Thank you so much for taking the time to research and post this!
The pods seem interesting!!!
I am not out-going enough to join a fraternity though… Since I was accepted to Turing, I, too, am a nerd to an extent… By out-going, I didn’t really mean like drinking out-going, but more simply people who also are interested in discourse/debate in the humanities with other students…
I wanted students who possessed an intellectual vitality to appreciate history, literature, international diplomacy, and social studies equally as much as CS. I wanted students with a wider interest…
(Don’t say Plan II!!! I missed the friggin’ deadline!!! :()
At Turing, everyone seemed pegged to the STEM, which is certainly fine… it shows their dedication and commitment…
I, on the other hand, believe that the humanities have stuff to teach that is equally as valuable as CS… Heck, I don’t even have a research paper in CS… but I have quite a few papers in History…
Also, about your money thing about going to Stanford and other top schools, I would like to offer another perspective.
Some people like me probably don’t obtain happiness through the tangibles. There is so much more to life than that kind of transient happiness that money can buy you. I would happily go to Stanford and graduate $300k in debt if I could have their well-rounded(in the humanities and STEM) and fast-paced(they have quarters, and you end up taking 12 more classes than you would under the traditional semester system) classes… The culture there is also really awesome… a really diverse bunch of people… Certainly not racially and sexually skewed…
In addition, Stanford students seem less nerdy, too… they seem to have more jocks…
I am definitely not saying UT is bad… I am simply saying that UT is too in for merit; schools like Stanford have a healthy balance between merit and diversity… I like the latter, but I can see why most people in this forum are in for the former… because most of you guys are relatively well-off, you don’t understand that those who are less well-off have more obligations that they need to cater to(like work, cooking, cleaning, laundry…), and this presents an impediment because you now have less time to discover a passion. When schools like UT consider applicants entirely based on merit, less well-off applicants have a lesser shot of being accepted… Whereas schools like Stanford consider applicants’ personal context very carefully(although they still only accept about 15% Pell Grant recipients)…
I mean, we are human beings and will thus axiomatically have different opinions… this is just what I believe…
UT is certainly GREAT!!! TURING is GREAT too!!! Just not a fit for me… I kinda(just a lil bit) wish I wasn’t accepted because I am so friggin’ hesitant to change my major… I mean, I wanna switch to biochem or bio… but I can’t because my honors status will drop… hhhhhhh… oh… Even if I could retain the honors status, the INTERNSHIPS and CHALLENGING CLASSES makes me loath to drop Turing… Why did pro. Lin accept me? My resume sucks…
Thanks for letting me whine guys! I owe u guys one! I’ll listen to you guys whine so please whine in reply!!!