#UMD Spring Semester v.s. NYU

384 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

narrow depot
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Schools: NYU and UMD College Park
**Intended major: **Computer Science at UMD, Computer & Data Science at NYU
Similarities: Proximity to major cities, accept AP credit, not in-state for either (high cost)

UMD
School 1 Pros:

  • Ranking in CS
  • Relatively nice campus
  • Not as expensive as NYU

School 1 Cons:

  • Supposedly much harder to interact with professors for questions, office hours, letters of recc etc.
  • I got admitted into Spring, so I'd have to spend Fall taking the same classes and living on campus (any clear downsides though?)
  • Boring location
  • 70% of student body is from Maryland (less interesting)
  • Big actual campus
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NYU
School 2 Pros:

  • NYC location
  • Best study abroad program
  • International student body (I'm from NJ but would prefer a more interesting student body)
  • No campus (I don't feel like "stuck" within the walls of a campus)
  • Handshake job network
  • Strong humanities dep't (I love the humanities and may double-major in Linguistics)
  • More overall prestige?
  • More research resources

School 2 Cons:

  • Higher cost
  • Lower ranking in CS
  • Complaints about CS offerings/curriculum
    **
    Tiebreaking considerations:**
    UMD CS student body personality v.s. NYU, strength of education overall, type of social life at UMD v.s. opportunities of NYC, if UMass Amherst is comparable to UMD/worth considering (decision not out yet), if UMD's strength of CS offerings v.s. NYU's comparative weakness makes it worth putting up with a school I wouldn't rather attend
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**Addendum: **
I got into UMD but as a spring 2024 semester student. Their freshman connection program lets me start living on campus in the fall and take the same classes but in their evening (which means like 3 PM) sessions for credit until Spring.

I really want a more international experience out of college, and to broaden my horizons. A strong math department would help me as I aim to have a career in Data Science. Unfortunately the ranking of UMD's CS is considerably higher than that of NYU and I hear a ton of complaints about how NYU CS supposedly sucks. I wish I could have the CS education strength of UMD but with the setting/everything else of NYU but I guess such a thing can't exist.

I haven't got into UMass Amherst yet (didn't apply Early) but was wondering if it was reasonable choosing that over UMD. IK that UMD is better ranked but UMass's ranking isn't remotely bad either for CS. I really like the pro of #1 food, lol, as I'd prefer to be less miserable while eating food, and would vastly prefer being in Massachussetts (I actually like the location of the campus much more - the scenic isolation is actually calming to me, complete opposite of NYC I know 😂 ) than being in Maryland. I'm not in-state for either. UMD didn't offer me any money and I don't think UMass will when the time comes but I could sure hope.

zealous fox
narrow depot
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Didn't get accepted yet

zealous fox
narrow depot
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I also applied to Tandon as a secondary choice

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but I don't really want it

zealous fox
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I would pick UMD tbh unless you are interested in their business offerings

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NYU isn't competitive for CS, nor are they prestigious enough for a difference

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also no campus exists so it's intended for people who don't want a college vibe at all

narrow depot
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this is literally me, sigh 🙃

narrow depot
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know anything about UMass or Rutgers? Rutgers already took me, btw

zealous fox
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you could consider it then. do you have stats, and did you apply ED? NYU is pretty hard to get into if you're not ED or connected

narrow depot
zealous fox
narrow depot
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As for stats im 1570 SAT

zealous fox
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those are pretty decent stats, and nyu reportedly does consider them unlike some other schools

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nyu tandon is also farther from main campus

narrow depot
narrow depot
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but if they dont take you into your first choice school ED is no longer binding anyway

zealous fox
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one other consideration is that with nyu, you will be taking a bus everywhere. You can't easily walk to your class sometimes

narrow depot
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im not strongly opposed to that either tbh

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I've been to the city a lotta times before, in general id prefer to needing a car elsewhere

zealous fox
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some people who aren't used to riding buses might miss them if they are bad with timing

narrow depot
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i think id be fine

zealous fox
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if you want an international experience though nyu is perfect for that

narrow depot
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oh, i didnt mention in the post -

zealous fox
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tons of overseas programs as well as international body

narrow depot
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i also was considering a double major with linguistics for computational linguistics+data science

narrow depot
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idk though, im being pressured into just going to umd because of cs ranking

zealous fox
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(overall)

narrow depot
zealous fox
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lol

narrow depot
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theyre the ones pressuring me in the first place, lmao

