<p>Hmm well I made this decision over a year ago. Its sorta funny looking back on the whole thing. I got accepted to Stanford, CMU, UMich, UT Austin and a pretty good close to home Uni. Initially I couldn't decide between the close Uni and Stanford because well seeing as I live overseas and California is halfway across the world distance was pretty important. Plus I hadn't received my Financial Aid from Stanford yet (my fault not theirs) and i just couldn't afford Stanford's tuition. Well my Financial Aid came back and it was great so I ended up choosing Stanford. I honestly wish I could say I chose it because of the weather or because of 'fit' but honestly I chose it because it was the best in engineering among the list. Being an overseas student really changes the whole process trust me. Anyways I'm absolutely in love with Stanford right now and I'm so glad I decided to go there so it all worked out for the best.</p>
<p>My first consideration was that I wanted a school where I could fulfill my desire to study International Relations. That was the most important to me and so I applied to: University of the Pacific, Georgetown SFS, Macalester, New York University, and American University, for either location and/or reputation.</p>
<p>I also applied to UW Madison because it is in-state for me, is good for almost anything you could want, and I love Madison. I applied to University of Chicago because I loved their attitutude toward education, Notre Dame because that's what I wanted as a child and Duke because my parents caught wind of the full ride Robertson's Scholars Program.</p>
<p>Results?
Chicago EA: Yes, Georgetown EA: Yes, Notre Dame EA: Deferred, University of the Pacific EA: Yes, Madison: Yes, NYU: Yes, American: Yes, Macalester: Yes, Duke: No, Notre Dame RD: Waitlist</p>
<p>Reactions?
Georgetown: Yes! That's what I want/where I'm going, I loved my visit and everything about it. Chicago: Yes! Would love to be in Chicago, let's wait for finAid from Georgetown. Madison: Good, now my parents will keep pushing for instate. University of the Pacific: Cool, maybe I could go to Cali. Duke: releaved, even with full-ride, it wouldn't've been the place for me. Notre Dame: that's fine, was more for fun. Macalester: not a big deal, didn't enjoy the visit, wouldn't've wanted to go there.</p>
<p>Come March/April when I found out my finAid situations and when I began serisously thinking about what I wanted with International Relations, I chose NYU. They gave me the best scholarship, but also came to be the best fit. I realized that I needed/wanted more options than the relativly narrow SFS at Georgetown would give me and the NYU would have the opportunities for me, especially as I became more and more interested in doing Journalism also. Madison could have been it too, but I live 15 minutes away, and I'm already there quite often, I honestly love WI but I wanted something new. A major plus with NYU is that they made it very clear that they wanted me and the other students who received mine and other scholarships at the school. I was flown out for a scholars weekend and the addmissions people knew who I was upon entering. I knew they were trying to sell the school, but there was a genuiness about it too. At this point have no regrets and am more excited than ever to go off for freshmen year!</p>
<p>Why did you pick the school you did, specifically?
Its specifically geared toward my area of major. Its a small school but has a very large (and nice) school next to it. Best of both worlds. Its cheap. (SUNY ESF, by the way)</p>
<p>What other schools were you accepted to? Was it a clear cut decision or did you go back and forth for days?
