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.

Thanks for the reply.

I'd hope that you're biased towards what you had decided for yourself :P.

In short, I entirely agree with everything you said about MIT ultimately being the best school in terms of providing the best education, smartest peers, and probably not destroying my free time. If my only goal were to become the best technically-skilled person I can be, MIT, CMU, or Harvey Mudd (prolly MIT) would hands down be my top choice.

I'm somewhat concerned about my ability to maintain my non-traditionally-technical skills at MIT though, particularly in fields like writing.

However, the main argument against the best schools is that they're also more expensive, and less likely to give me any money. Going to MIT would probably cost at least $200k, and I have a sibling, and parents who'd like to retire (they're in the range of a decade away from that). I'm not sure if my going to a more expensive school would be worth their working for the rest of their lives, but I'd have to talk to them about that.

Alternatively, I could just take out loans. The main argument against this seems to be the fact that I'd then need to pay them off, and doing so would probably require me getting a job. I'm not worried about my ability to do so, but I might prefer to have a few years of freedom during which I don't need to worry about paying off any debts, and only need to make enough money to support myself.

I see, so the potential issue is financial. I have been fortunate enough to not have to deal with financial issues, so I'm not sure I'm particularly qualified to comment in this area. One comment is that you realistically don't know what you're going to be doing with your life, and if a better college has, e.g., a 10% chance of improving your decision-making in this area significantly then that is fairly worthwhile (unfortunately the actual probability is pretty hard to measure, so it's hard to put a specific value on this).

If you feel particularly compete... (read more)

7

College Selection Advice

7

7

7

College Selection Advice

7

7