andrzejpw
May one day invent Bose-cancelling headphones.
- Joined
- Jun 25, 2001
- Posts
- 6,636
- Likes
- 10
Eric: it'll be interesting to compare notes with you, as I visited a few of the colleges you're wondering about. I've applied to mit, cmu, cornell, case western, and penn state honors. To be honest, after looking at my options, penn state, surprisingly, is looking to be a good bet. Why? As an in state student, it's actually cheaper than the regular penn state tuition, and it has a kick ass engineering program. Secondly, we're just talking about undergrad. I plan on going to a grad school, not sure about you.
I visited UIUC over the summer. The visit made me cross it off the list. Why? Cost. Talking to a financial consultant there made me rethink my choices. As a freshmen, I'd be paying about 27k/year. Sure, its a great school, but for close to 30k/year I'm sure I could find a better solution. Oh, did I mention that it's tough as nails to get scholarships as an out of state student (factor for me)?
Same thing with northwestern. The campus is BEAUTIFUL. It feels like a state park. Sure, they have nice research labs, but I doubt as freshmen that we'd be making much use of those. Again, 30+ a year, and there are better engineering programs.
CMU: I have a VERY close relationship with CMU. My family originally came to the US because my dad was doing his Ph D in Materials Science at cmu. Since the age of 2 (when we got here), I was constantly there. Even though my dad has been in industry for the past 7 years, it seems as if I'm still there all the time. I did a summer program there over the summer (CS with Prof Rudich). I've sat in on a few classes there. Although I have to admit that it's a great campus with a good location (Oakland isn't downtown, by the way, it's just a bit more congested/crowded because the Univ of Pittsburgh is there with all the UPMC hospitals), but I just don't think I'd want to go there because of the close proximity to home. I'd be home every weekend mowing my lawn, and "surprise visits" don't sound too cool.
Mmm, nice to see that you're another theater techie
I've pretty much given up hope for dabbling in it in college bc of lack of time. Ah well, such is life.
Edit: my stats for e-penis++
1440 sat (
)
790 Chem
700 Writ
750 Math IIC (skipping math levels sucks)
4.0 GPA, 5.0 weighted
Currently valedictorian (This may change. Damn you AP English)
I visited UIUC over the summer. The visit made me cross it off the list. Why? Cost. Talking to a financial consultant there made me rethink my choices. As a freshmen, I'd be paying about 27k/year. Sure, its a great school, but for close to 30k/year I'm sure I could find a better solution. Oh, did I mention that it's tough as nails to get scholarships as an out of state student (factor for me)?
Same thing with northwestern. The campus is BEAUTIFUL. It feels like a state park. Sure, they have nice research labs, but I doubt as freshmen that we'd be making much use of those. Again, 30+ a year, and there are better engineering programs.
CMU: I have a VERY close relationship with CMU. My family originally came to the US because my dad was doing his Ph D in Materials Science at cmu. Since the age of 2 (when we got here), I was constantly there. Even though my dad has been in industry for the past 7 years, it seems as if I'm still there all the time. I did a summer program there over the summer (CS with Prof Rudich). I've sat in on a few classes there. Although I have to admit that it's a great campus with a good location (Oakland isn't downtown, by the way, it's just a bit more congested/crowded because the Univ of Pittsburgh is there with all the UPMC hospitals), but I just don't think I'd want to go there because of the close proximity to home. I'd be home every weekend mowing my lawn, and "surprise visits" don't sound too cool.
Mmm, nice to see that you're another theater techie
Edit: my stats for e-penis++
1440 sat (
790 Chem
700 Writ
750 Math IIC (skipping math levels sucks)
4.0 GPA, 5.0 weighted
Currently valedictorian (This may change. Damn you AP English)