<p>^ That's very helpful.</p>
<p>kyle : thank you sooo much; this is what I was looking for....</p>
<p>Having gone through the process last year, I feel like it's important to think about more than just the prestige and even sometimes academics of a college. Yes, of course they're important, but this is a place you'll be spending four years of your life, no matter how well-respected it is or how good the programs are, you need to feel comfortable there.
At this time last year I was agonizing between Cornell and Berkeley, and as time goes on I realize I probably would have been miserable at Cornell. Don't live and die by the US News rankings, minor differences in rankings aren't going to matter that much. Just make sure you'll be happy, is really what it comes down to. Student body, climate and surrounding area do matter...just saying.</p>
<p>
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its almost better to go far away from home, home is boring after 12 + years of being there id say
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<p>You don't need to go across the country or far away to get an experience different from home.</p>
<p>Yeah I agree kelseyg but then again other people see it like that like I want to go away from home but only like a couple states away so that isn't so bad it will be more than 2,000 miles from my home but I am okay with it as long as I don't miss home haha</p>
<p>First of all, pick a school that you can afford.
Second of all, don't settle for your community college if you have gotten into other ones, but they cost a little more.
Third, you might have to settle for a college that you just applied to for the heck of it. (I did- I now go to Syracuse University because I got waitlisted at Columbia, Duke, MIT, Johns Hopkins, and RPI (which I still don't understand)). I am glad that I ended up picking Syracuse. I am at the top of all my classes and got in the Honors Program.</p>
<p>Musikalgeak: I am PM'ing you.....</p>
<p>Has anyone said yet to listen to what your parents have to say? While they shouldn't MAKE you go to a specific school, their input would be valuable. No one knows you as well as your parents do(believe it or not!). You should see what they have to say and mull over their reasons why. You might not like hearing it, but we are usually right(I know I HATED to admit my mom always was!!!).....</p>
<p>Remember that you'll change between high school and college. Everyone does. What you want as a senior in high school is not necessarily what you'll want one, let alone four, years later. So don't worry too much about choosing the "perfect" school. Do the best you can, of course. If you go to a school that you are actually unhappy about then that mindset itself may affect your experience. But as long as you have someplace that you're generally positive about, try to just relax and not worry too much about the small differences between it and the other colleges that you were admitted to. You can't know in advance which of those differences will end up being most important to you. Give yourself the opportunity to be happy, and then just try to make the best of wherever you end up.</p>
<p>Make sure you pay attention to what the campus looks like as well. No one wants to stare at block buildings and huge swaths of concrete for the next four years.</p>
<p>Here a description of a college decision checklist from "A Thinking Parent's Guide to College Admissions!There's more, but where can I find "hours freshman study". I know I've seen it somewhere. A guidebook maybe?</p>
<p>Academics (fill in number of courses offered that interest me).
Possible college major 1
Possible college major 2
Other subjects of interest</p>
<p>Extracurricular Activities</p>
<p>(Rank as outstanding, satisfactory, poor, or does not matter to me)</p>
<p>Athletics
Community Service
Debate
Journalism
Student politics
Theatre
Other</p>
<p>Student Life (Rank as outstanding, satisfactory, poor, or does not matter to me)</p>
<p>Average hours freshman study during week
Average hours freshman study during weekend
Campus social life
Diversity
Dorms
Geographic location
Local setting
Religious Life
Other</p>
<p>Additional Resources (Rank as outstanding, satisfactory, poor, or does not matter to me)</p>
<p>Access to tenured professors
Art Studios
Computer labs
Dance studios
inter-college exchange programs
job externships /career counseling</p>
<p>Think about what is important to you and how important that particular item is. Weigh all your factors. Is athletics important to you? How important?
Is an urban campus important to you? How important?
