Where else did you apply and why Chicago?

unalove
Tue, 13 Aug 2013 23:22:45 +0000

Once upon a time my crossover schools were mid-size universities attached to large cities. I was also considering:

-Hopkins (good program for one of my intended majors)
-Northwestern (ditto)
-Tufts (because I couldn’t find something not to like about it)

in state honors college safety

I felt lukewarm about those schools relative to how I felt about Chicago, got in EA, finances worked out, laid down my deposit the next day. (But back then it was mailed in.)

In retrospect, I didn’t do my college search “the right way,” but I also didn’t agonize over it anywhere nearly as one may think based on my post history. Knowing what I know now about myself, my college list would probably look like the following:

Colleges with distinct programs within my prospective majors and intellectual communities:
Carleton
Bryn Mawr
Smith College
MIT
UC Berkeley

Colleges with intellectual communities, without distinctive programs in my majors of interest:
Reed
Swarthmore (though that has changed a bit, I think, based on some of their more recent faculty hires, they’ve become stronger towards areas of interest for me)
Brown

Colleges with a “what the hey” factor, that I probably should have given a bit of a closer look to:
Emory
Duke
Wesleyan