As you all know, I am going into my Senior year in high school, which means it is time for college applications.
This is the first time I've opened up my college application issues on my blog, so let me start by explaining what sort of school I want to go to:
- I want it to be diverse
- I want it to be in an urban area. I would love for it to have access to public transport
- I don't want my social life to revolve around sports or fraternities
- I want a medium sized school. No small liberal arts schools for me
- I intend to major in Physics and minor in Economics, so I want to go to a school that is strong in all areas. I don't know if I will become a physicist in my future, but I love the way that physics teaches you to think. Physics is about problem solving, and I want to learn about problem solving.
- I don't care so much about the reptutation of the school, I just want the school to fit me and to ENJOY college. I loved my 4 months in Europe because I felt like I belonged there, and I want college to feel the same.
- I don't want my school to be too much of an old-boys' club or elitist. I want it to be grounded.
- I want to be happy
- I don't want to be isolated. I will grow a lot as a person at college, and I want to be in/near the real world and around real people. I don't want to be shipped off to the middle of nowhere and then have to enter the real world later in life.
- To be honest, I want my school to also have some form of a gay population. I don't intend to be friends with gay people only, but in terms of dating, this is rather important. Also, I want to be at a school that is accepting of alternative lifestyles.
That said, here is my list of colleges as it stands:
New York University
George Washington University
UC Berkeley
Northwestern University
Tufts University
Brown University
Columbia University
University of Pennsylvania
Stanford University
Washington University in St. Louis
Harvard University
Yale University
I have visited Princeton, NYU, Columbia, Harvard, Tufts, and UCLA. I am going to visit Brown and Yale this September.
I did not like Princeton because I found out that most of the physics majors hang out with other physics majors, and I want to hang out with a diverse group. Physics majors are not the type of people I usually hang around. Also, Princeton felt to elite, and it didn't fit me.
I liked Columbia and NYU a lot, and I loved Tufts. People at Tufts are very internationally minded, which is like myself, and they also engage in many different areas of study, which is similar to myself as well.
I met with a professor at Harvard, and he made it sound great, but their information session was not very good. I think I fell asleep during it. Also, I didn't get to take a tour because they were on Spring break.
UCLA is great, but it is far too close. It is close enough that my parents might drop in unannounced, which I do not want to happen.
So my question to you is what do you know about any of the schools on this list? I am particularly interested in the LGBT issues on campus. Is there a LGBT population? How are they treated?
I am particularly interested in Harvard and Stanford because I have not been able to find information on the gay community/population at either school.
26 comments:
Hey smarty pants :-)
You have a nice balance of non-Ivy high quality schools there - definitely give Tufts a good hard look because Boston is just an incredible college town. FWIW - I would pay close attention to who is teaching your classes at some of these schools. I never took a class taught by an assistant or grad student in four years of undergrad. It can make all the difference in the world! Also test them hard on whether those fabulous billion-dollar facilities and laboratories are available to undergrads.
You say you want a medium sized school but many of the schools on your list are much bigger than that. While in Philadelphia to vist Penn, check out Villanova and St Joe's. When in Boston check out Northeastern and BC. Down in Washington take a look at Georgetown. The Ivies are great for graduate school but for my money the undergraduate experience at an extremely high quality second tier school is much more well spent. Va Tech, UVA, Johns Hopkins fall into those categories as well. I'd be happy to discuss more if you want!
Thank god for a responsible young man who didn't procrastinate his college career like I did, lol.
It will pay dividends in the near future.
1. Yale is the greatest I
think, and very gay-friendly.
2. NYU
3. Columbia
4. Brown
I remember the days when I wanted to go to an Ivy-League school. And then I realized I was shit-poor... it's a rather sad moment, but I found a great campus anyway.
I don't mean to discourage you, I'm sharing my personal story :) If I had to pick any one of those, I'd probably pick Standford because of the prestige.
You'll do great.
meh, go to U of T :P
i might be there :P
lol jks. i would help or something... but i dono any of these unis
Finally a non political comment (from me) on your blog
Hmm sounds like some one has straight A's on his report card
As much I would love too, I can't help you with your college search.
But go us we are seniors and we have made it lol well take care and I'm sure you will find the Uni that will fit you like I did
It would be nice to know that you were nearby if you went to Tufts.
Everything goleftatthefork says (in his comment here, lol) makes sense.
I have a "thing" against Harvard because they think they're better than everybody else, but they aren't.
I have heard good things about Washington U. in St. Louis from several sources.
The big thing I've learned is that there can be as good education available at a relatively "unknown" school as at one with a big name.
One other factor you might want to consider is the amount you are able/required to study outside your major/minor. A certain amount of humanities would help de-nerdify you from all the physics and economics. — History, Philosophy, Music, Art. I'm sorta kidding. You seem well-rounded at this point, but it wouldn't hurt to continue your growth in the humanities.
And don't worry over it too much. None of the places you and goleft list would be a disaster.
Thanks for the advice, goleftatthefork. It is really good, and I will definitely research those items and ask about them.
I did visit Georgetown, but I didn't like it. I dont know if I have a concrete reason why, but it just didnt fit me. Maybe I was a bit turned off by the fact that their motto is a latin pun or something. I dont quite get it.
Also, they dont have a very strong science department at Georgetown, and while I don't think I want to be a scientist when I grow up, I do want to have a good education.
If you're internationally-minded, why not really stretch your horizons and pick an overseas school? If you want classes in English you don't just have to think of the UK: Australia, New Zealand and Ireland all have some world-class institutions.
