<p>Yeah, but the school doesnt matter nearly as much as the GPA.</p>
<p>hahvahd - too elitist, i also dont like being called a prestige whore
MIT - im more of a humanities-type person</p>
<p>What Mollie said is very true. For the majors I'm interested in (EECS and Aero/Astro), from what I heard, MIT has a GPA-based admission to their grad school.</p>
<p>Whoever said MIT students have a hard time getting into MIT for grad school?</p>
<p>Harvard - not focused enough on undergrad, have heard a lot about the general unhappiness of the students there.
Cornell - too frat oriented, in a collegetown, heard competition is FIERCE.
JHU - in freakin' downtown Baltimore! campus security is REALLY bad.
Dartmouth - in the middle of nowhere.
Princeton - too snobby (way to generalize, but yeah.)
Caltech and MIT - Too tech/math/science oriented; I like science and technology as much as the next geek, but I needs me some liberal arts. </p>
<p>William & Mary - Williamsburg. 'Nuff said.
NYU - Way too expensive for an education I could get at UVA (actually, the education at UVA would probably be a lot better, too) for half the price.</p>
<p>Schools that could not pay me enough to even look at:
MIT, CalTech, JHU-Too much science focus. And MIT looks like sh-t. And CalTech is in CA.
Duke-it's in the south
Harvard, Princeton-too pretentious, too arrogant
Any military school-too conservative, and I am and plan to be a civilian forever, thank you.
Cornell-It's in the middle of friggin' nowhere
UCLA/Berkeley-In UCLA/Berkeley, Asians outnumber every other ethnic group on campus. And I'm really sick of asians and their "I'm going to become a doctor/engineer and if I don't I'm a failure" mindset(as much as I'm asian american-I'm whitewashed-whatever)</p>
<p>Schools I would pay my arm and leg to go to:
UPENN Wharton- There's some kind of je ne sais quoi in being #1 in finance and business. And I'm planning to major business.
NYU Stern- There's a certain je ne sais quoi in going to school in NYC. It's big and it's in the financial capital of the world. Stern is also amazing in business (#2 in finance, #5 in business)
Brown- WHO CAN'T GIVE UP NO REQUIRED CLASSES!?!?!!!?!?!?! Seriously, and Goldman Sachs heavily recruits there.</p>
<p>ihateCA:</p>
<p>Hahaha, from what you've just said, I'm surprised you don't come from Cali.</p>
<p>Okay, looking back in retrospect, when I applied to certain schools, I admit that I applied for prestige as well as rigorous academics, and it wasn't until a few weeks ago after finally visiting all the colleges I got into that most of them would not be the most enriching of environments to live in. With that said, I'll start with everyone's favorite:
MIT, now I got into MIT, and for a while it was easily in my top 3 choices, that was until I actually mustered up the energy to visit the college. I found the environment draining and overly competitive. During my 1 1/2 hour tour of the campus, I can comfortably say that at least 80% of the students were seated by themselves either reading a book or typing on their laptops. All throughout the tour, as I saw students shuffling around the campus, did I ever see more than two students involved in any form of conversation. All in all, perhaps I had gotten a horrible perception of the social life that is MIT, but when I later heard of the overbearing frat life that enveloped the ungraduate student body, I had been officially convinced that I would hate to experience MIT as a student.</p>
