Need Help Deciding: UCSD vs William & Mary vs Mount Holyoke vs Keio/Waseda (Japan) [international student for US universities]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Hi everyone! I would really appreciate your advice. I’m an international student (Japanese-Chinese mixed, Japanese nationality) and I’m deciding between several universities in the U.S. and Japan. Here’s a bit about my situation:

:graduation_cap: My Acceptances:

  • UCSD
  • UCSB
  • UCD
  • UCI
  • William & Mary
  • Mount Holyoke College ($15,000/year scholarship)
  • North Carolina State University
  • Rutgers
  • Ohio State
  • University of Maryland
  • University of Minnesota Twin Cities
  • University of Pittsburgh
  • Brandeis (Waitlist)

:japan: Also accepted to Keio University SCF (Faculty of Environment and Information Studies) and Waseda (GIGA Program) in Japan.

:books: About Me:

  • Still undecided on major, but leaning toward science (e.g. environmental science, physics and Chemistry), though I also love the humanities (anthropology, international relationsm,Business,Economy , etc.).
  • Might apply to U.S. grad school in the future.
  • Open to switching majors in the future.

:thought_balloon: Current thoughts:

  • UCSD: Leaning towards it because of the great weather, reputation, and strong STEM programs. But I’m concerned about large class sizes, difficulty getting classes, trouble switching majors, and limited professor interaction due to being a big public school.
  • Mount Holyoke: Love the small class sizes and access to the Five College Consortium. Seems like a great place to explore different fields. But I’m worried about name recognition and opportunities after graduation.
  • William & Mary: Similar to Mount Holyoke—strong academics and undergrad focus, but slightly better known. Not sure how good it is for science though?
  • Keio/Waseda (Japan): Keio SCF looks interesting and staying in Japan would be more affordable. Recognition in Japan is strong, and I have Japanese nationality. But I worry about academic flexibility, quality of education compared to top U.S. schools, and grad school options abroad. Also not sure if I can change majors.

Also, I’m considering the possibility of transferring in the future if I find a school that’s a better fit academically or personally. So I’m also thinking about how each school might support that flexibility.

:folded_hands: I’d love to hear from anyone who went to these schools or faced a similar choice. Which would you choose and why? Long-term goal is still a bit unclear but I’d like to keep my options open for research, science, maybe even policy or international work.

Thanks so much for reading!

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W&M is very strong in sciences.

Can you afford all?

You’re asking about “flexibility” to transferring - in that case, you go to community college - one that has agreements with four year schools for transferability of classes.

Otherwise, you risk classes you took not transferring to the new school.

More importantly, if you attend planning to leave, you might not have a good year since you have one foot out the door.

As for Mt. Holyoke, you have the 5 Sisters - but do you really? There’s transportation issues, etc. - yes, they’ll get you to the others but they’re not close. 10 miles, etc.

For the US schools you noted, combo of weather and smaller classes, I think W&M is your best bet.

Go to section I3 of the common data set for each.

At W&M, 97 of 1134 classes are 50 or more.

Holyoke is 5 of 478 and 304 of 478 are 10-19 kids - so that’s impressive. At W&M the same is 360 of 1134.

UCSD has 480 of 1855 50+. 393 of 1855 are 10-19 kids.

I can’t speak to the overseas schools.

Best of luck to you.

Common Data Elements:

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One big picture thought for you. In the US, maybe more so than most countries, it is not uncommon for a college to be very good for natural sciences and math, but not offer much of anything in terms of engineering or other tech stuff. With the possible exception of CS and DS, which may have grown out of a Math department.

So William & Mary and Mount Holyoke are both in that sort of tradition. And I would not hesitate to recommend them for your sort of science interests combined with interests in humanities as well. Indeed, I dare say drawing connections like that is sort of their specialty.

Now if you were interested in engineering, it would be a different situation. But I just thought briefly discussing this tradition in the US might help you understand what these colleges do very well.

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Yes, W&M don’t have their own engineering program, but they do have a decent sized CS department - there are are 30 TT/Tenured/FT faculty in the department. Their Carnegie classification has also just been changed to R1 (it was an R2 before that).

@Unknownpopcorn I see your problem. Every single one of the colleges to which you have been accepted to is excellent in one of the fields that you’re interested in. For example, UMN, UCD, NCSU are at the very top for environmental science.

If you are looking for recognition of colleges at grad schools and employers in the USA, there is little difference between any of your colleges. All have excellent reputations among grad schools and employers.

Mt Holyoke is a LAC, and my kid, who graduated from a LAC, and wasn’t at all hampered in her career in science by that.

However, it really depends on the direction you are looking at.

In many ways, MHC or W&M may be the best choice for you because it’s easier to change your major in these colleges, and you are undecided.

However, because academically and reputation-wise all of these colleges are excellent, you really need to either think of what you want to study, what the education looks like (class size, lab facilities, who is teaching, availability of advanced classes for undergraduates, availability of research experience for undergraduates, etc), or non-academic factors like the location, the weather, the students, the social life, etc.

There are no wrong answers here.

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Difficult to make recommendation since you have not shared why you applied to each of these schools.

I am a bit confused as you prefer UC-San Diego due, in part, to the weather, yet you have several cold weather schools on your list.

William & Mary and UC-SD are both highly respected universities. The remaining schools on your list are all excellent schools as well.

Mount Holyoke is an all female school; either you prefer a single sex school or you don’t.

To how many US colleges and universities did you apply ?

Did you have specific reasons for applying to these schools and, if so,are those reasons still valid ?

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