Where Do You Want To Go To College?

I went to Georgetown. If I had to do it again, I'd go to U of Illinois or U of Michigan, which are supposedly "worse" but in reality not really worse. Top names are not necessarily what they're cracked up to be. Georgetown has a tense, unpleasant environment and I loathed being there the whole time. It wasn't just me, many of my friends were homesick and hated the school. To expand on that point, my brother did his PhD in Biology at MIT, (which many people here seem to aspire to get into,) and he told me no way in hell is he sending his kids there. If there's any one thing I've learned about being in college, it's that you should never just judge a place by its statistics and admission difficulty. Look at the campus carefully and try to talk to students who are already there, because they won't bull$hit you like the tour guides will. Getting a pretty piece of paper is NOT worth a nervous breakdown or four years of general misery.

Did he say why he didn't like MIT that much?

I hear the workload can be quite stressful.

Did he say why he didn't like MIT that much?

I can ask him tonight for you guys... he's at work right now.

Being in NZ, and having one of my parents going all stupid about me going very far away, I just went to the nearest university to me, that being Canterbury University (New Zealand). It's a nice place, decent for what I'm doing (Computer Science).

We don't get the option of applying for heaps of really good colleges/ universities and picking the best one that accepts us

I kinda wonder how far behind the US the NZ university's are, and whether it's actually worth even doing a degree, but oh well.

I asked my brother about MIT.

He said his workload and school intensity at MIT were much greater than at Northwestern, where he went to for undergrad.

Couple points about that: one, he said all the people he talked to at MIT that were there for undergrad had a good time. Two, a PhD student I talked to from Northwestern said similar things about Northwestern as my brother said about MIT. My brother did his PhD at MIT.

Therefore, the tension he experienced probably had more to do with him doing a PhD program than with MIT in particular. Sorry I didn't get all the specifics before making my earlier post.

For me: Getting into multiple UC's (University of California) starting with UCR. Maybe throw in a few CSU's into the mix.

But seriously, being the dumb**** Asian I am, Im thinking about the true reality of not getting into UCLA (my top pick). Future looks bleak for me right now - last thing I want to do is to go to a community college (I'd stab myself, lol).

P.S. ATM, maintaining barely a 3.0 GPA as a sophomore. Around a 3.4+ GPA if you consider weighted classes

mmm, i do see what you mean

but in the scheme of things, does college matter that much? i mean yes it will give you a tertiary qualification that will boost your first job pay. some jobs require a tertiary qualification because of the nature of the job. but three years after the novelty of your new career wears off, it doesn't matter what college you went to, it's all experience and "the rest" of life. (right? or is it different in america and do people still compare what college you went to long after you graduate?)

That's a point.
And I guess if you're aiming for grad school, it matters even less where you go for undergrad.

It's sort of viewed as an achievement to get into some prestigious place, I guess. It doesn't really have as much of a bearing on the future as people make it out to be. I think it's the qualities that grant people acceptance into 'good' colleges, rather than attending the particular school itself, that makes those people successful in the long run.

As for me, I guess I'm looking to get into UCLA or Berkeley, mostly. It just seems to be much more cost effective than paying 40k/year for a marginally better education elsewhere.

Just a school that I can get real good at Film or Design.

I am in my second year at Ohio State University. I really like, the campus is HUGE, but once you walk around for a week or two, you learn where everything is and it isn't too bad.

George Brown for culinary arts
I'm in grade 11 right now but im sure to get accepted.
Id like to go to italy after that and do an apprenticesh'it there

Im about to graduate from Texas A&M, but I want to go to UT Galveston for med school.

For me: Getting into multiple UC's (University of California) starting with UCR. Maybe throw in a few CSU's into the mix.

But seriously, being the dumb**** Asian I am, Im thinking about the true reality of not getting into UCLA (my top pick). Future looks bleak for me right now - last thing I want to do is to go to a community college (I'd stab myself, lol).

P.S. ATM, maintaining barely a 3.0 GPA as a sophomore. Around a 3.4+ GPA if you consider weighted classes

If you changed jobs, it would. If you stayed with the same people, probably not. But just to get that first job, if you plan on doing something a little above average (anywhere from 50k ~ 80k/year starting), then yeah, it's probably needed. But I dunno, there's a lot of people doing really well for themselves around here who never went to college.

I currently am attending Colorado School of Mines ... one of only 2 schools in the country to offer my major as an undergraduate engineering degree. Bleh, nobody appreciates geophysics...

My original list was like...A&M, UT, NYU, SCAD, CSM. I went to UNT for junior/senior high school years for a highschool-esque program, got my 60 hours of college credit (even better than AP credit because it is much easier to transfer and no stupid AP tests required). I ended up only applying for UT and CSM.

Just so you know, Texas schools suck because of the whole top 10% thing. My high school was about 200 seniors, and only a handful got into UT because of that lame rule. We aren't ranked so there wasn't a top 10% for us. They had to reject us because of so many stupid incoming freshman are in the top 10% of their hodonky schools. I got accepted to the geology department but wanted to come to CO. =)

As for MIT...a good thing to have if you are considering doing that is to get into research. About 5 people from my school got accept (I think) and they all had extensive research hours, Goldwater scholarships, stuff like that. I dunno how easy it is to get involved in research in normal high schools (since we were on a college campus we had professors in the labs doing stuff), but I know I have had friends join the medical societies at their schools and find "ins" at the local hospitals and such. But really, doesn't matter how much community service, AP credits, SAT scores, whatever--they want you to prove yourself in the real world.