<p>Then shall I continue with Princeton, which I also got accepted to. Now my visit to Princeton was awesome. I enjoyed the environment, the student body, and the rigorous academics. But when I continued to hear a persistent theme of the eating clubs and how they apparently dominate the social scene (though others beg to differ), as well as the horrific process of bickering, I knew that Princeton would not be the enriching environment that I once though it could have been.</p>
<p>Following this, there is Dartmouth, which I also managed to get accepted to. Now, I admit that my only perception of the college is based off of the words of one alumni (who was the girl who had interviewed me who was also a sorority queen), but nonetheless may I share the story that she gave me of what a fun time it had been when in the cold of the winter one night, a few of the fat boys decided to get the hoses out and create a sheet of ice on a grassy patch. From here they lined up some kegs and on the other side they placed some mattresses. She continued to tell the story about how awesome the experience was with the frat boys each barely clearly the kegs. So yeah, let me just say that this story was quite offputting. Nonetheless, with Dartmouth being the party Ivy, it should have been obvious to me that I would never have been particularly interested in the college (though that's not to say I would enjoy having a good time), it's just that excessive partying in general I find to be trivial and at times - pathetic.</p>
<p>Next, Cornell, also admitted. Two things: one, it's too damn cold for anyone to genuinely enjoy. Two: the fact that they are known for setting up a net under the main bridge to prevent suicides in considerably offputting. Though compare to myth, Cornell is actually third in suicides, not number one.</p>
<p>Continuing with Yale, also accepted, legacies, 'nough said.</p>
<p>Harvey Mudd, also accepted, geography, I'm an east coast boy.</p>
<p>Thus I had been left with a choice between Tufts and Harvard. Sadly, I went for prestige since both were about equal in everything else (including financial aid), which I admit makes me a bit shallow but simultaneously, I feel I made the most reasonable decision. </p>
<p>All in all, I'm fully aware that a large portion of my decisions and opinions had been based on the dominance of a form of greek life (whether in the form of frats of eating clubs). Nonetheless, I am fully aware of the final clubs at Harvard, but I have found that compared to the other Ivies, Harvard's final clubs are not as dominant in the social scene and have an exceptionally small membership.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Hahaha, from what you've just said, I'm surprised you don't come from Cali.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I am from Cali. I live in Cali. I moved from NY and long to and will go back there.</p>
<p>Of course, there are more schools, but I don't remember them.</p>
<p>CORRECTION:
Brown- WHO CAN (not can't) GIVE UP NO REQUIRED CLASSES!?!?!!!?!?!?! Seriously, and Goldman Sachs heavily recruits there.</p>
<p>Schools that could not pay me enough to even look at:
MIT, CalTech, JHU-Too much science focus. And MIT looks like sh-t. And CalTech is in CA.
Duke-it's in the south
Harvard, Princeton-too pretentious, too arrogant
Any military school-too conservative, and I am and plan to be a civilian forever, thank you.
Cornell-It's in the middle of friggin' nowhere
UCLA/Berkeley-In UCLA/Berkeley, Asians outnumber every other ethnic group on campus. And I'm really sick of asians and their "I'm going to become a doctor/engineer and if I don't I'm a failure" mindset(as much as I'm asian american-I'm whitewashed-whatever)</p>
<p>Schools I would pay my arm and leg to go to:
UPENN Wharton- There's some kind of je ne sais quoi in being #1 in finance and business. And I'm planning to major business.
