college post.
So it's down to two places, Ursinus or Elizabethtown (which will hence be referred to as Etown) and I kinda have to pick this week arghghghghghghgh.
To facilitate this, I thought I'd make myself a big ol' blog entry and just sort of list my thoughts on the matter. Kind of like a pro/con list, but not really. This entry is mostly for my own reference, but if you want to comment I'd be more than interested to hear your thoughts. <3
- Academics. Both schools have great reputations, especially in the Media and Communications area, which is what I'm planning to major in. Etown has a much more hands-on approach to teaching; at Ursinus it seems a lot more theory-based. I've always thought of myself as more of a theory person, but I dunno.
- People. Uhh... the average SAT scores at Ursinus are higher? So I guess the people there are smarter? I guess I soooort of got that impression from sitting in on classes at each school. Just from walking around at Ursinus I got the feeling that they were more "my" people. I know, I know, juding a book by it's cover, but it was the best I could do. Also, they had a poster up in the student center advertising a Super Smash Bros. Brawl tournament. XD; So, they play video games! Now, I'm sure there are people at Etown who play video games, but like... I didn't see *anything* like that there. The people at Etown are incredibly, ridiculously nice (so much so that they have a reputation for being nice), but I get the feeling that I wouldn't really have much in common with them.
- Food. The coffee at Etown sucks. X3 Etown has a better dining hall, but Ursinus has better non-dining hall choices. And better coffee.
- Library. The library at Etown just strikes me as much nicer. However, the Ursinus library has a coffee bar in it......
- Dorms. Ursinus has lousy freshmen dorms. Now, after you're a sophomore, you have a lot more choices for housing. Ursinus owns these little houses that lots and lots of the campus lives in, and I think the upperclassmen dorms are nicer (I wouldn't know, having never seen the inside of one). I think if I can get on an all-girl floor, it'd be okay though. Our first Ursinus tour, we saw a room on an all-girl floor and it was all right. On our second tour the other day, we saw a bunch of guy rooms on a co-ed floor. IT SMELLED LIKE TEENAGE GUY OKAY. XD; Etown's freshmen dorms are pretty nice as far as freshmen dorms go. I like the layout of them.
- Computers. Ursinus gives you a Dell laptop and printer for free. And you get a new, upgraded one after your sophomore year. And when you graduate, you have the option of buying your laptop for $200. Seriously. Etown doesn't have anything like that.... But then, I did sort of maybe want to pick a laptop? I was thinking of going Mac for one thing, since there's lots of design-y things that come with Media and Comm, and Macs have always had a reputation for being great for graphic design stuff. On the other hand, the fact that everybody at Ursinus has the same laptop means it's really easy for the tech people to fix any computer problems you might have.
- Surrounding area. Etown's in the middle of a ridiculously sleepy little town where there's just not a lot in terms of like, restaurants and stores and movie theaters and things. Ursinus has a lot more as far as that goes. Like, we passed a shopping center with a Gamestop.
- Wireless. I know both places have like cables everywhere, but I forget which is more wireless. Must go on their websites and try to find out...
- In conclusion, leaning fairly heavily toward Ursinus. But I dunno.
To facilitate this, I thought I'd make myself a big ol' blog entry and just sort of list my thoughts on the matter. Kind of like a pro/con list, but not really. This entry is mostly for my own reference, but if you want to comment I'd be more than interested to hear your thoughts. <3
- Academics. Both schools have great reputations, especially in the Media and Communications area, which is what I'm planning to major in. Etown has a much more hands-on approach to teaching; at Ursinus it seems a lot more theory-based. I've always thought of myself as more of a theory person, but I dunno.
- People. Uhh... the average SAT scores at Ursinus are higher? So I guess the people there are smarter? I guess I soooort of got that impression from sitting in on classes at each school. Just from walking around at Ursinus I got the feeling that they were more "my" people. I know, I know, juding a book by it's cover, but it was the best I could do. Also, they had a poster up in the student center advertising a Super Smash Bros. Brawl tournament. XD; So, they play video games! Now, I'm sure there are people at Etown who play video games, but like... I didn't see *anything* like that there. The people at Etown are incredibly, ridiculously nice (so much so that they have a reputation for being nice), but I get the feeling that I wouldn't really have much in common with them.
- Food. The coffee at Etown sucks. X3 Etown has a better dining hall, but Ursinus has better non-dining hall choices. And better coffee.
- Library. The library at Etown just strikes me as much nicer. However, the Ursinus library has a coffee bar in it......
- Dorms. Ursinus has lousy freshmen dorms. Now, after you're a sophomore, you have a lot more choices for housing. Ursinus owns these little houses that lots and lots of the campus lives in, and I think the upperclassmen dorms are nicer (I wouldn't know, having never seen the inside of one). I think if I can get on an all-girl floor, it'd be okay though. Our first Ursinus tour, we saw a room on an all-girl floor and it was all right. On our second tour the other day, we saw a bunch of guy rooms on a co-ed floor. IT SMELLED LIKE TEENAGE GUY OKAY. XD; Etown's freshmen dorms are pretty nice as far as freshmen dorms go. I like the layout of them.
- Computers. Ursinus gives you a Dell laptop and printer for free. And you get a new, upgraded one after your sophomore year. And when you graduate, you have the option of buying your laptop for $200. Seriously. Etown doesn't have anything like that.... But then, I did sort of maybe want to pick a laptop? I was thinking of going Mac for one thing, since there's lots of design-y things that come with Media and Comm, and Macs have always had a reputation for being great for graphic design stuff. On the other hand, the fact that everybody at Ursinus has the same laptop means it's really easy for the tech people to fix any computer problems you might have.
- Surrounding area. Etown's in the middle of a ridiculously sleepy little town where there's just not a lot in terms of like, restaurants and stores and movie theaters and things. Ursinus has a lot more as far as that goes. Like, we passed a shopping center with a Gamestop.
- Wireless. I know both places have like cables everywhere, but I forget which is more wireless. Must go on their websites and try to find out...
- In conclusion, leaning fairly heavily toward Ursinus. But I dunno.