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Ask HN: Choosing a college
I'm a high school senior, and I can't see myself doing anything but technological entrepreneurship (although not necessarily software) for a career, initially anyways. I applied to the usual suspects in the fall, but was rejected from all the colleges that both seemed like good fits and offered good financial aid. (Stanford, MIT, Harvard, and Princeton) I thought my application was strong (2400 SAT, A average, placed in top ~50 of my grade nationwide in math competitions, strong history of programming projects, et al), but even Rice waitlisted me. Anyways, that’s irrelevant now, although I’m still curious as to what might have sunk me at those places.
Now, I’m trying to figure out what to do with myself for next year. I know that I want an atmosphere of smart, driven, people (for both rub-off effect and cofounder potential) and professors I can both learn from and do good work with. The problem is that there’s no place I’ve been accepted to that offers all that and an affordable price. My options seem to be as follows:
-Get into Yale off the waitlist: Seems like the ideal outcome, considering their financial aid and overall atmosphere; the main drawback seems to be the lack of engineering focus, although I get the impression there’ll be plenty of technical things there to keep me occupied and more.
-Cornell (Engineering): Everything’s good, except that my family can’t afford to pay for Cornell with the aid package they’ve sent us. Some negotiation may help, but most likely, the only real option will be to try to secure a guaranteed transfer after a year at Tufts and graduate in two years with AP and Tufts credits.
-Tufts: Tufts is tuition-free for me thanks to my mother working there, but the atmosphere there strikes me as a bit indolent and even less technically focused than Yale, although the students seem talented enough. On the positive side, Tufts is close to Boston, and I could work on research somewhere in Cambridge if I didn't find what I needed at Tufts. A downside would be continuing to be the “too-intense guy” I come off as at my high school, and potentially continuing to feel slowed down by my peers.
-McGill: This strikes me as a not particularly good option, unless someone has something positive to say. It’s more than affordable, though.
-UMass Amherst: Possible full ride scholarship. That summarizes the pluses, as far as I can tell.
So I guess the more general question amounts to: Is it worth paying large sums of money for me as a budding entrepreneur to be around smart, like-minded students for my college years?
(Sorry for the novel, but I feel that the HN community is the best place to get solid advice from those who have been through my current situation, and I needed to get the situation across)
Thanks for the help.
- joshwprinceton 18y agoDid you apply to Babson? 2400 SAT = baller, props My friend runs a great site for high schoolers going through the college admissions process. I'd suggest checking it out: zinch.com Congrats on your acceptances, McGill is a great school, too
- quizbiz 18y agoI must say I regret applying there. I got in, never really planned on going for a pure management education, but they sent in the fanciest most personalized acceptance package. A very "feel good" acceptance.
- hko 18y agoI'd try to negotiate with Cornell. Might be worth going there in person. If not, your scheme of starting at Tufts and transferring seems reasonable. If you worry about lame peers, take upper-level courses as a freshman. Audit them if they won't let you register because of prerequisites. I suspect most profs would even grade your work in a case like that, so you'd get the full intellectual benefit of the class, just not the credit.
- tokenadult 18y agoI’m still curious as to what might have sunk me at those places. How did you describe your plans for the future in your application? placed in top ~50 of my grade nationwide in math competitions I follow a lot of math competitions, as a math coach. Which competitions were the ones you participated in most avidly? the "too-intense guy" I come off as at my high school What specific behaviors are your high school classmates observing as they come to that conclusion about you?
- v3rt 18y agoHow did you describe your plans for the future in your application? My major/career first choices were "undecided", although I sent Cornell, Rice, and Princeton an essay in which I explained how I wished to better the world through innovative engineering startups. I follow a lot of math competitions, as a math coach. Which competitions were the ones you participated in most avidly? I narrowly missed the MA Mathcounts team in middle school, and have done well on other less prestigious competitions (HMMT, NEML, CML...), but my AMC/AIME results are probably the best. Unfortunately, my highest AIME score, an 11 (and presumably USAMO qualification), was just this year and therefore probably didn't factor in to decisions much. What specific behaviors are your high school classmates observing as they come to that conclusion about you? I focus on my work at the expense of an active social life, and I make an effort to really understand all knowledge that comes my way, rather than just working for grades (if that) and acting anti-intellectual (the prevailing culture). I did lack social skills in middle school, so the reputation carryover could be creating an additional gulf between my classmates and me.