<p>I'm considering committing, but I am not sure.</p>
<p>What are you not sure about? Classes, students, location, etc.?</p>
<p>Anyway, for me it was between UChicago, Georgetown SFS and Swarthmore. I ruled out Georgetown because I decided that the program was too narrow and wouldn’t give me enough room to explore other interests, but had I been dead set on International Relations I would have gone there. Between UChicago and Swarthmore, my decision came down to size, location and diversity. Although Swarthmore is actually much bigger than my high school, the environment still felt too small for me, and that was one of the complaints I heard from quite a few of the students I talked to during my visit there (being near Haverford and Bryn Mawr probably helps getting around this though). Location wise, I preferred Chicago to Philadelphia, and I also realized rather quickly that the surroundings around UChicago are safer than many would think. Lastly, diversity, and in this case I mean ideological diversity. While Swarthmore is not composed 100% of liberals or particularly hostile to those with a conservative mindset, it certainly is more left on the spectrum than UChicago (and many other universities for that matter). UChicago, overall, at least in the student body, is liberal, but there’s also a healthy amount of opposing view points and the environment is very conducive to civil discussions between these groups. Again, you’re more likely to run into people on the more liberal side of the spectrum, but there’s certainly enough people on the other side for your opinions to be challenged. </p>
<p>You’ll notice that those are all very personal reasons. As I stated before, had I been completely sure I wanted to devote my life to politics in the international arena, I would have gone to Georgetown. Had I wanted to be in a very intimate environment, I would have gone to Swarthmore. I knew that academically all would be great, so instead I focused on what made them different from each other. I know it’s not easy to choose, I myself waited until the last minute because each college had its unique strengths and weaknesses. I think that the best way to go about this is to make a list of priorities as well as ask yourself what your plans are for the future and how likely they are to change. If cost is a factor, then that definitely should be one of your top priorities.</p>
<p>I like the advice one poster gave when your choices are narrowed down to two. He said to flip a coin in the air, and the option that you want to come up positive, well that’s probably the school you should pick. I don’t know if that works, but it’s worth a try!</p>
<p>kaukauna,</p>
<p>just a slight variation from your decisionmaking tool - when you’re down to 2 choices, flip a coin and if you find yourself disappointed with the result of the coin flip, choose the other one.</p>
<p>Long list short:
Financial aid, the campus, intellectual but quirky culture, traditions, students are interesting, research opportunities, the city, Hyde Park is charming, the Core is awesome, great bio department, good faculty to student ratio, discussion courses, rigorous academics, etc. Was also considering Wesleyan and Vassar, gave up small feel for more resources. Though UC is still pretty small on the undergrad side and has great number of small courses.</p>
<p>For me, it was between UChicago, Dartmouth, Duke, and Cornell. I just like cities better, despite UChicago not being directly next to downtown Chicago. I also liked the core, laissez-faire economic philosophies, and the interesting people (though not complete nerds haha). I felt like there were enough somewhat preppy people like myself, though, to atone for the extremely nerdy students. I also like that I’ll be able to intern downtown during the course of the school year and not just rely on summer internships if I’m in more rural campuses like Dart, Duke, and Cornell.</p>