Hey all, so I’m having a very large dilemma, at the moment. I love two very different schools. One is a medium sized university in a great city with an incredible amount of resources and opportunities for me in my planned majors and it’s really just great. The downside of it is- its student population is a lot like my high school and, personality wise, I’m not quite sure I’d fit in there. The other school is a very small LAC that is very close to where I live (a downside, to be fair) and is in the middle of, to be frank, nowhere. It’s a very good school, but its size and location definitely limits the options, both socially and academically. However, I spent the night there and it has some of the coolest people that I have ever met. The student body is amazing and I know I’d find a great number of people I’d really like there.
So, the question becomes, is it better to go to a school where you are unsure of the student body ( I mean, it’s larger, so it’s not like I wouldn’t find anyone) but you know the resources are amazing or to go to a school where the resources aren’t great but the people are?
I’ve asked 10 people and gotten at least 15 opinions from them, so any brainstorming or ideas or answers would be much appreciated.
Have a great day.
Right now the standard advice would be that you apply to both places, then see where you are admitted and what your financial aid packages look like. If you are admitted to both, they are equally affordable, and neither of the aid packages come with a particularly limiting rule (must maintain GPA of 3.75, must not change your major, etc.), then that would be the time to worry about A vs. B.
Remember that even if you are admitted to both and the aid packages make your real costs the same, you still don’t need to choose between A and B until the end of April. That is a pretty long time from now, and your ideas about where you want to study can change several times between now and then. Since A and B are really very different from each other, you might want to look around for a good C, D, E, and F that fall somewhere between A and B and could give you even better options.
You make really good points, @happymomof1 , but honestly, and I know this isn’t a very good decision, but shrug, I am really determined to apply ED to one of them and the forms are due in just a few days at my school. Financially, they’re both equal, so that’s not really the issue.
Tell us the schools – we may have knowledge that could help inform your decision.
@intparent - Tufts University and Wesleyan. Thank you!
What is your major?
You’re overthinking this. You’ve visited both colleges and love one better than the other. People who have attended small LACs, by and large, didn’t choose them for their locations; there was something instead about the close-knit community they liked. In terms of the traditional liberal arts and sciences, Wesleyan’s academic resources match up very well with Tufts.
@intparent - I’m going to double in Psychology and Political Science (or government or CSS depending on the school and all that jazz).
Well… government says Tufts to me. I personally think no one should ED a school they aren’t 100% sure about. Apply RD, go to accepted student cm visits at your top 2 or 3 choices you get accepted to, and then decide.
I would go with what your heart told you. Wesleyan is a great school and I don’t think there’d be a significant difference in terms of resources. And as LACs go, it isn’t really that isolated - you would have access to both Boston and New York by train.
I really don’t understand the decision to apply ED when you already know it’s not a good choice, simply because you are “determined” to, but of course you have to make your own choices about your own applications.
Wesleyan is not in the middle of nowhere. When someone says that, I imagine a rural area or small town that’s hours and hours away from a large city and not connected by public transit. Middletown has an Amtrak station that will take you to New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Providence, etc., in a matter of a few hours. And Middletown itself is a medium-sized town that’s only 16 miles south of Hartford and 27 miles northeast of New Haven. Neither-is the most cosmopolitan metropolis to be sure, but they also make Middletown not “the middle of nowhere”.
If you absolutely must apply ED, apply to Wesleyan - where it sounds like you’d really rather end up. And then if you end up there and you get itchy for a trip to a big city, hop on an Amtrak for a weekend - it’s 2.5 hours to New York and 3.5 hours to Boston.