As a graduating senior I can confidently say this school sucks. They make it seem like it’s some magical liberal arts place but the school is the most greedy corporation I’ve seen. During my time they have increased tuition at least 4% every year since 2015 going from 50k to 70k. From what I’ve seen this money isn’t going toward students at all. In my time here they have taken away many benefits/perks. The food quality has gotten consistently worse over the years and has gotten more expensive. Freshmen year going to the dinning hall without meal swipes costed around 14.63$ for dinner. Now it’s almost 21$. They force freshmen to buy unlimited meal swipes for the first year totaling around 400 swipes per semester and only give them 6 guest swipes for their friends. It’s is almost impossible to go through them all because they limit the amount you can use. And all dining halls close at 9 but really 8:30. The only other place you can get food on campus after these times is at the cafe that doesn’t take meal swipes.

Don’t even get me started about the dorms. This year there has been mold in most dorms. I’m on an athletic team here and several of my underclassmen teammates have had to move out and go to other dorms. They haven’t done shit about this and residential life was extremely slow in moving people out. It took one of my teammates two weeks to hear back from them and another week to finally move into a new place. They lived in a mold infested room for almost a month.

The only thing that matters here is your grade and there is rampant cheating in every class I’ve been in. I have taken many classes and gone to the front of the room to ask a question during a test and the amount of phones I’ve seen under desks is insane. I estimate about half of the students here have cheated in someway. Teachers are also almost never in there office unless it’s during their required 1 hour of office hours a week. (Shoutout to Proctor who was always there and would help every student).

I can go on and on about several things but as someone who genuinely enjoyed learning before this school it has completely killed my motivation to put an effort into my classes. Every semester I dreaded coming back and I’m so glad I’m getting out.

I’m sure this was not everyone’s experience don’t get me wrong the people here are great and I have many life long friends. But this happens at every school. I would not subject anyone to this torture.

I know I was kinda late and many people made their college decisions yesterday but seeing people make posts about where they are going reminded me about when I first got in here and my dreams and ambitions got killed by this school.

If this helps even one person not come here I’m glad. Screw tufts.

(Made on mobile sorry if formatting was bad)
(Also made on my throw away)

so my parents make abt 400k a year combined and i just found out that in my 17 years of life they never once thought to set up a college fund for me. they also recently told me that they cant help me to pay for ANYTHING.

what are some schools that offer good aid/merit considering my situation.. i live in california and realistically ill need to stay instate but my delusional dream is to go to the east coast hahahahahahahahahhaah

basic stats
asian female, intended biology major
3.90 UW, 4.55 W
1500 SAT superscore (760 RW, 740 M)
IB diploma program

Upvote to get into your dream ivy today

How are we all feeling?

Don’t get me wrong, these are absolutely great colleges, and if you can go with financial aid or instate they are an absolute steal. However, what is the appeal of those schools if you have great colleges in-state like UT Austin, UW Madison, UCs etc?

Finance and consulting are like the only mainstream careers where college prestige matters, but none of the colleges I mentioned are target schools. Other than UCLA, they aren’t really known to have great social lives or locations either. Why are middle class families willing to spend $400k to send their kids to go to these colleges? They’re great for engineering, but the difference in outcome for engineering grads from these colleges vs state flag ships are negligible based on my personal anecdotes. I have a sibling at JHU, and from her experience, the education quality there is barely better than publics. A lot of professors are still focused on research and don’t give a shit about undergrads

Edit: when I say middle class, I’m mainly talking about upper middle class people who don’t get aid but also don’t make enough money to afford that tuition without second thought (mid six figures range)

Edit: for those saying I’m salty, I go to Columbia and my sister went to JHU

Edit: for the people who can’t read, I literally said I’m talking about people without scholarships/aid paying full price

I feel like I keep forming opinions about colleges based on rankings, Reddit, websites, etc., and then I’ll hear one person talk about their actual experience and suddenly have a completely different impression of the school.

