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Comment by prezjordan | Hacker News Reader

I attend a small tech school outside of NYC, and it's not terribly well-known, and not terribly well-ranked. I was a good student in high school, and got into schools ranked much higher than the one I attend now. Why? I love the location here, and I love the "personal" factor that comes with a small school. I've met lots of interesting people, I live in a beautiful town with beautiful views, and I really enjoy what I'm learning. It just "felt right" and it still does today.

Some days I get a little upset that I don't attend a prestigious university, and I'm not really sure why. There's always grad school, though. Anyway, just a personal experience.

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I went to a solidly 4th tier university (out of 4 tiers, as I recall). I now work and regularly interact with people from the best universities, Harvard, Princeton, etc, and I can tell you that as far as knowledge and ability are concerned, they have no advantage.

If you're committed to learning and improving yourself, you don't need the ivy league's approval.

RPI? RIT? Those are my guesses...

Those were the schools I got into that are ranked higher than where I go now (Stevens Institute - Hoboken). More people know them by name, but even beyond that lies CMU (I was waitlisted, and I'm hoping to maybe pursue a masters there).

Did financial considerations come into play in your decision to choose Stevens vs. the other schools?

His profile says: Junior CS student at Stevens Institute in Hoboken, NJ

haha nice thanks

IIRC RPI is nowhere near NYC.

RPI is in Renssellear, about 2 hours north of NYC. RIT is in Rochester, about 6 hours northwest of NYC--on Lake Ontario.

People in NYC have warped perceptions of distance.

I grew up in Queens. My grandmother would pack us a lunch when my dad I visited my cousins in "Upstate" in Westchester county (probably a 30 minute drive on the weekend in those days). The Albany/Troy area to a New Yorker is somewhere between Mongolia and Boston.

The ironic thing is that millions of people in the NY metro area spend 1-2 hours commuting less than 20 miles every day!

For me, close to NYC means Poughkeepsie or further south.

RPI is actually in Troy, but the distance is correct.

You're right, it is. I always thought that was just Rensselear, but I've never spent long enough to actually notice the town lines.

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