As many have pointed out, it’s been a while since my last entry, but it’s been a busy couple of weeks. Officially, I’m no longer a competitor in Academic Decathlon, and now a member of the Dartmouth Class of 2012. As this will be a rather long entry, it’s divided into parts:
Part I: College Visits
After writing my essay for Nationals on the 17th, my parents and I skipped off to visit Dartmouth and Duke in hopes that it will help me make my decision. It didn’t, as I predicted, but it was rather fun nonetheless.
The weather at Dartmouth was beautiful, and the campus had a very small, secluded atmosphere. The people, of course, were friendly, and I had a good day wandering around with some other “prosbies” (prospective students) and touring the campus and the nearby hospital. Of course, we paid a visit to the Financial Aid Office, but left feeling that they would not increase my scholarship at all. However, they said to fax them Duke’s award offer, so that gave me a bit of hope, as at the time, Duke offered about 3k more in scholarship, plus another 5k in loans. For no reason I can actually articulate, I’ve always been more attached to Dartmouth than Duke, but the monetary issue troubled me, so I left Dartmouth feeling not as optimistic as I did when I arrived.
Duke was overall a prettier place, though the intermittent rain resulted in my catching a cold (and I am STILL coughing, since college kids don’t apparently believe in umbrellas). We spent much more time at Duke (Saturday afternoon through Monday), so we had the chance to visit the Duke Gardens Sunday morning. Then we met with Xuan and he took me around campus. Afterwards, we ditched my parents to attend a performance in the Duke Chapel… which sounds cool, but really was boring after the first 30 minutes. The rest of the time, we sat trying to figure out where in the program we were (most of the singing was in Latin), and finding a suitable time to leave. That night Xuan arranged for me to stay in a dorm with a friend of his, and I spent the rest of my time at Duke just talking to other kids and hanging out. I even played some games of pool… though it’ll be ages before I’m any good. There was the obligatory visit to the Financial Aid Office, and my counselor there seemed much friendlier than the lady from Dartmouth, promising to send an updated reward in a few days.
I arrived home around midnight on Sunday still not set on which college I’d attend. The easiest decision to make would be a monetary one, and I told myself that if the new offers from the colleges differed by more than 5k, I’d go to the cheaper school. The next week, I faxed over some more information, sent a few emails, and waited.
The award from Duke arrived in the mail on Saturday, and they had about doubled my scholarship offer. Unfortunately, the award from Dartmouth did not arrive before I left for California on the 29th, so I was unable to make my decision. I left my two letters of intent, both signed, with my dad (a bit wary that he’d just send off whichever one he wanted rather than the one I chose) and went to California with my team. That night, the new offer from Dartmouth arrived…and they had increased my scholarship by 10k! This was great news, and made Dartmouth significantly less expensive than Dartmouth, so of course I made the decision to matriculate there in the fall.
A lot of people told me that I should not base my college decision on money alone, but honestly I would have been happy attending either school. However, the experience of living in a small town like Hanover is not one I’ve had yet, and I can’t see myself consciously choosing to make the decision to live in such a small town in the future, so I’m glad to have the opportunity to see what it’s like. Also, because Dartmouth sent “likely letter,” I had much more time to find out all the things I’d look forward to about Dartmouth. The weather, however, is another story… but if winters are really that unbearable, I could always choose to have my leave term during the cold season.
Part II coming soon...
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