So I’m curious: what college did you expect to dislike / not care about / think was overrated, but then ended up being way better than you expected?

Or the opposite: a school you were really excited about that ended up not being what you expected?

I’m especially interested in the why. Was it the people, campus culture, location, academics, social life, professors, outdoors, etc.?

Could be a college you attend, visited, or just got to know through friends.

They’re dedicated to undergraduate students, but they’re rarely in the same conversation at T20 or even T30 universities? Schools like Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, Bowdoin, Pomona, and more have single-digit acceptance rates and insane stats for their admitted class, yet they’re rarely mentioned. Schools like W&L, Colgate, Richmond, Davidson, and Wesleyan have tremendous career outcomes too. What gives?

Everyone on these subs is insane and seems a little out of touch to most students applying to college. What do you think a good example of an actual average university is (it’s not something where the average act is 30+ like this sub seems to think).

My example: Illinois State

I got a call yesterday from admissions at a top 10 school (I won’t say which bc this ended up being a super open conversation and I do not want them to get in trouble so do not bother asking). Ended up having a longish chat during which I expressed a bit of surprise that they were interested in me bc of “the insane acceptance rates”. Here’s what they said:

You know, I probably shouldn’t say this, but the numbers aren’t entirely representative. Such a large number of applications are never even reviewed. Either they don’t have a complete application (missing essays, missing test scores or letters or other information etc), or they are just so far out of range it’s is obvious they took a random shot, or they put in their application some version of please don’t admit me I’m only applying bc my parents made me. Schools probably shouldn’t count these but they do to make the numbers better. For a school at 3-4% acceptance, that is really more like 10-15% sometimes higher. Some years the pool is actually quite small.

Just sharing with this group bc I know we are all obsessed with every detail of this nightmarish process.

And no I’m not a super cracked candidate but I guess (turns out) I have a unique area of interest and accomplishments in that niche space that I had assumed would not get me noticed. Maybe that “genuine passion” thing is real?

A couple of months ago I posted that I had a 3.2 GPA and a 1400 SAT and asked for genuine advice. Most of the responses told me I was “cooked” and should just go to community college. I don’t know what’s wrong with people on here, but since then I’ve been accepted to UT, Texas A&M, and UIUC.

Believe in yourself and don’t let random people on the internet define your potential.

Look, me and my parents are immigrants. We moved to the US when I was in 5th grade or so so no we do not in fact have decades worth of college savings

However, does everyone else have it? Am I missing something? Or are people just taking out huge loans? Are their parents just rich?

I had a talk with my classmates and it really does not seem like going to college is affordable for anyone. Most of my friends are either middle class or upper middle class income so they get screwed by FAFSA just like me. But I see so many people from my school commiting to such expensive schools and then complaining about how expensive they are.

The amounts they have to pay seem pretty absurd. I know a couple people with rich parents who can prob afford it but most people at my hs are kinda in a similar situation to where I'm at with college.

So like, what's going on? I sound clueless because I genuinely am just like my parents are because neither of us really understand why you would go into absurd debt (like 40 or 50k a year based on what I hear people here doing) over undergrad unless there is something we are missing and there is some secret money trick that we are just not aware of. Would it not be better to just commit to a local school or go to cc and transfer? Do these people really value college that much that they are willing to pay for it for the rest of their life despite the fact that it doesn't even guarantee you a job?

Recently I made a post here about picking between 6k a yr GMU vs 50k a yr UVA basically, and I'm pretty solid on GMU. It was not a hard pick for me. But for some people here it is and they choose the debt????? Why?????

