Applying To Colleges

[ilikeverin]

I applied and got into Rice, but didn't go. A few of my friends go there though. The quality of life is probably one of the best of all undergrad schools, from what I've read/been told. Seems like they have a tradition to celebrate nearly every day.

I recently learned that it is ridiculously small -- only about 3500 undergrads. That's even smaller than Dartmouth...

Smaller is better! Or at least that's what I thought when I was visiting schools (Columbia scared the sh*t out of me)

I thought so, too.  Then I went to the institution with the ninth-largest undergraduate enrollment in the country, and I couldn't be happier.  Then again, I applied to anywhere from Michigan State (enrollment: 47,954) to Swarthmore College (enrollment: 1,545), so needless to say, size was not a priority for me.  I've got to say, though, attending a large institution has definitely meant this place can offer a lot of resources that a smaller school can't...

(also lol only 7,934 undergrads being scary)

[tmthforu94]

My financial aid was lost at IU - long, complicated story...

Anyways, I'm stuck going to Indiana State for a year or two, where I'm renting a house with a couple friends. Then ill transfer back to IU.

Woe is me...

[TheDeadFlagBlues]

This forum is quickly becoming a haven for kids who go to selective colleges. At this rate, in five years all the youngins will exclusively go to Ivy League schools and be Jewish, Asian or WASPs.

[Simfan34]

This forum is quickly becoming a haven for kids who go to selective colleges. At this rate, in five years all the youngins will exclusively go to Ivy League schools and be Jewish, Asian or WASPs.

Need that be an and or an or? If it's the former I'm a strange paradox. Tmth, I'd like to repeat my commiserations.

[Psychic Octopus]

That really sucks Tmth. I'd be pretty devastated if I was in your situation.

[ilikeverin]

My financial aid was lost at IU - long, complicated story...

Anyways, I'm stuck going to Indiana State for a year or two, where I'm renting a house with a couple friends. Then ill transfer back to IU.

Woe is me...

That's horrible.  *hughughug*

[Kaine for Senate '18]

Deepest condolences, Tmth.

[California8429]

That's terrible Tmth, so sorry. Maybe it's for the best and you'll actually love Indiana State more

So far I've visited Princeton, Yale, and Brown and am currently in Boston. Brown had by far the most energetic and confident kids for the tours followed by Yale and Princeton way behind- I guess it proves their number in the nation for students being happy on campus. Princeton's campus is cool, but outside of it is...New Jersey... Yale's campus was better and larger. New Haven isn't as terrible as it is made out to be, but still pretty bad. However, the Professor's are great and helpful, actually more helpful on student and social life than their own classes lol. One literally knew nothing of the workload, that Yale even had distribution requirements when he recommended I look at all areas of studying sooner rather than later in college. Interestingly they both talked specifically about Georgetown out of all the colleges I listed that I was visiting and compared it to Yale. One Yale professor and the Princeton professor I met with both recommended that I apply to U Michigan, though the Princeton prof went there- his only advice was go to the school where you'll have the most fun because it's four years you can't get back. I couldn't met with anyone at Brown, but basically there are zero Brown professors there right now since virtually all the summer courses are taught by non-Brown professors, either that or they have a policy to not meet with prospective undergrad students.

Right now I absolutely love how Yale's residential college system works, but also like the atmosphere at Brown and not so much their living system. Yale also seems like my lifestyle, even though I don't always enjoy it- do as many extra circulars as possible and stay up until 4am studying and doing homework.

[Хahar 🤔]

This forum is quickly becoming a haven for kids who go to selective colleges. At this rate, in five years all the youngins will exclusively go to Ivy League schools and be Jewish, Asian or WASPs.

Oh, god, you should see my school. Twenty people going to Ivy League schools, five more at Stanford, and of course almost 20% are going to Berkeley.

[Psychic Octopus]

Visiting Reed next week. For the resident Reedie (looking at you, EMD), what should I ask? Should I be nervous about my interview?

