Honors Colleges

EarthyEngineer
Wed, 20 Nov 2013 23:29:33 +0000

Hey Everyone,

I’m a pretty high aspiring student (valedictorian of my school, lots of ECs, attended Conserve School for a semester during my sophomore year, taking BC Calculus as a Junior, loaded up on science, all honors or AP, taking ACT in December and predicting around a 32-33, varsity downhill ski race team since freshman year and will probably be captain this year and next, etc), though I still have an active social life, and desire one in college. I want to go into Environmental Engineering, and seek either a masters or PhD.

I’m really struggling to choose where I’d like to go to college. I was originally looking at places like Stanford and MIT, but I’ve realized I can’t really afford them, and they are sooo massively competitive to get in. Now I’m looking at CU-Boulder, and University of Vermont (among several others). I’m confident I would enjoy myself at these schools, but would I be doing myself a disservice by attending a university of that caliber rather than a higher ranking one? That is my concern. I’m from Wisconsin, so OOS, but I’m hoping that I’d qualify for some big merit scholarships to make the cost manageable.

My next question is about the honors colleges within these universities. They certainly have their perks (like nice resident halls, priority registration, etc) but I’m concerned they would affect my social life. As important as my academic education is to me, I think that as an undergrad (I fully intend to continue to graduate school) being social is just as important. Would joining these honors colleges damage my social potential? Pardon my frankness, but I’m concerned that I would be surrounded by “overly-academic and underly-social” students. Is this a valid concern?

I really appreciate people’s advice on this, as I’m struggling to figure it all out.

Thanks so much!