Applying To Colleges

[California8429]

And I was waitlisted at Harvard.

Wait-listed at Harvard and Columbia is awesome! I hope you get to go to Harvard

[California8429]

I have been looking at Rollins College, as a relative suggested it. Anyone have an opinion of the school?

Honestly never heard of it. But here

https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/college-university-search/rollins-college?q=Rollins+College&searchType=college

[California8429]

Put down the UVA deposit

yay. It continues to look more likely that I'll end up there if accepted.

[California8429]

I spent a considerable amount of time updating my mess of where I want to go to college (for either international relations or political science) and how I'm stacking up thus far. Basically the colleges I want to go to in descending order are almost the exact order of difficulty for me to get in.

Less likely
Yale
Harvard
Princeton
Stanford
MIT (tied with Stanford)

Maybe
Georgetown
Tufts
Brown

More likely
UVA
William & Mary
George Washington
University of Richmond

[California8429]

You and me are applying to similar schools, A-Bob, though I'm more West Coast focused, and I'm not applying to Tufts, Brown, Richmond, W&M, or MIT. If you want to study International Relations, you should definitely put Johns Hopkins on your list. The school's got a top five program, and since you aren't pre-med, it's easier to get in, and you get more attention from your professors.

BTW, has anyone here ever applied to Rice? I'm kind of interested in it. It has a residential college system like Yale, and seems to have great quality of life.

Yale's lifestyle is the reason it's the top of my list out of all the schools. So if Rice is anything like that woo!

I wasn't planning on applying to Brown until the past month when I've started to look at. My uncle went there and has a lot of contacts so I knew I'd have a better chance there than any of the other ivy leagues, but I'm still not sure. They are extremely liberal with majors and you have great flexibility in determining your concentration which is awesome.

For living in the west, I've actually never gone anywhere past Vail. And since I'm only going to be on the east coast for a wedding this summer, that's when I'll do college visits so I'll never get to visit any west coast schools. There's a good chance I'll drop Richmond as well just looking at its program and smallness. It's really just a back-up school.

[California8429]

I wasn't planning on applying to Brown until the past month when I've started to look at. My uncle went there and has a lot of contacts so I knew I'd have a better chance there than any of the other ivy leagues, but I'm still not sure. They are extremely liberal with majors and you have great flexibility in determining your concentration which is awesome.

If you're looking for flexibility, I can help; that was one of my key considerations in picking a school.  On your list, besides Brown (which sets the bar), UVA's Honors program is lovely on that count.  The University of Rochester was very good.  The Honors College here at Michigan State is great.

In general, take a harder look at state schools.  This isn't just personal bias against elitism, but one of the perks that's often associated with Honors programs at places like state schools is flexibility in choosing your major (some Honors programs just have you do an "Honors major" which you make whatever the heck you want) and in avoiding gen ed requirements.  While Simfan is slaving through 6 classes worth of core curriculum requirements, where he'll be reading "Great Books" that no one will ever care about ever again ( to Simfan ), you'll be able to make your education what you want it to be.

Thank you! Michigan has come up a few times during my research. I slightly fear going in more in depth simply because I always just end up expanding my list instead of limiting it though I guess it won't matter now and I'll have the summer. I looked at Rochester for that reason, but I don't think I could do it. If I don't even enjoy the weather at Ithaca, there's no way I can last Rochester . It's been in the 70s and 80s here and today for the first time I took off my jacket in class because our school has decided to stop using the air-conditioning to save money (of course they had it on DURING winter) and the class was shocked. So I am generally a very gold person already haha.

[California8429]

But the Core Curriculum is awesome! In my field you have to get a graduate degree no matter what, and apparently there's some repetition, so why not broaden your mind if you have to fill credit requirements? Gives us all something in common to talk about, anyway.