If you do fancy the UK, physics is very highly rated at Lancaster, Bath, Cambridge, Nottingham, St Andrews (but I'd advise against there on the basis of your stated criteria), Edinburgh, Durham, Sheffield, Glasgow; two top London research universities (University College London and Imperial College London); and probably half a dozen other places (including a couple I'd recommend for other reasons: Sussex and Southampton).
Almost all of them are very gay-friendly, and they'll be more international than most US campuses (though about the same as some of your Ivy League schools). London, Brighton and a couple of other British cities are as gay-friendly as San Francisco. And many of those institutions have partnerships with other EU universities, so you can study for part of the time in another European country (on those programmes they usually teach in English).
You have the whole world in front of you!
I ALMOST went to UC Berkeley. But I couldn't pay the out-of-state tuition. T.T Though, if Stanford had accepted me I would've gone despite the cost.
You have a lot of out-of-state schools there, that's going to get expensive (unless you're amazing or something . . . not saying you're not). Northwestern is nice, a bit smaller in some sense. U of MI is always good - at least check it out. ^_^
Have you thought about the other UC schools there?
The University of Washington? Lol where I'm going bc I don't want to shell out the big bucks for a degree I can get at a good public school. Also a top ivy public school lol! Seattle = gay central! Should have a good physics wing.. I know it has a great computer science division though!
All on your list are good, even excellent, schools. However, if you are considering DC, I would choose Georgetown over GW in a heartbeat. Not that far away is Hopkins in Baltimore, which is a very good school. Considering your interest in both physics and economics, I'm surprised neither Cal Tech nor MIT were on your list. The latter has the Sloan School, which is very good for anything related to business, and it is in Boston. I would never choose NYU over Columbia, which is not only a great school but has the advantage of being located in the greatest city in the world.
Brown and Yale are fine schools, but I personally don't care for either Providence or New Haven. The latter is a remarkably grimy place for a coastal city (even though one of my ancestors gave Yale the land to move there from Old Saybrook).
I am surprised you did not list any schools in the South. Someone mentioned UVA. Among the so called "public ivys" you can add UNC-Chapel Hill and William and Mary. As for non-public Southern schools, there are Duke and Vanderbilt. If you don't want a crowded school, of those I listed you might check William and Mary out, but I can assure you that in Virginia and even at UVA W&M is properly regarded as the most demanding school in the state in terms of what it expects of its students (arguably too tough, but the professors really do work with their students). Vandy also is a more intimate school than the others. When you talk about the ambience of those campuses, UVA preserves Jefferson's original academic village, William and Mary has the 1695 Sir Christopher Wren Building dominating its village, but I honestly think the park-like campus at Chapel Hill is exceptional. Duke has a handsome campus, but has the disadvantage of being located in Durham, the least attractive city in North Carolina.
Of course, if you want to stay in California you can't beat either Berkeley or Stanford, although Berkeley is huge. Frankly, none of these schools is likely to be intolerant of gays in this day and age, nor are the cities in which they are located. I do have a preference for New York City, but agree that Boston also offers a full compliment of sideshows to keep you amused.
Good luck and happy hunting.
http://lgbt-dev.stanford.edu:8088/lgbt/servlet/operations?op=1
UCSC
I'm not going to the south because it's too hot and just doesn't fit my style. I'm also not sure how accepting of gays they will be down there, so I'd rather go New England.
Georgetown does not have a strong enough physics department. In fact, science doesn't look that strong out there. I'd prefer to go to a university that has an engineering school because then you know that their physics sees a lot of action and is pretty good.
I am not applying to MIT because both my parents went to grad school there (they met there) and both decided that they would never let their children completele their undergraduate degree at MIT. My mom says that some of the MIT undergrads are very strange
Same for Caltech. It's a little too nerdy for me, but their water polo coach did contact me asking me to play. :) They just recently started the team, and they want water polo players that are good at math (I got an 800 in Math on the SAT, so I suppose that's how he found out about me).
WOW. you have alot of places to choose from. for me, next year there are only like 5 across NZ that really apply to what i want to study, and only two that i actually want to study at.
i have a question. how much does it normally cost for a degree in Canada or US?
im sure it varies from Harvard and Yale. but i had a discussion with a friend of mine about the ivy league schools earlier this month, and we pondered about how much it costs to study there.
the places im considering studying average around 5 to 7 thousand NZD a year for course fees.
I went to Georgetown undergrad and Duke for graduate school. They're both fine places, but I can see why neither meets your criteria.
If you ever get into water polo you'll bulk up, whether you want to or not. That is one tough game.
lol, i quit water polo this year. Id say most high school players are lean but muscular and most college players are simply huge.
@S.P The cost of a 1 year at an ivy league schools is about $45,000 to $50,000. However, the cost for international students at those schools is much much higher. I think it runs in the $75,000 to $80,000 per year range, but I'm not sure. I don't really pay attention to the international student cost.
As a west coast type, I would hesitate to jump in a deep freezer for months on end. It's a good idea to be conveniently removed from the family's immediate presence but that shouldn't require crossing the continent to some place where they actually experience winter.
I totally agree with NRF..... you'd better be prepared for shitty weather months on end if you go east....
I'd go to UC Berkeley. Everything is located in a relatively small area and there's public transportation (not to mention walking or bicycling). It's close to the ocean and San Francisco (though I would NEVER live IN San Fran) and there are a lot of nice bedroom communities close by with housing. Plus, it's a good school that is not too radical, like Stanford.
Besides, both my parents went there lol
Denny
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