Decisions

So today I got two emails. Both were acceptance letters, the first from Pratt, which I got in the middle of my Man's Inhumanity to Man class and just now, I checked my email again and Syracuse University sent me an acceptance email. So now I am in a point where I loved to be in, but also where I hate to be. Rochester Institute of Technology is my favorite school. I've spent hours finding out everything I can about all these schools, and RIT is my favorite because it has everything I want in a school, and nothing I don't want. I hate to be in this position because now I actually have to consider these other schools. Decision is hard and if I was denied by these schools my choice would have been so much easier. Each school is generally the same if we want to consider ranking of my program. There are so many places that rank schools and these three are all very good schools for Industrial Design.
I applied to other schools, but I wouldn't want to go to those. Even if I get into Carnegie Mellon or RISD, I do not like their philosophy on education. Schools like those are elitist, and even though none of these schools are cheap, I don't want to go to a school that invests in rich students to become successful. And education wise, I am sure that Carnegie Mellon isn't extraordinarily better than Syracuse. In fact, from what I've seen through my own research, RIT is probably going to give me the best education because it's one of the only schools where the focus is diverse and includes a lot more math and science classes, which even though I probably won't enjoy, will be better for me.
Pratt was my original favorite school. I loved being in Brooklyn because being a student in NYC felt right for me, but after spending a lot of time thinking about it, I decided that Pratt was probably not going to be good for me. I visited the school and spent time with my friend Michelle Marin, and she gave me an unofficial tour of the campus. It's a great looking school, tiny, but pretty, but after seeing the people there, I didn't feel comfortable. I don't want to be surrounded by artists. I also don't want to be that close to home. If my parents can get to me within ten minutes from where they work, which is the case with where my father works, I don't want to be there. I don't want everyone at my school to be like me, which sounds weird to say, but it's true. It's the same reason I didn't want to go to Purchase. Everyone there is the weird kid in high school, and I'm not about that.
That's why I turned my attention to Syracuse. I loved its size and it's Industrial Design program was great because it was separate from the rest of the art program. I would be with other ID kids, and be in a campus where there were a lot of things happening, and I loved that. But the school has a big Greek community. It's the number one party school in the country, which really doesn't bother me, but it's something to keep in mind. Location wise, it's great. It's far, and it's cold. I like the cold and I like being far.
RIT had been an option longer than any school I applied to. It had my program and I applied there almost forgetting that I had. I lumped it together with Syracuse because they're both upstate and they both have orange as a school color. But after I started to do more research into it, I realized that it was a great fit for me. It's a school for nerds. The way I see it is that it just like a normal run-of-the-mill university, but with a lot more nerdy kids. And that has a lot of advantages for me. As an ID student, it means being in an environment where design is taken in as a technology tool rather than an extension of art. It means that I will be working with engineers and computer science majors and I would have the best equipment. I could chill with artists and work with geeks. I feel that RIT is where I can excel at most.
Industrial designers are judged on their portfolio. That's how you get jobs and success. So, the school I go to, even though it has importance, isn't as important as how good I get at what I want to do. RIT, i feel, is going to leave me with a better portfolio when I graduate, and that's the main reason I want to go there.