[Simfan34]

This forum is quickly becoming a haven for kids who go to selective colleges. At this rate, in five years all the youngins will exclusively go to Ivy League schools and be Jewish, Asian or WASPs.

Oh, god, you should see my school. Twenty people going to Ivy League schools, five more at Stanford, and of course almost 20% are going to Berkeley.

You go to Cal, right? That's where my dad went. Lots of colours in the Bay Area, for sure...

A-Bob, Yale is a wonderful school, definitely. Come swing by Columbia, though...

[freefair]

UK universities I am considering applying to.
Loughborough (Econ+pol minor BSc)
East Anglia (in Norwich) (PPE MA)(Pol+Econ BSc)
Royal Holloway University of London(Econ+pol minor BSc)
Aberystwyth(Econ+pol minor BSc)
Essex (Pol+Econ BA)
Would the like to post graduate with BSc Economics or an MBA

[California8429]

Harvard is amazing woo. Talked to a professor, sat in on a class. Didn't really like either of them but I loved the campus, it's location, the atmosphere, once again the residential housing system. I'll still apply early action to Yale for the fact that in my case I have a better shot there, but I'd prefer Harvard over it.

Tufts was also nice minus a giant hill I would not want to climb in the winter. The professors were awesome though and I really felt not only welcomed, but wanted. Had the best and longest conversations yet by far with two professors and an administrator, probably a combination of I'm getting a lot better at these interview/discussions/whatevers and that Tufts professors do really care.

I will be going to Columbia on Thursday! But so far I haven't successfully been able to schedule a meeting with a professor. It is the day after the 4th I believe though.

[Хahar 🤔]

This forum is quickly becoming a haven for kids who go to selective colleges. At this rate, in five years all the youngins will exclusively go to Ivy League schools and be Jewish, Asian or WASPs.

Oh, god, you should see my school. Twenty people going to Ivy League schools, five more at Stanford, and of course almost 20% are going to Berkeley.

You go to Cal, right? That's where my dad went. Lots of colours in the Bay Area, for sure...

A-Bob, Yale is a wonderful school, definitely. Come swing by Columbia, though...

Nah, I'm going to Maryland. It's just everyone else in my class who's going to Cal.

[ilikeverin]

Tufts was also nice minus a giant hill I would not want to climb in the winter. The professors were awesome though and I really felt not only welcomed, but wanted. Had the best and longest conversations yet by far with two professors and an administrator, probably a combination of I'm getting a lot better at these interview/discussions/whatevers and that Tufts professors do really care.

...and what I've been saying over and over again: the Ivies don't care about you, the schools that aren't Ivies do!  (And the state schools, which you have neglected to visit yet, care about you even more )

Sorry to hear you had a bad experience at Brown, though.  I loved Brown.

[California8429]

Did not like Columbia, mostly because I just don't want to live in NYC. I've never actually been in the city until now but I knew coming in that I didn't like NYC. Not every city though, I still love London and Boston and D.C., just Columbia. And I had the weirdest sort of tour with a professor who I thought was just showing me to the walkway. It was just odd all around.

[HagridOfTheDeep]

This "choosing a university" business sounds much more fun for Americans than Canadians...

[California8429]

Georgetown is awesome, both the campus and surrounding area. I had a great experience with a dean and a professor, though my tour guide was meh (apparently tour guide students only stay for a week instead of a month or summer at GTU).

I liked GW even though I wasn't planning too since it is spread in the city and outside of Mt. Vernon doesn't have a real campus feel. I didn't like the student atmosphere completely, it seemed everyone had a set way of ideals and ways of doing things they weren't willing to compromise, but those are just a select few people I met.

UVa was pretty huge, largest campus I've visited along with Cornell. It might be too big for me, but I enjoyed the campus. The class I sat in on was kind of boring because it was pretty elementary on politics though it was only day 3 of the class and it seemed that not too many people were actual government majors.

I'm going to take a tour and have an interview at William & Mary tomorrow.

