Universities Overseas

In an anxiety-induced fit, spurred by some helpful information from a friend, I recently began seriously considering attending university overseas.

I've always been pretty America-bound, but for some reason (blame politics, or just my own frustration at the people I know), I just want to go and see and go to the UK and France and Austria and just everywhere.

I don't exactly have the money to pay for a normal vacation to any of these places, so I started looking at the colleges there.

It started when I talked to my friend about colleges and how much we both want to go to England after she had attended a world college fair.  There she had talked to reps from the University of Glasgow, who basically told her that she would be able to get in with her IB credits.

Flash to me, now, who is comparing the acceptance rates of my top choice schools and my recent SAT scores (more on that later), and seeing a flashing, "FUTURE" in big bold letters.

I immediately jumped on the studying abroad train, for a long term consideration.  To be honest, I don't know that much about the UK application process, and only slightly more about schools there, but it's just a really appealing idea to me.

Some of the universities overseas that my friend and I looked at were, yes, University of Glasgow, University College London, University of Edinburgh, and Oxford for myself, because I have high ambitions, okay?

And wow, this has turned super ramble-y, but we're friends so that's okay, right?  I just have a lot of stuff to spill I suppose.

I know that moving to an entire different country and dealing with visas and different cultures and everything would be super overwhelming, but at this point it seems just as difficult as everything that's currently going on, and it just feels like a comfort blanket knowing that maybe possibly someone over there wants me at their school.

Recap

Long time no post, eh?

So, the rest of the college road trip became incredibly hectic, and I just forgot to make time to post what happened on the rest of the days.  And, as a result of the time that has passed, I have forgotten most of the details myself.  For the condensed version of the outcome of the trip, I was able to sort all of the colleges into a "short list" so to speak.

The most successful part of the trip was in effect that I was able to identify a top reach, match and safety school.

1. Tufts University (match)
1. Princeton University (reach)
1. Providence College (safety)
2. Boston College
3. Colgate University
3. Hamilton College
^^to expound a bit about this, I really adored Hamilton, but the student body is smaller than my high school currently, which I don't think I would like at all.

All the rest of the schools fall underneath those, in some random jumble of ratings.

There were a couple of schools, however, that I struck from the list:

- Emerson College
- Vassar College
- Northeastern University
- Salem State University

Instead of going to Salem State University to visit, I discovered it had a rather bad student retention rate, and toured Boston College in its place.

I say Boston University is a semi-no because at the point in the trip that I visited it, it took a lot more to keep my attention, and nothing there did it for me.

Other than that, I believe you should be all caught up in the wild and crazy ride that was my "College Road Trip," so thanks for joining me on the journey, and look for more posts coming soon!

Day 4 - Tufts University and Emerson College

August 13

A.M.

Having checked in to and arrived at our hotel in Boston last night, we set out early for my first college tour in Boston for a Tufts info session and tour at 9:00 and 10:00.

First Impression: This is pretty, and is this actually an information session?!

^^ I'm feeling like I have to explain that.  I didn't have a giant reaction to the physical campus of Tufts, but the information session leader was really entertaining, so it made it feel less boring.

Stand-out points: The students and staff are nice and overall great, and there's a lot of pretty green space, distance to/from Boston

I seriously fell in love with Tufts University.  Even though the information session wasn't totally as informative and thorough as the one at Columbia, even just the tour was enough to make me want to go there right away.  The tour guide was SPECTACULAR, and he was interested in a lot of the same things I would be.

P.M.

Then we drove back into the heart of downtown Boston for an information session and tour at Emerson College at 12:00.  Emerson was actually really hard to find, as it's not a set aside campus, it's just a few buildings in downtown, and there isn't any dedicated parking.

First Impression: This is... small.  But interesting.

Stand-out points: The downtown setting, specialized majors (Writing, Literature, Publishing)

Honestly, I was really surprised by this school.  I liked some things that I didn't expect, and then some other things were kind of a turn off.  I'm thinking that this school would be really a challenge for me in many ways, but it was good to see that I actually didn't mind the city setting.

More colleges to follow tomorrow!  I'm also considering writing a full review for one or two of the colleges and putting them up while I have the down time.

Day 3 - Columbia University and Vassar College

August 12--

A.M.--

I woke up in our hotel in Times Square to prepare for the 10:00 information session at Columbia University.

We took the subway there, which was fun, and it's only 9 stops away from Times Square (in Morningside Heights).

First Impression: Impressive, a bit sparse, quiet

Stand-out points: Starbucks right across from the main gates, Low Library

This was the first information session I have been to, and it was informative in a way that the campus tours were not.  Yeah, it got a little bit dry after a while, but to me, I think that the way the administrators present information is very representative of some of the thought processes throughout the university.  It also gives a condensed version of important information.

