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Hey everyone, first thank you for reading this because I think it is going to be a bit long.
To tell you a bit about myself: I'm 22, female and currently living in Turkey. (a country between Greece and Iraq if you never heard of it) I am awarded a Fulbright scholarship for my master's studies, I'm a computer science and engineering graduate.
The problem is I don't know anything about the USA, except perhaps some really major cities. And I don't want to act like a tourist and write down all the colleges in NYC just because I know there. I'm pretty sure the country has some other nice cities as well.
And I know that generalizations are pretty wrong and every city has pretty much all kinds of people, but again a general city vibe info would be helpful when deciding; and I have literally NONE of it about the USA. Like for example if it is Europe I know Switzerland and Germany have pretty good engineering schools but I wouldn't pick Switzerland because to me it is a bit soulless (sorry people from Switzerland). Or I know France and Belgium has a more European vibe but when you enter Netherlands you begin to get the Scandinavic vibe.
What I'm looking for is a really walkable, or bikeable city, or a city where there is an A* metro. I don't want to be in a city where the only transportation option is your car or shaky buses. And I want to be in a city where there is a variety of options for cultural offerings. What I mean from this is that I don't want to be in a city where the only option for a night out is eating somewhere, and you cannot find anything else to do.
And there is another thing but I don't know how to explain this without sounding really pretentious. I know that there are places that have a really safe clean and upper-class vibe but all you can find is endless shops of high-end brands and nothing else. I also know that there are places that offer a great music and arts scene and have a youthful energy but have major safety and cleanliness problems. Again if I were to give examples from Europe an example to the first description would be southern France and an example to the second one would be Berlin maybe. So I want a city that can mix these two. And I know a city's complete energy cannot be like this but if there are one or two neighborhoods that offer these characteristics, I would pick it over an overall really safe or an overall really hip city.
From what I researched online, Brown University seemed to fit what I was looking for from a university and the students in it, and UC Berkeley looked like it offers what I expect from a city. I don't mind it not being at the center of SF at all, as long as where I'm going to live would be in somewhat 30min distance from a city that offers what I'm expecting. But I'm not even going to apply to those two colleges because I'm not sure if Brown offers a nice graduate computer science program and I don't think I would be admitted to UC Berkeley. (Yet again, I don't know how prestigious is the Fulbright Scholarship in the USA.) So I'm really lost all over and would appreciate any help.
So TLDR; I'm looking for a city that has a nice University for getting a Master's degree in Computer Science and can offer some nice cultural activities without being too much of a hell.
Last edited by mablepines; 09-23-2017 at 04:29 AM..
The first that comes to mind for me would be Boston which pretty much nails your criteria in my opinion. It has a vast cultural scene, a hip vibe due to the high concentration of college students, an extensive transit system and it's very walkable as well as compact for the most part. As a Fulbright scholar I would say your options are quite good there and while Harvard could be a bit of a stretch universities like Boston University, MIT, Tufts, Boston College and Northeastern would be desirable institutions to achieve a Master's Degree from.
Congrats on the Fulbright! Just my quick thoughts, besides NYC obviously:
Living without a car-
Chicago
DC
Boston
Philly
San Francisco
Cities with top CS Programs -
Boston (MIT, Harvard, BU, Northeastern)
LA (Caltech, Claremont schools, UCLA, USC)
San Fran Bay Area (Stanford, Berkeley, Santa Clara)
Pittsburgh (Carnegie Mellon)
Atlanta (Ga Tech)
Raleigh-Durham (Duke, NC State)
Philly (Upenn)
Houston (Rice)
Chicago (Northwestern)
Seattle (UW, Digipen)
LA and Seattle, while not in the top tier of living without a car, are pretty decent. Atlanta and Pittsburgh could be ok. I think Boston is your best bet for both factors. Pretty much every major city will have safe but not high end brands. Actually, generally speaking, areas around major universities are typically going to be youthful, not-high end, and still decently safe.
Apply to Berkeley. Could be a great fit. Worst thing they do is not accept you. And Fulbright is quite prestigious. Good luck!!
Congrats on the Fulbright! Just my quick thoughts, besides NYC obviously:
Living without a car-
Chicago
DC
Boston
Philly
San Francisco
Cities with top CS Programs -
Boston (MIT, Harvard, BU, Northeastern)
LA (Caltech, Claremont schools, UCLA, USC)
San Fran Bay Area (Stanford, Berkeley, Santa Clara)
Pittsburgh (Carnegie Mellon)
Atlanta (Ga Tech)
Raleigh-Durham (Duke, NC State) Philly (Upenn)
Houston (Rice)
Chicago (Northwestern)
Seattle (UW, Digipen)
LA and Seattle, while not in the top tier of living without a car, are pretty decent. Atlanta and Pittsburgh could be ok. I think Boston is your best bet for both factors. Pretty much every major city will have safe but not high end brands. Actually, generally speaking, areas around major universities are typically going to be youthful, not-high end, and still decently safe.
Apply to Berkeley. Could be a great fit. Worst thing they do is not accept you. And Fulbright is quite prestigious. Good luck!!
+1; i know that upenn-wharton in #1 for business but i think it's neighbor, drexel, is more competitive in science/engineering.
Quote:
Originally Posted by kyle19125
The first that comes to mind for me would be Boston which pretty much nails your criteria in my opinion. It has a vast cultural scene, a hip vibe due to the high concentration of college students, an extensive transit system and it's very walkable as well as compact for the most part. As a Fulbright scholar I would say your options are quite good there and while Harvard could be a bit of a stretch universities like Boston University, MIT, Tufts, Boston College and Northeastern would be desirable institutions to achieve a Master's Degree from.
+1; i agree in general education; but, isnt m.i.t. the most competitive science/engineering university in the world.
Last edited by stanley-88888888; 09-23-2017 at 12:33 PM..
Thank you all for replying! So you think I have a chance at colleges like M.I.T., Carnegie Melon or Caltech? I wasn't even going to apply to those since I'm doing my admissions with an institution called IIE and have like only 4 choices, so don't wanna risk it. But maybe, I can try one of these top colleges with 3 other more safe options after all.
What do you think of Austin? University of Texas is a big engineering school and Austin seemed nice, yet again I don't know. And I can't tell the distinction between Minnesota and Madison, there are lakes in Madison and it is a bit smaller? I want to write down two universities which I'll highly probably be accepted and can't decide between University of Minnesota Twin Cities, University of Wisconsin Madison, University of Michigan, University of Washington St. Louis and University of Texas Austin. I don't know if I'm still aiming too high with these schools and if not, which of these cities would be a nice fit for me.
Yeah if you only get 4 schools to apply to I guess I would pick one "dream school" from the very elite, two that you feel more comfortable about, and then one that you definitely should get into that we tend to call a "safety school."
Austin is alright. It's a great city and can be a good option if you're interested in having that kind of experience (midsized city/major college town) but it's far below the top tier cities in terms of size/vibrancy/culture and carless living.
Ann Arbor (U of Michigan) will be somewhat similar but it's actually located in a smaller city that is on the far outskirts of a major city (Detroit). Madison (U of Wisconsin) is even smaller but once again will offer something in the same vein...major state university experience.
St Louis (WUSTL) and Minneapolis (U of Minnesota) are going to offer more of a big city experience. They won't feel quite so much like everything revolves around the universities.
I do not know anything about any of those specific programs...just speaking about the schools and environments I would personally like Minnesota the most. I also think it's the place that would be best to live without a car, though none are great. That said, I guarantee that many thousands of students at each one of those schools does not have a car and gets by alright.
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