Random Advice on Finding a College

A friend of a friend contacted me through email today asking some questions on college. In case this is helpful for others, I thought I’d put it up on the web. Any additional thoughts? Please feel free to put them in the comments.

When did you start applying?

The college deadlines are usually during your senior year in December and early January. I remember that UC-Berkeley was really early (November).

How many colleges did you apply to?

I applied to four. I should have probably applied to seven, which I think is average. It’s a question of which schools you want to apply to and your certainty.

How did you choose Rice over the other schools?

The biggest piece of advice I can give is to go to the campuses, take the tours, and if possible, go to the Admit Days that they have (a weekend where they show prospective students around). You’ll make friends early and get some connections that usually prove useful… and it makes the first week of orientation and classes less awkward.

You should also talk to older classmates and friends who went off to school and get their opinions.

The usual points made up my decision: quality of school (private vs public), name recognition, size (smaller felt nicer to me), location.

How is the campus life at Rice?

Rice was phenomenal, but it depends on whether you want a big school or small. Rice is tiny, so you see the same people over and over again. This also means you have classes with people outside your major/concentration, and a good opportunity to interact with lots of different people. Like Princeton, Rice has a college system, so there are no fraternities or sororities. This means that a freshman gets assigned to one of nine colleges and that group becomes your hub for social activities, friendships, etc.

I was pretty quiet, so having the college system was a great crutch for building friendships. My closest friends all came from the same college and I still keep in touch with them today (10 years later).

How did you adjust to living by yourself?

You don’t live by yourself. Most universities force you to live with roommates during your first year. Some allow you to choose studios for one person, but you shouldn’t do it. You’ll miss out on so many friendships and learning about different lifestyles as well as the annoyances that make for good stories later in life.

In terms of things like food, laundry, taking care of yourself, etc. — that’s part of growing up; it’s awkward but everyone survives.

If you had to do something differently, what would it be?

Socially – get out a lot more. Make more friends who were not engineers.

Academically – find research. Beg, plead, etc., but go ahead and do it. The main reason is that it will help establish contacts, but it’s also important because it will help you determine whether or not you really want to attend graduate school when the time comes.

Grades don’t matter as much as you think they do. Connections and experiences are critical.

How did you write your personal statements?

I just wrote them. They were pretty normal questions. I know things are a lot more competitive nowadays, but if you write in your own voice you’ll get very far.

Tell a story. Have a few teachers and friends proofread for grammar. Don’t be verbose.

From whom did you obtain references / recommendation letters?

You want to have one from a teacher, one from an extracurricular activity, and a third from the community if possible. Mine were from a math teacher, my band director, and one from my physics teacher… which doesn’t follow the advice I just gave you.

One key point: make sure the people you ask have written letters before or are someone you trust. I know that my math teacher ended up writing a short, simplistic recommendation letter that probably cost me admission to one school. Find people who are going to rave about you and will take the time to do it right.