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I began my college search last month and still have a ways to go. I've visited three colleges so far and plan to visit 6-10 more over the summer. Now, I know most of team liquid either attends a UC or engineering school, or hasn't even gone to American college. I'm probably looking more at liberal arts schools in the north east before anything else. My hope is that a small portion of TL will be able to lend their experiences and advice to me.
In terms of what I know so far, I have no clue what I want to major in, though i'm leaning towards something relating to history, chemistry, biology, physics, or psychology. I'm capable of getting into most, not HYP schools with varying amounts of luck involved and liberal arts is where I'm leaning. Size isn't all that important, though a school with 2k-10k kids is preferable.
Below is a list of colleges/ universities that I've visited and those I'm planning on visiting.
Wesleyan University, connecticut
I visited during their spring break, so there weren't many kids there. My tour guide was very nice and the few kids that I did see seemed very happy and there was a lot of school spirit. The freedom they offer when it comes to fulfilling requirements is great and every department there seems very good. The campus itself is nice, but the surrounding town doesn't seem that great, but I'm not sure I'd have much reason to go off campus.
Vassar College, new York
Classes were in session when I visited so I got a full sense of the student body. Academics seemed very similar to Wesleyan, and I think the visual and performing arts are very important there, but Im not too interested in that. The campus was beautiful and the surrounding area is poor, but there are a few great restaurants nearby. Most of the students seemed very artsy, though, and quite a few smoked.
Bowdoin College, Maine
A few kids were there when I went on my tour and the campus was nice. The town was the nicest out of the other schools I visited. The school itself didn't impress me much. All of the kids seemed extremely active in their organization of choice (like 500 hours a year) and I found their unity and diversity initiative annoying. However, the academics are probably on par or better than many other places.
Planning on visiting:
Dartmouth College, NH
Middlebury college, VT
Colby College, Maine
Bates College, Maine
Tufts University, MA
Boston College, MA
Union College, NY
Hamilton College, NY
Colgate College, NY
Bucknell University, PA
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The advice I will give you is this:
Figure out what you want to major in.
You mentioned a pretty broad selection of majors, all the way from history to biology. As a CS major, I will recommend you to steer clear of anything that doesn't have a clear applicability in an industry.
Now, as someone who majored in CS at an engineering school, I have an obvious bias. That being said you want to think about what the degree you are getting is going to do for you.
I have several friends who majored in liberal arts majors, and all of them except 2 are working at places like Starbucks while having a student loan hanging over their heads.
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You mentioned the size of the school, but have you thought about tuition? Many of the colleges on your list are private.
What Seide said above is worth pondering over. Student loans can be a bitch. Don't take them out unless you are set on a career path.
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On April 26 2011 06:00 TOloseGT wrote:
You mentioned the size of the school, but have you thought about tuition? Many of the colleges on your list are private.
What Seide said above is worth pondering over. Student loans can be a bitch. Don't take them out unless you are set on a career path.
Yeah he does raise a good point. I've already had a talk with my parents and while I will base my choice in large part on who gives me the most money, they said that I most likely won't have to take out a huge student loan.
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BC and Tufts are some expensiveeeee schools so unless you want to go there for a very very specific reason (amazing program for what you want to major in) I'd say you'll be just as well off with another, more affordable, college. Being from MA myself, I know that there are an outrageous amounts of colleges in Boston. If you want to go to school in Boston (which I would highly recommend, I really wish I went to school in Boston but sadly there wasn't any school there offering what I was interested in besides MIT(lol) so I'm all the way out in Colorado now ^_^ ) then there is a pretty good chance that there is a college there that will be in your price range and will work for you.
As for the rest of your list, I can't say I have much experience with any of them. I do however have an old friend of mine who plays football for Bowdoin and he seems to really enjoy it up there.
Also from my experience my junior year of high school looking at colleges, don't get to invested into one school. Keep a open mind and really look everywhere and then further research the schools that interest you. If you don't know what you want to do, make a list of what colleges are better for what in terms of what you are potentially interested in majoring in so come senior year when you get your letters back and (hopefully) have an idea of what you'd like to major in your decision will be a lot easier to make. I know for me personally, I changed my mind on what I wanted to major in multiple times between junior and senior year and that heavily influenced my choice of school.
Good luck on the rest of your search!
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Careful of liberal arts. It could be a death trap.
Although if you get in Dartmouth liberal arts, then I think you will be OK.
To be honest, as a graduate student of science, I only heard of Dartmouth out of all the colleges you listed. So yea, I am biased too.
