I was talking to my mother the other day, about college I mean. It's long been clear in my family how things work. Even though my parents claim they're not "asian" and don't pressure me into doing anything or even into vying for college, they do- just in a much more roundabout way. It's obvious that my mom dreams of me going to Princeton because it's close, my dad dreams of me going to Stanford, his alma matter. My mom always talked about how her friends' children generally go to NYU or UChicago and my dad's friends' go to Stanford or UPenn, how I should stand to give my parents face. This was the first time my mom admitted that (gasp!) I might not end up going to Princeton, but that she sees me going to MIT (haha, so typical).
I was just telling Cecilia about how I'm not sure what college is IT for me. For the longest time, I always thought Princeton was the perfect choice (yeah, I even have an orange sweatshirt). I mean, it's an amazing college with a great ORFE department, has an absolutely breathtaking campus, and well.. is preppy. But, chances are, I'm not going to get in. If admissions were completely random, I'd stand about 10% chance. This year I'm going to take a step back and take a look at everything from a slightly bigger picture. I'm a junior. I don't know exactly what I want in a college yet, and I hardly know what a college would want from me. I'm going to pursue everything I had planned on going for, but at the same time open my view as to which colleges I'm applying to (watch my list grow and shrink with time) and as to what I'll be majoring in.
Yes, that's right. I'm not even sure I'm going to major in Mathematics-Economics or Operations Research anymore or to what I want to be. Business would be fun, but so would be Law, or even biophysics research (though after visiting Haas Automation, I'm not so sure about working in that field).
I start college visits soon. I think my first "real" (Princeton and Caltech were just pretend.) visit will be to Cornell (and maybe URochester), probably October 6-8.
PS. I was over at a friend's house last night, and I found a copy of Fiske's Guide to Colleges in her room. At least I'm not the only one.
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4 comments:
Sheesh, MIT is great too.... what in the world are your parents worrying about?! And you do have a shot at Pton, stop the premature freaking out.
I'm definitely not left-brained enough to make it to a school like that, ever. Haha. I don't think I'd even want to. Anyway, biophysics actually sounds cool... what's bad about it? I heard that before the shape of DNA was actually discovered, they used biophysics to "guess" the shape of DNA (and they were in the right ballpark, too. I mean how cool is that?).
lol. I just found it funny that my mother thought that way- that MIT was a step down and where I would more likely fit in. I do have a shot, but I'm just like everyone else (stereotypically asian), and just another applicant. I feel as though I've been fixating too much on Princeton.
Only thing about going into research is that after ug, you have PhD and then post-doc and then you may or maynot get a position and then you have to move to wherever they want you. Also, I don't get to use any of my strengths in that field. I'm definately not a bio person (:O first time I'm not that stereotypically asian); I just find the idea interesting.
I thought stereotypically asian was math and physics, but... haha. I'm definitely not a math or physics person. Maybe physics, but anything but math.
And MIT = Pton... it's not a step down! Wow.
MIT?? A step down? your mom was probably thinking along the lines of affirmative action and how girls get a much better shot at MIT. Plus, MIT is SO, SO grade-based.
I suppose you could always go undecided and take a few classes to see what you want...haha and bio isn't THAT asian, it's just science that's asian in general. I suppose pre-med is pretty damn asian tho, ahaha
I think economics is the best bet for any of those (if you're trying to decide between law and business), with some concentration in the sciences, but I'm not sure how majors work anymore, so eh :\
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