<p>I tried talking to my parents about money, several times, but they just keep telling me not to worry about it. Since I apparently shouldn’t be worried, I think it’s safe to assume that my assets are at least enough to cover the gap between the cost of Chicago and the amount my parents can pay out of pocket. I know that the financial stuff is a much, much bigger deal than the visiting, but since they aren’t talking to me about it, and Colorado would at least be slightly discounted, even if extra trips add up, Colorado would be worth a visit. If I don’t like Colorado, then Vermont becomes my financial safety. </p>
<p>If I could make intelligent decisions based on all the facts, I would. I can’t because my parents won’t talk to me about financials. I think they consider it above me head, or at least my dad does. My mom doesn’t know much more than I do (she and I have a much better relationship most of the time)</p>
<p>I would spend some time looking at the college catalogs for the schools and reading about the courses that are offered and see if anything piques your interest. My daughter was admitted EA to Chicago, but she was not interested in the tiny LACs at all. I remember the barrage of booklets and other mailings from Chicago. For my daughter, it was as if they were written to her. It was incredible how each mailing touched her. She had also made a very short visit to campus and loved it. If you don 't feel that way(and I would add that my daughter did not really have the I have to go there feeling about any school), it would be nice to be able to visit. Good luck.</p>
<p>OK, well, I was thrown off by the $100K debt reference.</p>
<p>So it still comes down to whether your parents would pay for you attend Colorado over Chicago. </p>
<p>You need to figure out the logistics of traveling to Colorado on your own – including time of travel, cost of travel, etc. – and how you are going to fit your travel around your current school schedule. After you’ve figured out that, then you can ask for permission from your parents for the trip you are planning & paying for. In the meantime you can use other online resources to learn more about the schools. </p>
<p>Visits can sometimes be misleading, so even though its nice to visit, its not absolutely necessary. You actually may do better with MD Mom’s suggestion of perusing the course catalogs – and if the colleges have the info online, I’d encourage looking at actual schedules for course enrollment and availability. Not all of the courses listed in the catalog are offered consistently.</p>
<p>You need to visit any school you are thinking of attending. Four years is a long time to spend in a place you don’t like and isn’t a good fit.<br>
The University of Chicago is very different from the other schools you have listed. You may not like the urban feel or the intensity of the students. It’s a great, great school. But people still turn them down if the fit isn’t there.</p>
<p>I agree that visiting is really important, at least for me. I’ve found on other trips that visits definitely affect my opinion of a school - not necessarily from the info. session or the tour guide, but more from just being on the campus. For example, I loved Columbia (rejected ED) but hated NYU. Liked Wesleyan enough to apply; took Amherst off my list completely. Hated Princeton, like Brown; liked Reed, didn’t like Hampshire. My list is truly all over the place in terms of type and feel.
calmom- I have figured out the logistics. I went to my mom earlier: This is a $250 flight into Denver, and this is a a flight into CS for the same price. Denver is direct; CS is not - These are the days I want to go, these are the classes I’d be missing, I’ve emailed m regional rep. to ask her about an overnight…I still got shot down.</p>
<p>redpoint - Yes, I have 6 other RD decisions coming in.</p>
<p>MD Mom - I already do have wonderful choices! The thing that I’m worried about is that there’s not a whole lot of time to make a decision between April 1 and May 1, whereas right now I have Jan, Feb, and March. I have a full course load, with multiple APs, and I’m going to have a major research paper due in the last week of April, so since I already know I’m accepted to CC and I’m not going to stop being interested in the school, I’d like to get the visit done now to lessen stress down the line, that’s all</p>
<p>“I loved Columbia (rejected ED) Liked Wesleyan enough to apply, like Brown; liked Reed”</p>
<p>OK, tell us WHAT you loved or liked about Columbia, Reed & Brown.
I’m sure you know Chicago is SIMILAR to Columbia because both have the “Core”, and Reed has its own Core. My gut tells me you would also love Chicago or Reed, because of the types of students that those 2 colleges attract ,[ did you know that Reed has a larger % of graduates go on to earn PhD’s than any other LAC? </p>
<p>You are NOT going to find a lot of students like your self at Colorado. </p>
<p>For my money, I dont think Colorado is a good college for someone smart enough to get into Chicago EA, AND is interested in learning for the sake of learning, especially if you do hope to go on to grad school. I sure dont think it is worth considering in comparison to Chicago, even with a 10K scholarship per year.</p>
<p>Columbia: I’m definitely more humanities oriented, although I like certain sciences. I want to take a wide variety of classes. I’m the kind of person who really doesn’t like not knowing things, thus I’d like to be able to be well versed in a variety of topics, so I can hold a conversation on just about anything (one of the reasons I read the NYTimes every morning). I don’t feel one way or another about the Core, since those are classes that I would be excited to take regardless of requirements. I loved Columbia’s campus, as having an actually campus is important to me, but I’ve always loved NYC. One of the impressions that I got from my visit was that Columbia is an globally focused university. That may just be because it’s in a major city, but I felt like there was a lot of energy that I really liked about the school. I guess I felt like it was less about hiding on a campus for 4 years and more about being involved. </p>
<p>Reed - Visited when my flight back home was canceled and I had a few days to kill. I loved Portland, and loved the campus. It felt a little small, but the student body seemed pretty energetic and I liked the fact that it was near a city but with a lot of access to the outdoors. I sat in the admissions office and read senior theses for about 2 hours and I was just blown away by the ideas that the students had, and how eloquently they could make their argument. I’m not as “quirky” as some of the students seemed to be, but I’m a pretty flexible person so I think I could find my niche. I wasn’t put off by the partially naked students “welcoming” freshmen (it happened to be the first day of classes).</p>