SUNY Oswego, Uconn, Penn State - UP, U of RI, U of NH.</p>
<p>It wasn't a clear decision of where I was going until I got my financial aid. All of the schools except for Oswego were too expensive. I thought my school is better than Oswego for my major.</p>
<p>The school I'm attending was 4th on my list and a backup. I didn't even give it a chance until I saw the lack of financial aid I was given. I simply couldn't go to any of the other schools. </p>
<p>That being said, I think things happen for a reason and I'm really happy I'm going to the school I am going to, I think its a perfect fit for me.</p>
<p>I applied to Notre Dame Early Action and was accepted, and to Emory technically Regular Decision, but I applied before Nov. 1 to be considered for the Scholars Program, and found out right before Christmas that I was accepted and was offered a $10,000 per year merit scholarship. </p>
<p>I applied to Vanderbilt regular decision and was accepted and was also offered a full tuition merit scholarship. I also applied to Princeton (waitlisted) and Yale (rejected) regular decision. </p>
<p>I did not apply for financial aid anywhere, and the two merit scholarships I received from Vanderbilt and Emory were taken into consideration somewhat, but ultimately, money wasn't a factor in my decision.</p>
<p>I only considered Notre Dame and Vanderbilt after I received all my college decisions. However, the only reason I even considered Vandy was all of the money they offered me. I visited there for the first time after being accepted, and liked the school well enough and knew I would be happy there, but the Greek scene, lack of a business school, and extreme amount of Southern preppiness (this coming from someone who has lived in the South--specifically Atlanta--for the last 13 years) as well as a lack of that "feeling" you get when you visit a school that you know is right for you convinced me to go to Notre Dame.</p>
<p>My mom, two of my aunts, and my uncle all graduated from ND, and I grew up visiting campus on a regular basis, cheering for the football team, and all that fun stuff. However, I was flown up there in March of last year, along with 60 other "outstanding" early action admits, for a visitation weekend and knew for sure that it was the place for me. The traditions, the stellar academics--especially the Mendoza school of business, the dorm system, the athletics, pretty much everything except the weather really sealed the deal for me. Although I didn't send in my enrollment card to ND until the end of April of last year, I didn't really have a tough decision to make, despite the attraction of all of the money I had to turn down elsewhere. Basically, my head said Vandy but my heart said ND--and you have to follow your heart! :)</p>
<p>I attended the free one.</p>
<p>It might have been a bad decision. I'll never know.</p>
<p>Well for me, I applied to the UCs and Yeshiva University (the only private one). I initially thought that I will go to UCLA and the rest will serve as safety schools. After visiting all the schools, I liked YU best for its location, atmosphere, small classes (in comparison to the public ones), Jewish community, and alumni success. I also received a generous financial aid package that further swayed me to them. In addition, I knew of a friend who I could dorm with, making me feel much more comfortable moving to the other side of the continent. </p>
<p>Yet honestly, I still have some jitters every now and then on whether I made the right decision but who doesn't when it comes to such a big decision? Fall will come around soon and hopefully, I made the right choice.</p>
<p>I hope to choose Cornell (Im going to apply ED), and the reason is simple: best hospitality school in the nation, and maybe even world. Traveled across the US to study there for the past 2 summers, and can't imagine going anywhere else.</p>
<p>I guess what Im trying to say is, look for the school with a good (maybe the best) program in what you want to do.</p>
<p>I'm going to Penn in the fall. I applied ED there, EA to Chicago, rolling to Michigan, and the only other app I filled out before decisions came out was to Maryland (local state school). I got into Penn so it was decided for me, but Chicago and Michigan were both in my top 5 along with schools I was going to apply to if I was not accepted to Penn.</p>
<p>How I chose to apply to Penn was pretty strange. I was all for Stanford and still am. It is my #1 choice for college and always will be and Penn is and always will be my close #2. I was going to apply EA to Stanford but chose to apply early to Penn and greatly increase my chances at my #2 rather than get rejected from my #1. Stanford was too selective, too far from home (penn is driving distance vs stanford across the country), I couldn't write the Stanford essays (yet breezed through my Penn and Chicago essays), and other stuff I can't remember. I am incredibly happy with my decision. I love Penn and love that because I applied ED I avoided those extra apps, debating whether to take a full ride from Maryland vs partial money elsewhere vs $0 to my favorite school, and a whole lot of other stresses. Some days I still wonder if Chicago may have been better socially, Michigan may have been a better college experience, MIT Sloan or Econ may have been a better curriculum, etc. but thats just anxiety about starting the next 4 years of my life. I still love Penn and can't wait to start in a month.</p>
