not have applied. i have a slightly hard time picturing myself going to school there. my parents are more willing to pay for michigan than ucla because of the distance, but say that we will find a way to make whatever school i choose in the end work. also, i got into the honors college at iu, am not sure if i will apply for michigan’s honors program, and just barely don’t meet the prereqs for ucla’s honors program (i must be top 3% of class and am in the top 3.6%). just wanted to add these things
I think it depends on what you want out of your college experience. IU is a great option, but honestly everyone I know who goes there hates it. (I’m also a senior, fyi, haha). UMich is also an awesome school, and I know for a fact they have a great dance scene. It is big enough as to where if you didn’t want to rush, you wouldn’t have to feel pressured to. But, it also is a huuuuuge school. Winters can be harsh, but you will spend most of your time in the library or at class. UCLA personally seems like an awesome option, but if finances are a major concern, I would rule that out because the cost of living in LA is harsh, and traveling home would be difficult (weather is amazing though). Personally, I think you should go to UMich!
Check out the Winters in Ann Arbor v. Bloomington, I would not be surprised if Bloomington is worse. Northeast Ohio has it worse than Southeast Michigan, for example.
Study abroad is limitless in Michigan, it seems. Lots of money for it too. don’t know if is the same for the other two.
Finally, in Michigan, Geek life can be avoided completely. I understand that it is a bigger deal in IU.
I personally see absolutely no reason to pay the full cost for Michigan or UCLA when you can go to Indiana for around $15K a year (the Indiana website indicates the cost of attendance is just below $25K a year for in-state students). Indiana is an excellent university and that’s a great deal.
Indiana seems to have a pretty robust dance program. It also has a ton of study abroad programs you can go through (https://overseas.iu.edu/). Indiana has a pretty big Greek system; about 17% of students go Greek and the system has 74 fraternities and sororities with over 8,000 students. However, that means that over 80% of students are NOT Greek and there are 750 student organizations there, so I’m sure you can find something else to do.
Michigan is also about 17% Greek; UCLA is about 13% Greek. Both of those schools are also going to have great study abroad options, good to great options in dance and lots to do if you’re not interested in Greek life, but the cost differential isn’t worth it IMO.
If you love LA, you can always move there after you graduate!
Everyone I know who went there (all three people) loved it, including my sister.
As for dance, the woman who once funded the UCLA dance school was so disappointed in it that she took her money and used it to fund the dance school at USC, instead.