Foo - College selection...

Ok guys and gals. heres the deal. I have applied to four schools, University of Maryland-(College Park), Virginia Tech, NC state, Georgia Tech. I applied with non-binding early action on NC state and Georgia Tech and got into both so far. I'm still waiting on UMCP and VT, but I think my chances are pretty good (1380 SAT, 3.8GPA).

All of these school are decent, and I would not be recieving a bad education at any of these institutions, so I have chosen to choose the school not on educational but on a purely non-educational basis. Am I making sense?

Anyway, my main selection criteria is its condusiveness to recreational and fitness related activity, like biking, running and swimming.

Tempwise, georgia tech takes the cake, but it is in the city (atlanta), and i'm thinking it might make for bad cycling. Am I wrong?

Next on the temperature list is NC state: although right now they are covered in an inch-thick sheet of ice, I think that they might be the best, and it is a bit more suburban then georgia tech.

Blacksburg, where Virginia Tech is, seems to have a very active cycling body, but it is not a whole lot warmer then here. It is also in the mountains, where, presumably, they get more snow. Also, it is out in the middle of nowhere, and running might be sketchy on the roads that branch out from Virgina Tech.

Lastly, there is UMCP. It has the same climate as here, and it seems to be a very urban campus. I know people that ride there, though, and they seem to like it. there is a fairly active cycling team too, and that is a good thing. my only turn off is the three months of december, january, and febuary, where the temperature regularly dips below 20 degrees F.

So if you had to choose a city from these four (Atlanta, Raleigh, blacksburg, and College Park), which would you pick based on general cycling pleasure?

also, Georgia tech has like a 80/20 male/female ratio. is it still fun? there ARE girls at the parties, right?

Auburn University

Ok guys and gals. heres the deal. I have applied to four schools, University of Maryland-(College Park), Virginia Tech, NC state, Georgia Tech. I applied with non-binding early action on NC state and Georgia Tech and got into both so far. I'm still waiting on UMCP and VT, but I think my chances are pretty good (1380 SAT, 3.8GPA).

All of these school are decent, and I would not be recieving a bad education at any of these institutions, so I have chosen to choose the school not on educational but on a purely non-educational basis. Am I making sense?

Anyway, my main selection criteria is its condusiveness to recreational and fitness related activity, like biking, running and swimming.

Tempwise, georgia tech takes the cake, but it is in the city (atlanta), and i'm thinking it might make for bad cycling. Am I wrong?

Next on the temperature list is NC state: although right now they are covered in an inch-thick sheet of ice, I think that they might be the best, and it is a bit more suburban then georgia tech.

Blacksburg, where Virginia Tech is, seems to have a very active cycling body, but it is not a whole lot warmer then here. It is also in the mountains, where, presumably, they get more snow. Also, it is out in the middle of nowhere, and running might be sketchy on the roads that branch out from Virgina Tech.

Lastly, there is UMCP. It has the same climate as here, and it seems to be a very urban campus. I know people that ride there, though, and they seem to like it. there is a fairly active cycling team too, and that is a good thing. my only turn off is the three months of december, january, and febuary, where the temperature regularly dips below 20 degrees F.

So if you had to choose a city from these four (Atlanta, Raleigh, blacksburg, and College Park), which would you pick based on general cycling pleasure?

I attended NC State from Fall 95 to Spring 97, then I was forced to transfer because of financial problems at home. I was in the best shape of my life at State. There are so many things to do in NC, so many other colleges to visit, and the people are just plain nice. The educational opportunities there are tremendous. If life had turned out the way I wanted I would have graduated from there.

The weather in Raleigh beats anything here year round. Even in winter it is better, and since the campus is huge you will be forced to walk or bike everywhere. I met so many people who were fitness minded that I couldn't believe it. I saw quite few cyclists when I was there, and I mean serious roadies (to this day I regret thinking that one guy was crazy for wearing spandex and shoes that made noise when he walked). I also think Performance's outlet store is in the triangle. There are several beautiful parks nearby, and if you don't have a car make friends with an upperclassman the moment you get there.