<p>I will repost what I said about why I love Tufts in a previous thread.</p>
<p>Tufts:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>People: everyone here truly is an "active citizen", unlike many schools which tout their liberal ideals as though they're Greenpeace's mouthpiece, Tufts students really go out and do things and the school is constantly encouraging students to do so, I interned at an NGO called Yonso Project (<a href="http://www.yonsoproject.org%5B/url%5D">www.yonsoproject.org</a>) which helps children's education and community in the small village of Yonso in Ghana. That NGO was started at Tufts and is run by Tufts students and others now as it expands. Almost everyone I know is involved in some kind of cause, non-profit, humanitarian work, whether it's helping students in local medford, or going to Africa, South America, Asia, etc and helping needing families in whatever way they can. This is a school where people are not going on little "visits" to these places to feel better about themselves, but where people truly care about the earth and its' people, and its' a remarkable to be surrounded by them.</p></li>
<li><p>Academics: Professors here are obviously top-notch, but that's not what makes it great, it's the personability and accessability of them. My classics professor and pre-major advisor has taken me to lunch multiple times, he held TWELVE review sessions for the final exam, for a class of ~25, and is the kindest man I know. My future history advisor, and world-renowned historian (Felipe Fernandez-Armesto) took me to the Taj (the original Ritz in downtown boston) for a chat about my future goals and aspirations, and lunch, a remarkably kind man. I have had long conversations with both of them. My Arabic professor spent weeks looking for jobs/internships, anything for me this summer, contacting all of her friends and contacts, even though we had not talked a whole lot outside of the classroom. There are other experiences with professors, but I don't want to go on forever, and I only just finished my Freshman year! The classes are great, they're very small, even as a freshman, and I have yet to find a single lecture dull.</p></li>
<li><p>Boston/Opportunities: Boston's amazing - blue man group, Fenway, north end, aquarium, MFA, museum of science, clubs, CONCERTS! (tons of little venues everywhere) endless amazing food and restaurants and a lot of it for surprisingly low prices, culture, subway, american history all around you, I could go on. There are so many opportunities on campus and in the boston area to take advantage of - there are something like 35 schools in the area and more in the greater boston area, which provides for a great college social experience, there are internships galore, Tufts specifically strongly encourages undergrad research, and has many unique programs, including NIMEP (new initiative for middle east peace)- a student founded and run think-tank that travels every year on an extensive 3 week research mission (almost entirely academic) to a location in the middle east, and publishes a journal called "insights" with their research findings, they recently went to Lebanon this spring break, and I edit the journal and am part of the leadership and will certainly be going on the research mission this winter, to somewhere in north africa or azerbaijan. There are just so many things to do on campus, and so many revolve around being an active citizen. The tisch scholars program selects a small group of students and they spend their 4 yrs at Tufts constructing an extensive volunteer project, rehabilitating neighborhoods, schools, rivers, business, what have you in the area of Medford and greater boston, it's great.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I know I've gone on and on, and most of you probably don't care, but I never can pass on an opportunity to promote my school.</p>
<p>Middlebury-I just knew =)</p>
<p>My choices were UCLA, Berk, SD, CMU's Tepper and Comp Sci. </p>
<p>Berk had prestige. LA was cheaper (4.5k cheaper) and I could graduate faster (1 year). I like the way the girls look at LA. Chose LA. </p>
<p>SD you ask? BioE does not interest me. Tepper? CMU Comp Sci? CMU has a gender imbalance. 3 males for every 2 females.</p>
<p>Major factors for me: Money and gender ratios.</p>
<p>UF was the only school i applied to and i was accepted...i visited a few others out of state and did a lot of research but no other schools really sparked my interest...plus i would have probably been in 100k+ debt</p>
