Visiting Rush

In far too few hours I am going to be rudely awakened to drive up to visit three New England colleges in as many days (or fewer). The colleges on the list are: Yale, MIT, and Harvard. Frankly, my interest in Harvard at this time is minimal. Their undergraduate program is historically week, but according to a mailing I was sent they have worked to improve that recently. I also have a rather snooty e-mail exchange with their admissions office. I accept full responsibility for beginning the exchange with my nose pinched high in the air. I would post the e-mails, except it would appear that they were written long enough in the past to have since passed out of my e-mail server like so much bad gas. Good riddance. In short, I sent an e-mail questioning the accuracy and specificity of their ‘99% of all courses taught by professors’ statistic, and after about a week received a non-automated response (after having received several unhelpful automated ones) naming the surprisingly few courses taught by graduate students. I’m still suspicious, but that’s why I’m going north to see for myself.

Actually, I’m going north to look at Harvard since it sits cheek to jowl with MIT. This trip will determine where I apply to Early Action. Both MIT and Yale have non-binding early decision programs, but I can only apply to one. I’m not willing to commit to any one school at this point which is why I’m not considering the binding early applications to such places as Harvey Mudd, Columbia, or Stanford- despite the fact that doing so would increase my odds of getting in.

Here’s the plan: drive north tomorrow morning in order to attend Yale’s afternoon tours and info session. Yale’s science tour is only held in the afternoon. Keeping this in mind I will likely spend the general admissions tour pretending to be a creative writing major, and pursue physics and research related questions primarily during the science tour.

After that I will be passed off to a friend of my mother’s who also happens to be an MIT alumna (graduate school). She will be in charge of selling MIT. After that, probably the day after, I will look at Harvard and head home on the train.

Ignoring Harvard for the moment, what I want to see from MIT and Yale is:
1. Potential for undergraduate research during (or before) freshman year.
2. Strong program in creative writing (neither school has impressed me in this area thus far, unlike Princeton and Columbia).
3. Places to run nearby. I’ve heard of a good trail from a Yale representative at a college fair, don’t know about MIT.
4. Availability of single dorms/reasons not to worry about a room mate.

Columbia Visit

In short, I like Columbia rather better now than I did before actually going up to see it, despite the fact that I spent well over eight hours in transit yesterday and came home sore from too much sitting. Before going up my primary doubt regarded the separation of the engineering and liberal arts schools. That concern has since been alleviated. While you can only apply to one school, it is possible to take classes in both. Furthermore, should I choose to, I could always apply to switch from one school to the other.

I would prefer that the two schools be united, but I could handle going for a B.A. in Physics and taking a lot of engineering courses. In particular there is one opportunity for Freshmen which is primarily designed for engineers although there are some spots available for students from the Liberal Arts- working on a charitable project within the city. The example given during the informational session was of a swing set entirely designed by the students over the course of two years of classes, but I’m sure there are other projects.

At the same time, perhaps not. A swing set? I’ve taken one year of physics, but I already have the knowledge necessary to construct a swing set. For college students to spend one year planning the swing set, and another year actually putting those plans into action, is absurd. Compare this to the Clinic program at Harvey Mudd where a recent project involved designing a submarine propeller which would generate force in more than one direction. That is actually impressive. A swing set? Not so much.

Alright, so it was a swing set for people in wheel chairs. A little more challenging. Still.

What I saw of Columbia’s campus was shockingly beautiful for a city school. The buildings were marvelous in their construction, and after the formal tour and information session I walked around the campus and the surrounding area until I had to leave to catch my 4pm Vamoose bus home.

For those of you unfamiliar with Vamoose, it’s probably the cheapest way to travel between NYC and DC at $25 a trip (though I believe this will be increased to $30 soon). While not precisely the most comfortable mode of travel, as you are on a bus, and the bus will be full, it is arguably better than driving between two cities with exemplary public transit available.

On that note, there is a huge difference between the subway in NYC and the subway in DC. In DC, if you pick the right track, you’ll get where you’re going eventually. I nearly ended up on the opposite side of the city because there’s a line that forks with some of the trains going uptown and some of the trains going across town. I started on an across town train and got off at the next stop after noticing that the end destination listed inside the train was not the same as what I’d written down. Also, unlike DC, there are no maps or thorough stop listings for the trains once you get past the gate. This was an annoyance as I had to get onto a train in order to figure out what was going where. Fortunately I only ever made small errors, nothing which had a significant impact on my arrival time.

Here are all the best things about Columbia, in my opinion:
- World class everything (namely Physics and Creative Writing)
- Undergraduate research can begin as soon as the summer before Freshman year
- Single dorms available for Freshmen
- No loans, meet full demonstrated need with financial aid
- Cheap theater tickets available through on campus program, including both Broadway and off-Broadway shows
- Numerous extra curricular theater groups
- Excellent athletic facilities
- Highly competitive club Cross Country and Track teams
- Active Road Runners club
- Access to all the resources of NYC, particularly for theater and internships

One notable downside, however: It wasn’t quiet outside. While the gardens were beautiful, you could always hear the city around you. The sound of construction came from three separate directions and there were periodic honks and accelerations from just a few blocks away. I’m not accustomed to that, and would likely end up spending more of my study time indoors than I do in the quieter, less metropolitan, DC. At Sidwell I’ll often grab a book and spend my lunch period outside in the Sledge Garden or the courtyard if the weather is fair.

Introduction

The college I chose attend will be one of the most important decisions of my life.

I have less than a year to make my final decision.

That hardly seems fair.

I’ll use this blog to organize some of my thoughts on the subject, to lay out exactly what I’m looking for in a college and what I’m willing to do to make sure that I get accepted. Mostly, however, this will be about determining which colleges I want to apply to, whether I want to apply early, and will eventually end up discussing which school I ultimately choose to attend and whether or not I’m happy there. I’ve got a ways to go before we reach that point.

First things first: The List. The List contains every college I am considering applying to. I will narrow down The List as needed. The List as it currently stands is on its own page of the blog. I would recommend looking at it to get an idea of what schools I’m considering.

No Time

No time for a proper introduction yet. I just got home from contra dancing. Now I’m going to grab 4.5 hours sleep before getting on an early train to NYC to visit Columbia. I have my doubts about the flexibility of the school’s program, but it’s on my list, so we’ll see.