So, college and university letters and magazines have recently been piling into my mailbox and GMail inbox — no surprise, I took the PSAT a few months back and asked to be indexed in the Student Search service. Getting all this mail and beneficial spam is worth it. Now I’m looking through the many colleges and universities with opportunities waiting for me, I still have a year and a half to go, but it never hurts to think about where you want to spend the next phase of your educational career in.
I’m probably a dreamer, so yes, I think I’m a sentimental little whiner. I think I have what it takes to get into MIT. I think I need to hit myself on the head and rethink that one. I want to go to MIT — I really do. What’s a better place to major in Computer Engineering than in MIT? Plus, it would look really, really damn good on my resume. Sadly, as much of a dreamer and striver as I am, I don’t think I’ll ever have a chance. Only the rich and the prodigies even have a chance to go there, yet alone, fill out a college application. I face reality now, and though I really want to go there, I don’t think I’ll ever get to go there. That’s how cruel society is; you can’t even pick your own education of choice because of many underlying factors. I simply lack what it takes to be there, I don’t have a chance.
So where to look now? That’s a question which only time can answer, and I’ll probably be asking around here for some good college/university recommendations for Computer Engineering, for that will be my major… yes, I think I’m sure that’s what I want.
Tags
This entry was written up around 2 years, 11 months ago.
You can say something, or trackback from your own site, because you know everyone does that everyday.
If you're a frequent reader of this journal, please feel free to register and join in. If you're just stopping by, do it anyway.
Posted August 14, 2008
I’ll talk to you about colleges later. I might have some good advice…
Haha. I got another year or so till I get the random spam from people trying to make me to go to college. At the moment I get… No spam.
Dude, Alan. Take this from a H.S. class of ‘06 member. Any college you have no substantial interest in, OPT OUT of the mailing after the first one arrives. DO IT. You won’t regret it. At first it was the warm and fuzzy feeling of being noticed by all these colleges…and then, later, you realize that not a SINGLE shred of information they give has any real use. It’s all shameless self-advertisement, which is helpful to you only if you love the school already. And if you love the school already, go to their website and sign up for mailings. It’s the same thing (I think).
If you don’t opt out, you will still be getting junk newsletters from say, Hawaii Pacific University in January of your senior year. Don’t let college spam violate the sanctity of your Gmail inbox!
Your first choice is MIT? Good man. So is mine ^__^ I was deferred EA and I’m waiting for the final decision in March. I’m planning for Electrical Engineering, which is part of Course VI (EECS) - computer science is the other part of Course 6, which would make it cool if we both get in.
Other good places to go for Computer Engineering include, notably, Carnegie Mellon University, and most likely UC-Berkeley and Stanford, among others. Don’t fool yourself - you have a shot if you think you do, and you just said, you think you’ve got what it takes. It’s not true that only the rich and the prodigies go there. Plenty of not-so-rich do too. And you never know how things will play out.
How were your PSATs, by the way? You’re a junior, right - so how’s it looking for National Merit? I only got commended, being in the great state of Massachusetts.
MIT students will usually tell you, the people who go to MIT for the most part didn’t think they would get in. So definitely, definitely apply. Apologies if the logical stream of this post doesn’t exist…but yeah, aside from MIT, definitely apply to CMU, UC-Berkeley, and U-Michigan. I’m not sure how good UMich is in computer engineering, but it’s got stellar engineering in general. Another good public school for engineering is UIUC (Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), but both UM and UIUC are rolling, so make sure to apply as early as possible (as in, September/October. No later, or you’re at a disadvantage, esp. for scholarships)
Good luck.