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theyve heard good things about both and have friends whose kids have been to both

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but they know umd is better at cs and also heard good things about its reputation

zealous fox
narrow depot
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like, they want me to still consider breaking contract essentially, or not binding it

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which i disagree w/ because all those reasons

zealous fox
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if they are clueless you could claim that breaking an ED contract will result in you getting blacklisted from other schools

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technically true, but not all schools participate

narrow depot
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the thing is - they know it wont for NYU at least because they have a family friend whose daughter did that to go to cornell instead later

zealous fox
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damn

narrow depot
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apparently with nyu they really didnt care when the family claimed it was for financial reasons

zealous fox
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you could claim to want to work in banking or something

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if they buy that

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UMD isn't connected at all in that aspect

narrow depot
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they know i dont but i can def use stern as a reason

narrow depot
zealous fox
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your parents know everything lol

narrow depot
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🙃

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welcome to my life, they know everything they shouldnt and nothing that they should, haha

zealous fox
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you have to come up with something convincing to turn them off from UMD I guess then

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Idt UMD is a party school, but if you see a party going on maybe show them it and say "See? UMD people aren't academically focused!"

narrow depot
zealous fox
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for real?

narrow depot
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acc to some reddit/niche, very authoritative soures ik 😎

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like, basically fact at that poitn 🥱

zealous fox
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hmm could use that against Indian/Chinese parents. they hate seeing that

narrow depot
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LOL mine are asian parents but idk

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theyll say "you dont want to socialize wah wah wah" or something which isnt true

zealous fox
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lol really

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could show them a frat initiation event

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that ought to make them disgusted

narrow depot
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yea they quoted me as saying that i "read a post saying that UMD culture is focused on football games and frat parties" (that is true, that is one of the things, yea)

zealous fox
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and point to the fact NYU has none of these

narrow depot
narrow depot
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my dad did undergrad, coming as an international student who had never heard of that stuff, he saw someone running nude at 3 AM as part of a frat initiation so yea i think he doenst need to be convinced

zealous fox
narrow depot
zealous fox
narrow depot
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nah tho that's an exagerration lol he told me that most of them are prob fine

zealous fox
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if they didn't go to school in the US, seeing one frat might cause him to generalize to others

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my parents visited a school once, saw a frat party, and deduced the people there weren't academic for example

zealous fox
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but they should be around the same reputation wise

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not enough transcript data for comparison when I looked

image.png
narrow depot
narrow depot
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my parents treat usnews as like a definitive source

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so UMD being tied with UPenn and Yale and being ahead of Brown, basically being on-par with Ivies' CS rankings, really is the point they keep making over and over again

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on that same source, it goes like UMD > UMass > NYU > Rutgers for cs ranking

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umd is #18, UMass is #28 I think, NYU in the 30s and Rutgers in the 40s

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they are treating this like an end-all-be-all but relatively speaking makes sense that UMass edges out Rutgers

narrow depot
fallow hedge
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and yeah for CS i'd probably go UMD over NYU but it depends on financials and other factors like opportunities and majors

narrow depot
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at nyu id be pretty tempted to attempt transferring into stern for business+tech even though that's actually very difficult to do supposedly

fallow hedge
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it depends on how much the cost matters to you i would say

narrow depot
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also, idk the strength of humanities or linguistics for comp linguistics at umass and umd but it def cant be bad

narrow depot
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a school/location i prefer more with strong cs program - not as weak as nyu's and not as strong as umd's comparatively, but also cheapest of the 3

fallow hedge
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then it seems like you already have an idea in your heart

narrow depot
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in my heart nyu, LOL, but it's got a weak CS program and is the most expensive

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id like nyu's setting with umass's food and umd's strength in cs, lol

fallow hedge
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honestly NYU would not be a good choice for you if you really do care about CS

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if you care about the other stuff, sure

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but for CS it's genuinely not worth the money

narrow depot
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(nyu is totally not just a front for me to switch into humanities or do something else later 🙃)

fallow hedge
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i'm from mass and got into umass

narrow depot
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but yea that's what ive heard and makes sense

fallow hedge
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from my campus visit it's one of those schools

