Harvard, Yale, or Princeton?

[Ben]

The long wait is over, and I've been accepted at 9 colleges, including Yale, Harvard, Princeton, and Columbia. I'm just blown away by my good fortune. I've narrowed down my list to HYP, but now I'm stuck. Anyone have any suggestions? I'm interested in studying political science or history and want to continue with music extracurricularly.

I included an essay about Entmoot on my applications, so I appreciate the part that you all played in my admissions .

[Lalaith_Elf]

Unfortunatly I don't have any prefrence, since I've never been to the States, but I thought that I'd just say a huge congratulations! Quite an achievement! Congrats!

[Valandil]

Wow Ben! BIG TIME congratulations! They're all big names, but I've always considered Harvard the biggest. I'd say go there, if you can work it all out. My best friend went there - and he really liked it. I visited him there once - campus was cool - so's Boston.

Don't forget to swipe a Yalie cap at the Harvard-Yale football game!

[Insidious Rex]

Cornell!!! But hey those other schools arent too shabby either. You cant choose wrong really. Depends what you want to do with your education and what kind of environment you are most comfortable in.

EDIT: If you go to Princeton youll have to deal with Jersey coming to bug you every time he has an idea for the moot.

So does this mean youll still be able to admin the moot as much as you could in high school? Harvard aint exactly high school.

[Sister Golden Hair]

Hey post us that essay Ben. Congratulations, that is quite an accomplishment. Don't you live around Princeton?

[Ben]

Thanks . Here's the essay:

I run a Tolkien discussion board known as Entmoot (http://entmoot.tolkientrail.com). With over 2000 members and nearly 300,000 messages posted so far, on any given day you can join discussions on every aspect of J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, from Elvish culture to whether the recent Lord of the Rings movies did justice to the books. Members hail from all corners of the globe and have varied ages and degrees of Tolkien knowledge. All, however, share a love of Lord of the Rings. Entmoot is part of the Tolkien Trail (http://www.tolkientrail.com), my Tolkien fan site.

At age 11, I created my first website. I was eager to make my mark on cyberspace and selected my favorite book as the topic. "Benjamin's Tolkien Page" consisted of some pictures and a handful of pages. Few sites on the young internet were more advanced, so my age did not affect the page's success.

I teamed up with another teenager, calling himself Darth Tater, to launch Entmoot in 1999. At first, only a handful of visitors showed up. I kept it afloat by posting new topics every day. Virtual word-of-mouth spread and our user base expanded into the hundreds. Later, we created the Tolkien Trail site to go along with it – Tater drew the artwork, and I did the rest. The Trail allows the visitor to go on a Middle-earth adventure that includes games and fan fiction.

December 2001 brought the release of the Fellowship of the Ring film. To celebrate, I organized a "live" Entmoot. Members from all over the country came to my town for a group movie viewing. I had known some of these people for years, and finally meeting them in the flesh was an interesting experience. Others scoffed that online friends were not "real," and they were proven wrong when the party of polite, friendly "Mooters" showed up at my door. Despite seeing their faces, I couldn't break my habit of calling them by their usernames.

The movie focused media attention on Tolkien, and while our site was not specifically movie-oriented, it still benefited from the glow. Yahoo! Internet Life declared us the "Most Creative" Tolkien site on the web. Thousands flocked to read my early review of the movie. A local newspaper, The Star-Ledger, wrote an article about me.

Not everyone appreciated the increase in traffic. Darth Tater developed a puzzling elitist attitude and expressed his view that members who joined the site after the release of the movies were somehow inferior. I wanted Entmoot to be a destination for all Tolkien fans: lifelong devotees with a scholarly interest in the novels, teens who saw the movie yesterday and everyone in-between. I believed the range of viewpoints enhanced the discussions and sense of community. Unable to accept this, Tater eventually left the site.

I'm able to keep the board running smoothly and appropriate for all ages with the help of my eleven-person moderator staff. My diverse team includes a 32-year-old man from Spain, a 48-year-old Ohio woman, and college students in Alabama, Alberta, and British Columbia. I love providing a place where friendships are made, classic literature is discussed 50 years after its publication, and people can get a break from the busy flesh-and-blood world. I hope Entmoot can last for many more years.

I live in NJ, so Princeton is indeed fairly close. That doesn't rule it out for me, though.

[Valandil]

btw - I changed my location yesterday... so it wasn't in response to this thread. Interesting coincidence...??

[Twista]

Wow amasing. One of best friends is deciding between St.Andrews, Edinburgh, Oxford and Cambridge. Most likely the British equivilants. Tough thinking! Good luck with it..

