Thoughts about Statistics, Misconceptions, and Stupidity in Admissions

greeniguana00
Tue, 30 Mar 2010 02:22:05 +0000

Update!

I was rejected after being deferred, which crushed me tremendously for a period of time. My two best alternate schools were University of Warwick (in the UK) and NYU (New York University). I chose NYU. (I’ll go over the process of decision in a bit).

I’m in my freshman year right now, just finishing up my second semester. I have a 3.925 GPA, which is pretty nifty. I’m double majoring in Mathematics and Philosophy. Next year, I am going to start taking graduate courses in math. Because of AP coursework, I was able to place out of a huge number of core requirements.

Now, how did I make my decision to go to NYU, and how did I come to terms with not being at UChicago? To put it shortly, I didn’t! I refuted everything I said in my original post up there. I was extremely upset at the unfairness of it all, especially when people less intelligent than me were getting in over me. More importantly, I was perfect for UChicago! So much more than those other fools! To put it succinctly, it really sucks not to be admitted.

Moreover, it has a profound affect on your future. It will end up being one of the most influential moments of my life. Honestly, I belong at UChicago. UChicago is filled with people like me: people as intelligent as I am, who have the same intellectual spirit as me, who are as academically interested as I am. I simply belong there more than anywhere else. I certainly don’t belong here at NYU.

However, what I didn’t realize is that “belongingness” is only one way in which a college can affect your life. While UChicago would have provided belongingness and the prestige associated with a top-ten school, it certainly wouldn’t have provided the things NYU offers. Here’s how NYU is having a positive affect on my life in a way UChicago couldn’t:

1) I have huge amount of academic freedom. I only had five core requirements after AP exemptions, and only four after deciding to major in philosophy. UChicago isn’t so kind.
2) I can learn philosophy from professors in the #1 ranked department in the country. This just makes me feel good to be here. I am, in effect, taking advantage of as much prestige as I can get my hands on, which counteracts not getting into UChicago - at least psychologically.
3) I can learn math in the #8 ranked department in the country, without any competition from other students. This is incredibly important. The department is very open to allowing advanced students to take full advantage of graduate courses. Since there aren’t that many dedicated math majors, there is immense freedom for those who are. UChicago, on the other hand, has a much more structured math program for undergraduates, as a huge percentage are math majors.
4) I can be in the honors program. They flew us to Florence for a week, which was pretty nice. They hold special lectures and events and such for the honors program. It’s nice to be recognized. At UChicago, I would have been another in the crowd (as much as that would have made me “belong”).
5) I learned REALLY quickly that I am responsible for myself. The rejection process certainly helped to this end. Also, NYU is one of the most individualistic colleges, ever. There is little to no sense of a “community”, and it became abundantly clear to me that without figuring things out for myself, there was no predefined path for me to follow. NYU especially operates on a “resource” model, which is essentially: “we provide resources, you use them”. And it has a lot of great resources, but you walk in completely unaware of how to use them, or what they even are. No one guides you, and there aren’t even rules to follow on how to go about things. Lacking any sort of structure, it becomes necessary to form a structure for yourself. Hence, personal responsibility.
6) I was introduced to real diversity, not manufactured diversity. NYU is a weird bunch. There are intelligent people who want to stay up late talking about philosophy (as at UChicago). However, there are also kids in business school. There are kids in Tisch for acting or directing. There are kids in the nursing school. There are morons, and hardcore druggies, and interesting experiences on the weekends. It’s honestly nice to be around people who care about other things more than academics, even if I personally care more about academics.
7) I have nothing to fall back on as an excuse for failure. I’m in a relatively easy school, with little academic competition. With this at the back of my mind, I am forced to define for myself what achievement is. It’s not the university I go to, or how I am doing relative to those around me, but what I do. This is incredibly important to develop at some point in your life.

Notice how these all begin with “I”? This is because college is a selfish act. When you are looking for qualities of a college, you should always list them in terms of their relation to yourself. For example, this is a bad way to phrase a quality: “NYU has an extensive study-abroad system, with satellite campuses across the world.” It’s true, but it’s misleading. I don’t want to study abroad! You don’t go to a college because that college has great qualities, but because it offers you great opportunities.

It comes down to this. There are a number of ways I could objectively say, “Uchicago is better than NYU”. But I’d have a hard time saying that NYU provides me fewer opportunities. If anything, I am being offered more opportunities, in exchange for a bit less prestige and a bit less belongingness. This is why, despite having a nice GPA and some good potential recommendations, I decided against applying to transfer. I even started writing the supplementary essay, but it wasn’t even worth the cost of the application to try. I couldn’t lose the academic freedom.