@ZBlue17 @tigerman333 I just visited Columbia and Penn. Both have beautiful campuses. Penn is larger and a lot of walking, but not Duke-size or anything. Columbia is in the middle of NYC but it still has a distinct college feel when you are on the, albeit small, campus.
I love penn. I’m planning to ED to wharton. I know this is generalizing, but overall the people at Penn seemed more professional and the people at Columbia seemed more hipster.
@photogeek8 Ah that’s really sweet of you to say 
Thank you!
Has anyone visited Santa Clara University or MIT?
When are you guys planning on applying to colleges? my mom wants me to start applying in August…
Is anyone else confused about applying? The counselors at my school don’t tell us anything about college!
@blackkitteycat I’m applying in August! Use the common app. It will save a TON of time. Let me know if you have any questions. I can answer most of them.
@desideratum my friend visited MIT yesterday. All he said was “Scienc-y” and that he liked it
@blackkitteycat I plan on starting apps when CommonApp opens and when the non-Common App colleges open up their applications
@musiclover131 Omg thanks!! If you’re applying in august should you get your rec letters before this school year is over? And where do you find what the college essay prompts are? I live in Texas right now but i’m planning on going to college in florida bc it’s where i’m from, do you know where I could find the essay prompts? my counselors sent out the essay prompts for texas schools, so do most colleges have theres out already? Thank you!!!
@blackkitteycat my counselor told us to ask for or letters about a month before school ends. I have no clue, honestly. I think the common app releases theirs in May, but I don’t know about other schools. Check their individual websites if they’re not on the common app. If they are on the common app, then you won’t need to search for other prompts. They’ll show up on the CA.
@musiclover131 thank you! that clarifies things, especially the rec letters! It’s so weird, no one around me seems to care or have any idea about anything for college…
@blackkitteycat I go to a college prep, so they shove it down our throats. If you have any more questions, feel free to PM or tag me
@tigerman333 Okay so Madison…
I visited in February, so of course it was snowy and cold (but if you live an hour and a half away you’re used to that). Even though the campus is very large and hilly, it is walkable/bikable. They also have a bus that runs through the campus. I think it was free for students, but I can’t remember for sure. The architecture was very eclectic… Some original buildings from the late 1800s all the way to practical 1950s architecture and more modern student centers (I think one is currently being renovated, and the other one appeared very new). Because the campus is so large, we didn’t go in many buildings. We went into a very modern “Discovery Science Center” or something like that, which was amazing because it was kept very warm inside and had a lot of plants in its large study area. The one classroom we did go into was a little outdated and cramped (tight rows of wooden desks with little back-of-chair fold-down writing surfaces). The classroom and building looked right out of the sixties. This was in a social sciences building, though, which tends to be less well-funded (at least according to my dad).
We didn’t go into a dining hall or dorm (I think they have separate tours for that), but the student center we were in had a lot of restaurant-style areas to eat. The tour guides stressed that Madison has an a la carte (no idea on spelling for that) system and you only pay for what you eat. (You don’t pay per meal, you pay per item. I think.)
Of course, since there are a LOT of students at Madison, the campus was full of students moving about. There were some students from a club trying to recruit students for a trip on a main sidewalk heading through campus and a student with a petition for a LGBT+ rights issue.
The area around campus seemed very nice and student-friendly. Our tour guide said that the campus is packed with food trucks in warmer months and on weekends. Also, State Street is amazing and the Capitol is only blocks away.
I hope this helps… Let me know if you have any other questions!
@QueenOfBohemia do you know when the CommonApp opens up for next fall?
@eyrar99 either August 1 or Sept 1. I forgot which
I’m so confused…can someone explain CommonApp to me, please? Yeesh. I really need to do more research on things…
Essay prompts for class of 2017
Hey everyone! Just jumping into the conversation now
Need some quick advice. What would you do in this situation?
(Technically) We were supposed to select our courses for next year by February, but now I’m rethinking my schedule. It’s mainly between two classes–do I take AP Environmental Science online (pros: AP class, heard it’s an easy one to self study, relatively interesting. cons: heard online teaching sucks, my study habits also suck) or Spanish 6 (pros: college credit, get to speak Spanish again, probably not that hard. cons: took a break from Spanish after they ran out of classes for me to take, so kind of forgot it, probably more work than AP Environmental b/c interpersonals and stuff).
Any opinions?
@SugarSmarts I kind of hate my online class… Unless you’re extremely motivated about the subject, I don’t recommend it… APES is pretty easy, though (I’m taking it right now).
this might be a stupid question, then, but does 9 vs 10 AP classes make a difference? @eyrar99
what is the average amount of APs I should even have?? arghhh stress
@SugarSmarts Agh I don’t know… I think I’ll have about 9-10 APs, too. Since APES is generally considered easy, colleges might be less impressed? I really don’t know! Does anyone else have ideas??
@SugarSmarts usually, if enough AP’s are offered at your school, top schools will want ~10 total (still though, it depends on how many other people in your grade take, and on the course rigor overall), but the difference between 9 and 10 is quite negligible and I doubt they’d see any difference between APES and Spanish 6. If I were you, I’d just take what I enjoy the most.
@blackkitteycat I’m from FL too! I think none of the FL colleges have their prompts out yet : / also, none of them are common app. But UF’s are usually pretty strange and I doubt they’ll keep the last year ones, and I think the optional UCF one is just why are you applying. I have no idea about FSU or any of the other colleges.
Penn definitely felt more spread out than Columbia. Philly is a great city with lots of museums and stuff to do; my parents and I got cheesesteaks at Abner’s beforehand which was a blast. One of my favorite art museums, the Barnes Foundation, is nearby. I visited Penn on the coldest day of the winter and there weren’t many students out and about. Locust Walk is really pretty all lit up at night. The buildings were gorgeous but for some reason the tour guide did not let us go into any of them. I guess it was a security concern; I didn’t really see myself there. The tour at Columbia was much better and more interactive. I think I got a better sense of Columbia, especially since I stayed with my friend overnight. I saw two classes; they were amazing and my friend’s dorm was really nice. She took me to a party at a frat and it was so fun. (There were lots of Barnard girls there too.) It was probably the nicest frat house I’d ever seen; it looked like a brownstone. I’m also a huge fan of Morningside Heights. Grocery store with an awesome salad bar, places for coffee and bubble tea all over the place (I’m a huge caffeine girl.) Barnard is right across the street. A lot tinier, but just as fun. The dorms are nice, the cafeteria is pretty good, and I adore the coffee place they have on their campus. I love it at Barnard; I’m definitely planning on applying to both Barnard and Columbia. Oh, also the Columbia/Barnard subway stop is so convenient. You can get practically anywhere in the city pretty easily.