It sucks being a student in the East Coast.

TheBlackLantern · 08-07-2008, 03:55 PM

i have currently came to realize that East Coast students have it bad it compared to West Coast students. in the east coast, if a kid cant get into the ivies, he or she will have to attend a much lower ranked school whereas if a kid in the west coast cant get into stanford/ivies, he or she can fall back on the UCs as a safety net. i kinda feel bad for east coast kids also because a lot of the kids who get rejected by the ivies and attend the much lower ranked schools but have the same/better gpa, sat scores, than west coast students who attend the UCs. so in conclusion, dont get rejected by the ivies.

dke · 08-07-2008, 03:58 PM

This may surprise you, but there are incredible private colleges and U's that are not "much lower" than the Ivies. Ever heard of Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore?

Phead128 · 08-07-2008, 03:59 PM

UCs aren't safety nets. They are intended for like the top 10% of the UC public school system students. Far from safety nets.

I live on the East Coast, there are many students that get into Ivies and middle ranked non Ivy leagues schools. Where did you get your information from and why do you feel that way?

Where do you live btw?

TheBlackLantern · 08-07-2008, 04:00 PM

Williams - No
Swarthmore - Yes
Amherst - Yes.

well if the student deosnt want to attend a liberal arts then that sucks. i am not really a liberal arts interested person so i dont know much about liberal arts colleges.

TheBlackLantern · 08-07-2008, 04:02 PM

i live in california but i am drawing upon this conclusion because my friend in NY who has similar stats to mine is no way going to be accepted by the Ivies but if she were here, she could get into UCLA and have a good shot at Berkeley. if you are applying to the ivies, i think you would have good enough stats to use the UCs as a safety net. and this is college confidential, where almost every kid here is top 10 percent. so i guess i mistitled this thread. It should be "it sucks being a college confidential student in the east coast".

bclintonk · 08-07-2008, 04:26 PM

^ Are you kidding me? The highest density of top colleges in the country is in the Northeast, including more than half of the top 50 LACs and such major non-Ivy research universities as MIT, Johns Hopkins, Carnegie Mellon, Georgetown, Tufts, Lehigh, Brandeis, NYU, U Rochester, Boston College, and RPI, all of which outrank most (or in a few cases all) of the UCs. What's more, no one says a kid in the Northeast has to stay in the Northeast. Lots of Northeasterners end up at Stanford, Caltech, Duke, U Chicago, WUSTL, Northwestern, Rice, Vanderbilt, Emory, Notre Dame---all good schools that many (including US News) would argue provide at least as good an undergraduate education as Berkeley or UCLA.

Now I agree that Californians are especially fortunate to have such an outstanding state university system that provides a reasonable, low-cost alternative to the Ivies and other expensive private schools. Same for Michiganders, Virginians, North Carolinians, and Wisconsinites. And yes, it's to their misfortune that the residents of most Northeastern states don't have comparably high-quality, low-cost public options. But to say that East Coast kids who don't get into the Ivies are stuck with "much lower ranked schools" is simply erroneous.

k&s · 08-07-2008, 04:37 PM

^ Good post.

And the top UCs (UCB and UCLA) aren't exactly "safety" material w/ regard to admissions (w/ admit rates in the low to mid 20s).

TheBlackLantern · 08-07-2008, 04:47 PM

^ yeah but californians can apply to those colleges as well and have UCs as EXTRA backup.

k&s · 08-07-2008, 04:55 PM

So do students who live in Wisc, Mich, Ill, Penn, Va, etc.

And it's not like UCSB or UCI are considered prime back-ups (no offense).

TheBlackLantern · 08-07-2008, 04:56 PM

i should be more clear. UCs i mean UCLA and UC berkeley. even i look down on other UCs.

glassesarechic · 08-07-2008, 05:01 PM

Not only are there plenty of excellent non-Ivy schools on the East Coast (even non LACs), but we have some good publics too. Chapel Hill, UVA, the SUNY system. Not to mention Duke, Georgetown, JHU...I won't even begin to list the schools we have that aren't quite the crapshoot of the Ivies but offer an awesome education.

TheBlackLantern · 08-07-2008, 05:05 PM

hmm i guess it doesnt suck being a east coast student but i think its better to be california student just because of the UC system

Baelor · 08-07-2008, 05:08 PM

^Not if you don't want to stay in-state, or want to major in something other than the strengths of UCLA and Berkeley, or you want to go to college in a specific other place, or you don't want to see the same people again, etc., etc.

k&s · 08-07-2008, 05:12 PM

Quote:

i should be more clear. UCs i mean UCLA and UC berkeley. even i look down on other UCs.

Should I be more clear - didn't I already point out that UCB and UCLA have admit rates in the low to mid 20s - so they aren't exactly good "safety" schools?

Phead128 · 08-07-2008, 05:20 PM

Its problematic living in California since you have SO MANY STUDENTs, and although you may have the best public school system around, just the sheer volume of applicants, there are fierce competition among those seeking Ivy league schools applying from Cali, even though there are a significant Cali population represented at major top schools.

STill, your state is crazy. So is New Jersey.