<p>I’ll get right to it:</p>
<p>I got into:</p>
<p>{Name – financial aid info}
(engineering school at every institution)</p>
<p>Berkeley – OOS, no grants, possibly Alumni Scholarship
CMU – probably no grants
Duke – no grants
UMich – OOS, no grants
UMinn – in-state, total cost about 7K/yr
UWisc – in-state, total cost about 20K/yr
UCLA – OOS, but 7K/yr Dean’s Scholarship</p>
<p>I want to do something like biotechnology or bioengineering and develop really cool technologies or do some research about chemical processes or something like that so that I can perceive the work I do as “state-of-the-art” and get my name into a popular science magazine; for example, designing nano-robots that do internal surgery or solving the question, “why does cyanide smell like almonds?” I also probably want to do some business or go to MBA school later on in order to not get a dead-end job and hopefully get wealthy.</p>
<p>I’ve pretty much narrowed it down to Duke, Berkeley, and UMinn. My parents say they’ll be able to pay about $10,000 per year if I keep my grades up, and I may be able to earn about $10,000 total in my four years of college, so both Berkeley and Duke would leave me with $150,000 in debt to be paid off over about 20 years or so at a cost of $300,000 or so… UMinn would leave me debt-free.</p>
<p>So, where should I go?</p>
<p>I’m considering the following factors:</p>
<p>Cost – huge issue here, as I found out relatively recently, to my unpleasant surprise… Can I realistically hope to be able to pay like $3000 per month right after leaving college?</p>
<p>Student body:
Berkeley – 25,000 UGs, 90% in-state, 45% Asian (I’m an Soviet-born Ashkenazi Jew), average SAT ~1970
Duke – 6000 UGs, 85% out-of-state, fairly diverse, average SAT ~2200
Minnesota – 35,000 UGs, average SAT probably much lower than both and mostly Midwestern
Will I become more intellectual/worldly with a student body like Duke’s than one like Berkeley’s? Any comments on the alleged preppiness of Duke?</p>
<p>Grad school admission rates – Any comment on these would be helpful. Specifically, I’m looking for science and engineering grad school admission rates, and MBA as well; but who knows, my plans may completely change…</p>
<p>Research opportunies</p>
<p>Individual attention from professors</p>
<p>Academic Experience</p>
<p>Depth and breadth of courses – Berkeley has a huge breadth of courses, and I fear that by picking another school over it I may be missing out on that</p>
<p>The atmosphere</p>
<p>The living conditions – three-person bedrooms at Berkeley are supposedly the norm, co-ed bathrooms at Berkeley as well (not necessarily a bad thing)</p>
<p>Party scene – I’ve never done any partying in high school, but I think I could be successful with girls and stuff (wow, that sounds awkward even in my head at 5 am…) for reasons that I have recently discovered. How is the party scene at all of those schools? However, I don’t want something focused on partying, but I do want to drink sometimes and randomly hook up; I’ve heard that’s really fun…</p>
<p>Lastly, what do people think about this plan, suggested by a relative or two: go to UMinn for a year, save like $40,000, then transfer to Berkeley or Duke. Is that realistic, possible, convenient?</p>
<p>Any advice would be appreciated… The deadline is really looming…</p>