<p>Brown - I liked it enough to apply…liked the campus, liked the people I met. I wasn’t really blown away by anything. It’s the Ivy version of my HS, so I know I’d have a great time there. It’s not that different from what I know. Nothing really stands out, good or bad. </p>
<p>Wesleyan - I was very impressed by the sciences there, loved my tour guide, and loved the library (hey don’t laugh, the architecture of the library is really important! I’m going to spend a lot of time there!). I was not a fan of the town. I did like their student center and their big hill.</p>
<p>Sometimes I feel like I have 2 different identities - on one hand, I’m a serious student, but on the other hand, I like to chill out on my friend’s back porch. I even have 2 different sets of friends…my school friends and my neighborhood friends. They would hate each other if they ever met. School friends are strait-laced, pretty sheltered (they joke about it) aiming for top schools; neighborhood friends would rather sit around a bonfire and smoke a joint (not that I participate, I promise!) Part of what I’m looking for in a school is a student body that will have both types of people. I’m not Type A go-go-go all the time, but I’m not a total bum either.</p>
<p>Just wanted to mention something you might want to consider…we know 2 students who went to Colorado College…one loved it and flourished there. </p>
<p>The other eventually transferred out…</p>
<p>.While the one-class-at-a -time sounded great on paper, she ended up not liking it in reality. When she was taking classes that were not her passion (gen eds, prereqs, etc) she REALLY disliked it. She also felt that sometimes it was a long time between taking classes that she really wanted and she felt that there was a lack of cohesion in the curriculum.</p>
<p>Over time, she also began to feel that the school was just too small…and that the unique attributes of CC actually made it seem even smaller.</p>
<p>Of course, this is just a very small sample…but just some things for you to think about in making your decision.</p>
<p>Am I wrong in believing you really DO like UChicago? As I recall, you are (rightly) concerned about finances and incurring debt if you attended that college. However, your parents seem to have set their mind on Chicago and have told you not to worry about the finances. If this is the case, and you are not fully aware of their assets, why don’t you sit them down. Tell them, you’ll go to Chicago as long as you will not graduate with significant debt. You have several idealistic goals (Peace Corps, travel,etc.) that will not be lucrative in the post-graduation years.</p>
<p>Maybe this type of negotiation will make everybody happy. You get to attend a prestigious university without the worry of post-graduate debt; they get to say their son went to UChicago.</p>
<p>Sorry if I am being bold here. I am trying to find a Win-Win situation for all involved.</p>
<p>“Part of what I’m looking for in a school is a student body that will have both types of people.”</p>
<p>You will find equally smart students who enjoy BOTH learning for the sake of learning AND chilling with fellow students at Chicago, Reed or Brown, trust me.
At Colorado, or any lower ranked, less highly academic LAC, you will be hard pressed to find enough of the former to keep you intellectually stimulated over 4 years. And you will find that will be VERY important over the next 4 years.</p>
<p>DS was accepted at many top U’s [Chicago, Brown, Wash U, ]and LAC’s [Pomona], but choose to go to his “safety” U, for a number of good reasons- a full tuition scholarship, a very strong program in the field he was very interested in, and he knew he would be applying to grad schools in the future. That said, he did have a HARD time over the first 2 years finding his intellectual peers, and this was at a U with 12,000 UGs. </p>
<p>He is now finally really happy at a top academic institution for his Phd [CalTech] , and has quickly found his intellectual peers are all normal, smart, nice kids who are fun to hang out with too.!</p>
<p>Given the type of student you are and your intellectual chops/ abilities, I think your parents may be correct in thinking CC is not worth the plane trip. </p>
<p>For the 2011 accepted class, U Chicago has the highest # of National Merit Finalists 's of any college or university, even Harvard [ 261 vrs 259 for H]
The U my son went to has the 3rd highest # of NMF’s- 250
Brown has 78
CC has 11.
that should really tell you something…</p>
<p>@menloparkmom: I thought The University of Alabama was trying to win the race for NMFs.</p>
<p>@shootingsilver: People rarely regret things they have done, but regret the things they haven’t done. Please ask your parents for the opportunity to visit CC, so you can see for yourself what it is and isn’t. If they don’t trust your judgement how can they possibly expect you to mature into an adult ready to make good decisions?</p>
<p>“If they don’t trust your judgement how can they possibly expect you to mature into an adult ready to make good decisions”</p>
<p>Given how much a 17 year old still has to grow and experience in order to develop “good judgement” , I doubt his parents think he lacks “good judgement”, just wisdom that comes from experience.
I know my 24 year old is a lot wiser now than he was a 17. And he knows now how much he did NOT know back then…</p>
<p>I wanted to add that it sounds like you are very mature and will definitely be the type of person to “bloom where you are planted.” I have read several of your posts (and am still unsure whether you are female or male --not that it really matters.) I am relatively certain you are going to be very successful. You remind me alot of a much younger self. I hope that you and your parents come to a successful agreement on which college you should attend. I have an inkling that no matter where you end up-- you will be wildly successful. I really wish you the best.</p>
<p>good point menloparkmom, but it’s tough to make decisions without all the information.</p>
<p>uc 57k x4
trip to cc less than 500</p>
<p>but everyone parents differently and every child is different
I’m footing the bill for a trip for DD to visit a college I could not imagine she would be happy attending, but she is the kind of child that needs all the facts in front of her. so be it.</p>
The thing that I’m worried about is that there’s not a whole lot of time to make a decision between April 1 and May 1, whereas right now I have Jan, Feb, and March. I have a full course load, with multiple APs, and I’m going to have a major research paper due in the last week of April, so since I already know I’m accepted to CC and I’m not going to stop being interested in the school, I’d like to get the visit done now to lessen stress down the line, that’s all</p>