[jerseydevil]

Originally posted by bmilder
The long wait is over, and I've been accepted at 9 colleges, including Yale, Harvard, Princeton, and Columbia. I'm just blown away by my good fortune. I've narrowed down my list to HYP, but now I'm stuck. Anyone have any suggestions? I'm interested in studying political science or history and want to continue with music extracurricularly.

If you want to study Political Science or History - then you should go to Princeton. I feel that Princeton is the best for it. It has the School of International Affairs.

Also - it's a New JERSEY school and the #1 school in the US. I love the Princeton Campus which is right down the street from me and I went to school across the street from the university.

I included an essay about Entmoot on my applications, so I appreciate the part that you all played in my admissions .

I hope the essay was in good light.

[EDIT] - I see that you did say nice things - even about the Entmoot gathering. I was only a week on the board when I went to that. Had a blast, it was so fun - even with Tristan trying to wipe me off the Risk board. Everyone knows I would have beat him though.

Anyway - good luck and I hope you make the choose that is best for you - hint Princeton.

[EDIT EDIT] Also- Princeton has a great theater program and I believe music program. They also just expanded McCarter theater.

[EDIT EDIT EDIT] JFK dropped out of Princeton his first year though because he found it too hard. I'm sure you're smarter than him though and can handle Princeton.

[brownjenkins]

Congratulations!

i know yale well... my father works there and i grew up nearby during my school years... it is an excellent school

that said, in many ways yale is new haven... not a lot in terms of night life outside school-oriented spots... this can be good or bad according to what type of person you are

harvard, on the other hand, is in boston... so you have all a city can offer... a city not quite as imposing as some of the bigger ones

boston also has a great music scene, from classical/jazz to pub rock... lot's of muscians go to berkeley and the boston conservatory... i don't know what you play, but i've played in this area for many years and would put it up there in quality with new york (where i've also spent a lot of time), if not quite the same in terms of the shear volume of performers

[Lizra]

Wow! Congratulations again! I hope you enjoy your choice.

[Valandil]

and now i know... what happened to 'Darth Tater'

[Cirdan]

Harvard

Boston will give you the best college eperience possible.

Princeton is nice if you want to be close to home but if you want a more cosmopolitan evironment then Harvard is the place to be.

Yale? meh they let Bush graduate.

Congratulations on all your successes past, present, and future.

[BeardofPants]

Val: D. Tater left after he got sick of the influx of fangirls and newbies. He never came back.

My vote goes for harvard as well. Congrats Ben. Guess we'll be seeing even less of you now?

[jerseydevil]

Originally posted by Cirdan
Harvard

Boston will give you the best college eperience possible.

Princeton is nice if you want to be close to home but if you want a more cosmopolitan evironment then Harvard is the place to be.

Why would Boston give the best college experience -- or one over Princeton?

I'm wondering - have you been to Princeton? Yeah - it's not in the middle of a city - but a city is a city. Princeton is in the middle of a bustling colonial town - which is beautiful to walk and easy to get to anywhere. And you can easily hop on the train right on campus to take an hour and 15 minute ride to the largest city in the country - NY - or take the train south for an hour and go to Philadelphia. There are buses to anywhere too. Plus Princeton does have the pubs and everything and the college atmosphere. Princeton doesn't have fraternities or sororieties - it has eating clubs.

I haven't been to Harvard - but I just don't see why being in a city would give a person more of a college experience.

Have you been to Princeton?

And yes - I am partial to Princeton because it is in NJ - but I loved Princeton before I loved New Jersey. I gave my niece when she was born in 2002 - a bunch of Princeton stuff. I already told my sister that she's going there.

[jerseydevil]

By the way - one of the benefits of Princeton - is that professors are required to teach their classes. You don't end up being taught by a lower ranking faculty member or a graduate student like you can at Harvard or Yale.

Princeton University

Location. The campus of 500 acres is located in Princeton, New Jersey, a town of 30,000 or so residents that is situated an hour's train ride south of New York City and an hour's train ride north of Philadelphia. It is about equidistant from the Newark International Airport and the Philadelphia International Airport.

Students. There are 4,600 undergraduates. (There are also 1,750 graduate students, but Princeton is unusual among universities in having a student body made up largely of undergraduates.) An entering freshman class usually numbers 1,160. The undergraduates hail from all parts of the United States and from over 60 foreign countries. The men-to-women ratio in recent years has been approximately 51%:49%. International students comprise about 9% of the undergraduates.

Faculty. Princeton has 700 full-time faculty members, and the student-faculty ratio is approximately 7:1. There are an additional 300 or so part-time and visiting faculty. All faculty members at Princeton are expected to teach as well as engage in scholarly research. The faculty includes five recipients of the Nobel prize in physics, and one each in literature, economic sciences, and medicine.

Freshman Seminars. These seminars offer freshmen an opportunity to work with a professor and a limited number of students in a seminar on a topic of special interest. The seminars are hosted by the residential colleges. In 2002-03, there are 64 freshman seminars.

