Which Less Selective Schools Could Pull You Away from P'ton, if any?

<p>i was accepeted to princeton and columbia. And I am definitely having a hard time choosing between them</p>

<p>Chicago probably.</p>

<p>I feel like I would fit in way better there.</p>

<p>Princeton and eating clubs and all seem somewhat pretentious to me and I’m just not into that at all.</p>

<p>I’ve been accepted to Princeton and MIT, but I’m considering going to the University of Rochester because they have less required courses, grades will be less competitive, and they offered a merit scholarship.</p>

<p>wow we have a lot of Chicago-philes here</p>

<p>I think the academics are a similar level and both offer unique undergrad experiences. I think the social life is different at each.</p>

<p>the johnson scholarship at washington and lee might, although pton is costing me a minimal amount, so idk</p>

<p>I was admitted UChicago early but as soon as my Princeton admission came in I accepted it without any consideration. Princeton has a way higher yield, so it should say something about where most people want to go.</p>

<p>ChairmanGuo, yield is a pretty pointless thing to base your college decision upon. Just because most people would prefer to go to Princeton doesn’t mean it’s the right college for you.</p>

<p>It’s like saying, “I watch Fox News because it’s the most popular news channel therefore it must be good.”</p>

<p>Johns Hopkins/Stanford/Duke/Georgetown. I say that, knowing that I’m still going to choose Princeton…soooooo…</p>

<p>Brown, in a heart beat. Then again, this year Brown was very close in selectivity to Princeton.</p>

<p>^ maybe in terms of acceptance rate as a percentage, but in evaluating the whole applicant, it is generally accepted that Princeton is more selective</p>

<p>acceptance rates can be deceiving, san diego state university had a ~30% acceptance rate (Fall 2008), close to U Chicago of 28% for Fall 2008, but those schools are on completely different levels</p>

<p>Duke…</p>

<p>I got accepted to Hopkins and MIT in addition to Princeton, but I think Duke will pull me away.</p>

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<p>What makes you think that Princeton’s applicant pool is more self-selecting than Brown’s?</p>

<p>If I had the stats, I would definitely choose Columbia over anything else.</p>

<p>Nah, Princeton’s the best. I can prove it.</p>

<p>In post #6 in this thread, I said that I would attend Chicago unless visiting Princeton drastically changed my mind. In post #7, JohnAdams said that I would be enrolling at Princeton. JohnAdams was right.</p>

<p>@ fightthetide11, what were the selling points for you when you visited Princeton? Could you please elaborate on what made you decide to go to Princeton?</p>

<p>fighthe, ha! </p>

<p>congratulations, for you are about to embark on the most incredible 4 years of your life!</p>

<p>Please tell us a little about what was it about the visit to Princeton that made you change your mind and choose it over UC?</p>

<p>Stanford. But it might be more selective now…</p>

<p>And it’s entirely likely that I’ll fall for a different school, but I haven’t visited many colleges yet.</p>

<p>In no particular order:</p>

<p>Note: I figured Chicago and Princeton were roughly equal in terms of academic quality for math and economics, which I want to study. I was looking more for aspects of culture and student life than for quality of academics (although the style of the academic program is very important) in making my decision.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>The football stadium:
Chicago, despite its history in the sport, doesn’t have a stadium, which I would expect seeing as it’s a D-III school. But as a huge football fan (and fan of basically every other sport), the concept of going to a place with significantly more athletics-related school spirit than Chicago (even the people I stayed with admitted that sports really aren’t a big deal at UC) was exciting for me. </p></li>
<li><p>Independent work:
I arrived on Wednesday afternoon, and I was staying with a friend (and econ major) from my high school. His junior paper was due that night, so rather than hanging out with him, I went exploring for a while (see #4). He was close enough to being done that we still had time to eat together, during which time he explained how working with his advisor on that project all year had been the most amazing academic experience ever. At first I found the JP and senior thesis extremely intimidating. Now I look forward to them.</p></li>
<li><p>Pre-frosh actually socialized with each other:
At one point, two people I had just visited IS with (more on this later) and I had walked over to a group of about seven people who were talking out in front of Alexander. We started introducing ourselves, but this whole process took forever since more and more (read: more than forty) people kept showed up to join us. The people here seemed to want to be around each other more than at Chicago.</p></li>
<li><p>People care about sports (cf. #1):
While my friend was putting the finishing touches on his JP, I was in Frist watching Mavs-Spurs, and there were actually lots of people there, even though I doubt that more than a few of them were Texan. The same thing happened again during the NFL draft. I liked the sporty culture.</p></li>
<li><p>There really weren’t that many tools/bros there:
I didn’t meet any pre-frosh who fit that Princeton Dockers-and-boat-shoes stereotype. I saw a grand total of 1 lax bro and 5 guys going sun’s-out-guns-out (three were playing bocce). Even though I’m pretty sure the lacrosse team had an away game that weekend, that was a relief.</p></li>
<li><p>Integrated science:
The people in that class were all really good friends with each other and with the professor. While I had hoped I would have gotten to sit in on on a physics/chem part of the class, the class that day concerned human anatomy (cardiac output, the liver, and a few other things). I am not a fan of biology, but it was still a great experience, and the class even involved us pre-frosh. I’ll probably take at least the first two semesters (the more physics/chem portion) of that class.</p></li>
<li><p>The biggest complaints some people had were about the fire safety people. No one can post anything on doors (“they are means of egress and should always be visibly recognized as such”), but that’s really not a big deal if it’s someone’s biggest complaint.</p></li>
<li><p>Arch sings: These things are ridiculously cool. I’m a singer, and the opportunity to sing under arches is really amazing. </p></li>
<li><p>The dorms (and many other buildings), simply put, are better than Chicago’s.</p></li>
<li><p>The thesis fair: during this time, Professor Gleason explained that professors come to Princeton for the purpose of getting to work with Princeton students on projects. Chicago professors are similarly accessible in my experience, but going back to #2, this is really exciting.</p></li>
<li><p>Everyone I talked to about it absolutely loved OA. As an avid camper, I’m really looking forward to this.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>I have more, but I figure this is long enough and covers most main points. Many other things apply to me specifically.</p>