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where your success is largely based on your own efforts

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you can be an absolutely shining student coming out of umass - you need to seek your resources and work hard sure, but

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if you don't the quality can also be meh

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so it's very much up to you at umass

narrow depot
fallow hedge
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then umass is a great option for you

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how much is the cost diff between mass and maryland?

narrow depot
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id prefer to be the one in charge of my own success/choosing my own efforts

fallow hedge
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me as well

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sort of why i like umich so much

narrow depot
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my parents ARE ok with paying for UMD and had saved up enough money to pay for that

fallow hedge
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in my opinion then definitely umass

narrow depot
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if NYU then i'd have to loan my own half of it

fallow hedge
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don'

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don't

narrow depot
fallow hedge
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it's not that good for your major

narrow depot
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yea

fallow hedge
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it's just not that big of a difference

narrow depot
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and i dont have a chance for stern and they wont let me do humanities so

fallow hedge
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honestly

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you're getting similar quality with sure a bit better at UMD

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but

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agian

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if you put in enough effort

narrow depot
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also i wouldnt even choose umd personally

fallow hedge
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umass has MORE than enough resources for you to soar high

narrow depot
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over umass

fallow hedge
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choose what you want

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not what other people tell you

narrow depot
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true, but i barely trust my judgement, lol

fallow hedge
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seems like you already have a very clear idea

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and you've done very logical analysis

narrow depot
fallow hedge
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i do agree with your analysis too

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so

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hey, go visit both if you have time

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do some research

narrow depot
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ive visited all but umass

fallow hedge
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also something that's helpful is

narrow depot
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on my list

fallow hedge
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what's your specific area of interest

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in CS

narrow depot
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data science

fallow hedge
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ah

narrow depot
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umd has the limited enrollment program for data sci within their cs major

fallow hedge
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if you go on this website

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and click on the little data symbol

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next to each uni

narrow depot
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and at umass id be doing Informatics

fallow hedge
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you can see how much research they have

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in each specific field

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and you can see where their strengths lie

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i'll give you an example - UCLA is a great school but generally not top 5 for CS

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but their cryptology is amongst the best in the nation

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so you can do deeper research

narrow depot
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i had heard that nyu had done ML stuff bc of their math dept

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and i already saw that umd had a building dedicated to computer vision+ai when i visited, etc

fallow hedge
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again... i wouldn't choose NYU

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i wouldn't choose it for CS alone

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i certainly wouldn't go into dept for it

narrow depot
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i shouldve been good at math, i could be doing applied math + econ rn

narrow depot
fallow hedge
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i think CS is very flexible

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besides, you can always double major/minor

narrow depot
fallow hedge
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in my opinion dude

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if it's half the cost

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and you like many aspects more

narrow depot
fallow hedge
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go umas

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there's a slight difference

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but not enough to deter you

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it's negligible compared to everything else

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if you got into like

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cornell

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or like

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carnegie

narrow depot
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idk i also heard stuff from a few years ago on niche that apparently the kids from MA (70% of the student oppulation) form hs cliques and refuse to branch out, lmao, might not be true though

fallow hedge
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then by all means spend the extra money

narrow depot
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i EDed to columbia which is better ranked than these and got rejected, also cornell I RDed to but they blacklisted my school already lol

fallow hedge
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the fields r very similar

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you might as well do a concentration

narrow depot
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so why not specifically?

fallow hedge
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and then study some stats

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if you're doing that

narrow depot
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well at umd it's a concentration, the rest offer minors

fallow hedge
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lot of schools don't even allow u to take DS with CS

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cuz theyre so similar

fallow hedge
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wdym by that

narrow depot
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rutgers does and nyu combines it in one major but apparently the way nyu does it is shite

narrow depot
fallow hedge
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oh what

narrow depot
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then afterward, every single ED person got rejected, not a single deferral including legacies

fallow hedge
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who would deny cornell

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they got into harvard or something

narrow depot
narrow depot
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off topic but i would prefer cornell to harvard tho i didnt apply to harvard heh

fallow hedge
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haha we can all dream

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i prefer MIT over every school in the world but can only dream

narrow depot
# fallow hedge cuz theyre so similar

ive heard this before - so not even a remote advantage to having the word "data science" in any part of your major/minor for the sake of wanting to work in data sci?

