<p>I’m now back from Caltech and MIT’s CPWs. Caltech was wonderful. It was warm, friendly, closeknit, genuine, beautiful. It felt like home. I knew very quickly I’d be quite happy spending the next four years of my life there. The people were brilliant, friendly, interesting, everything I’d hoped. MIT was bigger, had more a feeling of energy in the air. It was a little less warm and inclusive by merit of its size, but I found that there were a bunch of small groups within it that felt very much like Caltech. I loved MIT too. It took about a week to decide which school I wanted to go to, and I’m still not sure that I’m basing the decision on much at all, but I sent in the paperwork yesterday - I’m going to MIT. A good bit of it was the size and their having a nuclear engineering major. I am still about $90,000 short, but have decided that MIT is worth it. That college is worth it. I figure MIT (or Caltech) grad is a well paying place to be, and that it’ll be worth it. I loved both schools, and ultimately the decision was more GT or not GT than Caltech or MIT. I’ll get financial aid information Saturdayish (a reevaluation from MIT), and I hope it’s good, but I’m going to MIT either way. A professor there said something that rang very true for me: someone who can get into Caltech/MIT needs that kind of school and those kinds of peers to push them to their potential. I need that kind of school to reach my potential academically, but at least as importantly, to grow as a person. And who knows, I’m certainly taking a risk here, but I feel I’ve made the right decision.</p>