Location, location, location. Columbia said no thanks. CMU said "okay, but no CS major". Case Western offered better money and athletics but it's in Cleveland.

Location, location, location. Columbia said no thanks. CMU said "okay, but no CS major". Case Western offered better money and athletics but it's in Cleveland. Johns Hopkins seemed like 80% premed jackasses. I didn't consider Georgetown because when I was looking at schools my dad didn't want to pay for parking. I initially wrote out a very long description of GW before I realized you had attended. So shortened considerably: I went to grad school at U of Michigan and have come to the conclusion that most colleges/universities are basically the same. For such an important decision with such wide-ranging consequences, where you go to school is relatively hard to screw up. Undergraduate education is mostly foolish and cult-like behavior--Go Blue!--in a pretty setting where you can find an education and lifelong friends if you look for them. When people recommend a school they are usually recommending the cult. I went to Freshman orientation on my 18th birthday. I had been away from home a week and living down the street from the State Department and the White House when the Pentagon went boom. GW was my training ground for adulthood. The experience is so integral to who I am, to recommend it feels a bit odd.