P.M.--

Following the Columbia info session, it was a mad dash to get back to our hotel, check out, and drive up to Poughkeepsie, NY to Vassar College.  Though I had signed up for the information session as well as the tour, I had not planned quite perfectly, so we ended up missing the info session and getting most of the campus tour.

First Impression: This really is in the middle of nowhere, isn't it?

Stand-out points: Medieval/Dutch architecture, cool, very personalized tour.

The tour was the perfect combination between info session and campus tour.  The tour guide was so friendly, and I felt like it was less scripted, and pretty much honest.  She was really proud of Vassar, which was encouraging, but the surrounding town was a little lacking.

After the Vassar tour, we then drove to Boston, MA, where we will be for several days, touring lots of different colleges.

Day 1 & 2 - Princeton University

August 10--

We left our town at about 12:00 p.m., headed north via the eastern shore to our first stop--Princeton, NJ.

We got in to the town late, and after dinner, we proceeded to drive to the Princeton University campus so that we would be able to find our way in the morning.

First Impression: Oh my god, this is where angels go to die.

Stand-out points: Panera Bread, Sperry store, the buildings

I found it extremely helpful to drive around campus before the actual visit the next day, as I could more easily get my bearings having already seen the basic outlay.


August 11--

We woke up leisurely and filled our stomachs before heading out to campus.  We had planned on leaving about an hour and a half to two hours to explore campus and the surrounding community before the guided campus tour at 1:00 p.m.

The campus was just as stunning in the daylight as it was the night before.  Parking was super convenient and easy... I suggest Lot 10 to get as close as possible on the weekends.

We walked through the famous gates to arrive at Nassau Hall.

We walked around the Frist Campus Center, found some of the important buildings, and for me, we walked around McCosh Hall, which houses the Department of English.

Our tour was at 1:00, departing from Chancellor Green, and was well-led, constructed, and overall very informative.

Look for a detailed review later.  

Now, off to NYC!

Profiling. Of the good sort.

So, in preparation for my college tours this upcoming week, I decided to create a one page document with all the basic and pertinent information for each college I am interested in attending. (There are 17.)

To give you all an idea of how I went about doing this, here are some pictures of the profile I compiled on Boston College.

Yes, this does fit on one piece of paper, 8.5 x 11", with 1" margins all around.

I decided on what information to include in this based on what is important for me in a college or university.  For example, I included things about the English department that would be beneficial to my education, as well as opportunities to advance my academics.  I also included information about activities and clubs I would be interested in.  These are obviously going to vary for each person, but the general layout is the same.

I got all of this information from bigfuture.collegeboard.com , and I have an account there on which I store a list of all 17 of my schools.  The information is mostly accurate and up-to-date, but the centralized data organization is really the most helpful part.

After making the college profiles, I took 17 white paper folders, placed the profiles in sheet protectors, and then assigned each college a designated folder.  I will keep any information or propaganda from my visits this week in one side of the folder, and I will also place lined notebook paper in the folder to take notes as I tour the campuses.

I still have yet to design a master checklist and question list for the college visits.  I guess that's up next!

Bad Decisions?

Gah.  Sometimes I really wonder why I do these things to myself.  As I am a naturally curious person, I decided to go take a wander onto one of my favorite college blogs [northeastdreaming.tumblr.com].  It was there that I saw that the lovely Katrina had posted a review of Boston College!  You may or may not know, but Boston University is on my list, and Boston College is not.  But I was curious nonetheless and decided to read the review of a college located in one of my dream locations.

It was certainly enlightening.  As I come to understand, Boston College offers a traditional college campus, whereas Boston University is "embedded in the city."  I am not a natural-born city-dweller.  I live for the suburbs.  Also, the vibes that she was reflecting on at BC seemed to really resonate with me.

This.  Scares.  Me.

I've set my college visit itinerary, so that can't be changed, but I'm really starting to wonder if I should seriously add BC as a college to apply to.  I'm scared that I'm going to hate BU's campus.  I've heard that BC is a better college in general, but then BU has a better English department.  WHAT DO I DO?

In an effort to weigh the merits of each college, I did a Google search of "Best colleges for English..."

.. And I scared myself even more.  Here I find a list of UCLA, Yale, Harvard... so many colleges.  Ones that I would never consider due to their location.  Some that I don't even think I could get into.  And then others that I would dream of going to, but somehow never ended up on my list.

I just don't know.  I feel like the way I conducted my college search was random, sporadic, and now I feel like it's led me in the wrong direction.  I'm terrified that I'm going to choose the wrong college, and I really don't want to do that, obviously.

I've resigned myself to staying away from Google searches, and just focus on the colleges that I have chosen to dedicate my search towards.  I am definitely content with the majority of colleges I'm looking at, some confirmed by searching, others not.  I may add more schools to my list of colleges to which I'll probably apply, but don't have a large chance of getting in, or just don't have the opportunity to visit.  Colleges such as Yale and BC.

I don't know completely where I'm going with this yet, but hopefully I'll find out.  That's what this is all about, right?