Sure, if you'd like to "broaden your mind", and if you think that the best way to do so is read a bunch of old books, your university should let you.  If you don't want to, your university should let you.  If you want to broaden your mind by taking a bunch of random classes from all sorts of different departments, your university should let you.  Besides, how often do you think those mythical "conversations about core curriculum" conversations actually happen?

I wasn't planning on applying to Brown until the past month when I've started to look at. My uncle went there and has a lot of contacts so I knew I'd have a better chance there than any of the other ivy leagues, but I'm still not sure. They are extremely liberal with majors and you have great flexibility in determining your concentration which is awesome.

If you're looking for flexibility, I can help; that was one of my key considerations in picking a school.  On your list, besides Brown (which sets the bar), UVA's Honors program is lovely on that count.  The University of Rochester was very good.  The Honors College here at Michigan State is great.

In general, take a harder look at state schools.  This isn't just personal bias against elitism, but one of the perks that's often associated with Honors programs at places like state schools is flexibility in choosing your major (some Honors programs just have you do an "Honors major" which you make whatever the heck you want) and in avoiding gen ed requirements.  While Simfan is slaving through 6 classes worth of core curriculum requirements, where he'll be reading "Great Books" that no one will ever care about ever again ( to Simfan ), you'll be able to make your education what you want it to be.

Thank you! Michigan has come up a few times during my research. I slightly fear going in more in depth simply because I always just end up expanding my list instead of limiting it though I guess it won't matter now and I'll have the summer. I looked at Rochester for that reason, but I don't think I could do it. If I don't even enjoy the weather at Ithaca, there's no way I can last Rochester . It's been in the 70s and 80s here and today for the first time I took off my jacket in class because our school has decided to stop using the air-conditioning to save money (of course they had it on DURING winter) and the class was shocked. So I am generally a very gold person already haha.

Ahem, I said Michigan State*, which is a vastly superior school to Michigan, obviously (I actually know very little about the University of Michigan, as I promised my dad I wouldn't do that to him.  Obligatory blustering aside, they're both good schools, though Michigan is certainly traditionally better-regarded and is likely in a nicer location.  Our Honors College is a national model for Honors programs, though, no embellishment.) Honestly, don't worry about making your list too long.  So long as you commit to going through it and pruning in a reasonable amount of time, you're fine.  My grad school list was at some points over 100 items long (because I included just about every psych and linguistics program with a minimum ranking), but it was easy to prune out a lot of them with a cursory inspection; note, though, that it was at its longest early last year, and only got down into the single digits last fall.

You should also look at Maryland to party it up with Xahar and me.

Man up re: Rochester.  I loved the place, and continue to, even though I've rejected it twice.  I suppose you're talking to a Minnesotan, though, who cannot perceive anyone else's winter as particularly threatening.

Our winter this year was mostly in the 50s with an occasional blizzard, so yes, anything up there, I'm a freezing person. I belong in arizona or florida with the old people

Yes, I should look into expanding my list greatly this early summer (though I won't actually be able to visit these places).

Michigan St.
Maryland
UNC Chapel Hill?
Duke?

Any other suggestions?

[California8429]

A-Bob, you should definitely look at UVA.  If you visit let me know; I'll happily show you around.

I'm probably going to be there in late June, if you'd be there already haha. Though I might just do all the colleges in the Northeast and not the D.C. Virginia colleges I'm looking at.

[California8429]

I spent a considerable amount of time updating my mess of where I want to go to college (for either international relations or political science) and how I'm stacking up thus far. Basically the colleges I want to go to in descending order are almost the exact order of difficulty for me to get in.

Less likely
Yale
Harvard
Princeton
Stanford
MIT (tied with Stanford)

Maybe
Georgetown
Tufts
Brown

More likely
UVA
William & Mary
George Washington
University of Richmond

If you need information about W&M, I'm your man!

Awesome! How is their international relations program compared to their political science? Since I really don't know which one I want to go into, my lists of top schools are in a varying ordered compared on that decision.

