Oh, and congrats on a great cycle there Marc03! You and I have pretty similar numbers... Hopefully all those jerkies with their high uGPAs won't know what hit them! 
haha, heard 'dat.
but seriously, thanks and big congrats to you too! These are hard choices, but I'm grateful to have them. I knew that SMU would be in there 'til the end since I love Dallas, but I had to narrow down UMN vs. UIUC and went with Minnesota in the end for a few reasons:
- I'm a bit older (26) so I didn't want to live in a small college town full of 19-21 year olds. I enjoyed their company for the seven years (a little too much, obviously) I spent in undergrad
.
- Minnesota is very conscious of the fact that they're out of the top 20 for the first time in a very long time and they have a brand new dean coming in July whose main focus for improving the ranking is centered around improving placement numbers (dolla dolla bills y'all) and national placements. This was as opposed to UIUC who does not have a dean at the moment and that scares me.
- He seems to have great ideas on improving the school and, in doing so, the rankings. The prospect of possibly graduating from a school in the teens is always appealing.
- UIUC gave me more money (25k vs. 15k) but they're much higher cost of attendance (check newest numbers) made is pretty much a wash.
- Most importantly, however, is that if I attend UMN, my older brother will be attending there as well. He was just accepted this past Friday and is visiting at the moment.
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