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For those top students who are disappointed by rejections and probably experiencing academic "failure" for the first time, just keep a few things in mind:
1. Assuming you applied smartly (ie not just HYPSM) you will likely gain admittance to one of the top universities in the country.
2. Your college doesn't define you, it's what you make out of your opportunities, and believe me they are endless at any top school.
3. Even if you feel like you're "settling" by going to a "lesser" school than whatever your dream school was, chances are that you'll find a ton of people at that school that are more driven, more talented, and more intelligent than you. Don't underestimate the caliber of students at any of the top schools or else you'll suddenly find yourself an average or below average student.
4. Once you decide on a school to attend, forget about the rejections or other schools you turned down. Don't wallow in misery and bitterness that you aren't attending your dream school. If you give your school a fair chance, you'll probably end up loving wherever you attend. |
On March 31 2013 04:56 zz_ wrote:
Reading this thread (and having read the ones from earlier years) I can't help but always become surprised/thoughtful about the state of the education in my country. Sweden is always touted as having a great education system (partially because it's (almost always) 100% free), but I practically slept my way through 12 years of public education (there are only a handful of private schools in sweden, and they're not considered "better", just stricter/more exclusive) and I can get into any university/program I want in the entire country based solely on test scores. Compare that to the discipline that you guys seem to have, along with the huge emphasis on extracurricular activities (of which basically 0 exist here, besides student council, and it still does nothing to help you get into university), winning awards (science competitions etc. are extremely rare and do nothing for your application), as well as essays (don't exist) and interviews (don't exist), it just feels like a completely different world compared to our university system.
Which feels pretty nuts considering I could apply for (and probably be accepted to) a student exchange for any of the Ivy league schools that the university I study at have a relationship with (which I believe is all of them).
tl;dr I feel my country's lack of emphasis on university education/application screening puts us leagues below the US (and presumably other countries that do the same).
I feel like there are two sides to this. I'm not sure if you mean we are leagues below the unis themselves, or just the application process, but if its the first then I would say no, maybe even the other way (from my limited experience). After high school I went to the US and studied at Northeastern University, applied and everything so not through an exchange program or anything like that. And what I found was that the system there more feels like high school, and a LOT easier than in Sweden; I studied for like a day before exams and still managed to get 90%+ and made the Deans list etc. I'm currently studying at Uppsala University and it requires a lot more studying - 50% or more usually fails exams at our program. Now granted, NEU isn't a top Uni, but it is (or at least was) pretty good.
For the application process, it both sucks and is awesome. You get a chance to show more of yourself through your extracurricular, essays etc, but it also allows some people to get accepted due to their parents having studied there or being prominent in whatever field. But it also (from what I've heard) "discriminates" majority groups, as in you have a relatively higher chance of getting accepted if you have african heritage. Here in Sweden it sucks for majors like psychology and medicine where you pretty much get accepted through a lotto system if you apply with your high school grades, and you have no way of distinguishing yourself (I studied IB in Japan, but fuck me only 2 persons get accepted from that "application pool" a semester, so this was very much the case for me). On the other hand you don't have people who rides their parents name and so on.
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On March 31 2013 04:47 KlaCkoN wrote:Show nested quote +On March 31 2013 03:24 babylon wrote:On March 31 2013 02:52 tozi wrote:
For me, I think I'm going to either William and Mary or Boston university.
I'm planning on working hard in college and eventually try to get into a top law school/grad school.
Do you guys have any opinions on which one would be better for me in that regard?
My impressions. Correct me if I'm wrong
William and Mary: Smaller, better professors, research (?), closer smaller knit community
Boston University: Bigger, maybe more money, in an amazing college town, more stuff going on.
How about academic prestige? Which one would be better in eventual grad school admission? Dunno either of those that well, but for grad school, the prestige of your undergrad school does not matter a whit, . Not sure why people keep saying this, in my experience it is not true at all.
There's a correlation between students from prestigious schools getting into top grad programs, but that's because good faculty gravitate towards prestigious schools, making it easier for students at those schools to create better applications. It's not the prestige by itself giving these students a leg up, imo, but there's definitely a feedback loop.
