College, Portland, leaving home, HUH?

[the_wizzard]

If you can get into a great place like Tufts or an Ivy League school like Brown I'd go there in a heartbeat. NYU would be a good experience too especially since you are in Liberal Arts - you can't beat New York City if you are studying that discipline. You have plenty of time to travel but I think choosing the best school is the most important thing right now.

Welcome back Face/Jenny!  So I am with Jaimoe on this....however, Reed is an amazing school.  Totally a book-nerd school on psychedelics!  But I would focus on the school/program that suits you best.  
Our jazz scene here is small, but it is SUPER-DUPER supportive.  Mel Brown and Thara Memory give back to the kids in this town.  And I could introduce you to our buddy Derek Sims (jazz trumpeter here in town).  Unfortunately, we lost sponsorship on our kick-ass jazz festival.  Hopefully it will be back in 2010.  But Portland is a MUSIC town, so you should find some like-minded souls.  
Portland is such a foodie town, cheeseburgers are totally welcome (there has been a resurgence of meat heavy restaurants recently and by golly, I bet that cheeseburger is local, organic, and sustainable  ;)).
I love Portland.  I love the progressive vibe, the availability of music, the genuine love of the community and environment, the diy culture, and the peeps.  Yes it rains here.  But bBill is correct.  It is more of a drizzle.  Like today, the forcast was rain leading into showers (I love all the adjectives for rain we have here).  But it didn't rain all day, by no means.  And the rain makes it green, which now my lawn is out of control.  
Really, any college that suits you will be fun and exciting.  But my advice is to focus on the program, not the town.

[FACE]

thank you, everyone! this was really helpful to read. I dont even knwo where I'll get in or if i'll get in anywhere at all. I know I'll be fine wherever, I have just never had a desire to explore the west coast at all... yet I find Reed so very interesting. Maybe in a unreachable way. In a way that I want to idealize more than anything else.

If you can get into a great place like Tufts or an Ivy League school like Brown I'd go there in a heartbeat. NYU would be a good experience too especially since you are in Liberal Arts - you can't beat New York City if you are studying that discipline. You have plenty of time to travel but I think choosing the best school is the most important thing right now.

I agree. I want to go somewhere good. I want to go somewhere smart wehre Ic an study what I want to study. Tufts sounds great, but I want to do the five year program with the SMFA --- and since applications are separate (and both binding) i can't apply early becuase I don't know how happy i'd be at either individually.
Brown is a reach, and I"d love to go there, but I have a feeling I wouldn't get along with such a competitive community. I do understand the benefits of going to an Ivy League in the long run, and if I were to get in I Think my parents would make me, but honestly I've had it with the high school mindset of COMPETITION. Enough is enough already. Not that I Don't want to go somewehre good, but that I think I would sacrifice a good school for "non competition" (which is different than laziness).  I'd like to go somewhere there is a natural desire to learn and be interested. That is what's most important to me.  Maybe Brown has that, but to me it seems like it's be hard for me. Who knows, of course my opinions are bias.

Honestly, I don't know what I want. I just know I want to be happy and have fun with these next four years...
Oh me oh my.
I'll figure it out.

Now, to rewrite my essay.
I can't wait for second semester.

thanks again everyone.

[ItStillJaimoe]

I have two BA's - one in English (from a Canadian university that is Ivy League comparable) and one in broadcasting - and from my experiences, Arts-related studies are pretty non-competitive unless your grades, essays and various projects are on display, which is unlikely. Then again, when I submitted projects in my Television Broadcasting program, they were scrutinized by teachers and fellow students alike. It's no big deal really. It's actually kind of liberating, especially for artists.    

[FACE]

I don't care about scrutinization - I kind of love that (if I'm confident). I guess the issue is the internal competition of being better than the person next to you. Working the hardest. Taking the hardest classes. Creating an organizational monster that will try to make you feel bad about yourself because you're not doing as much as they are or earning those grades or blahb lahblah.
maybe that ends in high school.
OH JEEZ I HOPE SO!!!!!!!!

[The DARK]

Never been to Portland, but I completely agree that the West Coast has a stange vibe that I've never been fond of. Charleston's a beautiful place (kinda sad to leave it behind).

[ItStillJaimoe]

I don't care about scrutinization - I kind of love that (if I'm confident). I guess the issue is the internal competition of being better than the person next to you. Working the hardest. Taking the hardest classes. Creating an organizational monster that will try to make you feel bad about yourself because you're not doing as much as they are or earning those grades or blahb lahblah.
maybe that ends in high school.
OH JEEZ I HOPE SO!!!!!!!!

You can take the hardest classes, but you can burn-out from trying to beat yourself up. I know a few profs, many doctors etc... and none of them took only tough courses. Also, sometimes the toughest courses are the most interesting and enriching. Depending on the size of the university (in my country, university and college are completely different), you can easily blend in to the masses in an Arts program, so being better than the person next to you doesn't mean too much in the whole scheme of things.