<p>Thanks for that George.
Yeah, that worry regarding Princeton was a bit of a dumb one.
I will look into the housing system.
Thanks for the suggestion.</p>
<p>My opinion is that MIT has a good combination of nerdiness and socializing environment since it has quite a significant humanities department. Caltech on the other hand is more nerdy and has more overwhelming workload. Harvard and Princeton have ‘lighter’ workload but with a strong focus.</p>
<p>At Princeton, everything is AB with the exception of engineering-related majors, which are BSE. </p>
<p>From what you are looking for, I would definitely apply to Princeton. Princeton’s math and physics departments are among the best and most prestigious in the nation. Also, financial aid is very generous.</p>
<p>I do believe that a math/physics major at any of these schools will have a very similar and very difficult workload so I wouldn’t worry about MIT being in unique in this respect.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot guys.
I am leaning towards doing EA to Harvard or ED to Princeton.
ED seems a bit scary since it’s legally binding and stuff.
Still thinking though.
Would anyone like to comment on Cambridge university in England?</p>
<p>Thanks.
Regards
Eric</p>
<p>I’m also Korean…</p>
<p>And I want to advise some…</p>
<p>Actually, Princeton is best to you, I think…</p>
<p>Well…best school for physics is always MIT,harvard,princeton and Caltech in ranking</p>
<p>but Caltech is most hardest to get an A and they study hardest in the country…</p>
<p>And MIT is similar with Caltech and MIT campus is really sucks…</p>
<p>Harvard is too careless about undergraduates…</p>
<p>So I think princeton is best…beautiful campus, best pysics and math program, and professor Einstein~</p>
<p>Then good luck~</p>
<p>I believe that if it’s undergrad math/science that you want, and pop-culture prestige is not important to you, it’s hard to top HarveyMudd. Many of the other schools, like Harvard and MIT, are obviously extremely famous. But if you don’t care about the fame of your school, and you just want to have a strong educational experience in math/science, HarveyMudd is a very good way to go. I would argue that the undergraduate teaching experience at Mudd is far better than that at Harvard, MIT, or Caltech.</p>
<p>Thanks car202 and sakky.
I am ashamed to say that prestige is somewhat of a factor in my decision.
I mean, if it wasn’t for prestige, I can go to a New Zealand university, or even an Australian one, and I’ll be able to get a good education.
(Plus, I’ll be earning money from scholarship at either places)
So prestige and name value does play a factor, and I am a bit embarrassed to admit so.</p>
<p>Does anyone know much about Cambridge University?
I’ve been hearing some ‘rumours’ that they are struggling with lack of funds and so on.
Is this true?</p>
<p>So people seem to be recommending ED for Princeton?
I was sort of leaning towards that too.
Thanks for everyone’s help.</p>
<p>Kind regards.
Eric</p>
<p>Hey, erickangnz, don’t feel bad. Most people also care about prestige, but will claim that they don’t. At least you’re honest about it. </p>
<p>If pure prestige is what you want, then as far as US schools, Harvard is unbeatable. Or if you want flexibility to switch to something like engineering while also maintaining your prestige, then MIT is the way to go. If you’re willing to compromise a bit on prestige so that you don’t need Harvard, or if you don’t care about having the absolute best engineering school at your disposal, and you care about undergrad teaching, then Princeton is a good way to go. Finally, I think if you want the most laid back (relatively speaking), but still highly prestigious education, then you should be looking at Stanford.</p>
<p>I don’t want to comment too much on Oxbridge, because I don’t think I know enough about them to say, but yes, I heard that Cambridge is having money problems. But honestly, as an undergrad, so what? Those things might matter if you’re a graduate student doing expensive research. But if you’re just an undergrad, then having all kinds of fancy expensive facilities isn’t exactly going to help you anyway. After all, the LAC’s like Harvey Mudd don’t exactly have a whole lot of money, yet they are still able to deliver a prime undergrad education. What you should care about is how good the undergrad teaching is (which, unfortunately, I am unable to comment on at Oxbridge).</p>
<p>For some schools that are a step below Harvard (for matches instead of reaches), maybe you should look into Georgia Tech. It is in Atlanta which is a metropolitan area, but I think that the rest fits your profile.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>I can see how you would be concerned about that if most of what you have to go on are Hollywood movies such as “Legally Blonde”, or sniping posts put up here on CC by partisans of rival schools. But my daughter is a Physics major at Harvard and has so far enjoyed a far different experience. Nearly all the kids she knows there are very smart (some are true prodigies), very witty, and they work very hard, but socially they are just regular kids who have a lot of fun and are fun to hang around with.</p>
<p>She loves it there. She is only a sophomore, but she is already regretting the day when she will graduate and have to leave.</p>
<p>Cool.