[Modernity has failed us]

Wow I think this is my first post in this thread. I'm going to start applying next summer (it'll be the summer going into junior year for me)

I've got a few schools on my list:

Coastal Carolina University (Conway, SC)
Rutgers University (Newark, NJ)
East Carolina Univeristy (Greenville, NC)
Akron University (Akron, OH)
West Virginia University (Morgantown, WV)

[California8429]

William & Mary was okay. It would be a fine school to go to if I didn't get into a lot of others, though it will still be tough out of state. Both UVa and WM have about a 33% acceptance rate, 2/3 have to be virginians but 2/3 who apply are out of state.

I did get an on campus interview (they don't do interviews off campus) and it went pretty well. I could have touched on more qualities and areas I'm involved with, but I pulled across the fact that I'm unique and bring something different to WM.

[RI]

On the off chance anyone was wondering, my sister chose the smaller school with the more tailored program.

As for me, I just took the GRE and am looking to apply to econ PhD programs for next fall (my quantitative score on the GRE was a 790, which is pretty good for an econ doctorate program). It's my goal to get my apps done in August after summer quarter is over. I'm for sure applying to UW (probably the best school for me for non-academic reasons) and WSU as a last resort school.

Lately, I've been trying to come up with other schools to apply to beyond those in Washington state. UCLA and UCSD seem like fair targets, and I was thinking about applying to Stanford as a long shot school. Any suggestions from our resident economists?

[Oakvale]

Trust me, it's not. And it seems like the process is even less pleasant for for these guys than it was for me five years ago.

Yeah, this seems pretty awful.

I'm transferring colleges (well, dropping out and starting another course, technically :facepalm:) , and if I were American I'd not only find that near impossible due to the ridiculous bureaucracy, I'd also literally not have been anywhere near able to afford to go to college in the first place, let alone have the luxury of changing track.

Good luck, all.

[ilikeverin]

I'm transferring colleges (well, dropping out and starting another course, technically :facepalm:) , and if I were American I'd not only find that near impossible due to the ridiculous bureaucracy,

Hmm?  Yes and no.  You would find switching between programs ("changing majors") comically easy in the American system compared to yours if you didn't change schools.  Such a thing is routine here, and it's rare to find a student who hasn't done anything to their major at all over their years of undergrad.  Transferring is doable.  One of my best friends from high school transferred from UPenn to the University of Wisconsin without too much trouble, though of course since he's an engineer he has to stay an extra year at UW-Madison.

[Lief 🗽]

Georgetown is awesome, both the campus and surrounding area. I had a great experience with a dean and a professor, though my tour guide was meh (apparently tour guide students only stay for a week instead of a month or summer at GTU).

I just graduated from Georgetown if you want to ask or PM me any questions. The campus and surrounding area are nice, though I think you'll quickly get sick of the Georgetown neighborhood. Luckily the rest of DC is pretty cool.

[Oakvale]

I'm transferring colleges (well, dropping out and starting another course, technically :facepalm:) , and if I were American I'd not only find that near impossible due to the ridiculous bureaucracy,

Hmm?  Yes and no.  You would find switching between programs ("changing majors") comically easy in the American system compared to yours if you didn't change schools.  Such a thing is routine here, and it's rare to find a student who hasn't done anything to their major at all over their years of undergrad.  Transferring is doable.  One of my best friends from high school transferred from UPenn to the University of Wisconsin without too much trouble, though of course since he's an engineer he has to stay an extra year at UW-Madison.

Yeah, actually, that part of my post was badly thought-out - I actually think the US system in that regard is the right way to do it - where, unless I'm mistaken, students don't declare their majors for a couple of years. That makes more sense to me than expecting 18-year-olds to know what they want to do with their lives.

I do feel fairly strongly about the second part of my post, though - although what seems to be the case in the US is that, since I couldn't afford to go to college, I wouldn't not go, but would instead rack up obscene amounts of debt and go anyway.