University
How's that search going? Are you still considering London?
London smells funny.
STFU Armondikov. It's the best city in the world. That's a fact proven by science.
Ah, unfortunately, I decided on the University of Chicago. They have a direct enrollment program at LSE, which I'll definitely want to do for a few quarters or a year. ...Thanks for asking, though.
I went to U of C. It's a horrible place where fun goes to die. Don't be fooled by the beautiful campus and top notch faculty. Hyde Park will devour your soul. That said, I'd be pleased to show you around if you'd like. Give a shout.
Your outrage is beautiful. And Dartmouth is a better school. But still, I'll buy you a corned beef at Manny's if you make the mistake of coming here.
Oh dear, I spent very long time coming to the conclusion that Dartmouth is by no measures other than selectivity (13% versus 9%) and prestige (for some) a better school. They're about equivalent academically, and Chicago's econ program is unparalleled outside of HYPS.
If you join a Dartmouth frat you're admittedly set for life, but I won't be joining a frat, now will I? I also hate frat culture (which dominates Dartmouth) and avoid them like the plague. Hanover is a frigid hellhole, even for a New Englander like me, and hundreds of miles from civilization. Chicago's on the rise, Dartmouth is in its mid-tier Ivy stagnation like Brown and Cornell. Chicago is just a great fit for me - Dartmouth, quite the opposite.
I spent weeks agonizing over the decision, and I'm all but certain I made the right one.
LA's biggest redeeming quality is a scholarship program for students who made a 3.5+ in HS. You effectively get a free ride for tuition at one of the state universities. I was a 4.3 GPA National Merit Commended with a 31 ACT. They gave me a stipend the first two years and guaranteed employment the first year. So yay for that. Watching the university crumble around you and having your foreign language program cut is horrifying, the fraternities/sororities are vile, the university's started hiring alties in the Vet school, and the sports culture is insane.
I was only trying to spare you the misery of walking across the Midway in 40 mph winds when it's 5 below and 2 people from your gothic architecture dorm have already committed suicide by hanging themselves on the backs of their doors. The memorials will probably be in Spring though. So there's that. U of C is awful.
U of C student association t-shirts:
“Where fun comes to die”
“The level of hell Dante forgot.”
“The University of Chicago: Where the only thing that goes down on you is your GPA.”
“Hell does freeze over.”
Etc.
Wait, the shiny brochures showing everyone smiling and happy and diverse aren't REAL? Say it ain't so, say it ain't so!
US universities seem so complicated. Sucks to be you guys!
I don't know that they are complicated. It's more that they have become businesses, and given that this is the US, they are heavily marketed. Financial aid and its relationship to reality is complicated.
Oh, the system in the UK is exponentially simpler than what we have here. They have UCAS, which means a single system for all applications, almost zero in application fees, one form for all universities, etc. And bullshit "extracurriculars" and classes you take just "to get into college" don't have much weight at all. Oxbridge even give a lot of weight to how you "think" (kind of similar to UChicago in that regard but that's something you won't find at many other US schools). It's an infinitely better system.
The only thing that rubs me the wrong way is how they predicate the decision on the results of tests you haven't taken yet.
Though if you're coming from the UK school system, it's up to teachers to issue good predicted results and for the student to have suitable reserve choices just in case they don't meet the conditional offer. UCAS sends people out to schools specifically to tell people to do this and not be idiots about it.
Fun fact: You cannot (at least you couldn't when I did it) apply to both Oxford and Cambridge in the same year!
You still cannot, and there are requirements for applying if I recall correctly. It gets rid of the problem that we have here when you get 30,000 applications for a 1,200 person class, when probably over 15,000 of them had absolutely no chance in hell at getting in.
There's a girl from my (American) high school who got into Oxford this year. I'm insanely jealous. I wanted to apply but I missed the deadline (Oxford and Cambridge have their deadline about five months before everyone else so they can do interviews and shit).