Everything is weird.
At Michigan, I'd be the cream of the crop. At MIT, I'd be middling. Do I want to be middling? Part of the reason I like going to conlang meetups is that I get to be a relative noob at an intellectual discussion. Then again, that's not a completely positive feeling. And I sure as hell didn't enjoy sitting through group meetings at Barres Lab where I didn't have a clue what was going on.
Do I want to be in a large community of geeks, or do I just want to be part of a small (elite) subset of a larger community? (Of course, I want to say the former, but there's a reasonable possibility of the latter.)
Does it make a difference where I go? Especially if I'm planning to go for PhD later? Is it worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to be in a slightly more fun, less bureaucratic institution?
If I go to Michigan, how much will I regret giving up the chance to MIT? If I go to MIT, how much will I regret wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars of my parents' money?
Unrelatedly: I wandered around in the backyard throwing my voice downward until I felt a sharp pain, kind of like pulling a muscle, in my throat. Same spot as where it was sore the last time I was stretching my voice. Only this time it seriously hurt. Then I came back inside and almost sent an email to Mackey telling him I was quitting, till I thought better of it. Still haven't really thought better of it, though. That email is still sitting there, I just haven't sent it -- you need never unsay what you did not say in the first place, and all that.
Do I want to be in a large community of geeks, or do I just want to be part of a small (elite) subset of a larger community? (Of course, I want to say the former, but there's a reasonable possibility of the latter.)
Does it make a difference where I go? Especially if I'm planning to go for PhD later? Is it worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to be in a slightly more fun, less bureaucratic institution?
If I go to Michigan, how much will I regret giving up the chance to MIT? If I go to MIT, how much will I regret wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars of my parents' money?
Unrelatedly: I wandered around in the backyard throwing my voice downward until I felt a sharp pain, kind of like pulling a muscle, in my throat. Same spot as where it was sore the last time I was stretching my voice. Only this time it seriously hurt. Then I came back inside and almost sent an email to Mackey telling him I was quitting, till I thought better of it. Still haven't really thought better of it, though. That email is still sitting there, I just haven't sent it -- you need never unsay what you did not say in the first place, and all that.