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Katholic
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UCSB has a well deserved reputation as a party school, but it's got a good academic program too. We've got five or so faculty who've received nobel prizes in the last decade in various fields. There's a moderate Greek presence; if you're interested you'll probably be able to find a frat/sorority that fits you well, but it's hardly mandatory. The campus is literally right by the beach, so if you like the ocean that's a big plus. The student dorms are good too. Most of them are on campus, though Francisco Torres is about a ten minute walk away. The recreation center is free for currently registered students, and is very well equipped.
Isla Vista, the neighborhood where most of the off-campus students live, is immediately adjacent to the campus, so once you're living out there it shouldn't take you more than fifteen minutes to bike to class. Speaking of bikes UCSB is very much a bike school. Bike paths take you everywhere you need to go on campus, and if you're driving around IV you've gotta be careful for bikes and pedestrians popping out randomly. Bike theft does occur, but it's not as big an issue as you might be led to believe. I keep mine inside my apartment when I'm not using it, but that's mostly because I've had two bike locks break on me and I got tired of buying new ones.
If you come here and don't have a bike, get a cheap one over the summer and practice riding it around. You'll still have some trouble adjusting to riding in the bike paths during "rush hours" (the ten minutes between the end of one class period and the beginning of the next), but you'll be better off than most freshmen.
This is true to a greater or lesser extent for many colleges, but drinking is definitely a big part of IV's culture. Expect to see many drunk students wandering the streets on Friday and Saturday nights. This becomes more true as you head towards Del Playa (the beachfront street) and less as you head away from it, so if you care either way about that sort of thing you can choose your living arrangements accordingly.
This is more important than the selectivity/ranking of the school. Most people fail to realize this.
Unless you're undeclared. In that case, you're screwed. (Actually, try to see what majors you MIGHT go into, and then go from there.)
Let 'em eat fucking pineapples!
I graduated from UCLA in 2000 with a B.A. Philosophy. I'm sure a lot has changed in the 7 years since I graduated, but I'm sure a lot of the traditions and atmosphere that I enjoyed there are still going strong.
I had originally wanted to attend a small private fine arts college but ended up going to UCLA because I was rejected from my top 3 Art College choices. I am extremely satisfied with my experiences at UCLA and feel that it was a much better fit for me than if I had ended up at smaller art college. Going to a HUGE liberal arts university opened up my eyes to a lot of experiences I feel I would have missed out at a smaller private college. It also introduced me to a lot of fields that I was previously unfamiliar with and challenged me as a person to diversify my interests. Even though I went in thinking I would graduate with a degree in arts, I actually ended up graduating with a Philosophy degree. A majority of my closest friends from UCLA are actually engineers and med students; people I would not had the opportunity to meet if I had attended an art college. The key for me was to join clubs I was interested in and constantly making an effort to meet cool and friendly people.
Some other pros for UCLA include:
Awesome weather, situated in a very nice area of LA (also it is near the Playboy mansion), Home of the largest collection Film and TV archives with it's own student theater, fairly cheap tuition if you are a California resident (I remember paying around $3000 a year for tuition), and great sports teams which adds a lot to the camaraderie of the student population (Go Bruins!).
Cons: Parking costs an arm and a leg, Traffic sucks, and diminishing diversity. I would consider the political atmosphere to be "pseudo-liberal", where people pretend to care about issues but there isn't really a lot of activism. This was probably my one very minor regret of choosing to go to UCLA over UC Berkeley.
On a final note, don't worry so much about not getting accepted to Duke. My younger brother graduated from there in 2005 and swore that he would never step foot again in Durham for as long as he lives. My best friend also got his MBA from Fuqua last year and basically reiterated the same sentiments. Not to bash on Duke because their campus is beautiful and their academic reputation is superb, but these are two people who's advice I highly regard.
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In other words, do as many internships as you can and study abroad.
quoted for truth.
Undergraduate really doesn't mean much, unless you are going to a top-tier ivy league school. Most school will teach near the same courses and give about the same amount of education/information. It all depends on how you use the resources that are given to you. That's why I personally like bigger schools that are known for research, as opposed to smaller schools which are known for a 15-1 student:teacher ratio.
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Given that you've gotten into some quite good schools, then what really matters is where you see yourself best, because they're all quite good. Personally, I only know about JHU and Wake Forest. JHU, I didn't like so much... the atmosphere of crazy academics and the fact that it's in the ghetto of Baltimore, and Baltimore more or less blows.. but I know people there who like it. I have a friend at Wake Forest and he's loving it. Lot's of school spirit, amazing campus, nice dorms, I dunno... he really likes it there though.
