Where would you have gone (if you were me?)

College Search & Selection
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<p>First, I would like to thank you in advance for taking the time to read this loquacious post. And I would like to clarify that I have made a formal decision several months ago, one that I'm happy with, so I'm not really interested in "Go where you feel comfortable" responses, but I want to see what others would have done in my place to erase the final few doubts I had.</p>

<p>Here's my background info: I'm ranked 2nd in my class of about 150 in a NW NJ public school, ranked in around the top fifth of NJ high schools, and I'm the stereotypical overachiever: thespian, Editor-in-Chief of my school paper, captain of the Debate Team, co-founded a book club, Eagle Scout, volunteer at the library, collection of math, science, Quiz Bowl awards, worked for a minor league baseball team and in a bakery, took two community college courses, peer mediation, History Club President, you get the point. I seldom drink, never touched a drug, and don't plan on embracing that life in college. I'm a huge sports fan, but am relatively unathletic (in a bowling league, 1 yr JV baseball, and cut from Tennis after a few weeks). SATS: 640 CR, 800 MATH, 760 W, 800 US History, 710 Math 2. APs: English Language 5, Comp Sci 5, US History 5, and Envi Sci, Calc AB, US Gov, and English Lit TBD. I also made National Merit Finalist.</p>

<p>My primary interests for college are job/salary placement (my interests are finance, business admin, and economics), going somewhere I fit in, being relatively close to home, and not breaking the bank. And politically, my views are not conventional (libertarian conservative), so although I understand any college will be overwhelmingly liberal, I don't want to go somewhere with a strong activist scene. Just wondering what you would have done given my situation and my acceptances. I applied ED to Princeton, got deferred then rejected, and have otherwise been rejected by Penn and Yale. I applied to many different kinds of colleges, since I wasn't sure where I really wanted to go, besides Princeton. So without further ado, I will address each school and what I got out of it.</p>

<p>University of Texas at Dallas (4 hour flight from home; Cost: about $2,500/year)
Of course, I received the plethora of National Merit Offers online and in the mail, and out of the options, I chose UTD, primarily because it wasn't too big, because my dad has a friend who's a professor there, and because of its proximity to a major urban area.</p>

<p>Pros: Hard to turn down a full ride; new, modern buildings; safe location outside of the city, but close enough for internships and employment; AP Credits transfer well and graduating early is a possibility and even starting grad school; strong (albeit not elite) business program; "geeky," academic-oriented atmosphere; Collegium V Honors Program</p>

<p>Cons: Overwhelming distance from home; heat and humidity of Texas; limited name recognition outside of Texas; predominantly apartment style housing; high commuter percentage (especially for being an OOS student)</p>

<p>University of Virginia (6 hour drive from home; Cost: unknown)
Pros: Elite business school (McIntire) ranked about par with Wharton; founded by Thomas Jefferson (one of my favorite historical figures); emphasis on Honors System; reputation for "nice," sociable kids, D-1 Sports Scene; prestige; well-designed, gorgeous campus; relative proximity to DC; large enough where you're bound to find people with things in common with you
Cons: financial aid process (with all the forms they requested, they would not have been able to send me my package until after May 1); seclusion of Charlottesville; large campus (huge, lecture hall type classes); students predominantly from VA (possibility of groups sticking together with HS friends); strong fraternity/party presence; not automatically accepted to their business school</p>

<p>Gettysburg College (3.5 hour drive from home; Cost: about $28,000/year)
Pros: LAC with a business program; good merit scholarship; charming campus and surrounding small town; a friend of mine was accepted here ED; excellent dining hall and guaranteed housing for 4 years; amiable students; good sports scene (although it's D-3); solid reputation; easier to be involved in a small school
Cons: middle-of-nowhere location; little happening in surrounding areas; strong fraternity/party culture; more expensive than most of my other options; good school but not quite prestigious</p>