Put it this way: It's who you know and what you did in undergrad that will make a difference in grad school admissions. "Who you know" and "what you did" are easier to check off at prestigious institutions than at less prestigious ones, but it's not difficult to overcome these two if you network well (schmooze with your profs!) and actually make use of your summers.
Obviously you do not want to go to a school that is atrocious, but you can go to a completely mediocre school and get into top grad programs if you are a good, motivated student.
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On March 31 2013 05:42 Gyaru wrote:Show nested quote +On March 31 2013 04:56 zz_ wrote:
Reading this thread (and having read the ones from earlier years) I can't help but always become surprised/thoughtful about the state of the education in my country. Sweden is always touted as having a great education system (partially because it's (almost always) 100% free), but I practically slept my way through 12 years of public education (there are only a handful of private schools in sweden, and they're not considered "better", just stricter/more exclusive) and I can get into any university/program I want in the entire country based solely on test scores. Compare that to the discipline that you guys seem to have, along with the huge emphasis on extracurricular activities (of which basically 0 exist here, besides student council, and it still does nothing to help you get into university), winning awards (science competitions etc. are extremely rare and do nothing for your application), as well as essays (don't exist) and interviews (don't exist), it just feels like a completely different world compared to our university system.
Which feels pretty nuts considering I could apply for (and probably be accepted to) a student exchange for any of the Ivy league schools that the university I study at have a relationship with (which I believe is all of them).
tl;dr I feel my country's lack of emphasis on university education/application screening puts us leagues below the US (and presumably other countries that do the same). I feel like there are two sides to this. I'm not sure if you mean we are leagues below the unis themselves, or just the application process, but if its the first then I would say no, maybe even the other way (from my limited experience). After high school I went to the US and studied at Northeastern University, applied and everything so not through an exchange program or anything like that. And what I found was that the system there more feels like high school, and a LOT easier than in Sweden; I studied for like a day before exams and still managed to get 90%+ and made the Deans list etc. I'm currently studying at Uppsala University and it requires a lot more studying - 50% or more usually fails exams at our program. Now granted, NEU isn't a top Uni, but it is (or at least was) pretty good. For the application process, it both sucks and is awesome. You get a chance to show more of yourself through your extracurricular, essays etc, but it also allows some people to get accepted due to their parents having studied there or being prominent in whatever field. But it also (from what I've heard) "discriminates" majority groups, as in you have a relatively higher chance of getting accepted if you have african heritage. Here in Sweden it sucks for majors like psychology and medicine where you pretty much get accepted through a lotto system if you apply with your high school grades, and you have no way of distinguishing yourself (I studied IB in Japan, but fuck me only 2 persons get accepted from that "application pool" a semester, so this was very much the case for me). On the other hand you don't have people who rides their parents name and so on.
a lotto system? really?
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On March 31 2013 05:46 shawster wrote:Show nested quote +On March 31 2013 05:42 Gyaru wrote:On March 31 2013 04:56 zz_ wrote:
Reading this thread (and having read the ones from earlier years) I can't help but always become surprised/thoughtful about the state of the education in my country. Sweden is always touted as having a great education system (partially because it's (almost always) 100% free), but I practically slept my way through 12 years of public education (there are only a handful of private schools in sweden, and they're not considered "better", just stricter/more exclusive) and I can get into any university/program I want in the entire country based solely on test scores. Compare that to the discipline that you guys seem to have, along with the huge emphasis on extracurricular activities (of which basically 0 exist here, besides student council, and it still does nothing to help you get into university), winning awards (science competitions etc. are extremely rare and do nothing for your application), as well as essays (don't exist) and interviews (don't exist), it just feels like a completely different world compared to our university system.