NYU Stern- There's a certain je ne sais quoi in going to school in NYC. It's big and it's in the financial capital of the world. Stern is also amazing in business (#2 in finance, #5 in business)
Brown- WHO CAN GIVE UP NO REQUIRED CLASSES!?!?!!!?!?!?! Seriously, and Goldman Sachs heavily recruits there.</p>
<p>Harvard: Overrated, I think. It's all a label to me now. I know it's great, but many weaknesses too.</p>
<p>Any school that has an overwelming Greek presence. I find the atmosphere at schools without them is far superior. </p>
<p>Vassar - FAR too liberal for me.</p>
<p>Sarah Lawrence - When we visited, there were cigarette butts and joints lying all over the place. I felt that students had no pride in their school. We left before even going to the info session. </p>
<p>Mary Washington - The students there seemed on the brink of suicide. This was not one of them, this was most. It was depressing.</p>
<p>harvard seems nice. yes pretentious, yes overly hyped but its still a great school</p>
<p>schools id never go to
any school the size of a small african nation - ud just be a number
any school in the middle of nowhere - im a city boy. need to be in the city
stern - they let an idiot from my school in
brown college - the oxford brookes of america
USC - rich boy school. not that im poor but i hate bmw surfer/jock boys. cant stand em</p>
<p>senioritis42 -hahaha, "masturbate with their intelligence" that is the best way to describe it.</p>
<p>"masturbate with their intelligence".....damn thats funny</p>
<p>anyways i won't be applying to the following schools.</p>
<p>Harvard- Just a name, reminds me of an expensive brand name which is actually really ****ty.</p>
<p>Princeton- social hierarchy</p>
<p>Yale- see princeton</p>
<p>MIT- WOULD NEVER GET IN</p>
<p>Brown- considered seriously for a while, but it's way too liberal for me. And I actually don't like having no required classes. </p>
<p>Harvard- everyone I know who's gone here has this thing where they have to say it's name like a billion times. Way too stuck up</p>
<p>MIT- As someone who is almost equally left brained and right brained, I find the engineering society very closed. I love the sciences, but at MIT it's just a crazy number of engineers. </p>
<p>Princeton- the eating clubs turn me off. I'm not a fan of any school with secret societies. It seems like a country club to me.</p>
<p>NYU- I hate the campus. HATE HATE HATE HATE. terrible financial aid. </p>
<p>Cornell- it seems more like 50 million divisions than one school. Not a united front at all.</p>
<p>"Harvard - not focused enough on undergrad, have heard a lot about the general unhappiness of the students there."</p>
<p>Ok you've all "heard" things and everyone on this thread is basically writing down all the stereotypes about every single school out there! I think if you took the time to actually check these schools out and actually TALK to the people there, you'd find that there are people who are unhappy and there are people who absolutely love it! Don't put down these amazing schools so simply just because a) you can't get in and you're jealous of people who can and b) you've "heard" some stuff from a friend's girlfriend's sister's mother!</p>
<p>University of Chicago. i visited in the fall and had the worst tour and info session. the tour guide was the nerdiest person i've ever met, but he was what i expected. he spent the entire tour talking about what a huge workload he had, and how if you ever went out to dinner with friends you would be giving up studying time, which would completely ruin your grades. i've never heard anyone say, "if i go out to dinner with friends, i won't get an A in a class." </p>
<p>the info session was the worst part. i don't know where they got the guy that ran the session; he shouldn't ever be allowed to talk to prospective students. he started off the session by saying that he would try to make the session about half an hour long. an hour later, i'm still sitting there trying not to fall asleep while this guy is still talking about how he worked for the Sultan of Brunei. WHO CARES?!?!?!?! no one was there to hear this guy's life story. when he finally got around to asking questions, he didn't know any answers. </p>
<p>worst college trip ever.</p>
<p>"I think if you took the time to actually check these schools out and actually TALK to the people there, you'd find that there are people who are unhappy and there are people who absolutely love it!"</p>
<p>That's a valid point, but when a lot of people visit a school, the first impression they get is the one that sticks with them. If the vibe someone gets from a campus isn't a positive one, that person's not going to try to dig down and find the happy kids, they'll just cross the college off the list. Two people can interpret a tour entirely differently, one coming out of it convinced it's the dream school, and the other convinced it's hell in 800 acres, and that speaks more to the individual than the college. So when people say they wouldn't apply to the college because of this reason or that reason, it speaks more to people's personalities and wants, rather than the school being good or bad. But yeah, it's good to visit a college before making any real judgements; sometimes things don't go the way you expect.</p>
<p>I take back what I said about Caltech--if I can get a 4 or better on the AP Calc exam and get 760 or better on the SAT Math then I'll be convinced that I at least have a base to work off of.</p>
<p>Ivy Leagues = (I'm) not good enough. If i was though, i'd probably have went for it.
Tech Schools (MIT, etc.) = Theyd like my SAt scores, but my mind would not likethe workload.
Oberlin, Grove City, or any school on a far end of the political spectrum.
Almost anythign else would be fair game, Uchicago and Notre Dame included.</p>