<p>Fordham University (1 hour, 45 min from home; Cost: about $15,000/year)
Pros: Full tuition through National Merit; Gabelli Business School has a strong rep; location in the center of the financial world; many of my high school classmates have attended Fordham and have many good things to say about it; urban school with a campus
Cons: urban location (big, imposing, noisy, prone to Bloomberg's laws); not sure if I wanted the Catholic atmosphere (I'm not Catholic); seems to be like everyone's safety school - could this lead to a lack of school pride</p>

<p>Haverford College (1 hour, 15 minutes from home; Cost: about $21,000/year)
Pros: Small class sizes and close relations with professors; stunning arboretum campus and charming town setting on the Main Line; "living, breathing Honor Code"; Baby Ivy; personalized attention (i.e. a note from the admissions dean on my acceptance letter); close to Villanova and all the Philly area colleges; absence of fraternities; seemingly intellectual students; Quaker Consortium (ability to take courses and use resources of Penn, Swarthmore, and Bryn Mawr); easy to get involved in a small school
Cons: Honor Code creating pretentious, do-gooder types; stronger presence of affluent (stuck-up?) students; almost no name recognition; small school (double-edged sword - would gossip travel quickly?); lack of a business program (only economics)</p>

<p>TCNJ (20 minutes from home; Cost: about $21,000/year)
Pros: impressive presentation by finance professor at Accepted Students Day (promising like $60,000 a year type jobs upon graduation); close to both NYC and Philly; $7,000/year merit scholarship; honors college and all associated perks; strong reputation in-state; pretty, safe, easily walkable campus; students all from the area (easier to stay in touch over summers and after graduation?); close to Princeton and Rider
Cons: Location in the middle of Suburbia (walking distances surroundings consist of houses and a gas station); seemed to have an over-inflated opinion of itself (for a school that was recently Trenton State Teachers College); didn't get full merit scholarship (was that a snub?); almost too close to home; at the time, it seemed as if half my high school class had been accepted there, and even though most who stayed in-state ultimately chose Rutgers, Montclair, Rider, Seton Hall, or community college, did I want to spend those years with the same kids from HS?</p>

<p>Drexel: (1 hour from home; Cost: about $14,000/year)
Pros: a friend of mine, who I considered a mentor in HS, goes there and raves about it (albeit as a civil engineering major); excitement of the city; full tuition through National Merit; Honors College and associated perks; Co-op program; 5-year MBA program; myriad of activities on and off campus; learning communities; allowed to have a car on campus; one of the first colleges to send me mail
Cons: sat in on a course (albeit a Business 101 in its first week) and almost found it too easy; crime-ridden surrounding neighborhoods; shadow of UPenn; quarter system and different calendar than my HS classmates; many negative reviews online; "Drexel shaft" - the overwhelming sense of bureaucracy</p>

<p>Thank you again, I realize I'm throwing myself to the Lion's Den, but I'm curious to see what others would have done in my place. All opinions are welcome, provided they aren't crude.</p>

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<p>Just a warning, You might feel like crap if people here mention a different school than you chose. Remember, you picked it because it was right for you. </p>

<p>To get back on topic, I would have gone with University of VIRGINIA. (clear no-brainer choice for me depending on the price)</p>

<p>Haverford would be my #2 choice.</p>

<p>Who pay’s 28k for Gettysburg lol ?</p>

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<p>I would have gone with UVA as well. Best school, beautiful campus, great alumni network, etc.</p>

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<p>What was Virginia’s net price calculator estimate? Hard to make a decision without even a hint of cost. The decision also depends on how much of the cost at each school would have been debt.</p>

<p>Hmmm, no Rutgers? Did you want to go anywhere but Rutgers?</p>

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<p>I’m for UVA also. They meet 100% demonstrated need, so I’m assuming it’ll have the same price tag as Haverford. It’s just an exceptional school with an even more exceptional b-school. </p>

<p>My second option would be UTD since, as you said, it’s hard to turn down being able to graduate with little debt. Haverford is just too small of a school for me.</p>

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<p>Haverford is a nice school, way more liberal that you might like, but you would get a great education there. UVA and Gettysburg are both big into the frat party scene, both good schools but the social scenes are dominated by greek life. And like an earlier post… Gettysburg is more like 48,000 than 28,000. TCNJ is a suitcase school, their reputation is growing but it is still mostly filled with NJ students who go home on the weekends. Texas is in Texas, enough said. That leaves Drexel and Fordham, both city schools, both have good reputations, but not great ones… so, which school did you choose?</p>