Which feels pretty nuts considering I could apply for (and probably be accepted to) a student exchange for any of the Ivy league schools that the university I study at have a relationship with (which I believe is all of them).
tl;dr I feel my country's lack of emphasis on university education/application screening puts us leagues below the US (and presumably other countries that do the same). I feel like there are two sides to this. I'm not sure if you mean we are leagues below the unis themselves, or just the application process, but if its the first then I would say no, maybe even the other way (from my limited experience). After high school I went to the US and studied at Northeastern University, applied and everything so not through an exchange program or anything like that. And what I found was that the system there more feels like high school, and a LOT easier than in Sweden; I studied for like a day before exams and still managed to get 90%+ and made the Deans list etc. I'm currently studying at Uppsala University and it requires a lot more studying - 50% or more usually fails exams at our program. Now granted, NEU isn't a top Uni, but it is (or at least was) pretty good. For the application process, it both sucks and is awesome. You get a chance to show more of yourself through your extracurricular, essays etc, but it also allows some people to get accepted due to their parents having studied there or being prominent in whatever field. But it also (from what I've heard) "discriminates" majority groups, as in you have a relatively higher chance of getting accepted if you have african heritage. Here in Sweden it sucks for majors like psychology and medicine where you pretty much get accepted through a lotto system if you apply with your high school grades, and you have no way of distinguishing yourself (I studied IB in Japan, but fuck me only 2 persons get accepted from that "application pool" a semester, so this was very much the case for me). On the other hand you don't have people who rides their parents name and so on. a lotto system? really?
only 100 or whatever spots, and 1000ish applicants. And because it's Sweden and everybody has to be treated equally and with no preference - lotto (among those who graduated with the Swedish equivalent of 4.0 UW GPA)
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@Aerisky:
Hey. Getting a job out of UC Berkeley Engineering is like the easiest thing ever. On top of that, our engineering is actually way better than the ivies, and on par with MIT & Stanford. Don't feel disappointed about yourself for going to the school with the best CSL program in the world.
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On March 31 2013 05:56 Abstinence wrote:
@Aerisky:
Hey. Getting a job out of UC Berkeley Engineering is like the easiest thing ever. On top of that, our engineering is actually way better than the ivies, and on par with MIT & Stanford. Don't feel disappointed about yourself for going to the school with the best CSL program in the world.
^this guys got his priorities straight.
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On March 30 2013 16:25 Aerisky wrote:+ Show Spoiler +Thanks for the kind words everyone. I really appreciate it <3 Yeah, I'm probably going to Cal. Cried about it, beat myself up about it (not literally), played a ton of bioshock to drown my sorrows, and I think I've gotten over it by now. I've been getting really bad headaches lately+fps games sometimes give me motion sickness so I can't really think at all anyway lol, it's time for bed. >iaeuy you are basically me haha, all the way down to the living in SF bay area, feeling like I'm "bad at life", feeling like I haven't done much, like I haven't applied myself, and like I'll never be any good. Seriously lol  Well we should meet up and be depressed together, we might even recognize each other's high schools ^^ >julianto I'm a pretty pessimistic person and try to be humble to the point of a permanently self-deprecatory mindset so I'm not going to say they were awesome, but did I put a lot effort into them and actually didn't write about boring, generic stuff (or so I like to think). Asked around for editing/proofreading/comments too :/ Also felt like I had some pretty good interests and activities going for me into which I invested a lot of myself, but I suppose it wasn't convincing enough ;n;
Holy fuck dude, you got into Berkeley? Berkeley. That school is literally top 15 in math, cs and a ton of sciences; basically everything anyone on this forum does. It's an incredibly god damn good school and you're right next to everything that's happening in tech. You'll have every single advantage and opportunity anyone at an ivy would have had with an incredible peer group. Yeah I get that you're bummed going to school right next to home. You have very good stats and I'm surprised no one else took you but its not like your gonna blow away the people at UCB. You should thank your lucky stars you live in CA and can afford to go to such an incredible school. You're going to the best public university in the country
+ Show Spoiler [My Own Personal Rant] +
My brother has literally your exact same stats. Perfect SAT's and SAT II's and a dozen 5's, 5/365 and he's had severe crones for four years that we've just found sufficient treatment for. He got waitlisted at Upenn, Duke and Cornell and we live in fucking NJ so the only choice is to take his fullride to Rutgers (he also got into some privates but there's no way we can pay for that and ED was out the question because we need to see aid before we can commit. Fucking ED), What the fuck am I supposed to tell him? That Rutgers is a great school and that he won't be significantly better student that 95% of the student body? Fuck, I hated my first year here until I found a group of people I liked and that was only because I was lucky enough to be interested in math. And he's a much better student than I was so it'll be even worse. God damn, you know what I would give to have my states flagship be fucking Berkeley. My parents want me to somehow comfort him but what am I supposed to say? 75% of our student body are simply terrible students and that intro level courses feel like A-level highschool classes? That half the people don't give one fuck and its incredibly discouraging? That its gonna be a year or two until he's in high enough level courses that it doesn't feel like he's surrounded by idiots? And he can't even drink because of his crones, so being a party school is gonna be awesome for him. He's fucking fucked and I have no idea what to tell him. And you have to go to just Berkeley...
