Your College - Love It or ???

[Jae Rae]

My daughter is a sophomore in high school. She's in the International Baccalaureate program and also takes Latin. I'd place her at a college sophomore or higher reading and reasoning level - she reads Atlantic Monthly, New Yorker, Esquire, etc.

For some reason she's decided U of Chicago is the place she wants to go to college. This is fine with me if she gets in, but she's concerned her preferred school is such a prestigious one. Last night we got out the college guide and read through a lot of it, and the only others that stood out for her were Ivy League or Ivy League wannabes like Stanford and Tufts.

This worries her because she doesn't see herself as highly academic and doesn't think she has the grades (mix of As and Bs) and/or test scores (she just took the PSAT so we don't have scores yet) to get into such places. Yet the curricula that interest her are: linguistics, economics, anthropology, neuroscience.

So I'm wondering about your alma mater - did you love it? A good match? Other comments?
Would love to hear from anyone who went to UChicago.

 

[SillySapienne]

I went to Univ. of Colorado at Boulder, it was lovely but I was not in the right place in my life and consequently dropped out.

I also attended Santa Monica City College for two awesome years and loved everything about it.

I am currently attending Cal. State Northridge and it is the worst academic institution I have ever had the misfortune to witness/partake in. In other words, I hate my current college with a vengeance.

Finding an academic environment that suits your needs is incredibly important, I think.

I would definitely recommend *really* looking into colleges and researching the potential pros and cons.

 

[miss fortune]

I was accepted to University of Chicago, but had so many alumni tell me that it was the most soul drainingly miserable place they'd ever been that I decided against going.

After giving in to my mother's demands that I attend something within reach, I chose the school that bribed me most heavily- Purdue- and went there.

I liked it a lot. I love the college atmosphere, the international student population (and the restraunts that catered to them) and the large population of science students (I hang out with them!). The professors were almost all quite competent, and some were absolutley awesome. Faculty and staff were friendly and approachable (with a few minor exceptions) and the campus was always spotlessly clean. The weather, it being in Indiana, was the only real problem.

 

[Jae Rae]

Thanks, Whatever. Talking to Chicago alums is a great idea.

 

[Clownmaster]

I go to a community college at the moment, San Jacinto, but I plan on transferring to the University of Houston, Clear Lake campus.

I Really like my low-budget hole in the ground college. There's nothing to do on campus, so we all get to know each other really well. There's this table we all sit at, and we can have 30 - 40 people at this table at any given time, and the conversations are just hilarious.

Not to mention anytime I walk up, I get pseudo-worshipped and like 20 billion hugs

 

[SillySapienne]

How large or small is the current town you are living in, and also what is the size of your daughter's graduating class?

 

[Jae Rae]

100,000 total population

800-1000 graduating class

She seems to favor a large university with many class/course possibilities. but a smaller school with strong depts. (mentioned above) would probably be fine, too.

 

[SillySapienne]

100,000 total population

800-1000 graduating class

She seems to favor a large university with many class/course possibilities. but a smaller school with strong depts. (mentioned above) would probably be fine, too.

Hmm, I was born and raised in L.A. but my graduating high school class was made up of something like 106 students, I believe. And for both primary and secondary school I was private schooled and therefore used to smaller classrooms and more teacher-student interaction.

Going to Boulder was a HUGE shock to my academic/social system.

I became a number for the first time in my life, and that was devastating. At the time, I was too young and undisciplined to prosper in the massive bureaucracy by myself.

If your daughter is a disciplined student she might do more than fine at the Uni. of Chicago.

 

[prplchknz]

I don't go to University of Chicago, but I do go to school in Chicago and I love it up here. If for some reason I decided to transfer I'd tried to transfer to another school in Chicago. But I like my school, I go to Columbia College Chicago. The only thing that sucks is the winter up here. then again I didn't really like my school until I found a major I really liked, so their's that.

 

[Usehername]

I am very knowledgeable on about 1/2 of the Canadian universities, but I assume she's going to stay in the USA because it's always financially smarter to go to school in your own country.

My generalized observations would be this:
Bigger does not always mean better. I am at an almost exclusively undergrad university of roughly 10 000 students; it means that I get way more access to profs and equipment than what my friends do at the other major alternative that is population-wise large enough to be a city.
We had lab instructors teach at both and they said it was clear that the huge university focusses on their PhD students and not their undergrads. (We have probably $300 000 worth of chem/physics equipment that the larger school doesn't let their undergrads have access to, and they had video lectures for intro courses instead of a real prof.) We have highly polished profs at our school and I am very impressed with my education.