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<p>

The OP mentions that Gettysburg is 28k which is still too much for a college like Gettysburg.</p>

<p>

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<p>If you are just going on cost - then UT - if not my choice for you would University of Virginia.</p>

<p>What did you choose - and did you get a full package after all from UVA?</p>

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<p>Thank you all for your generous replies. Ultimately, my decision came to reflect many of yours, except I reversed my #1 and #2 choices. I decided on Haverford - the accepted student weekend sold me on it, as did my conversations with an Economics professor there, as well as many omens (i.e. campus speed limit of 13 mph - my lucky number). It reminded me very much of Princeton, my original dream school, especially due to campus architecture, surrounding town, and senior thesis. Upon conversing with many students, although the Honor Code grants students a high degree of freedom, it is overall politically apathetic. Of course, despite my behaviors, I would not want them imposed on others - I doubt I would last a week in an uber-religious school.
As for UVA, the estimated price calculator would have put me at paying about $27,000 a year, but I never got the actual aid figures, as my SIS profile closed once I chose Haverford in late April.
@beenthereanddone - Gettysburg was only $28k because of a merit scholarship.
@Ucbalumnus - Essentially, I found Rutgers to be too big and too imposing a school for me. Furthermore, I missed their deadline - this was the year they switched their deadline from Rolling to December 1.
But thank you all again.</p>

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<p>Good luck at Haversford then. :)</p>

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<p>I would not pick UT Dallas. UT Dallas is a fine school with a fine education. But they literally have no campus life going on there. The campus is basically surrounded by parking lots. People are nice enough there. Plenty of people where I live do go there to attend, but none of them would consider living on campus. UT Dallas is harsh in the early years of classes I have been told, with profs who do not speak English well.</p>

<p>If the lack of social life does not bother you, then you should consider UT Dallas. You will have no trouble getting a job when you graduate there. I can list several big companies that routinely hire computer science majors and similar from there (Nokia, Raytheon, Texas Instruments, Oracle, HP, EDS, etc, it is endless). So it is definitely a fine school. You just will not really have a campus life.</p>

<p>I have never seen their campus map, but I have been on the campus several times. The buildings are all bunched up and then the parking lots circumvent the campus. Outside of the parking lots, are the dorms and such, which, from what I understand, are mostly apartment buildings purchased to make in to dorms.</p>

<p>I know they say they give these big scholarships to NMF. But, you should know that many other schools don’t give specifically to NMF, but do still give huge scholarships to their better applicants. I know someone now who went to TAMU because of a supposed huge scholarship. They were a NMSF. However, in the end, they did not end up finalist and lost most of it. On the other hand, I have known others, who were not even NMSF, who were great students otherwise, who earned even full scholarships to other colleges that never advertised full rides for NMSF.</p>

<p>I hope I have helped more than I have confused. Just give the others a try and see what happens!</p>

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<p>University of Virginia! Definitely…for its prospects, your pay in future will outweigh the cost of education.</p>

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<p>UVA in a heartbeat. Although I don’t know too much about a couple of the other options.</p>

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<p>From her writeup I like Haverford too and now want to take a closer look for my son. Of course UVA has that great prestige but I’ve soured on dominant greek cultures on campus so I think she made a great choice since that is a negative for her too.</p>

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<p>Not sure what you hope to accomplish here.</p>

<p>For me, easy to narrow down to UTD or UVA. I might have asked UTD for extended time to await all financial offers in order to make a real comparison. I like the Metroplex but the climate would be difficult.</p>

<p>Have a good time and don’t look back!</p>

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<p>I would have chosen Haverford too</p>

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<p>I would have gone with UVA but Haverford is a great school</p>

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@falseshady Did you attend UTD? How was it?

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This thread is 3.5 years old - use old threads for reference only. The OP said she attended Haverford. You can start your own thread if you’re interested in life at UTD :slight_smile: