College Selection Advice

atucker

I, and a lot of other people my age, are currently facing a pretty big life decision -- where to go to college. Since this is probably going to have a pretty big impact on my life, I'd like to get some more information on this.

Seeing as a lot of people here have probably made this choice already, gone through with some of the consequences of it, and are rational, I decided to ask here.

My current considerations are:

Academic rigor
Money (i.e. if a school gives me a full ride, should I go there rather than plunk down $250k over 4 years)
Ability to do undergrad research
Flexibility
Likelihood to meet cool people
Novelty (this one's a lot weaker though)

My current situation is:

Accepted to MIT, University of Southern California, University of Maryland, Swarthmore, Harvey Mudd, Harvard, and CMU
Getting some form of scholarships at USC and UMD, amount TBD
Not likely to receive that much need-based financial aid
Probably going to start in Engineering, might double major with Comp Sci, Statistics, or maybe Math. If I go to CMU, probably Engineering and Public Policy
I also like and am competent in Economics, History, and English (though, definitely not getting a degree in the last 2)
Maryland is my home state, and I would know a lot of people at UMD

So if you have any advice, for me or in general, I'd love to hear it. If you have any questions yourself, feel free to ask them.

Seeing as a lot of people here have probably made this choice already, gone through with some of the consequences of it, and are rational, I decided to ask here.

My current considerations are:

Academic rigor
Money (i.e. if a school gives me a full ride, should I go there rather than plunk down $250k over 4 years)
Ability to do undergrad research
Flexibility
Likelihood to meet cool people
Novelty (this one's a lot weaker though)

My current situation is:

Accepted to MIT, University of Southern California, University of Maryland, Swarthmore, Harvey Mudd, Harvard, and CMU
Getting some form of scholarships at USC and UMD, amount TBD
Not likely to receive that much need-based financial aid
Probably going to start in Engineering, might double major with Comp Sci, Statistics, or maybe Math. If I go to CMU, probably Engineering and Public Policy
I also like and am competent in Economics, History, and English (though, definitely not getting a degree in the last 2)
Maryland is my home state, and I would know a lot of people at UMD

So if you have any advice, for me or in general, I'd love to hear it. If you have any questions yourself, feel free to ask them.

I could definitely benefit from having a smart community around me.

Would professors be enough? All the colleges I've applied to have them (of course), but I'm a bit worried about accessibility.

All of the schools on my list have a form of honors colleges, so I'd expect to meet some people smarter than me wherever I go. Some schools more, some schools less. What's the marginal utility of intelligent people in the community?

On the one hand, there's only so many friends and acquaintances which I can keep track of at any particular time.

On the other hand, I feel like a lot of benefits come from having someone who's smart and interested in the same things you are, and that most of the usefulness of a large community is in being able to have a lot of people who are smart and similarly-interested.

It's not so much the "being surrounded by smart people," in my experience (though that has certainly been one of the great blessings of my life), but the "if I am interested in X, I can easily find someone who is as smart as I am who has already spent some time thinking about something enough like X that i can pick their brains and quickly prune the tree of false starts."

Professors can serve that role if you can engage with them, which some people are better at than others. I was bad at it as an undergrad, but I had peers who did it suc... (read more)

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College Selection Advice

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College Selection Advice

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