I've narrowed my college choice down to 2 and I'm having a touch time deciding on the specific one. I was hoping some of the crazy cast of hubski could share some of their experiences of what they chose, why an how it worked out.
UF vs Case Western
Basically boils down to big state school vs small private school. Theres countless pros and cons for each but the major ones are:
Case:
More exciting, in a big city far away, stuff around it, people from different places
Got a good vibe from the tour, everyone seemed friendly and happy
Slightly better academics
Smaller classes/more personal
with the downside that its cold and far away and would come out with a doable but not nothing amount of debt
vs UF which
Debt free
Massively bigger, so more class choices and research going on and more of about everything
Short of class sizes, academically about as good in rankings
But has the downsides of being a kinda culty big school
Have any of you gone through the same thing? What did you decide and did you like the choice? Thank you so much! :)
Do UF its debt free it's a no brainier. No undergraduate degree is worth the extra debt cost unless the major you want to study is either unaccredited or unavailable at UF. No one really cares where you got your degree if you work hard and do internships that's what matters most. At the other place you are probably going to end up with 20-120k in debt and that's a huge burden to carry when you graduate. You could probably travel for a year or more on that kind of money or be years ahead on your house down payment. Big schools kind of suck at teaching, but the plus side of that is that you learn to be self reliant which is way more important in the real world. There are also often more opportunities for internships (but also more competition). There is also a lot of value in being able to date new people without baggage of previous failures coming back. My friends in small schools always complained that everyone knew of their sexual exploits and failures. I never had that problem in a big school and boy let me tell you there was an abnormal large amount of failures. Did I mention debt free? It's gonna give you a huge leg up on your peers after you graduate too. You'll be able to take more risks with your first job and have more chances to peruse that dream job because you won't have that monthly student loan payment hanging over your head.
Crazy cast of Hubski here! I'm now finishing up my freshman year of college, so I have some thoughts. I always knew I wanted a small school, so that's out. But I recommend smaller schools if only because you get to know your profs more, and profs tend to be some of my favorite people. But of course debt free is nice. As far as going away vs staying close, I ran the fuck away last year. Texas to New York. It's been okay, but I underestimated the homesickness and overestimated my tolerance of cold. The snow was cool, for the first two weeks. The next two months were… unpleasant. So I don't know, just maybe don't trust your intuitions about homesickness and weather? Certainly don't trust mine! Anyway, that was real disjointed and I have to get back to this reading (lol I've been procrastinating all day), but I hope something in there helped. Good luck! (Also, see my advice in the thread KB linked. I don't have time to give a direct link now, sorry.)
Gotcha, will check it out thanks so much :) Great to know how its been, same deal with the snow. I'm from Florida so the visit up there was the first snow I'd seen in a years. It was definitely cool, but I can totally see the excitement wearing thin. Good luck on the reading!
Thanks for the advice! Not only is the advice great, but its showed me that you can link comments in other comments which is really neat :P Right now I'm leaning towards Case. It seems just more exciting living with totally different place urban/suburbs and totally different weather. It doesnt make as much sense to go to as UF but we'll see... thanks so much :)
I agree with the majority of commenters that between two good schools, you should choose the debt-free option. It puts you literally years ahead of your peers when you graduate. Also, here's some unsolicited advice: Here's something that our generation didn't get told. Your income depends on your degree choice as much as your decision to go to college. Universities don't tell you that because they often don't care about your financial success as much as your choice to go to their school. Not all degrees lead to useful/well-paying jobs; in fact, a lot don't. The message "go to college so you can get a good job" is outdated. Now you have to pick a high-paying major to get a high-paying job. It didn't used to be this way, but now it is.
Is UGA thinking about starting a degree program? /trashtalk As much shit as GT students and alum are required to give to UGA, there are things that I would have liked Georgia Tech to have that you guys had. Like good cafeterias, and more women. There were a lot of women at GT, there were just many many more dudes. My wife went to GSU, and while some of my GT friends' SOs are also from Tech, most of them went to another school, and several of their girlfriends went to UGA. And as much as we like to shit on UGA's academics, I know they're really not all that bad. Tech grads are really just jealous because all we have going for us is our brains and our high-paying jobs.
I was at a private college with about 10k students for 2 years, then I lost my scholarship and transferred to a state school with 35k. The big one had way more stuff going on- there were probably 10 times the number of student organizations. It's easier to feel list on the crowd though, but if you try to meet people you can always find friends who share interests. As far as cultishness - it can be fun out irritating, but if you can make it through orientation and welcome week you could probably participate very little in the school spirit after that without anyone caring.
This one was all my own fault. I was supposed to keep a gift GPA, measured at the end of each year not semester thankfully. First year I was 0.1 points below the threshold and was allowed to keep the scholarship for my second year as a probation period to raise my grades, but after the second year my cumulative GPA had dropped instead of raising above the threshold, so it was gone.
Since you've done both, what can you say about what they were like? Do you regret losing the scholarship or do you feel the change was for the better?
For me, the rough part was finding new friends and getting involved in the school. But once the social adjustment was done I didn't notice much difference. The classes were bigger at the state school, but there were more electives and student organizations related to my major too.
Thanks, this helps a ton. Pretty confident I'm going to the state school now and this clears up some doubts.
I was feeling sentimental and looking at old posts. Just wanted to say thanks for the great advice! I'm at UF now and have no regrets.
I'm going through the same thing now with Knox and Syracuse (I actually think I've managed to avoid saying names so far on Hubski, but I'm not sure why I tried that). I know Knox is the better one on paper, and I know I like Syracuse more. So utterly beats me what to do. When I posted about the issue a little bit back, the ever-wise klienbl00 told me this: . I've made the decision in all sorts of states of mind since then. My dad and I are still working through finances to see if I can afford Syracuse more easily somehow, but I also know most of my decisions have been leaning towards Knox. But changing affordability might change that. I guess I've talked a lot about my decision, so here's my thoughts on yours: Don't think about the cons, at least not yet. If the schools have made it this far in your considerations, then their cons can't be that important to you. Just focus on the pros. Are there anyways you can move some of the pros for Case to UF or for UF to Case? For me, I realized I could make career opportunities at Syracuse that already exists at Knox, so that pro changed. Which actually brings up another point: will Case's advantages help you overcome the debt? Will it easily lead you to a job in the field you want? If so, the debt would become much less important, because you'll be relatively sure of being able to pay it off and deal with it. Finally, talk with your friends. My friends have helped me a ton with this. Your guidance counselor too, if they have been any help in the past. They know you like us on Hubski never will. They'll have their own opinions and points about these schools too. So rack their brains, sober and "HAMMERED" if possible. See what they tell you vs what they actually think. It may get stressful and it's scary as fuck, but you've got this.
Thanks so much! That's a great idea about shifting the cons. I'll write them out and fidget with them asap. Definitely plan to ask everyone I can tomorrow. Sadly, guidance counsellors aren’t much help here, but ill go for a good mix of teachers and pals. Good luck with your decision too! At least for me its pretty much the first major/years of life and thousands of dollars decision so making this stuff up along the way. Hope whatever you pick is fantastic :)