<p>Okay–although I don’t exactly agree with your methodology–since trips to the school would be preferable, I guess this is one of the few ways to decide when trips (apparently) are unavailable.</p>
<p>Looking at your methodology, I see a trend here:</p>
<p>Group 1–University of Virginia
Group 2–USC, NYU, UC Berkeley, Cornell, UIUC (Illinois)
Group 3–Washington Univ in St. Louis, Indiana Univ, BYU, Georgetown</p>
<p>Plus you said you applied to 12 schools, were rejected from Texas, and (probably also Wharton), leaving the 10 schools above.</p>
<p>Let’s consider for the moment that any school in one of these groupings is essentially equivalent to the other for purposes of getting an accounting degree, prestige-wise and career-wise.</p>
<p>Now, let’s add three more considerations:</p>
<p>1–Cost to you (Cost minus free financial aid–loans don’t count)
2–Location where you want to live and work (will you be locating near one of these schools, or do you plan to move to New York, Boston, Chicago, or LA upon graduation?)
3–Does rural versus metropolitan matter?</p>
<p>If you don’t mind rural, money doesn’t matter and you plan to move after graduation, then Virginia, UIUC, and Cornell move up the list.</p>
<p>If metropolitan is your thing and you don’t want to move later–but want to be where there are already positions to be had where you can do internships, then USC, NYU, and UC Berkeley should be your choices.</p>
<p>Once you’ve narrowed it down to these two groups (rural versus metro), then consider the pros and cons of each–do you still need to reapply for the business school (you do at Virginia and UC Berkeley, but not at the others). </p>
<p>Do I want a very organized business program that is considered the best program at the school?–it is at Virginia, USC, NYU, and, to a point, at UC Berkeley, but not so much at Cornell and UIUC–which are much more focused on engineering.</p>
<p>Do I want a school with extracurricular athletics–or mostly academics? Obviously, all of these schools but NYU have big athletic programs–while NYU is academic only and has almost nothing in the athletics area.</p>
<p>Do I feel comfortable in a large diverse group of students–or do I need to be in a school that has a large group that is mostly my ethnic background? UC Berkeley is about 70% Asian, USC and NYU and UC Berkeley have more international students than the other schools percentage-wise, and UIUC is mostly white. The largest Hispanic population is at USC. I have no idea which school has the largest black population.</p>
<p>Do I plan to attend this same school for a graduate program?–If so, you should probably attend somewhere near you plan to locate permanently.</p>
<p>I’m sure there are many more questions that can be asked–and upon which you can base your decision. And you may even not like some of the ones I’ve listed above (I’m sure some people might consider me bigoted just for mentioning the one about diversity–and I would encourage people to be open-minded about mixing with other cultures and ethnicities, but I do agree with those who say that students study better where they feel comfortable). </p>
<p>Anyway, best of luck to you with your decision. I’m sure you’ll pick the best place for you after sorting out all the factors.</p>