And look, I value education. I took 15 APs in high school and have a 4.5. I worked hard in at school, yet despite that I still have to pay absurd amounts of money to continue my studies. UVA/vt did not offer me any merit scholarships. Apparently I am not first gen or wtv so I suck and now I gotta pay the full price of tuition. I'm barely even an adult yet. It's just strange. But whatever. The main thing confusing me here is how the hell people are paying for college and if nothing about their situation is significantly different from mine then what could possibly be the motivation for choosing to sell an arm to attend a school for 4 years not even fully knowing what it will actually end up offering you in terms of job prospects

I know this post is messy but it's 5 am and I'm a lil pissed
Edit: to clarify, I am not "complaining" about my situation here. I'm kind of half pissed at people at my school and anyone who dunks on schools just bc of their high acceptance rates, furthermore the reason GMU is inexpensive for me is due to the fact that I can commute and save on food plans and such, and I got a scholarship that isn't much but still adds to it I guess. Otherwise i'd be kinda cooked which begs the question of what was the point of me working hard in hs if I still have to pay so much for schools like VT and UVA which whole good schools aren't rly worth 200k imo. I expected at least a bit of merit money (although now I know they don't give much which is also kinda diabolical)

Most people want to go to colleges with warm weather so I'm having a little trouble finding colleges that have imo great winters or for normal people colleges with the worst winters. I would prefer extremely snowy and cold winters

Edit: No Alaska please

Edit edit: Thanks for all the suggestions!

I got accepted into Stanford and Harvard but I would be full pay and paying more than 100k per year for 4 years. There would also be other small costs but if I decide to attend either one I would be paying an excess out 400k out of my own pocket. I'll be getting 0 financial aid.

I have a full ride to Georgia Tech where I'm also getting money for attending. I would have to pay 0 out of pocket and every expense would be covered by the college. I plan on doing something in the stem field so is it really worth shelling out that additional 400k? Every single person I've asked including Stanford alumni, college counselors and friends have said no.

edit: 95% on the full ride too hard to pass down especially given Georgia tech's prestige and what everyone has been saying. the amount I would have to spend is something that I dont think I would get back because I think I'll end up making the same amount of money at either college.

Parent here.

35 ACT (36 reading). Flyover state, ruralish town. Full IB. 3.9 unweighted, 4.7 weighted (honors is only .5 bump, so the weighted gpa is near the top).

ECs are very mid. Lots of volunteering, but no state medals, did not start a non-profit, or cure cancer, like every other kid on here.

I see the stats on here and I am in awe. I tried to push my kid freshman year ànd they were not interested. You can lead a horse to water . . .

Other kid was at a top six, non-Ivy with lower testing stats, but better ECs.

I hate hate hate this EC crap. Sorry. I know it moves the needle for some.

I'm applying for colleges soon and I found out that it will cost me about 100k a year to attend UC Berkeley (assuming i get in). Is the school actually worth the money in terms of prestige, opportunities, networking etc etc. Basically does the school have a good enough ROI to be worth the amount of debt i'll be in if I go.

I'm also applying to university of Washington and it would only cost me about 20-30k a year to attend (since I live in state).

Basically my question is: is Berkeley better enough than UW to be worth paying 4x to attend?

*edit: ik i misspelled "Berkeley" in the title, no need to point in out in the comments, plenty of people have already done that lol.

this sub is like 90% rich asian kids who’s parents are paying for college, yet there’s sm drama when someone says they are paying 50k a year for college. at least half this sub is probably paying upwards of that a year 😭😭

Mine: UChicago is completely overrated. It gives weird vibes and I don't like it

Hi everyone, I’d really appreciate some honest advice.

I’m an international student from East Asia coming from a relatively low-income family. I was very fortunate to be admitted to Dartmouth and Stanford this year.

Here’s my situation:

• Dartmouth offered me essentially a full-ride financial aid package
• Stanford offered me admission, but no financial aid (since I didn’t apply / it’s not need-blind for internationals in my case)
• I was also admitted to UPenn and Columbia, but those are also full pay

Financially, Dartmouth is the only option that doesn’t put pressure on my family.

However, the dilemma is about long-term outcomes and perception back home. In my country, Stanford’s brand is significantly stronger — almost seen as “elite/legend-tier,” while Dartmouth is much less known (even compared to some UK schools like UCL).