That's all I have to say. Congrats on your acceptances and good luck on choosing what is right for you... and really, you can't go wrong. Remember that. A lot of factors in determining whether you like a school or not are entirely out of your control and are chance (roommate, professors, loud asshole neighbors). So good luck.
I've gone to school both at UCSB and UCLA (I transferred from the former to the latter last year). In my opinion, UCSB is a great balance of socializing and academics. It's quickly becoming regarded as one of the upper tier UC schools (some reports having it ranking directly below UCSD, some with SB even surpassing it). That said, Santa Barbara is a beautiful place. The location of the school is absolutely wonderful, and the fact that you don't need a car for anything is great, especially because parking (Unless you live in the Fransisco Torres dorms) is somewhat scarce. Having the beach nearby makes Spring quarter go by that much quicker. The people and atmosphere is very open and friendly. And of course: Halloween is incredible.
As for UCLA, it's very much more academic. There's also the added bonuses of NCAA sports. UCLA comprises of a lot more people who work a lot harder. I wouldn't say that the classes themselves are necessarily harder, but you will find more people who willingly spend their friday and saturday nights studying or writing essays. It's location in Los Angeles rivals Santa Barbara's in the sense that though it is not as beautiful, it has access to so much more. Pretty much any job you could be interested in is located somewhere in great Los Angeles, and so internships and related jobs are pretty easy to find. Westwood is also a great slice of town, and is very safe and friendly (considering it is pretty much just students living there).
Really, in my opinion, it boils down to whether you would like rigorous academics, collegiate sports, and a vast array of jobs/internships at UCLA, or fun, easygoing, social, but still highly respected academics in a beautiful haven of California at UCSB.
I also loved Berkeley and probably would have gone there in another life.
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Now that I have said that, this also depends on what you plan to do. If you want to be a surgeon, for instance, than I highly suggest choosing a college almost entirely based on academic credentials. However, situations like this are rare, and even then, you want to make sure you enjoy your college career to a certain degree.
That being said, I recommend Johns Hopkins, or Stanford if you get in.
Are you serious?
Berkeley kicks Davis' ass at just about everything but agriculture. And not just by a little, either.
But yeah, the UCs kick a lot of ass. Berkeley's good for just about anything, so it's a good place to go if you're undeclared. Most of the other UCs have their specializations that they're good at (UCSC has a ridiculously good marine biology program, for instance).
big name colleges are worthless unless you are doing post graduate work. go for the college that offers the lowest tuition for the major you want.
UC San Diego would be my choice, you can get a job at the zoo
Agreed... and for graduate work I would argue the professor quality is more important then the school as well.
Like I said earlier and others have said as well, it isn't the school so much as what you do when you get there. Realize that college offers a limited number of safety nets for fucking up, so stay on track. Also, take advantage of every opportunity you can there, including student leadership positions, clubs and activities, study abroad opportunities, and those internships I keep harping about.
All of those will be of a huge benefit when you finally enter the real world. Your GPA won't mean jack once you graduate (unless you go for a post-bacc) and frankly, your undergrad university won't mean a whole lot more unless it is distinctly Ivy League. And of course, if you can get into and afford an Ivy League school, chances are you have all the resources you need to succeed anyway.
edit: Wake = Business, Law and Med . Don't go for anything else.
I went through several websites and studentsreview.com was really good, there were some schools that I didn't have a chance to visit, but a lot of the reviews expressed that they were incredibly MISERABLE there with the course load and the social scene, I really recommend checking these out, it goes further into it than just social atmosphere, there's commentary on departmental things, food, the surrounding area etc, etc.
I have to at least partially disagree with both of these statements. It is 100% true that you can get a great education and experience from a school that isn't 'big name.' But that's not to say that the name doesn't have a certain degree of value. It depends on exactly what you'll be doing, but in my industry (IT/strategy consulting) there are different values applied to identical degrees from different schools. For example, we would generally be more likely to hire a CS major with a 3.6 gpa from UCLA than from UCSB (all other things being equal). Not necessarily fair, but true of both the industry leaders and the smaller companies. That's not to say that we wouldn't hire someone from UCSB, just that when you're coming straight out of school the school name can count for something.
Additionally, your gpa can be important for your first job out of school, because some companies will outright disregard resumes that don't meet a certain threshold (generally 3.0, from what I've seen, but I'm sure it differs between companies). GPA importance drops dramatically after your first job, though, assuming you put in a reasonable amount of time.
Here's something you might not have thought about - you probably want a school that will challenge you. For example, I think UCSB would probably be a kickass place to spend four years, but I think the level of challenge would not be high enough to keep me on my toes, so to speak. I think I would perform worse at a school where I could get by without trying much versus a school where I had to actively work to keep up. Note - this is not intended as a bust on UCSB, it is intended only as an example.
