Emerson was in my top two, with Hampshire College in Amherst being my #1 top choice. I auditioned…read morefor Emerson's Theater Program (they held auditions in my hometown of NYC) got accepted, and then spent a weekend on campus in Boston, stayed on campus, ate in the dining hall, sat in on some Friday and Monday classes, had my admissions office interview and left campus. I TOTALLY fell in love with Emerson and could easily have gone there (it was like a smaller, friendlier version of NYU). It was a tough choice for me actually (I agonized over it) to have to choose between the two schools. Being from NYC, I chose Hampshire over Emerson ONLY because I wanted a smaller more rural campus experience for my undergraduate education (trading NYC for Boston wasn't a fit for me at the time) chances are, now today, I would probably choose Emerson.
In every OTHER way, Emerson ticked ALL the boxes for me. In fact, in certain aspects, I wish I had gone to Emerson instead of Hampshire (because Emerson did have a LOT to offer me), because of the fact that Emerson had better options to study in places other than Boston, and Hampshire didn't (Emerson also has better facilities for Theater & Film than Hampshire does) BUT, it wasn't as academically experimental at Emerson, and I wouldn't have learned as much from getting grades as I did from detailed evaluations, but I would have been more creatively fulfilled at Emerson overall, because of the urban, artistic environment that Boston would have offered.
Emerson had accepted me, and I was about to accept and enroll and become an Emersonian because I hadn't heard back from Hampshire (and I had worked pretty hard to get into Emerson) yet. Lo and behold, Hampshire then sent me my acceptance letter (hey, this was back in the early 90's) so I turned Emerson down. It was a tough, tough choice because although the two schools are radically different, they attract a LOT of the same kinds of students: artsy, quirky, creative, intellectual and independent. That's what made the choice SO difficult for me. The TOUGHEST choice I made in my undergraduate college career.