College decision: Advice? - Page 4

I faced a similar decision way back when. For me, it came down to Yale vs. Swarthmore and Williams. I have to say that I really liked the close-knit quality of the latter schools, along with the more relaxed and suburban feel. The small class size aspect was also appealing. But ultimately, you can't match the resources of Yale if you're a liberal arts college (although many of them are very well endowed). Ivies also open doors; had I not gone to Yale, I doubt I'd have gotten into Princeton Law.

They're two totally different scenes. I go to BC, at first it seemed a bit homogenous, but there's a great west coast, cali scene that makes it more liberal, less 'catholic'. Middlebury is a fun school, diverse student body, but very small.

BC has the advantage of Boston and all of the opportunities it has to offer-- finance district, shopping, sports. Middlebury is in the middle of some wonderful nature, and incredible skiing in the winter. A shallow point, but meaningful for me: we're the only big D1 football program in the northeast, and besides UConn, the only major D1 basketball school in the northeast-- school spirit is really great...

It might come down to what you're academically interested in, as well... BC has great poli-sci, finance, econ, psych, and philosophy departments (just what I know from conversation). Not trying to seemed biased to BC, because I love Middlebury as well-- both are great schools.

You'll spend most of your time on campus, so unless you really, really can't stand something about a particular location, like the weather (I couldn't have studied or worked anywhere in the Southeast), choose the school you think at which you can feel that you'll be happiest, come in with no second thoughts and a good attitude, and the chances are that you will make a success of it.

Re. being waitlisted at Harvard, etc... Phone the admissions office, and ask where you are on the list. Some won't tell you, but it's worth a try. If you are number high on the list (say, in the top dozen), you have a decent chance, since students who get admitted to these schools usually have applied to and get admitted to more than one. If not...

That top-15 stuff is true....but only as regards your highest degree achieved.

Nobody cares about anything except the highest degree achieved. If you get a Ph.D. from Harvard, nobody will pay the least attention to the fact that you got your masters and bachelors in liberal arts from SUNY after an AA general major from Bronx Community College.

Save your money, don't indur debt, go to a community college for the first two years. Mostly there will be about 15-20 students in each class after drops, so you get great student-to-teacher ratio. Many of the teachers also teach the same courses at more-expensive State U and U of State campuses. With the less-competitive classes, you'll get better grades. GPA is what gets you into Harvard later (Harvard here means any top-15 university for the Ph.D.)

Check out teachers at www.ratemyprofessors.com Never take a teacher who gets lots of "dont take him" comments.

What's more, at ordinary community colleges in ordinary urban environments you'll be around ordinary people who aren't all stuck on themselves and stuck up. Most of what you learn at college -- isn't what's taught in the classroom. Learning how to get along with normal people will do you more good in the long run than sucking up to rich pricks at Little Thing U.

After the first two years, transfer to the local State U. Again, cheaper and easier than competitive colleges. For you, that means better grades and less debt load. Again, GPA is what gets you into Harvard later.

If you get Fs or Ds, remember to ask the counselors if they can be replaced by retaking the class. Sometimes retaking a fail/poor pass for CR/NC can remove Fs and Ds from GPA consideration and massively up your GPA. Think about spending an extra year at community college just to take easy-A classes like Spanish 101...to boost your GPA. Ask around, google it, really find out how the State U calculates its GPA. Do it now, don't wait and just kinda sorta you know hope that its all good.

Otherwise, keep in mind that LAST DAY TO APPLY FOR W if you're not doing well in a class.

Psychology is well known as a slacker major. At some universities, the ratio of new psych undergrad majors to new psych grad students is 20 to 1 or greater. In other words, less than 5% of new psych majors go on to a masters degree. While that doesn't really matter for now, it might matter to Harvard when you apply to be a doctoral student. Your goal might just as easily be served by a traditional teacher major like English. I mean, how much harder is it to read Sidney and Shakespeare than to listen to psychobabble that's equally made-up. HOWEVER, that really doen't matter for now. Take whatever will give you easy As.

NYU was merely considered slightly above average back in the 1980s. Now, the SAT scores rival the Ivies. What happened? Sex and the city?


Top 8% might only be like $125,000. Depends on the year. Not really as "elite" as you make it sound. What part of the country did you grow up? Remote and rural? $20,000 might not be as low as you intimate.


I say Middlebury. Go elite.

Middlebury over BC. That's easy. Not Kzoo and not UmAss.

As for big state schools, aren't they built mainly to support their minor league basketball and football teams? Maybe 100 star athletes get the royal treatment. Team colors and the illusion of participation provide instant group identity for the other 49,900 kids who actually pay tuition. Maybe join a frat and if you have a nice enough car you might get laid.

There's quite a bit of glade deflation going on at non-butt fuck State U's (talking about Berkeley and UVA level not south dakota state U)

I'm guessing that you mean Pennsylvania State U. in the middle of nowhere.

The biggest State U. system is in California. They're mostly urban, commuter schools. About half of their students are on financial aid. Fraternities and sports aren't all that big a deal. Identification with the school isn't that great since many students begin at two-year community colleges and enter as juniors.


I'm still bitter about the first class I took where the instructor gave one A and one F. The A went to a homely girl who gave dull presentations, but who sat directly in front of the male teacher and basically sucked up. That taught me to shop for teachers just like anything else. (No, I didn't get the F.)

Big red flag. Major. Huge.

Dude, you need to walk into the woods with a sack of granola and a bowie knife and find yourself before you do this.

Seeing as you just referred to the old SAT scale, I'll assume that you applied to colleges at least 5 years ago. The admissions process for Ivy League schools today is very much a crapshoot, regardless of the applicant's defining socio-economic background or academic merits. This year I graduated from one of the previously top-ranked feeder schools on the east coast, and whereas 10 years ago we might have had 9-10 kids accepted to Princeton -- this year we only have 1 -- the vast majority of my class is matriculating into University of Maryland. I know several kids that scored close to a perfect 2400 on their SATs and were flat-out rejected from HYPS. I don't necessarily disagree with the point you're making, and I have a lot of respect for your work ethic that led you to great academic success... but coming from the perspective of a HS senior who struggled keeping his sanity this year, I think your conception of the admissions process is a little skewed.


+1. I'm going to Oberlin next year, because it has the perfect fit for my interests -- neurosci and music performance. On top of that, it turns out more PHD's than any other liberal arts school in the country. I think that speaks for something, but then again, I don't have enough worldly experience to argue the practical benefits of going to a LAC over state school -- especially if money is a limiting factor.

I see what you did there

How does a top ranked feeder send most of its kids to something so generic as U of M ??
What happened to the school?