Based on your choices I would probably go to Berkeley, or Standord if you get in.
I guess it depends on your field. My GPA is not listed on my resume, nor have I ever been asked what my GPA is in any job interview I have ever had. But, I am in a more social sciences field, so I can only speak to my own personal experience.
As to Baltimore sucking, I've visited for a few days, and it seems an alright place to me. I don't know if I'd want to live there or not as I hate big city traffic, but it seemed fairly clean and friendly and had some neat stuff to do such as the national aquarium.
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Not necessarily; as I said before I work for an IT/strategy consulting firm. Our new-from-college hires are typically CS majors (or related), but personally I double majored in Government and History. Even in predominantly technical companies there is a need for people with good analytical and communication skills. I don't know jack about coding, but I manage coders and work with other people who don't have technical skills. There are a lot of things that a Social Science/Poly Sci person can do that don't involve academia, although admittedly you'll generally be starting out at a lower salary level than your technical peers.
Also from watching Ben and Teller's Bullshit, if you go to school go to learn not to expect to make money.
Hope my comments help. Whatever you do, don't base your decisions on someone elses, parents, girlfriend, friends, pop culture, its your life you are choosing don't mess it up.
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The opinions here are all over the charts, and they're just that: opinions..
Let 'em eat fucking pineapples!
I'm not at Hopkins, but I go to a school fairly close to it. Baltimore can suck.
There's not always room or inclination for a college town to grow around a campus in this area. That can lead to there basically being nothing to do outside of grocery shopping and liquor stores without spending some time traveling on the highway.
I would advise on asking a student at Hopkins about what's around the campus though, they might have had better luck drawing business to the area than my school.
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I'm interested in neural prostheses and brain-computer interfaces, so I'm looking for a school where I can get some good Neuroscience and Computer Science. I'm located in the Northwest suburbs of Chicago, and so far I've visited the University of Illinois and the University of Chicago. Illinois is pretty nice, I didn't think much of it until I went on an engineering tour of the place, and was shocked to find some pretty state of the art looking stuff. I understand that it's on the cutting edge of supercomputing and they've just started up a bioengineering and nanotechnology department (not that it would really effect me, but maybe if I wanted to change majors). On the other hand University of Chicago has an actual neuroscience major (which Illinois doesn't) and an available minor in computational neuroscience, as well as a graduate program for computational neuroscience that actually utilizes some of the resources over IIT for neuroengineering courses.
The limiting factors here are (1) I want to stay in the area for my girlfriend, since her family is pretty poor she plans on going to our community college and transfering later and (2) I really screwed myself over in my freshman and sophomore years, failing two classes and bringing myself down to about a 1.5 GPA. My grade is up now, since I just decided that I was going to college, last semester I got about a 3.75 (including A+s in AP classes). However my cumulative GPA and class rank are complete shit. I'm hoping for a college that will allow me to explain myself and my crappy GPA, so someone who heavily relies on essays or interviews would be ideal.
Go to UC/SD/SB/LA and you will have a much better experience.
I'm working in agricultural research
So here's how I would parse your decision tree:
First of all, I am a GIANT liberal arts whore (i went to claremont - i probably wouldn't get in now either though..) and i loved it. My biggest class had like 20 people in it and most were half that, I got great professional development and a lot of lasting friendships in a tight-knit community. So if Pomona takes you (though they're more selective than Claremont, so if you're on the wrong end of the numbers game it doesn't bode well), go there.
Davidson is always up in US News' LAC stuff too - i suggest you check out what sort of programs they offer and go for it.
Honestly, in contrast, the mass UC university experience is pretty dehumanizing (i.e. I never once had a TA or anybody but a professor teach me, I knew all of the bureaucrats by name and hung out with them, etc.). However, it's a lot cheaper and if you work hard to find a niche you can get lots of attention + educational value. That said, there's no option for you to take but Berkeley - I guess maybe UCLA if there's a big money difference, but the gap in academic reputation/actual importance/etc. of Berkeley vs. the rest of the UC system is staggering.
So first:
1) What's cheapest between Berkeley, Pomona and Stanford?
2) What's the trade-offs you're making in reputation and size? (I think I would have had more fun at Pomona than Stanford but Stanford is still a blast and its brand value is rivaled only by Bekeley) on the west coast.
3) I think between Berkeley and whatever private colleges you get into, you should go to the one that offers the best deal.