And before DPB swoops in, I like Rutgers. I think in many ways it's an exceptional school and certainly worth every dollar I pay to go here. Our professors are top notch, our math dept. is excellent and there are tons and tons of students that blow me away in every way academically. But it is isolating and I really truly didn't want my brother to have to go through the same adjustment that I did. At the end of the day its an above average public and not a top school and I know how much it hurts to put in four years of work and end up in the same place as the kids who didn't even try.
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Applied (all for engineering)
Dalhousie University
Memorial University of Newfoundland
École Polytechnique de Montréal
So I got accepted to Dal and Memorial, but still waiting to hear from polytechnique, which is where i want to go the most because montreal night life is gonna be sick and its such a beautiful city.
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On March 31 2013 05:42 babylon wrote:Show nested quote +On March 31 2013 04:47 KlaCkoN wrote:On March 31 2013 03:24 babylon wrote:On March 31 2013 02:52 tozi wrote:
For me, I think I'm going to either William and Mary or Boston university.
I'm planning on working hard in college and eventually try to get into a top law school/grad school.
Do you guys have any opinions on which one would be better for me in that regard?
My impressions. Correct me if I'm wrong
William and Mary: Smaller, better professors, research (?), closer smaller knit community
Boston University: Bigger, maybe more money, in an amazing college town, more stuff going on.
How about academic prestige? Which one would be better in eventual grad school admission? Dunno either of those that well, but for grad school, the prestige of your undergrad school does not matter a whit, . Not sure why people keep saying this, in my experience it is not true at all. There's a correlation between students from prestigious schools getting into top grad programs, but that's because good faculty gravitate towards prestigious schools, making it easier for students at those schools to create better applications. It's not the prestige by itself giving these students a leg up, imo, but there's definitely a feedback loop. Put it this way: It's who you know and what you did in undergrad that will make a difference in grad school admissions. "Who you know" and "what you did" are easier to check off at prestigious institutions than at less prestigious ones, but it's not difficult to overcome these two if you network well (schmooze with your profs!) and actually make use of your summers. Obviously you do not want to go to a school that is atrocious, but you can go to a completely mediocre school and get into top grad programs if you are a good, motivated student.
You seem to agree with me? In general a more prestigious uni will have better undergrad research opportunities, more famous faculty etc -> better rec letters -> better looking application. In addition the reputation of the course work itself matters .. The exact same application to a top physics grad program is more likely to be successful if the institution box says cal tech rather than texas A&M.
But yes of course, a brilliant student will get admitted no matter where he went for undergrad.
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On March 30 2013 16:25 Aerisky wrote:Thanks for the kind words everyone. I really appreciate it <3 Yeah, I'm probably going to Cal. Cried about it, beat myself up about it (not literally), played a ton of bioshock to drown my sorrows, and I think I've gotten over it by now. I've been getting really bad headaches lately+fps games sometimes give me motion sickness so I can't really think at all anyway lol, it's time for bed. >iaeuy you are basically me haha, all the way down to the living in SF bay area, feeling like I'm "bad at life", feeling like I haven't done much, like I haven't applied myself, and like I'll never be any good. Seriously lol Well we should meet up and be depressed together, we might even recognize each other's high schools ^^ >julianto I'm a pretty pessimistic person and try to be humble to the point of a permanently self-deprecatory mindset so I'm not going to say they were awesome, but did I put a lot effort into them and actually didn't write about boring, generic stuff (or so I like to think). Asked around for editing/proofreading/comments too :/ Also felt like I had some pretty good interests and activities going for me into which I invested a lot of myself, but I suppose it wasn't convincing enough ;n;
Man, I don't know who on Earth would cry about having to go to UCB. Like really, I'm going to an incredibly selective and excellent school, woe is me
On March 30 2013 15:10 Ship wrote:
Applied and accepted to GMU, hope to meet some SC2 Masons there!
