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.

Do you have evidence that this actually works? Graduate school admissions are extremely selective at top universities (much moreso than undergraduate admissions).

My evidence is anecdotal: I have observed many grad students in Tier-I schools come from Tier-II undergrad backgrounds. A determined search could probably verify this by looking through a bunch of online grad student biographies.

I don't think a person who is smart and disciplined enough to get into a Tier-I school, but instead goes to Tier-II school for undergrad, will suffer a big penalty in terms of acceptance chances at Tier-I grad schools. Not because the admissions people don't take the prestige of the undergrad university into account; they surely do... (read more)

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College Selection Advice

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