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like, why not at that point

narrow depot
fallow hedge
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arjay, i feel like you've already set your mind

narrow depot
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coolest school in the world for sure tho

fallow hedge
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you just need to convince yourself

narrow depot
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i visited a few times

fallow hedge
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and a few ohers

narrow depot
fallow hedge
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here's the thing - if you go to umass youll have a quality education to a school you like that's also super affordable

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and if you go to UMD and you don't like it

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youll regret the extra cost and not going to a place you liked

narrow depot
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im just taking a guess here saying ill prefer it to umd, i mean on paper i should, but no idea if that means ill straight up like it or any of em

fallow hedge
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even if cs doesn't work as well for u at umass u at least have the other things going for u

narrow depot
narrow depot
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yea i think umass is the logical choice, however

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so then do i hope for a deferral or rejection from nyu this wednesday, assuming i take this position

fallow hedge
narrow depot
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like, id have to just not commit which is doable apparently lmao.......

fallow hedge
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i personally am not the biggest fan of NYU anyway tbh

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would not even go there over my current school

narrow depot
fallow hedge
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cuz there's nothing going at that school

narrow depot
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and he was kinda simping for how nyu has more research resources etc

fallow hedge
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for its price

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your major

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and your aspirations

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imo

narrow depot
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also i prefer the no campus thing which is a hot take probably

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the "typical college experience" was not appealing

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if i became a math or business or writing nerd then it'd line up that way but alas, no

fallow hedge
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i'm not sure man, a few good schools in NY

narrow depot
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also i wanted an international student body instead of like 70% from in-state, lol

fallow hedge
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so

narrow depot
narrow depot
fallow hedge
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i could have went to GATech but i didn't wanna do biology

narrow depot
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it's just what i aspire to be good enough for a career one day

fallow hedge
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so it doesn't really matter

narrow depot
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but gtech also goated at cs

fallow hedge
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i didn't get into their engineering school

narrow depot
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ah

fallow hedge
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i got into their arts and sconces

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sciences

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besides i just got into umich

narrow depot
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oh, schools iwth arts & sciences cs are the ones i prefer which is prob another hot take

fallow hedge
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so either way i'm pretty much chillin

fallow hedge
narrow depot
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well yea i would say thats chilling, nice, lol

fallow hedge
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they only have engineering cs

narrow depot
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all my schools are in the northeast + umd which is close enough

fallow hedge
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i'm actually at umich for arts and science cs

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lol

narrow depot
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ah

fallow hedge
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but yeah, man

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it's pretty much UMD or Umass for u

narrow depot
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not umd

fallow hedge
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either way you'll do really well

narrow depot
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if i could like undo my app to umd i prob would it's caused too much stress for me, lmao

fallow hedge
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well then umass it is!

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what are ya hesitating about

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haha

narrow depot
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i also applied to brown but my chance is 0%

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so id hold off anyway and wait and see

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honestly, if umass takes me into honors college or gives me money or something

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which is kinda unlikely

fallow hedge
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yeah would not count on brown

narrow depot
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then i am soooooo gonna just get my parents to agree with me, lmao

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i was not prepared to make the decision of where i will spend my life until im 23ish years old, LOL, not this week, not this month, not this year 😂

fallow hedge
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understandable

narrow depot
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congratulations on pushing me over the edge for umass becuase i dont see any other option on my plate - not even accepted yet tho lol so ig i wait 😴

fallow hedge
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i honestly understood what i wanted a lot more now that i've spent a semester here

narrow depot
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oh there's also

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RUTGERS

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which is basically free for me

fallow hedge
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andthe transfer process

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taught me so much about

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what i want

narrow depot
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but nah right

fallow hedge
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uh i wouldn't go to rutgers no

narrow depot
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lol, mood

fallow hedge
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they're not exactly known for CS

narrow depot
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i was once a john rutger stan bc my school is full of kids who make ironic jokes about rutgers' existence, us being in-state and them always accepting 90% of the kids in our high school

fallow hedge
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once again, if your field of interest was