Korok who plays on Liquid's Dota team goes to GMU
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On March 31 2013 06:47 KlaCkoN wrote:Show nested quote +On March 31 2013 05:42 babylon wrote:On March 31 2013 04:47 KlaCkoN wrote:On March 31 2013 03:24 babylon wrote:On March 31 2013 02:52 tozi wrote:
For me, I think I'm going to either William and Mary or Boston university.
I'm planning on working hard in college and eventually try to get into a top law school/grad school.
Do you guys have any opinions on which one would be better for me in that regard?
My impressions. Correct me if I'm wrong
William and Mary: Smaller, better professors, research (?), closer smaller knit community
Boston University: Bigger, maybe more money, in an amazing college town, more stuff going on.
How about academic prestige? Which one would be better in eventual grad school admission? Dunno either of those that well, but for grad school, the prestige of your undergrad school does not matter a whit, . Not sure why people keep saying this, in my experience it is not true at all. There's a correlation between students from prestigious schools getting into top grad programs, but that's because good faculty gravitate towards prestigious schools, making it easier for students at those schools to create better applications. It's not the prestige by itself giving these students a leg up, imo, but there's definitely a feedback loop. Put it this way: It's who you know and what you did in undergrad that will make a difference in grad school admissions. "Who you know" and "what you did" are easier to check off at prestigious institutions than at less prestigious ones, but it's not difficult to overcome these two if you network well (schmooze with your profs!) and actually make use of your summers. Obviously you do not want to go to a school that is atrocious, but you can go to a completely mediocre school and get into top grad programs if you are a good, motivated student. You seem to agree with me? In general a more prestigious uni will have better undergrad research opportunities, more famous faculty etc -> better rec letters -> better looking application. In addition the reputation of the course work itself matters .. The exact same application to a top physics grad program is more likely to be successful if the institution box says cal tech rather than texas A&M. But yes of course, a brilliant student will get admitted no matter where he went for undergrad.
Yes, basically. But didn't want people to get the idea that prestige >>> all in terms of getting into grad school. It's really about being perceptive enough about gaps in your program/package and then seeking to plug up those gaps. That can be done at most schools, except those that are so bad they're like a sinking boat, lol.
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On March 31 2013 06:47 KlaCkoN wrote:Show nested quote +On March 31 2013 05:42 babylon wrote:On March 31 2013 04:47 KlaCkoN wrote:On March 31 2013 03:24 babylon wrote:On March 31 2013 02:52 tozi wrote:
For me, I think I'm going to either William and Mary or Boston university.
I'm planning on working hard in college and eventually try to get into a top law school/grad school.
Do you guys have any opinions on which one would be better for me in that regard?
My impressions. Correct me if I'm wrong
William and Mary: Smaller, better professors, research (?), closer smaller knit community
Boston University: Bigger, maybe more money, in an amazing college town, more stuff going on.
How about academic prestige? Which one would be better in eventual grad school admission? Dunno either of those that well, but for grad school, the prestige of your undergrad school does not matter a whit, . Not sure why people keep saying this, in my experience it is not true at all. There's a correlation between students from prestigious schools getting into top grad programs, but that's because good faculty gravitate towards prestigious schools, making it easier for students at those schools to create better applications. It's not the prestige by itself giving these students a leg up, imo, but there's definitely a feedback loop. Put it this way: It's who you know and what you did in undergrad that will make a difference in grad school admissions. "Who you know" and "what you did" are easier to check off at prestigious institutions than at less prestigious ones, but it's not difficult to overcome these two if you network well (schmooze with your profs!) and actually make use of your summers. Obviously you do not want to go to a school that is atrocious, but you can go to a completely mediocre school and get into top grad programs if you are a good, motivated student. You seem to agree with me? In general a more prestigious uni will have better undergrad research opportunities, more famous faculty etc -> better rec letters -> better looking application. In addition the reputation of the course work itself matters .. The exact same application to a top physics grad program is more likely to be successful if the institution box says cal tech rather than texas A&M. But yes of course, a brilliant student will get admitted no matter where he went for undergrad.