My vote is for State

Virginia Tech? I thought you were talking about going to college... seriously, Blacksburg is a beautiful area, and all dirt roads lead to Virginia Tech. It's really not a bad school and the town's very nice. Get involved with the caving club if you're so inclined, they're all completely insane, but it's a lot of fun. You'll also be close to some of the best whitewater in the USA, bar none-- you've got the Gauley, the New, the Nanty, and a few more I forgot nearby.

You can cycle in any of the towns, run in any of them, and I'm sure they've all got swimming pools as well. You might want to look at what else you can do. Tech offers a wide range of outdoors type activities; you might want to investigate the merits of the others. The only schools on the list I'm familiar with are UM and VaTech, and I'd take VaTech any day of the week.

Thinking about it, I should have added a poll to this. rats. too late now. I don't feel like making a new thread...

VT is a big place. If you won't get lost it should be great. I know one of the ladies on the shotgun team and she is drop dead beautiful. Also I wouldn't live in md with all those liberals.

You're right NC is nice.

The mountians are fun to ride in.

Contact Spazegun and check on Rose Hilman (sp?) they have both a bicycle team and shooting team.


Good luck
Joe

there ARE girls at the parties, right?

Tech-nically (pun intended). No. The only decent ladies at parties are the significant others of the guys in attendence.

Of course I am a UGA alum. :)
And everyone knows that UGA (maybe Texas too) has the most beautiful women in North America.

ok, I am currently at a school that has <20% women, and our partly last weekend you would never have known it. SO really the m/f ratio is not THAT big of a deal, that is unless your a pimp....

Second, try to find some educational seperation from the schools, like what is your intended major, the job market around the school, and summer oppertunities? I live 11 hours from my home in good old DC and comming home for the summer is a pain, likewise with going back to school.

Also, look for school atmosphere, i dont know much about NC state, but blacksburg is cowtipping town from what i here (no offense) and the rest are in close proxsimity to cities. Comming out to BFE indiana i realized that I am a city boy, but the cycling out here is 100 times better than in DC (when there is not SNOW on the ground!!!).

well, I hope this responce has helped. I will give you the best advice I have ever been given about college, your going there for education, not sports, not women, you are going there to learn.

GOOD LUCK!!!!
-Ross

PS: you should come out here to BFE indiana if you want to be an engineer... ;) www.rose-hulman.edu

Ross

When I was in Bloomington I saw the most beautiful co-ed's ever.

Joe

I've got an M.S. from MD, so I can vouch for how pretty the College Park campus and the co-eds are. ;)

The winter weather was really pretty mild - almost no snow or ice in a "normal" winter, at least. And there are GREAT biking trails in the DC area - they close Rock Creek Parkway to cars on the weekend, so you can go all the way from National Airport to the Beltway - about 20+ miles, past the zoo, along a beautiful creekside park almost the whole way. South of the airport, you can take a trail beside the Potomac Parkway that goes all the way to Mt. Vernon, Washington's estate. Then there's also the C&O Canal bikepath that goes 50-60 miles up the Potomac River, starting from Georgetown. (Great nightlife in Georgetown, too, if you have a few $$ to spend, at least...)


Ah, brings back memories (I graduated in '76)....

hey Phatman,

well detail-wise i can't help you much as that's not one of my regions... about Texas, the Northwest, the Northeast or most of California or even most of the Rocky Mountain areas i could help you out, but...


All of these school are decent, and I would not be recieving a bad education at any of these institutions, so I have chosen to choose the school not on educational but on a purely non-educational basis. Am I making sense?
makes perfect sense to me -- i did sort of the same thing when i was applying to grad school except the educational opportunities are more specific, so more important.

i mean the academics matters, but if as you said, they all meet your needs... you will be in this place for 8+months/year for 4-5 years so you should enjoy it! i think for me more than others, place matters... but in any case the non-academic aspects will have a big impact on your life.

