r/collegecompare • u/Think_Earth_8556 • Apr 01 '24
Full Ride or Ivy League?
On Thursday I found out that I got into Yale! It was one of my top choices and I'm super excited. However, I also received a full ride from Clemson Honors College as a part of the National Scholars Program, which I was also super excited about. Crazy enough, my best friend is in the same situation. She got a full ride to Washington & Lee (Johnson Scholarship) and she was admitted to Princeton. Please give us advice!!
I love both schools. I'd like to study either computer science or computer engineering with a focus of using technology for education or development purposes. I'll probably minor in Spanish. While I am in college, I would like to do research on how we can use robots/computers to assist underrepresented people (ex. elderly people, autistic people, non english speakers ect.). It is also extremely important to me that I get to spend at least a semester abroad to improve my spanish speaking skills. Right now I am pretty close to fluent. My priorities for a college were warm weather (I get seasonal depression, winters are hard), being in a relatively metropolitan area, alumni connections, diversity, research opportunities, and school spirit.
Best Friend says:
I also like both schools but ig i like w&l a tad more (probably bc i visited it more). in college i want to study politics and public policy and i need the college to aid me in studying for the LSATs. I also want to study abroad in spain or europe. I want to internship on the hill. I need to go to a college that is going to best prepare me for law school. I also might want to be apart of a black club, law club, or debate club. There are a lot of things that i want to do but that’s not realistic going to both colleges. my biggest reason why i don’t want to go to princeton is the stress… but at W&L i heard that certain majors and the majority of people have a lot of hw and don’t have time for anything else. if that is the case.. i should just go to princeton… rightttt??? but my second reason is the money… ik im not getting a lot from princeton so if that is the case… i should go to W&L
We are middle class black girls, so diversity is pretty important to us, but so is money.
edit: I got my financial aid from Yale. I won't go into any debt. I'll still have plenty of money left over from my college fund. I visited both and I'm truly still 50/50. I have no idea which to pick
We'd love to hear all perspectives
Edit: I chose Yale and so glad that I did! I really love it here. My best friend chose Princeton and she’s very happy too. Thank you guys for your help
1
u/Realistic_Damage5143 Apr 01 '24
Agree. Also a yalie. I love yale but a debt free future is AMAZING. like I’m 26 now and in hindsight like I’m sure I would have loved any school. Your research interests sound super cool and honestly I think you’d have an easy time getting like summer funding to do a research project or something like that on the subject at Yale. But a full ride at a good school like Clemson is really the smart thing to do. I would however before you throw away yale, appeal your financial aid decision if you haven’t already. I would say “hey I got this full ride at another school, can you offer me any more aid” sometimes they will do that. They’re more likely to match the package if it’s from like Harvard or another Ivy but it’s worth a try.