EDIT: I do *not* think it's a good idea to study something like physics (or science in general) in a liberal arts college. It's just not a good idea for your future career. If you want to do science, you should try to get into a good research university. There are more opportunities there even if you do not want to pursue graduate degrees.
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I can't offer you advice on schools, as I am one of the UC people you've mentioned (UCSB Class of 2010, B.A. Philosophy). However, I had to journey a bit before I settled on my major...
I was accepted to a handful of UC schools as an Electrical Engineering major. I took the classes for the first couple quarters, having always excelled in the maths & sciences in school, but I found myself to be bored out of my mind. The workload wasn't that bad, but I only went for engineering because my family pushed for it (and they were paying my tuition).
I started taking some Biology classes, and researched getting into med school. However, the work load there, as well as the time I'd spend in school, was more than I wanted to take on. I didn't have that drive for anything I'd tried, and none of it was something I wanted to pursue in my free time over other interests.
I took a Philosophy class, Intro to Ethics, on a whim because it filled a couple University GE requirements. I sat there in the first class and first TA section, and I wondered what one would do with Philosophy on their degree. However, as the class went on, I found myself getting more and more interested. I started trying to take Philosophy classes to fill GE gaps as my second year went on. With each class, I loved it more and more. The professors actually enjoyed having their ideas, and those of the books, thoughtfully challenged by the students. The TAs actually lived for their subject matter, and were always eager to talk outside of class. Writing massive (and I mean massive) essays for the majority of grades wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Grading was based mostly on your ability to develop your own ideas and effectively communicate them on the written page. It just fit me.
My family thought I was crazy, and often took cheap shots at the usefulness of my degree. However, they began to see how passionate I was about the subject matter. I'd bring home books from previous classes, and try to introduce some basic thought problems at family meals. It took a while, but every once in a while, a topic would stick, and we'd get a night of conversation out of something as simple as how we perceive color.
Really, most college students change their major something like 3 times before they graduate. I made sure that when I was unsure of my direction, that I at least took classes that gave me some insight into a department, as well as covered a GE requirement. While the warnings you've received about being indecisive are true, and I had friends who were put in tough situations to finish in 4 years because they didn't focus enough on their path... If you're miserable, you're going to hate the best 4 years of your life thus far. That's not something I was interested in, personally. The recruiter who presented me with my offer last week actually told me that I could now go tell my family that my Philosophy degree was actually worth something. They laughed when I told them the quote, but I was glad to finally be able to somewhat validate my choice of major. Find something you enjoy, and work as hard as you can do enjoy it. Liberal Arts majors are Liberal Arts majors. When it comes to getting a job in the real world, you are far more of a sales pitch than one word on your diploma. Hell, mine is still in its envelope at the bottom of my socks drawer.
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I plan on attending Rochester Institute of Tech, for either Game Design, Computer Science, or both. I hear they have liberal arts.
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check out amherst and brown
both have open curriculum iirc (you can study anything you want without having to fulfill a core curriculum) and amherst is supposed to have a really nice campus lol
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Russian Federation3631 Posts
Keep in mind that you can't get out of student loans via bankruptcy. If you're pursuing a BA then that's even more an issue.
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As far as private schools go-- really you don't wanna go to one unless you are rich, or smart enough to get a ton of scholarships. If you go to an Ivy and aren't making enough to pay for it up front, you should get all the financial aid you need. Ivys of course have big endowments so they can afford to do that. Smaller private schools don't have that kind of money so you really need outside scholarships.
That said, I go to UPenn (so a bit biased lol), and if you're looking for a good private school on the east coast with lots of opportunities to study whatever strikes your fancy, I'd say to look into Penn. It's pretty easy to transfer among the schools once you're in (except Wharton is super picky I guess), and there are soooo many areas of study. The university is really active in getting you into internships and jobs. I'm studying art which is like... one of the most 'useless' degrees ever in terms of jobs, most people would agree, yet 3 of my 12 classmates have internships at Pixar this summer, and though a few just want to go home and chill this summer, the rest have good paying internships at big firms as graphic designers, etc. I am staying here as the campus technology manager and hoping to work on some projects with a prof.
Don't worry about what you want to study-- if you go to a good school you can get a good job (by good meaning enough to afford what you need and buy what you want in moderation). Instead pick a school that really fits you in terms of opportunities for study and campus life, and that is somewhere that you can afford. Seriously look into the Ivys if you think you can get in. The financial aid is good shit.
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EPT
