Washington, Texas, Michigan, Indiana, Syracuse, Simmons, and Pitt!

[MyLadyDisdain]

Thanks for reading!

I'm very excited (if somewhat humbled) to have been admitted to the following schools:

U Washington

U Texas (Austin)

U Michigan (Ann Arbor)

U Indiana (Bloomington)

Syracuse

Pitt

Simmons

While financial aid is a determining factor in my decisions rubrik, I would love to have any opinions regarding my choices. Thusfar I've been offered scholarships by UM and IU, the later including full funding for the first year and a paid position in my field of interest.

Things I'm looking for:

Small class sizes

Interdisciplinary approach

Individual degree design

Internship/abroad options

Thank you so much for your replies!

~MLD

[swils]

I was considering both Pitt and Simmons (2 out of my top 3) and visited both of them. Here are some impressions.

Simmons:

-Great placement in Boston. It's about a block off the T line. You walk past the Museum of Fine Arts(!) and the Isabelle Stewert Gardiner Museum(!) and you're there. It's in an area full of smaller colleges, all right on top of each other, and there's generally a lot of connection between them. It's a little outside of the exciting parts of Boston, and the campus is boring and small, but... as I said... right on the subway line. Getting into the thick of things wouldn't be a problem.

What I really, really liked about Simmons was that their classes seemed a little more "liberal arts," if that makes sense. They seemed varied and interdisciplinary. There were several program tracks that you could follow, that were availavle to any students who wanted them. When I talked to their admissions rep, she said that there was a big push to foster better internships for general-degree students. Archive students basically get to pick their top three from a great list (museums, Harvard, Boston Public Library....) and get one of their top. They were working on getting that opportunity for the rest of the students as well. It would be hard to beat Boston in terms of American history, if you have an interest in that.

It's also a smaller school, though their MLIS program dominates their grad studies, I think. It wouldn't be hard to run into another library student. i don't know how this played out as far as class sizes.

Downside to Simmons: Cost. It was about twice as expensive as the other schools I was considering, and that wasn't even including cost of living in Boston, which is huge.

Pitt: I really really liked the city. I didn't expect to. I thought "Pittsburgh" and I thought "dirty, dirty steel mill town." Which it was, but I guess they stopped doing that in the 60's, and now I find it delightful. It's on the fork of a river, surrounded by steep bluffs covered by trees and tall, narrow houses. There aren a bunch of beautiful neighborhoods surrounding the north and west of campus, full of (what I expect are) old mansions broken up into apartments. Campus is a little east of downtown, and it's beautiful. The Cathedral of Learning looks like a mix of a skyscraper and... something out of Lord of the Rings. The top levels are classrooms and offices, but the first several floors look like a Gothic cathedral. And people just... hang out there. Doing homework. Whatever.

Their preservation program is really strong, but exclusive. If you weren't put into the APRM specialization, I think you'd have a hard time taking advantage of their opportunities for internships and things. And if you WERE in APRM, that's pretty much all you'd be doing. Their 3 semesters sounded like they were very strictly mapped out.

As far as the city goes, there are tons of restaurants and things, but more importantly, the Carnegie Mellon Museum of Art and Natural History is literally right across the street from campus. It could be a great resource, if you're into that kind of thing.

I ended up not choosing Pittsburgh after looking more closely at the research interests of the professors and the topics of the classes. It just wasn't as good of a fit for what I wanted to do. Their program is also huge (something like 900 students?) so I was worried about distinguishing myself. It hurt to say no, though!

Anyway, it sounds like you've got a killer list of aceptances and would get a good start by choosing any of them. I mean, what, did you just work your way down the top ten or something? : )

[MyLadyDisdain]

Thanks, swils!

Both programs sound great; at present I've found that I'm mapping out my degree class by class with each of my top programs and trying to make a decision based on this (I have till Tuesday!).

Interestingly enough, I chose my applications by looking at the ALA program map and visiting different program sites. It just so happened that they were all top ten

[swils]

Interestingly enough, I chose my applications by looking at the ALA program map and visiting different program sites. It just so happened that they were all top ten

Haha, I did the same! It looks like you have a great method for comparing your programs. Good luck with your decision!