Best overall undergraduate experience

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The school that strikes me as the most "something for everyone" is Berkeley. When I toured colleges, I developed a major crush on Berkeley and didn't warm to Stanford that much.

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<p>I coud come up with numerous reason why you would prefer Stanford to Berkeley. One of the most important, to me, is the ability to switch majors freely. At Stanford, you can declare any major you want, and switch at any time. Not so at Berkeley, especially in engineering, where not all majors are open to all interested students, and thus you may be forced to major in something you don't really want. </p>

<p>However, I also agree that the city of Berkeley is far more interesting than the city of Palo Alto.</p>

<p>caseyatbat,
I like all of your comments on U Washington which I think is probably the best "unknown" state university in the country. While certainly known to you and others in the Pacific NW, you hear very little about it in other parts of the country. It certainly has the same level of appeal and excellence of Big 10 schools like U Michigan and U Wisconsin.</p>

<p>Big-time sports, easy access to big city (in order of US News ranking):</p>

<p>Northwestern
Rice
Vanderbilt
Berkeley
Georgetown
UCLA
USC
Boston College
Wisconsin
GA Tech
Washington
Texas</p>

<p>Tourguide,
Maybe you don't consider driving north on 101 to be easy access to SF, but I think you might want to include Stanford on your list. Also, for big cities, I think that Raleigh Durham would be bigger than Austin (UT) so I'd also suggest Duke and U North Carolina. Also, Tulane might be on your list. They are ranked just ahead of U Washington and located in New Orleans.</p>

<p>Ann Arbor is only 30-40 minutes away from Detroit. I realize that Detroit itself isn't that nice, but it has world class amenities and those are very accessible to Ann Arbor.</p>

<p>
[quote]
It definitely varies from person to person. Try this experiment: </p>

<ol>
<li>Find somebody who loves (as a hobby) physics, mathematics, Rubik's Cubes, Mental math, and got into Caltech and wants to go there.</li>
<li>Force him to go to USC.</li>
<li>Sit back and Enjoy.

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</li>
</ol>

<p>Sorry, that's already been done. ;) And the sufferer himself frequents CC, no less!</p>

<p>Ammmmmhhhhheeeeerrrrrrssssssstttttt....</p>

<p>Beautiful town with a full compliment of restaurants and entertainment?
Check.</p>

<p>Academics?
Double check.</p>

<p>Great athletics?
Triple check.</p>

<p>National Basketball Champions.
Checkcheckcheckcheckcheckcheckcheckcheck....</p>

<p>People may not think you can have a great athletic experience at a DIII school, but the overall quality of athletics at Amherst coupled with the super-intense Williams rivalry argues otherwise. Did you know that more people attend the annual Amherst-Williams football game than there are combined students and faculty at both schools?</p>

<p>Pomona College should be right in the thick of this.</p>

<p>Penn, UNC, Michigan and Vanderbilt would be my top picks.</p>

<p>One more vote for Pomona:</p>

<p>Academics – most selective LAC with one of the highest average SATs.</p>

<p>Location – SoCal weather, “Ski-Beach Day” (Ski at nearby Mt. Baldy in the morning, swim at Newport Beach in the afternoon), recently expanded college town with upscale restaurants, clubs, film-noir theater, and train station to take you to downtown LA 32 miles away.</p>

<p>Educational experience – small class trademark and intimate feel of a LAC but with 6,000 students in the 5-school Claremont Consortium under the same geographic “bubble" offering over 2,500 courses – something for everyone.</p>

<p>Sports – No. It’s not Division I. But many students would rather compete than watch, and the intra-school rivalry (Pomona-Pitzer vs. Claremont McKenna/Harvey Mudd/Scripps) makes for interesting class discussions.</p>

<p>Administration – Ranked #1 by Princeton Review for “School runs like butter”.</p>

<p>Facilities – 5th largest endowment per student behind HYP and Grinnell allows for top notch facilities and services (and #6 ranked for “Dorms like Palaces”).</p>

<p>Overall experience – Freshman retention rate is 99%, highest in the country. If you like it, you stay. If you don’t, you transfer or drop out. Pomona students like it.</p>

<p>I don't know if you can just call it the "most selective LAC". It would, really, have to share that honor with Amherst, Williams, and Swarthmore.</p>

<p>Sorry, meant to include the reference: <a href="http://www.hernandezcollegeconsulting.com/resources/early2007statistics.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.hernandezcollegeconsulting.com/resources/early2007statistics.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Class of 2011 Acceptance Rate:</p>

<p>Pomona - 15.8%
Claremont McKenna - 16.2%
Swarthmore - 17%
Williams - 17.4%
Amherst - 17.5%</p>

<p>Acceptance rate cannot be the sole basis for such an inexact title as "most selective." One would have to take into account the strength of the applicants accepted and strength of the applicant pool as a whole.</p>

<p>Another factor that throws off acceptance rate somewhat is regional bias when factoring in yield. Amherst admissions know they need to admit approx. 3 students to yield 1 eventual matriculating freshman because there are so many applicants who also are admitted to other top notch schools in the area (Ivy League, etc.). Pomona, on the other hand, does not have to admit as many students to yield the number of students it wants because the options for students who want to stay in California and also get a "top tier" education are limited. Whereas in the northeast you have 9 Ivy League schools, a handful of the best LACs, plus MIT, and to a certain extent, Northwestern, WashU, and a few others, one who is dedicated to staying on the West Coast has to look at Stanford, Berkley, Caltech, UCLA, and a couple of others. Thus, comparing accept. rates across the country are sometimes misleading between comparable schools.</p>

<p>Not to say that Pomona doesn't deserve a stake in the "most selective LAC" crown. It's probably a four or five-way tie, to be honest.</p>

<p>Amherst also only accepts approximately 28% of its freshman class ED.</p>

<p>Duke,Stanford,Notre Dame, HYP,Northwestern. LAC's Amherst, Williams, Davidson, Holy Cross, Colgate, Bucknell. Great academics, Div1 sports(excluding Amherst&Williams) and strong alumni networks with giving rates of 45-50%.</p>

<p>I'm biased, but U Florida!</p>

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Whereas in the northeast you have 9 Ivy League schools, a handful of the best LACs, plus MIT, and to a certain extent, Northwestern, WashU, and a few others

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<p>Who is the 9th Ivy? <em>ducks</em></p>

<p>Best Overall Undergrad Experience?
- Princeton
- Stanford
- Brown
- Dartmouth
- Amherst
- Williams</p>

<p>the prestige,
Have you ever been south of the Mason Dixon line?? Academically, the schools you list are terrific, but for the entire undergrad experience of academics, social life, school spirit, etc, I think that Duke, Vanderbilt, U Virginia and U North Carolina all offer a superior undergrad experience. For the small schools, both Davidson College and W&L are also very complete experiences.</p>

<p>haha...sorry about that...idk why i put 9...it is right next to the 8.... :&lt;/p>

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1 Challenging classes for those who seek them
2 Strong departments across the academic spectrum
3 Inexhaustible offerings in the performance and visual arts
4 Great school spirit
5 An active and social campus life
6 A great college town or city within very close proximity
7 Great resources such as research opportunities, computer labs and libraries
8 Excellent athletic tradition in the spectator sports
9 Strong alumni relations
10 Excellent ties to exclusive industries such as Investment Banking and Management Consulting
11 A global reputation

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<p>Sounds like Penn (and probably all the Ivies) if I ever heard it</p>