<p>Factors: cost, strong programs in all fields of interest, cost, sports, girls, campus, cost, immense size/population (i feel this will help me come out of my shell and become more independent and motivated...i don't want to be spoonfed and babied ), research opportunities, and cost</p>
<p>D doesn't post here, but she chose Tulane last year as a freshman. </p>
<p>Originally was not on high on the list, but as she visited other schools (including some 'higher ranked') she was "convinced" she wanted to attend, she found the vision she had created from the literature and the web didn't match the reality - on one school visit she refused to even get out of the car. Knowing that she hadn't found her fit, and since TU offered merit aid, we suggested she visit New Orleans - neither she nor my wife had ever visited, so at minimum they'd get a chance to see the French quarter (post-Katrina...). By the end of the visit, my wife noticed that D seemed to have found her fit - and three days later she sent in her acceptance.</p>
<p>The scholarship helped of course, but it was more the energy of the students and staff that convinced her Tulane was the place for her.</p>
<p>My advice to all prospective students and parents - make the visits, and don't get hung up on the rankings which we found pretty useless in making the final decision. </p>
<p>And to parents - remember this is the student's decision, not yours. They'll know when it is right for them.</p>
<p>Applied all over (mostly in CA, mix of public/private), ended up choosing between Scripps, Berkeley, and USC. Had a TERRIBLE time trying to make my final pick, I think because ideas of prestige and cost were hindering me from realizing where I really wanted to be.</p>
<p>My guidance counselor finally came up with what most helped me choose. She had me pick five factors that were important to me and then we made a matrix with those five factors on one edge and the three schools on the other edge. I ranked the factors 1-5 in order of importance, with 1 being most and 5 being least. Next, I "graded" each school in each category, with 1 being the lowest grade and 5 being the highest (and two schools could get the same grade), so that, for example, if I really loved the location of both Scripps and Berkeley, I'd give them both "5" in that category, and maybe USC a "2." Whatever. Finally, I went through and, for each school, I multiplied each score by the "opposite" of its importance, and then added up the total score for each school. For example, if I'd listed "atmosphere" as the #1 most important factor, I'd multiply each school's "atmosphere" score by 5 (for the #2 factor, multiply by 4, etc.). After all of this, Scripps came out the very, very clear winner. While the process might seem a little silly, I needed something so concrete.</p>
<p>Deciding factors were:</p>
<ul>
<li>Small size and everything that comes with it. Tours were a MAJOR factor here, especially between Scripps and Berkeley.</li>
<li>Location. Cal felt a little too close to home...it just didn't have that "I'm on my own for the first time" feel.</li>
<li>Flexibility of majors. I didn't know if I wanted to study Engineering or English (I ended up doing neither) and I didn't like being stuck in the "School of [one thing or another]," as I would have been at both Cal and USC.</li>
<li>Social scene. Not a drinker, not a partier, not interested in D1 sports or Greek life. I may have been stereotyping, but I didn't think I'd fit in too well at USC, despite being impressed by the campus and academics. Social scene intimidated me.</li>
<li>Individuality. A lot of kids from my high school went to USC and Cal. I liked the idea of going somewhere on my own, largely because I didn't want to get stuck in a high school rut (I'm pretty quiet, so if I don't have great motivation to get out and meet new people, I probably won't do it).</li>
<li>Gut-instinct (and when my head shut up, I was finally able to realize this).</li>
</ul>
<p>If I had it to do again, I would branch out a bit more. When the college search really began, I got nervous about the idea of leaving home, going far away, and so forth, and suddenly I abandoned almost all of my out-of-state interests. I also think I missed a lot of schools that really could've interested me (mostly LACs...I didn't even realize what a LAC was, other than "small," before attending, and I certainly hadn't heard of most of them). But it's hard to say "I should've done more research," because I know how totally and completely burnt-out on the topic I was at the time. Luckily it all worked out for the best, anyway (as these things often do).</p>
<p>Other regrets: I wish I hadn't wasted time on applications that other people "made" me do, when I knew I wasn't really interested ("Good students in CA apply to Stanford. They just do"). I also am very lucky I didn't need to turn to my safety schools, because I did what most California students do and just applied to some lower UCs, which I could never imagine myself having attended very happily (not because a great education isn't possible there, but because the atmosphere was totally wrong for me).</p>
