So why did you decide to go to the school you currently go to? I figured this may be interesting to read and also could help seniors in high school going through the process of choosing a school right now.
I go to some medium sized PA school called Shippensburg University….main things that made me come here were…
Close to home so I could go home on weekends if I wanted to
Public and cheap so I can minimize debt ($20k a year or so)
Of all the cheap close to home public schools, felt like Ship had the stronger CS program from when I visited.
Also had a GIS program as well which I was interested in.
Only thing I didn’t like about Ship was the size and the prestige, I would have rather gone to a much larger school. Was accepted to some, but they were too far away and I didn’t get much financial aid.
I ended up going to NYU due to financial reasons. Ironically, NYU had the highest tuition of all the places I applied to, but I received the most scholarship money and financial aid from there. It’s also close to home and has a great location.
It had one of the best entrepreneur degrees (University of Houston). Before I even got here I realized that degree is probably worthless.
I hate pretty much everything about the school, so I’m transferring.
I chose Texas Tech (the school I’m transferring to) because:
It’s in a small town. I hate Houston. I may move here eventually for work and I don’t mind that, but for college it’s not great
The culture. I can’t go anywhere in Texas without seeing many people wearing tech clothing. People who go to tech love tech. Their football team isn’t great but they love going anyway.
It’s a state school. Same price as UH.
Financial aid. Every school I applied to was on the east coast, decent, and had really good financial aid.
Ship was actually my second choice! I chose my school because they had a program I liked, and I was going to be on one of the sports teams here, but I ended up thinking I didn’t have time and not doing it this year!
I’m from middle PA too, so I know how you feel! Ship food is awesome!
I ended up choosing ucla over berkeley pretty much because it was closer to home. The financial aid was about the same, and the dorm cost was same. As prestigious as berkeley is, the reason why I ended up choosing ucla was because I didn’t like the things I read on berkeley subreddit. For example, there were a couple posts on some of the “former” students feeling depressed and trapped; there was a guy who said he just packed up in the middle of the night because he just couldn’t stand it anymore. And that kind of scares me because I want to enjoy my school life and aside from being in LA, the student body seemed much happier over here. Also apparently cheating is a big problem at Berkeley. I don’t know how much of that is actually true but after reading all that, berkeley didn’t seem right for me. I should also mention I visited ucla frequently since it was close whereas I still have yet to visit berkeley.
Senior year of high school I was in a very bad place mentally. Family issues, etc. Going to a small, secluded college that felt like a community rather than a 20,000 student university really appealed to me. Sweet Briar is such a quiet, safe (people leave their backpacks/laptop/food lying around, nobody locks their doors, I can walk down unlit paths late at night and feel totally safe) campus and it just feels “right”.
Besides my personal issues, I also wanted small classes and professors that actually cared about their students. The largest class I’ve had here was 30 students (intro bio), the smallest is 2 (developmental biology). The professors are all great, and there are no TAs.
I do appreciate that it’s all-women (plus a few trans men and non-binary people) too, it’s a wonderful environment.
I go to Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, and I live about 5 hours away but in state.
*the campus itself is small, about three city blocks all together. There aren’t a lot of buildings off campus for classes. It’s nestled downtown so I get to enjoy that part of the city without taking a bus or taxi.
*originally I came here for the biochemistry program and I loved how many opportunities there were to try out research, how involved the students were in the labs.
*Still relatively cheap for me here, about 20k a year. I will be applying as a RA next year so that will knock my cost down to $10k a year.
*Switching into psychology, and they are super into not making it all about science projects. Sure it’s important but the program would like you to look at the entire person.
*all programs and clubs are extremely active on campus. It’s not dominated by Greek life or the newspaper or anything like that. There are so many opportunities to get involved with the school.
*I didn’t like how for the general science classes I was told (by my professors) that they were meant to weed people out. That’s wrong and it pisses me off. Also the head of the chemistry department is rude and doesn’t care about anything but his own skin.
It really is a personal decision. However, I absolutely did not like high school, so I looked at my college decision as a chance to choose a school where I could be happy and learn in a good environment. I basically wrote a list of things I did and did not want.
Keep in mind that you will be living in the town you choose for the next 3-5 years of your life.
I wanted a school that was: small, had a good reputation, was STEM focused, in a small town, and somewhere where I would move off campus after freshman year.
I ended up applying to and getting accepted at San Jose State (my safety school), Florida Institute of Technology, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and Colorado School of Mines. I ended up choosing Colorado School of Mines and am very happy with my choice.
I’m 32, going to school full-time, my wife is 34 weeks pregnant, we just bought a house, and money is tight. Focusing on school is tough but my GPA is around 3.2 and though I’m worried about getting into grad school everything you’ve said is stuff I’ve learned in the past couple of years. I’m going to start sending other people to this post in the hopes that it will help them as much as it’s helped me.
I’ve found that the more you do, the more you want to do.
Example: I usually work 40 hours a week. Because I’m on call, some weeks I get a random Tuesday off. I spend this day being ridiculously productive. Today is one of those days. I’ve bagged 7bags of leaves, cleaned the house up and down, and after lunch plan to do more. I’m not even tired, and I’m pregnant. I get a week off, and I see productivity go down. I’m no longer thinking “After I clean up, I’m going to go finish painting the spare room.” I’m thinking, “baaaaaaaaaaaa Reddit.”
My roommate is on unemployment. She does, literally, nothing. She sleeps all day, watches True Blood all night, and is always complaining about how tired she is.
Being in a good habit of DOING THINGS is a good way to keep energy up for things like studying, working out, etc. And you get all sorts of positive reinforcement, which we all know is pretty helpful.