as to generalities like big/small, city/suburban/country it depends on who you are. i personally went to a HUGE school (University of Texas- Austin - around 50,000) and i loved it! for grad school i was at a very small school (Clark Univeristy in Massachusetts - around 2000) and i found the social and sports so limited (no cycling club, no volleyball team, etc.) - i ended up riding and training with mostly non-students from local bike clubs/teams.

have you visited the campus of each school? that is probably the best way to decide - go visit, best DURING the semester during the week (my high school allowed me to take a friday off and visit), visit a few classes, talk to lots of people, get a feel for the school and ask people all kinds of stuff... check out their websites and see what clus/teams they have, maybe even contact the groups you're interested in (running, cycling or whatever). for example, at UT there was a pretty good cycling club and i was also on the volleyball team and our intramural sports was BIG...

as to the girls issue... not sure what to say - but if the school is in a big city and/or there are other schools around it shouldn't be so big of a deal (at UT there were very few girls in Engineering but then i spent most of my social time with non-engineers and the university overall was i think 51% female)

Visit and party at the schools...I know I made my descision about attending Brandeis when nearly arrested for our...'antics' oops

haha, brandies...partied there once, but am legally bound not to speak of it...

anyway, i just graduated from UM-CP myself. I was fairly active cycling there, and there are a great deal of opportunities. i worked for the outdoor recreation center, where they have bikes (pretty nice k2's and konas) you can rent, as well as a knowledgable bike shop that will work on your bike for free and teach you anything you need to know. they also run trips out of the ORC to local riding spots (gambrills, schaeffer, patapsco). the terp mtbike club is pretty active as well. they organize fairly regular rides both trail and urban. as far as the city is concerned, college park has a prat of the paint branch trail run right thru it (i used it to bike to classes for several semesters) that travels around the area. also, the metro allows you to take bike for free (as long as it isnt rush hour or a holiday) so getting into the city is easy.

as far as swimming/running goes, UMD has a new-ish gym (built ~5yrs ago) that has AMAZING facilities. a huge natatorium with a 50m and 25m pool and diving well (they pipe music in underwater and you can hear it as you swim, pretty cool). also, indoor track, all kinds of racquetball/basketball courts etc.

if you have any questions let me know. ive got friends at VT and in atlanta, too.

I'll take a different angle. My high school sport had a great bearing on the college I chose. I also decided that I couldn't possibly take a year off before attending, because it would hurt my chances of being competitive.

Well... one year later, I was injured, never to compete again, and took a much-needed year off from school. I dearly wished I'd matriculated elsewhere.

Just don't put all your eggs in one basket, okay?

Awesome job on the SAT and GPA! Based on those schools, I'm guessing engineering?

I vote for VT/Bleaksburg. Lots of hills for climbing, easy access to rural roads for riding and running. An active cycling community and good access to lots events in the area. And there's lots of other stuff, too... hiking, caving, paddling.

Yeah, it's kind of out in the boonies, but how much of a problem is that? I'd consider it an asset. Doesn't matter where you live, you're out of town and on the open road in 5 minutes or less.

Winters *are* chilly there.

Though I suspect you've already given it a lot of thought, I second emgNH. Keep the whole picture in mind.

yep, engineering is the ticket. virginia tech, eh?

I just had an orthodontist appointment on thursday. he told me that i should go to georgia tech, and that I should have applied to harder schools. oh well.

emgNH, I'm feeling what you are saying, but I think that I would be happy at any of the places I have applied to, I am just sort of picking the best one.

Phatman,
What was you orthodontist talking about!!! G-Tech and VT are both very good engineering schools, the others not so much. they are not the best, but up there. <bias> I would say, apply to Rose-hulman ASAP if you want the BEST engineering education. </bias> But G-Tech you would have more time to cycle. So on the cycling ticket, GT but since i am from Va, and still hold a shred of respect VT, I would say, which ever gives you more money, after all education is not cheap and the more money you get the better bike you get get :)

good luck and if you dont like the school you can always transfer </bias> to rose! </bias>

You can still apply to those better schools.
My motto is better late than never. You are about to dump tens of thousands of dollars that will be HARD to pay back. You want the best bang for your buck possible. Get the best education you can; you won't ever regret it.