So and so forth. Giving weights to each of your metrics will make things easier as opposed to just drawing up lists. </p>
<p>Obviously more presitigious schools will pull at your heart strings while the the banks will pull at your purse strings. If youtr BA/BS is not going to be your terminal degree there is no point in taking out a $200 k loan. That's just sheer madness. Graduate school is more important. Think about where you'll do well enuff, thrive and flourish so you can have the pick of graduate schools later on. </p>
<p>Contact the placements offices of the schools and see if you can get data on how many students graduate on time, what kind of grad schools they go on to and so on.</p>
<p>Visit if you can, talk to current students, grill them. If you can't visit, talk to ppl/profs on the phone, email current students and graduates if you can.</p>
<p>At the end of the day do as much research as you can. Presitge of a university is great but what's even greater is the strength of the program that you want to enroll in. That's more important. </p>
<p>As long as you go to a top tier school, work hard and are pro-active attending Harvard or Brandeis is not going to make much of a difference.</p>
<p>4 years ago I was quite upset that the ivies, Yale through Dartmouth didn't give me enough aid. I went to McGill University in Montreal on a full scholarship. I am in the honors program and will be going to JHU for grad school turning down Harvard, Columbia and Brown.</p>
<p>Goodluck! Enjoy!</p>
<p>I'm so mad I didn't apply to McGill.</p>
<p>They're international program is absolutely outstanding, and I think Montreal would've been an awesome place to go for undergraduates...</p>
<p>ah, well. Is Syracuse anything close? I'm between Syracuse/BC/Delaware, and all their study programs are good.</p>
<p>*sigh.</p>
<p>You know, collegehelp is probably going to get bashed, but I have to agree with him/her with reservations. Selectivity is going to be an important part of your application process, not for brag factor (peer pressure) but for what you're trying to do afterwards. If you're getting a job directly out of school, selectivity matters. If you're going to graduate school or med/law school, it still matters, just perhaps not as much. Nonetheless, you want to choose a school that has a good rate of getting people where they want to go.</p>
<p>I wouldn't say go to the most selective school you get into, but I would say go to the most selective school you can reasonable afford and enjoy being at.</p>
<p>Other important factors:</p>
<p>-MONEY. Naive college hopefuls will tell you to go ahead and take out loans to finance your college dreams. But be realistic. How will you pay this money back when you graduate? What kind of job do you want? Don't forget that when you get out of school, you will also incur other debt to live -- mortgage, car loans, possibly grad/professional school debt. You don't want tens of thousands of dollars of debt hanging over your head from undergrad in addition to all of those other things you'll need to get. Trust me, it feels really good to graduate with little to no debt, and although it doesn't seem like that at 18, coming out at 21 you'll feel very different, trust me.</p>
<p>-Location. Do you want to be in a large city, or a rural area? Just like that was important on the way into the process, it's important on the way out, too. Maybe you applied to a range of schools with varying levels of urbanization. You'll need to decide. If you applied to all cities or all rural areas, you'll need to decide which one you'd rather be in. This is important, as you won't spend all of your time on campus.</p>
<p>-Feel. If you get a chance, visit. I disagree with whoever said fit isn't important at 18. A college isn't just a professional decision; it's a personal decision, too. You're going to have to live there for 4 years! (Maybe 5 or 6.) You're going to make friends there, eat there, party there, besides just taking classes.</p>
<p>I'm choosing between U. of I at Urbana-Champaign and U. of Rochester...
U of R is more selective and I even got rewarded an aomunt of scholarship, but it just feels like U. of I is a better choice for me...well, any suggestions towards these two schools? I don't know much about U. of R...</p>
<p>I'm choosing between U. of I at Urbana-Champaign and U. of Rochester...
U of R is more selective and I even got rewarded an aomunt of scholarship, but it just feels like U. of I is a better choice for me...well, any suggestions toward these two schools? I don't know much about U. of R...</p>
<p>per collegehelp, you should pick UofR for its better selectivity. And just about every third poster here says better affordability is the coup de gras. </p>
<p>However, I read that you seem to 'feel' like UIUC is a better choice. I have seen many a poster invoke the primacy of 'feel', making the choice akin to choosing a spouse.</p>
<p>Have you visited both colleges? If not, that would be indicated, pronto. If so, visit again and find out some more about UofR (you said you did nt know that much about it). ask questions of the adcoms and students.</p>
<p>At least a couple of people have posted advice saying, "go to college far from home."</p>
<p>I spent my first two years of college at a place about an hour from home, and the last two years three time zones away.</p>
<p>One of my high school teachers had advised me not to visit my parents before Thanksgiving. I almost followed that advice: I went home on election day, and stopped in to see my sister's new baby for an hour or so, then caught the first bus back to school.</p>
<p>My point is that while it's not a bad idea to put some emotional distance between yourself and your family and hometown friends that first year, you don't really have to go far to do so.</p>
<p>My last two years of school, I spent Thanksgiving and Spring Break with friends. I still went home for Christmas and for the summer.</p>
<p>I ended up living in the state where I where I graduated from college. (I had become a state resident, and the law school at the flagship state university here is highly regarded.) I'm happy with my life here. But I have lived a continent apart from my parents for the last thirty years. </p>
<p>My wife and kids and I fly cross country with the kids every year, and spend a week with my parents, then spend another week with my in-laws, who also live on the east coast, about five hundred miles from my parents. </p>
<p>We'd like to spend more time with each set of parents, and would also like the luxury of having more flexibility about where we go on vacation.</p>
<p>Putting some space between you and your parents when you're 18 helps you grow up. But you don't need that much physical space to break the apron strings. And don't forget that there are costs involved as well.</p>
<p>Thanks Greybeard! I was accepted to a college 25 miles away from my home in San Diego. I applied to two colleges on the East Coast--(I am from So Cal)-but was not accepted to either. I have the options of going to a really big UC a plane flight away, a small school (5000 undergrad) 2 hours away in LA or the one really close to my home (also 5000) undergrad. Thing is, to me LA is a nice place to visit, but compared to San Diego, do I really want to live there? I would only chose the LA one because it seems people are disappointed when they hear I am staying so close to home. btw, my parents love the close one and I know they aren't the type to drop in-they will give me space. Also, I got a scholarship $10,000 per year to the SD one.
So even tho I saw myself going far away, it just didn't work out. I will study abroad,, but still--am I missing something?</p>
<p>Whoever said that about asking the mail carrier for the letter back: Once it's in the mail, I'm pretty sure that it's a federal crime to give it back to the sender. It's gotta go to the addressee. Once you hand it over, it's done.</p>