[California8429]

For east coast colleges, including ivy leagues, that require the ACT with writing (or SAT etc etc), will they look at my ACT scoring that I took without writing (all subscores were higher) combined with my writing score from the writing ACT? Or will they only look at any score that was received on a writing test?

Thought I'd just post this again, thank you for your help

[California8429]

Which is better for political science and also international relations?

UC San Diego or UCLA?

[California8429]

I'm setting up meetings for a few minutes at a time with Professors from the schools I'm looking at this summer. Do you have any suggestions for questions to ask? These are all IR and political science professors.

I'll ask basic things like what undergrads in their program end up doing right after college, where do they  usually go to for graduate studies, what their program is like, for certain schools- how to get into their IR program.

[California8429]

I have a question that hopefully someone can give me some insight on.

My sister and one of her best friends applied to a couple of universities in-state and got into both of them, but they're not sure which one to pick. One university is a more expensive top-tier public university with a degree program that's fairly broad, while the other is a less expensive second-tier public university with a degree program that is very focused on exactly what they want to do. Also, the second-tier school allows them to get a BA and a BS in their field with only one extra quarter if everything goes according to plan. Both universities are not really in parts of the state that they want to live long term.

I'm not sure what to advise them in this situation. Both really like the latter program, but the former is a better school. Which would be the best for their long term career prospects?

Former. College is the new high school, everyone gets a degree. It's about doing excellent in whatever college you're in while being able to connect to a large and active alumni society upon graduation and knowing your school sends kids to good graduate programs. Of course if they aren't happy with the 1st one then they shouldn't go there.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[California8429]

I'll throw it out there for some peoples' happiness, I got a mailing from University of Maryland saying I should apply.

[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 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.

Thanks! I heard a rumor they are going to turn all the student off campus housing into faculty housing because the Georgetown residents are complaining that students are housing I guess. Well anyway, they have power considering there's no metro stop in Georgetown because of them.

[California8429]

The list is being cut still.

Duke
Yale
Harvard
Princeton
Stanford
Brown
Tufts
Georgetown
George Washington
UVa
William and Mary
Michigan
Denver
American
Cornell
Hamilton

Bolds are up on the cutting block.

[California8429]

Don't cut UVA!  It has one of the best Politics Departments in the country; definitely better than William and Mary or American!

I know it is better than William and Mary, but I'm not sure if I like such a huge campus. Though after a year I'd probably be extremely bored at WM...

American is just way easier to get into since the admissions rate is like 41% and I calculated out of state for UVa and it is like 23% or something. Why does it seem like everyone but Virginians want to go to these Virginian schools? haha

I'm probably going to have to choose between Michigan and UVa. Michigan is larger, so that's a negative. They'd both be in battleground states which would be fun. Michigan has a really good PS department as well though, but I may be thinking more grad than undergrad.

[California8429]

Man, you guys make me feel dumb.  My list consists of UGA, Georgia State, and the lesser Georgia public schools I'd rather not think about.

George State I've heard is a good school. Are you looking at Georgia Tech? My sister's friend is the only person I knew who went to a Georgia school, he's crazy brilliant. He went for a degree with something related to physics and astronomy but is now in a Ph. D. program at Johns Hopkins...for poetry.

[California8429]

Well I'm still debating between applying to Michigan and UVa. Though I might/probably drop Stanford and I have dropped Hamilton.

[California8429]

Well I'm still debating between applying to Michigan and UVa. Though I might/probably drop Stanford and I have dropped Hamilton.

Choose UVA!  Two days on Grounds has convinced me even more that I made the right choice; at least come and visit.

I did visit, it just wasn't that great of an impression. I'd be fine there...but it's not my favorite (not bad in any sense though like how I felt with Columbia). I even took a class, awesome professor, but the entire class had no idea about anything related to politics and there was some annoying kid in the back trying to prove himself to be a genius every 5 seconds when really he would die against any forumie match-up. It was campaign finance, basic stuff, the beginning of the summer schedule...but still...I felt underwhelmed.