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math

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or like

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business

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then yeah good option

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CS nah

narrow depot
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i have a friend who's interested in philosophy and apparently rutgers professors write things that oxford professors give to their students, LMAO - the friend's sister goes to oxford, they're both kinda cracked

fallow hedge
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@narrow depot i have to say one thing about umass

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i used to not like that school as much

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because i was in mass and most ppl in my school was an auto admit to that school

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but after visiting and learning more about it

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i'm a big fan of that school

narrow depot
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oh, cool

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thanks for the info/help!

fallow hedge
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npnp

zealous fox
zealous fox
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I'm not saying NYU>UMD in any way

zealous fox
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def DO NOT pick nyu if you need to do this

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a lot of people have fallen into the hole of "I need a loan for nyu" and end up in trouble down the line or at the minimum, lose a lot of money that they would have saved to the loan company. Only pick nyu if you can actually afford it, because these guys don't give aid

fallow hedge
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i just told him bc of the loan

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it's not worth

narrow depot
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on one page it shows same cost as umd. in the other it shows significantly less. i dont know which one it is, it's inconsistent 😭

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either way it's affordable in comparison to nyu BUT now my parents will def just say "same cost, but better ranking, l+ratio" (im paraphrasing here 🙃)

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so, no matter what i do, i am faced with the inevitability, i dont want to go but all roads point back to UMD

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umd is inevitable. alrighty i should prepare to go to college park lol no shot im not

zealous fox
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you said that you had to take out a loan so I'm assuming your assets are low enough where you would get aid at most other schools

narrow depot
zealous fox
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by that I mean federal poverty level

narrow depot
narrow depot
zealous fox
# narrow depot yea ive heard

here's Stanford's aid, which is much better than NYU's. And most ivies except cornell should have similar offerings, and it is better for H and P

image.png
narrow depot
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i meannnnn i would go to the UK if the program was good im not opposed to that. just that i dont believe it's strong enough of a program. NU's CS in Boston is like NYU-level on USNews, no idea though

zealous fox
narrow depot
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a family friend goes to cornell and her dad literally worked in the cafeteria for some time so they could get tuition discount. she's doing something that cornell's top-ranked for other than cs which i forgot so that's why they were willing

narrow depot
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lmao

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they keep repeating

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"you got into a school as good as Penn and better than some Ivies" over and over again about UMD

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im really sick of hearing it tbh

zealous fox
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if you fall into any of the brackets under $250,000 on the chart, and your assets don't exceed 1m, you can tell them you will likely be getting some form of aid from the school

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which makes it cheaper than umd, provided you get in

zealous fox
narrow depot
zealous fox
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because if you take out a loan, they are often on the hook for it too. which is why they are pushing the public so hard

narrow depot
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like, it's not an issue for umass and umd

zealous fox
narrow depot
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they just see it as "tied" in price (which again, i dont think it is, im seeing 2 different costs on their websites for out of state whcih is confusing)

zealous fox
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assume you'll get nothing unless you are poor

narrow depot
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yea

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they dont care about price when it comes to anything other than NYU or the 2 ivies i applied to which i wont get

zealous fox
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hmmm, even if they don't consider price, you won't be able to afford it though

narrow depot
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you mean umass or umd?

zealous fox
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they need to sign for you

narrow depot
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i can afford both of those, they saved up enough for the amt umd would hypothetically cost so im good

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wouldnt need to loan, same with umass

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it's any school that exceeds umd that's a problem

narrow depot
zealous fox
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if I were the parent, and I didn't have at the assets to cover it comfortably, I wouldn't want to sign a 180k + 6% interest loan

narrow depot
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indeed

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moral of the story is, if i were good at math half my problems would be solved 💀

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cough cough ik someone at nyu doing an applied math major 😌. not me

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haha jk im good at math why else would i be doing a stem major 😭

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looking forward to not commiting to NYU if they decide to make it more difficult and accept me. also looking forward to hopefully UMass and if not, being comfortable at UMD.

brazen storm
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@narrow depot UMass ranked #2 in linguistics globally

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It's wild

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Amazing program

narrow depot
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might be the final argument for umass then, that and the fact that non-college locals literally pay to go and eat food there 😋