That’s really good to hear.
I am just choosing between Harvard EA and Princeton ED.
Probably apply to the top 6 and maybe Chicago or Cornell or something.
But is Chicago a state school?
If it is, does it mean that it will be extra difficult for me since I am an international student?
But really, I am a bit doubtful about my chances.
Where would I have a better chance, Harvard EA or Princeton ED?
Thanks for everyone’s help.
It’s really awesome.</p>
<p>somehow theres this myth on these forums in the states that cambridge / oxbridge has money problems - that seems ridiculous if you visit the place.
in fact i recently found a thread on cc which gives research spending per university. There are a few things to note: JH includes money from a federal institute it manages and is thus artificially high, and the us stats are a few years older than the uk ones, so add a few tens of millions to the us unis. </p>
<p>(from thread "top private univ.s on pure research $)</p>
<p>874 million Johns Hopkins
455 million Cambridge UK
426 million Stanford
420 million MIT
400 million Oxford UK
395 million Cornell
383 million Upenn
348 Duke
326 Harvard
285 Columbia
274 Yale
253 Imperial UK
233 Northwestern
212 CalTech
167 NYU
162 Chicago
142 Carnegie Mellon
124 Princeton
111 Georgetown
101 Tufts</p>
<p>also Cambridge comes second worldwide in the biggest “world university ranking”. And as for teaching, youll have a lot of your teaching done one/two-to-one with researchers and professors (supervisions). The tutorial system makes for much better teaching than most big, TA filled us research unis, imo.</p>
<p>so consider cambridge for physics, id say. was good enough for newton and maxwell…</p>
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<br>
<p>No, the University of Chicago is a private school.</p>
<p>Thanks for that sargon and coureur.
Is the lack of comments about my question “which one will give me a better chance, Harvard EA or Princeton ED” implying that I have no chance at either of them?</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>Not at all. It’s just that I usually don’t respond to chances threads or questions, because my opinion and the opinions of everyone else on CC are pretty much useless. It’s the opinion of the adcoms that count after evaluating the entire application, and none of us are adcoms.</p>
<p>Harvard values ECs more and Princeton values acdemic achieves.</p>
<p>And Early admit chance for Princeton(around 30%) is higher than Harvard(around 20%).</p>
<p>So princeton would give you the better chance</p>
<p>Thanks coureur and car202.
You know what though.
I am doing my SAT Reasoning Test this October and Subject Tests (in math II, physics and chemistry) this November.
ED to Princeton closes on the 1st of November I think.
Does this mean I pretty much can’t apply ED since I don’t have SAT, or do I just explain the situation and send in the results as soon as I get them?</p>
<p>Regards
Eric</p>
<p>eric, i’d recommend contacting the princeton admissions office about sending them your SAT I and II results. early application deadlines are pretty standard across the elite universities (although stanford, i believe, marches to a different beat), so this may be an issue wherever you decide to apply early. good luck with things.</p>
<p>erickangnz…cambridge is need-blind in admissions. They decide if they want you first and then they can help you with your finances (due to a fund that Prince Charles created for people from Commonwealth countries …yay! something good from colonialism). I was considering applying there until i did really badly in my economics exam…but you should apply!</p>