As long as your school is well known for their "thing"; they'll have famous faculty member.
Apply to undergrad that is good for your major.
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On March 31 2013 04:17 tozi wrote:+ Show Spoiler +On March 31 2013 03:39 remedium wrote:Show nested quote +On March 31 2013 03:24 babylon wrote:On March 31 2013 02:52 tozi wrote:
For me, I think I'm going to either William and Mary or Boston university.
I'm planning on working hard in college and eventually try to get into a top law school/grad school.
Do you guys have any opinions on which one would be better for me in that regard?
My impressions. Correct me if I'm wrong
William and Mary: Smaller, better professors, research (?), closer smaller knit community
Boston University: Bigger, maybe more money, in an amazing college town, more stuff going on.
How about academic prestige? Which one would be better in eventual grad school admission? Dunno either of those that well, but for grad school, the prestige of your undergrad school does not matter a whit, and both schools are prestigious enough. What matters are your LORs (cozy up to profs, bonus points if they know profs at the schools you are applying to) and research experience. For law school, go to the place where you can get the highest grades. There should be a featured thread on TL about grad school admissions to ease the worries of fine folks like tozi (for all types of programs, since they vary in what they look for). I agree with babylon - to a point - about "[going] to the place where you can get the highest grades." If you're smart and driven, you can get good grades. It's not that hard. Pick a school that you like and a major that you like. If you can wrangle a 3.5 GPA in history (and let's be honest - who can't) and a 90th percentile LSAT, you have a fighting chance at most law schools. The name of your undergrad has very little bearing on your application. Smart is smart. I can't speak to other grad programs. College is more about discovering yourself as a person. It's the only four years of your life where you can literally do anything and justify it as an academic learning experience. Make sure the school you pick is one you can be happy at. -- BU is a nice place. Pleasant part of the city, easy access to every other part of the city, lovely ivy covered buildings. Plenty of extracurricular things available. The major cons with BU are that (1) you aren't BC, and (2) that you are in the middle of a city, which isn't for everyone. I recommend visiting. Wow, thanks for that. That really helps alot because my main disappointment in not being able to get into an ivy was that it would affect my chances in the future (as in, even if I work really hard, getting an amazing gpa and lsat, I still wouldn't be competitive). I would just expect that a place like Harvard Law would be accepting 95% of its students from the ivy league. Also, is BU that inferior to BC?
Haha, no - BC and BU are extremely similar, it's just fun to make fun of BU.
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I think y'all are greatly overestimating the effects of being a legacy. Both of my parents have master's degrees from Harvard, and I didn't even get waitlisted.
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my friend got 2400 for his SAT I and for his SAT II he got 800 for maths II, 760 for literature and 800 for physics. He applied for engineering and got rejected from every single ivy league uni he applied to, he was finally accepted to stanford and accepted.
he suspects he got rejected cause his extra-curriculars were below average. also, he's australian and applied as an international student -- not sure if that hurt his chances.
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On March 31 2013 07:07 tutsicockroach wrote:
my friend got 2400 for his SAT I and for his SAT II he got 800 for maths II, 760 for literature and 800 for physics. He applied for engineering and got rejected from every single ivy league uni he applied to, he was finally accepted to stanford and accepted.
he suspects he got rejected cause his extra-curriculars were below average. also, he's australian and applied as an international student -- not sure if that hurt his chances.
Dude, Stanford is just as good if not better lol. When I visited Stanford, it felt SO much more "happy" than any Ivy league school I saw.