I’m currently interested in pursuing a career in finance or possibly law (maybe US → back to home country long-term).

My family could sell our house and move in with my grandparents and my aunt could lend me some money with no interest to attend Stanford, is that worth it?

So I’m trying to think clearly:

• Is the Stanford brand worth taking on significant debt as an international student?
• How big is the actual difference in opportunities (especially for finance/law)?
• Does Dartmouth place well enough that the prestige gap won’t matter in the long run?
• For someone who may return to Asia, does Stanford open doors that Dartmouth realistically wouldn’t?
• Edit:I just want to add a bit more context about myself. To be honest, I’m quite an ambitious person, and based on my research, many well-known bankers, business leaders, and even politicians tend to send their children to schools like Stanford, Harvard, and Yale. So I believe the network there could be especially valuable for me, especially since I’m fairly outgoing, good at building relationships, and comfortable communicating with people

A lot of the people i know who go to top schools (mostly stanford) seem to be involved in a lot of big parties, and there seems to be a lot of social pressure to go out in big groups to drink and party, even in career contexts.

Are there any top schools where this isn't a big part of culture or with more modest, quietly focused (AKA "nerdy") communities?

Title

I'm referencing mostly private schools that are not Ivy level but still relatively prestigious (vandy, Emory, rice, nyu, bc, bu, usc, northwestern, georgetown, ND, etc). From what I see online, it seems like a lot of students who attend these schools are almost never paying the full cost. They have scholarships, financial aid, grants, etc., that significantly reduce their cost of attendance.

Or am I trippin and only seeing the small percentage of students who don't pay full price online? As someone who is potentially going to be paying the $90k+ for one of these schools, I feel alone lol.

Me: Northwestern, yaaaay!!!!!! 💜💜😊😚

Context:

- INTL/Canada
- Top Academic/IB School
- Intending on Public Health due to my extensive background of EC's, international competitions, top USA summer programs, published research, and so on..
- 4.0
- 1590

My list:

• Brown University
• Carnegie Mellon University
• Columbia University
• Cornell University
• Dartmouth College
• Duke University
• Emory University
• Georgetown University
• Harvard University
• Johns Hopkins University
• New York University
• Princeton University
• Rice University
• Stanford University
• University of Chicago
• University of Pennsylvania
• University of Southern California
• Vanderbilt University
• UCLA
• UC Berkeley
• UC San Diego
• Yale University

Note: THIS IS NOT A CHANCE ME
I HAVE SCHOOLS IN CANADA AS MY SAFETIES

Guidance Counsellor basically thinks it's a waste of my time, and suggests I apply to only one ivy. While I respect their opinion, I lowkey don't see the harm in maximizing the use of my fee waiver and I also have grown to love these instutions; the professors(and students I know from these schools), environment, published research, and commitment to enrichening the college experience. From Freshman to Junior Year I worked tirelessly doing comps, programs, and sharpening my profile. I have lessened my load for senior year - with the intention on strictly focus on applying to these schools. I am not treating it as life or death since I already have scholarships to attend Canadian schools - I am doing this out of pure enjoyment for demonstrating my work over the years and seeing if it lands me anywhere. What should I do?

Hello!
I’m trying to find a good college that is surrounded my nature or has beautiful nature nearby such as mountains or lakes , which is great for hikes. As well as a good social life too.
Almost think if the song “Country Road” was a college lol! Perhaps if the out of state tuitions are not extreme too.
Thank you!

I'm so tired of "we have 500+ student organizations" and "we have all-you-can-eat dining" and "we're an R1 institution!" What are some schools that genuinely have a unique pitch and something that's special about them vs. every other university in the world? And not necessarily just academically, just a school that has a really fun and unique culture or a pitch that is actually different from every other college.

Berkeley down 5 spots, UCLA down 3 spots, Michigan down 5 spots... Just curious about the topic, that's all.

Before you come in and say "well school rankings don't really matter" - they absolutely do, to a certain extent at least.