JHU:
Academics:
It will vary slightly depending on your major, but be prepared to work. Most of the students there study a lot, especially in the science fields. You'll probably hear about how competitive the students are, with the extreme being stories of students cutthroating each other (by hiding library books, etc) but I've never experienced that firsthand. That being said, the quality of education is high, especially at the upper level classes. There are also a lot of opportunities for research, although the top lab spots are competitive. As far as reputation goes, I don't think there isn't much difference from the other top schools you got into. However, if you plan on going into the medical / health science fields then JHU will probably give you a slight edge.
Baltimore:
What the earlier poster said about Baltimore sucking sometimes is true. First, it can be dangerous. While I was there 2 students were murdered (one was killed by a burglar and the other was by a non-student acquaintance). Also, one of my friends was robbed and another experienced a break-in. It seems like JHU is trying to gentrify the area around campus and there is a lot of development going on in the area so things will probably be safer. If you don't have a car, your basic options are taking a bus to the Inner Harbor or to Towson. JHU has a shuttle to Penn Station that makes train rides to DC and NYC convenient. You mentioned taking the train to NYC, I would suggest getting the student deal with Amtrak (I forgot the name). If you really want to save money, the Chinatown bus cost $20 to NYC, but the pickup place is ghetto and not as easy to get to as Penn Station. Baltimore can be fun but you have to put effort into making it fun, which can be difficult if you are really engaged in your studies.
UCLA:
I’ve only been here for a few months so there are probably others who can answer your questions better. But if you have any just let me know. You can also ask me stuff about JHU. I feel like I’ve been talking about random stuff so more specific questions would probably be more useful.
1) Regarding the girlfriend issue, I go to school in Mass where I actually met a lot of guys who came to school with girlfriends in high school-- for the most part it's worked out because of the lack of distance. I do have some success stories like a girl that goes to A&M and her bf goes to Duke, and they're still together.
Honestly though-- don't let the girl be the key to your decision. It could be great now, but your future is in your hands, and your college choice is going to determine your future, don't let a girl hold you back. To be honest, most of the time when girls go off to college anyways, it's pretty much done for. (Not to be a pessimist).
2) A train from Cali to NY takes...three days, if you go to school in Baltimore, that's not so bad, it's maybe a two hour busride I believe? Faster than a train, but even still be prepared to spend a bit of money on it.
3) I attended the Maryland Institute College of Art for a summer in Baltimore, it's not a terrible town, I had a lot of stuff to do locally and on campus, but really, there's a high rate of destitution and crime. There are some eyesores to the city (IE a giant bridge that looks like it's an ad for Prismacolors, and some statue outside of Penn Station that's a commentary on androdgeny). Anyways, it is what you make of it, I have a friend who absolutely hates it there, he feels to trapped and feels like there's not enough to do. Be somewhere where you think you'd be happy.
My wife's a grad student on campus and has to TA occasionally and is where the recommendation comes from. Basically all of her friends say that it's pretty good for graduate work, but they really don't have a clue as to what makes a good undergraduate experience. No student union, very little activity regarding groups or social events, poor access to non-alcoholic things to do, poor parking (non-existent) and living options (dorms or waay too expensive).
Safety isn't really an issue -- the guy mentioned before who was murdered was basically a fluke -- they had a big party at the frat, they left the door completely unlocked and partially open, a burgler w/ a knife snuck in. The student, drunk, confronted the guy, and got stabbed. The stab wound was fatal. It's not like a robber broke in to a quiet place for no reason, slit someone's throat, and snuck off.
The city itself is fine; I bought a house here and enjoy the area quite a bit. It's not flashy, but I also don't thrive on going to expensive bars every weekend. As for things to do, there's now opera, plays, indie movie theaters, etc. etc. The thing is that you have to actually want to find these things, and not simply just show up at the inner harbor and expect to have a good time at the Hard Rock Cafe. We've got a few friends w/ mixed feelings about the area (also grad students), and their opinions are really colored by the fact that they don't hunt for things -- they typically stick to certain areas and places and then get bored that there's never anything new.
That said, I still wouldn't recommend Hopkins for undergrad studies. There's a lot of places that are a lot more interesting and a lot better learning institutions. You won't get a bad education at Hopkins, but college is more than just "go to class, take a test."
Listen to me very carefully: your current relationship(s) should have (in my humble opinion) have no impact whatsoever on what schools you choose. Or, at the very least, they should be the absolute lowest priority.
Look man, college will, to a large extent, determine the rest of your life. Compared to high school, it is another life. When I graduated from HS I chose to cut all my ties with my then-current romantic partner as well as my ex's, and I am grateful I did because I didn't have that burden when I was making a choice (which would have been dramatic, as I wouldn't have come to the USA).