<p>So...did the situation work out? Yes, perfectly. But given the chance, would I go back and change the process by which I came to my final decision? Yeah, probably.</p>
<p>I go to University of Maryland, College Park and it really has been a great choice doing so. Here i am treated very well and the honors program bends backward for its student. the honors program here is rated the best in the country, it really is, spends most amount of money in tuition and academic facilities.</p>
<p>some interesting choices and reasons and some very interesting personalities on here.....which is instructive for future applicants.</p>
<p>I note that NOBODY admits to the "prestige" factor.</p>
<p>But some great schools out there.</p>
<p>And to the kid who picked Yeshiva.....I congratulate you. (I am not Jewish). I wish you well and hope you have a superb experience there.</p>
<p>To thine own self be true is the best policy.</p>
<p>Good luck all.</p>
<p>Prestige was and was not a factor for me. Most people made faces when I told them I was interested in the U. of C. (either the "I haven't heard of it," face, or the "WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO GO THERE?!?!" face) but what totally redeemed that for me was a) that I had friends whose parents had gone to the school and absolutely gloated about it, and b) a bunch of people I admired in freshman and sophomore years of high school had gone or had considered going. As a U. of C. student, I feel in a similar position to students at schools like Williams and Pomona, which are only prestigious schools for those in the know.</p>
<p>It does feel good to be occasionally patted on the back, but in the large scale, I could have won many more points among friends and family if I chose a school on the East Coast (basically, any school on the east coast beats out Chicago/WashU/Northwestern's rep here in NY). As I mentioned in my first post on this thread, if I were to do it over again, I would choose schools ranked lower on USNWR than my initial list. But what did I know?</p>
<p>Despite all the advice that I got from everybody about visiting colleges, I never actually visited any of the colleges I applied to. That's cuz i chose them the summer before my Senior year, after I went on a tour of colleges on the northeast coast that was organized by collegevisits. I live abroad so I didn't have the chance to visit anywhere else. </p>
<p>So I got my info from Fiske's Guide, USNews&WR, and Princeton Review first. Then I looked at college websites. Eventually, I got an idea of what I wanted in terms of student life and academic programs. Then I chose the colleges I that fit both to a reasonable level (I viewed both student life and academics as equally important because I thought all the colleges I was looking at provided a similar level of education), making sure the colleges were top tiered on USNews&WR. For student life I considered stuff like drinking, partying, sports, distance from the nearest city, male/female ratio. For academics, I just made sure they had the majors I wanted, provided ample opportunity for practical experience through co-op and/or internships, and had the reputation/geographical location to lure the companies to make those practical experiences possible.</p>
<p>But when I got my acceptances and denials, I actually decided between the colleges based on how I generally felt about each college. I thought I wanted to go to a small college with a community feel, and so I chose Rice over Carnegie Mellon. I'm sure I would've been prefectly fine at CMU, but I felt more inclined to go to Rice. And of course, there was the scholarship. That probably did the last push to make me go to Rice.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Major factors for me: Money and gender ratios.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I would agree money matters (especially in the US), but IMHO choosing one college over another based on gender ratios is pretty silly (and childish I would add).</p>
<p>I applied early to Caltech and got in. I figured it'd be a bit selfish to apply anywhere else after that, since if I got accepted it'd take up someone else's spot who really wanted to go there, and Caltech was kinda-sorta my top choice.</p>
<p>Good things about Caltech:
--lots of math nerds.
--gorgeous campus, can be walked across in ten minutes. perfect for someone who does not know how to drive.
--they gave me money.
--gender ratio is in my favor.
--well, my brothers and sisters went to various Ivy League schools for various parts of their education (Caltech, MIT, Harvard, Stanford, Cornell, Duke) and the consensus seems to be that Caltech is the friendliest, least political environment of them all. so I guess I based my decision mostly on anecdotal evidence :p</p>