Preceptorials. Begun at Princeton in 1905 at the suggestion of Woodrow Wilson, Princeton's president at the time, the "precept" is a small group in which the instructor promotes discussion among the student members of that week's lectures and readings. Most humanities and social science courses at Princeton include two lectures and one precept each week.

Independent Work. (The "J.P." and the senior thesis.) Required independent work for undergraduates is the hallmark of a Princeton education. All A.B. candidates must complete an independent junior paper or project and a senior thesis. B.S.E. candidates may also undertake junior independent work, and virtually all B.S.E. candidates write a senior thesis. Independent work is conducted under the mentorship of a faculty member.

The Honor System. The honor system has existed at Princeton since 1893. At Princeton, students take all written examinations under the honor system -- that is, without a faculty proctor. They assume full responsibility for honesty and conclude each examination with a written pledge that they have abided by the honor code. Eleven undergraduates on the Honor Committee administer the honor system.

Residences. Princeton is a residential university and provides housing for all undergraduate students. Freshmen and sophomores are required to live on campus and spend their first two years in one of five "colleges." Each college has its own dining hall, common rooms, and computer clusters, and a staff including the college master, dean, director of studies, resident assistants (upperclass students), and faculty advisers. Juniors and seniors live in upperclass dorms.

Major Facilities. The University has many libraries and hundreds of collections. The main one is Firestone, with more than 70 miles of shelving and 2,200 study seats as well as 500 closed carrels (many of which are assigned to seniors writing their theses). Undergraduates have at their disposal more than six million printed volumes, fifty thousand feet of manuscripts, three million microforms, and thousands of online journals and research tools.
The Princeton University Art Museum is a teaching museum for the Department of Art and Archaeology as well as a cultural resource for the entire University and surrounding community.
The Office of Information Technology (OIT) supports students with a powerful computing environment. Dormnet, a fiber-optic based network, brings a high-speed data connection to every undergraduate dorm room on campus.
The Frist Campus Center, Princeton's new world-class campus center facility, is an exciting, inclusive, and inviting gathering place for the entire campus community.

For people who aren't familiar with what princeton looks like - here is a page from the Princeton website with photos as well as video images including the 250th Anniversary video which you can watch online.

[Cirdan]

Originally posted by jerseydevil

Have you been to Princeton?

Yes, it's quite lovely.

Boston has a myriad of colleges, universities, and art and music academies.

Princeton is a nice, small cozy town but is much less cosmopolitan than Boston.

Just a matter of personal preference and style.

Plus Boston is centrally located to othe urban centers like New York and rural getaways like Maine and New Hampshire (Sorry the Poconos can't compete).

Try not to take my preferences personally JD. My mother was born in East Patterson and I'm not unfamiliar with the various charms of NJ beyond the turnpike.

[Last Child of Ungoliant]

obviously i can't comment on harvard/yale/princeton,
living in the UK, but if you were over here, i would
suggest Oxford, Cambridge and Bristol.

Oxford and Cambridge as they are the best in the UK,
and Bristol so you can come down to my cottage for tea

BTW, excellent essay

[jerseydevil]

Originally posted by Cirdan
Yes, it's quite lovely.

Boston have a myriad of colleges, universities, and art and music academies.

Princeton is a nice, small cozy town but is much less cosmopolitan than Boston.

Just a matter of personal preference and style.

Plus Boston is centrally located to othe urban centers like New York and rural getaways like Maine and New Hampshire (Sorry the Poconos can't compete).

Try not to take my preferences personally JD. My mother was born in East Patterson and I'm not unfamiliar with the various charms of NJ beyond the turnpike.

I was just curious as to how you an say that one is a better college experience than another. Without having actually gone to them - I can't saw what the "college" experience is like. I can compare the academics and the faculty styles and so forth though. If you wanted to say a cosmpolitan environment is what makes a good college experience - then he should go to Columbia. I agree that whether someone goes to college in the heart of a city or a colonial town - is part of personal preference.

As for the Poconos - there is far more natural places than just the poconos - which are only 2 hours away. Maine is much further than 2 hours from Boston and I believe New Hampshire is too - I haven't mapped it out. Mt Washington - which everyone thinks of as THE place in New Hampshire - and I have been there - is about 150 miles from Boston. So - it's not like those areas are right next door.

As a side note - I have driven through Oxford and Oxford is more like Princeton than Boston. I had always wanted to go to Oxford (at least after I read Lord of the Rings when I was a freshman in high school) - I had shirts from Oxford and Cambridge. But from what I remember - oxford is more city-like than Princeton - but no where near as city-like as Boston is.

[BeardofPants]

Oh come on now Ben, you have to go to harvard now, if only to piss off JD.