My school is also far more advanced in a few programs that the bigger school isn't. I'm sure they have a wider selection but that does not always mean they have what any one individual needs. My smaller school of 10 000 people has my amazing major and I am so very thankful I chose to go there instead of the bigger one which definitely doesn't have my major.

 

[ajblaise]

I am very knowledgeable on about 1/2 of the Canadian universities....

Someone loves college...


College is nice, I enjoyed some parts of it, and disliked others.. I went to the University at Albany, which is a semi-big party school.. that part kinda got old fast. The academics weren't great. I dropped out early to start my career, and have been very glad I made this decision.

 

[Usehername]

Someone loves college...


College is nice, I enjoyed some parts of it, and disliked others.. I went to University at Albany, which is a semi-big party school.. that part kinda got old fast. The academics weren't great. I dropped out early to start my career, and have been very glad I made this decision.

Well there's only a few dozen in total, so knowing half of them isn't actually that big of a feat. I just was excited for university and was planning since about grade 10.

 

[ajblaise]

Well there's only a few dozen in total, so knowing half of them isn't actually that big of a feat. I just was excited for university and was planning since about grade 10.

Yeah I was just thinking about that possibility. How many universities can there be for a total of 200 people..

 

[Jae Rae]

Thanks for writing, Usehername. We have a neighbor who chose UBC 20 years ago; she had a 4th-floor corner dorm room with a view to Shangri-la and she was in Heaven.

On the other hand, one of my college roommates started at McGill and hated it; she transferred to our college in blue collar Worcester and loved it.

We're unlikely to choose a Canadian school because the ones we know don't have her fields, but the exchange rate has tempted some families in the past.

What's your major? - sorry if you already mentioned this in another thread.

 

[01011010]

I had a close friend that went to U Chicago. He loved it. He was a very introverted and serious young man. A brilliant math major. He found his place there easily.

 

[G-Virus]

Someone loves college...


College is nice, I enjoyed some parts of it, and disliked others.. I went to the University at Albany, which is a semi-big party school.. that part kinda got old fast. The academics weren't great. I dropped out early to start my career, and have been very glad I made this decision.

Lol, I am applying to Albany Medical college right now. Bastards still didn't send me a secondary even though my stats are way above their's.

To answer the OP, I was a total retard in HS and didn't give a crap about anything related to school. Most of my time was spent occupying various administration buildings and the such. Thus I ended up at the University of New Mexico, which I love more than anything in the world, because it is home. I got my crap together in college though, and it looks like I am moving to st. louis missouri to go to WashU med school, that is unless UNM gives me an offer I can't refuse.

The most important thing to consider about an undergrad school, is how much they focus on allowing Undergrads to participate in things that would make them better graduates with better stats to apply to the best grad schools. See how much they encourage research and how open the faculty is. If your daughter can participate in research/communitty service and excell in both while in college, she will be better off than most when applying to any type of grad school there is.

 

[The Ü™]

???.

I only had the opportunity to go to community college, and it eventually became a mindless routine for me. Part of the reason I stayed was so I could stay on my parents' health insurance, but in the process, I lost perspective and enthusiasm for the future.

It just seems that schools try to make students unhappy because they make them take all the classes they don't want to take or don't even need.

For me, school has just sucked away my ambitious dreams I once had during high school. (And I wasn't able to take the classes that matched my intellectual potential in high school, either, because I was forced in special ed.)

 

[Mondo]

I am currently a student at Duke.
I'm enjoying my college experience a lot.
I wouldn't consider myself a member of the 'mainstream culture' at Duke but I have a great group of friends which helps makes things sweet.

It isn't as intellectual as the University of Chicago but there are definitely intellectual niches at Duke.

 

[Jae Rae]

Thanks, Mondo. Glad to hear you're enjoying college. I've been to Duke - I visited a friend who went there and eventually lived in the Duke Forest - and it is sweet.

 

[Noel]

University of Utah

Graduating this semester with a BA in English. The only critique I have regarding my university experience lies in the fact that I went to University with my high school friends. Granted, it was great going to university with them, but I guess I missed out on the outgoing social aspect that university provides. I never really branched out to other people in or outside of my classes. A skill I'll probably have some difficulty learning post-university, when many of my friends move away.