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On March 31 2013 06:27 n.DieJokes wrote:Show nested quote +On March 30 2013 16:25 Aerisky wrote:+ Show Spoiler +Thanks for the kind words everyone. I really appreciate it <3 Yeah, I'm probably going to Cal. Cried about it, beat myself up about it (not literally), played a ton of bioshock to drown my sorrows, and I think I've gotten over it by now. I've been getting really bad headaches lately+fps games sometimes give me motion sickness so I can't really think at all anyway lol, it's time for bed. >iaeuy you are basically me haha, all the way down to the living in SF bay area, feeling like I'm "bad at life", feeling like I haven't done much, like I haven't applied myself, and like I'll never be any good. Seriously lol Well we should meet up and be depressed together, we might even recognize each other's high schools ^^ >julianto I'm a pretty pessimistic person and try to be humble to the point of a permanently self-deprecatory mindset so I'm not going to say they were awesome, but did I put a lot effort into them and actually didn't write about boring, generic stuff (or so I like to think). Asked around for editing/proofreading/comments too :/ Also felt like I had some pretty good interests and activities going for me into which I invested a lot of myself, but I suppose it wasn't convincing enough ;n; Holy fuck dude, you got into Berkeley? Berkeley. That school is literally top 15 in math, cs and a ton of sciences; basically everything anyone on this forum does. It's an incredibly god damn good school and you're right next to everything that's happening in tech. You'll have every single advantage and opportunity anyone at an ivy would have had with an incredible peer group. Yeah I get that you're bummed going to school right next to home. You have very good stats and I'm surprised no one else took you but its not like your gonna blow away the people at UCB. You should thank your lucky stars you live in CA and can afford to go to such an incredible school. You're going to the best public university in the country + Show Spoiler [My Own Personal Rant] +
My brother has literally your exact same stats. Perfect SAT's and SAT II's and a dozen 5's, 5/365 and he's had severe crones for four years that we've just found sufficient treatment for. He got waitlisted at Upenn, Duke and Cornell and we live in fucking NJ so the only choice is to take his fullride to Rutgers (he also got into some privates but there's no way we can pay for that and ED was out the question because we need to see aid before we can commit. Fucking ED), What the fuck am I supposed to tell him? That Rutgers is a great school and that he won't be significantly better student that 95% of the student body? Fuck, I hated my first year here until I found a group of people I liked and that was only because I was lucky enough to be interested in math. And he's a much better student than I was so it'll be even worse. God damn, you know what I would give to have my states flagship be fucking Berkeley. My parents want me to somehow comfort him but what am I supposed to say? 75% of our student body are simply terrible students and that intro level courses feel like A-level highschool classes? That half the people don't give one fuck and its incredibly discouraging? That its gonna be a year or two until he's in high enough level courses that it doesn't feel like he's surrounded by idiots? And he can't even drink because of his crones, so being a party school is gonna be awesome for him. He's fucking fucked and I have no idea what to tell him. And you have to go to just Berkeley...
And before DPB swoops in, I like Rutgers. I think in many ways it's an exceptional school and certainly worth every dollar I pay to go here. Our professors are top notch, our math dept. is excellent and there are tons and tons of students that blow me away in every way academically. But it is isolating and I really truly didn't want my brother to have to go through the same adjustment that I did. At the end of the day its an above average public and not a top school and I know how much it hurts to put in four years of work and end up in the same place as the kids who didn't even try.
::swoop:: haha 
I totally sympathize with your brother's position; no one likes to feel like they're "settling" or going off to a college that they know ahead of time they're not completely in sync with. I won't pretend like Rutgers is the perfect college for everyone (no college can have that reputation).
I will say that if he's thinking about taking a STEM-related major, he'll surely have his hands relatively full (especially with the upper classes), so only the general education requirements will be a joke  I hope that he can find his niche and circle of friends, but there are so many different clubs and things he can join that I don't think it's really that hard (if he takes initiative). College will always be what you make of it. I've been a commuter at Rutgers for all my years here (which makes it far harder to integrate myself into the social life because I have no roommates or dormmates and I usually need to go home at the end of the day unless I'm crashing at a friend's place on campus), and I really had no problem acclimating to university life.
My youngest brother is starting Rutgers in the fall as well
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Bio:
Perfect test scores across the board(SAT, 8 APs, 4 SAT2) except 790 SAT2 US
Terrible essay-writing
Research experience in two national labs
Asian in SF Bay Area
Lotsa math/physics competition accolades
Swimming 3 years
Lotsa volunteer tutoring work through several organizations
Results
MIT/Caltech (EA) - Defer/Defer -> Reject/Reject
USC - Full scholarship
CMU, Duke - Accept
Top 6 UCs - Accept + Regents (except UCLA, screw you too)
Case Western - ~$30,000/year scholarship
Going to USC
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CA10828 Posts
welcome to the trojan family. fight on!
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does anyone know about the crowding problems at berkeley?
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EPT
