<p>Hi Matt,
I’ll weigh in with the mid western/Rocky Mountain perspective. First, KU is a great university. Lots of Coloradans go there to get more of the college town experience. The town is friendly, school-spirited and very mid-western. Colorado is more outdoorsy. People here are very into their outdoor sports - skiing, climbing, etc. Boulder is also known as the most expensive place in Colorado. As for history, you’ll get more in Kansas. It was the frontier during the Civil War and the site of vicious skirmishes, but not many formal battlefields like you’ll find on the east coast. For any school in the Midwest, the American experience includes a car. You’ll probably want to buy something cheap and get a good cellphone plan with roadside assistance. </p>
<p>UNC (if Chapel Hill) really does seem a near perfect fit. Despite what was earlier posted, Charlotte is a significant distance, but Raleigh Durham hosts a great airport and a fair number of inexpensive bus options. Great spirit, pretty campus, easy access to a host of historical sites (not to mention all of DC). </p>
<p>I wouldn’t dismiss Colorado, Oregon and Notre Dame so readily. Boulder is a great location, great weather, access to the entire western experience. Oregon has a great campus and school spirit with access to the entire Pacific NW, just hope you don’t mind more wet London like weather. Notre Dame is the quintessential mid sized private school experience with a lovely campus and can’t be beat school spirit in an area with a low cost of living and a very Midwest vibe. </p>
<p>Of the schools on your short list, I 'd agree with other posters Roanoke seems less a fit. I’d warn that Richmond, although on a beautiful campus, is a small school and feels it despite the University moniker in a small city suburban location that can feel pretty rich and precious, less evocative of the big US university experience than your other options. </p>
<p>Thanks so much for helping out</p>
<p>MommaJ raises a good point. I am going to be spending more time on campus than travelling, so that’s maybe what I should focus on.</p>
<p>In that case, I don’t think I am looking for a NE college experience. As you’ve already said I should focus on the Midwest and South. My university provided me with a booklet today detailing estimated costs for each university and there are no East Coast universities that I can afford anyway :(</p>
<p>Kansas, Missouri, Mississippi, Oregon, LSU, Utah, Westminster (MO) and Oklahoma are all well within my price range.</p>
<p>To get a feel for what state you would say is a better fit for me personally, I’ll give you an idea about my personality. I am not a big party animal; i prefer bars over clubs. I love sports (especially “soccer”, baseball and nfl football), so would be looking for a college that is in a state with a big sports team or big college team. as I said, I am more conservative than liberal (but I’d probably be considered a liberal in the US).</p>
<p>As for climate. I don’t mind the snow, as long as it is only in the winter months and not all year round. I like the heat but I have never been in a dry heat environment so I don’t know whether
I’d like the SW. I obviously can deal with the wet, so Oregon seems a good choice too.</p>
<p>Though Utah is incredibly important in the history of the frontier and local Prohibition opposition, I would take it off your list. It does not offer the traditional American college experience that many other schools do, as it’s heavily commuter. Beautiful scenery though. </p>
<p>I’m not a fan of the University of Mississippi, but that’s mainly for personal reasons. Keep in mind that the University of Mississippi is likely to be far more conservative, both socially and politically, than any other school you’re considering.</p>
<p>I’ve been to the University of Oregon twice. The campus could be renamed University of Nike and I doubt anyone would bat an eye. Football is huge there, and there’s an enormous amount of sports derived spirit. The campus is by US college standards, politically liberal, and fraternity/ sorority life is much less a presence than at the Southern/ Midwestern schools you’re looking into. Eugene is considered the “hippy” city of Oregon and hosts an excellent outdoor market on Saturdays. A friend of a friend transferred from the University of Oregon to the University of Oklahoma for family reasons and said that she still misses the outdoor opportunities, town of Eugene, and party scene although for her major Oklahoma is academically stronger than Oregon (not that this matters to you). In terms of history, I’m less familiar with the role of the West Coast in civil rights era history although I’d imagine that Oregon would be an interesting case study on frontier era politics. </p>
<p>Take Westminster off of your list. Too small a school, no big sports spirit, and there’s no point in choosing Westminster over Middlebury which is an excellent school with a great history department. </p>
<p>I don’t really know enough about Kansas, Missouri, or LSU to comment on them. I have heard that the University of Oklahoma and the University of Kansas are basically the same school but with different sports teams. If you like KU, you’ll like OU, and vice versa. </p>
<p>Btw, after I posted about Oklahoma I did a bit more research on the school. It turns out that one of the political science professors, Ann-Marie Szymanski, is currently involved in Prohibition research although she doesn’t teach a class on it. Additionally, although Oklahoma never hosted anything as dramatic as James Meredith attempting to gain access to Ole Miss, it still played a role in the Civil Rights movements. One of fountains on campus is dedicated to Ada Louis Sipuel Fisher whose case against the Oklahoma Board of Regents helped lead the way for the eventual Brown v Board ruling. As far as other Civil Rights cases go, Oklahoma played a major role in Native American rights since so many tribes are based in the state. One thing I do like about OU is that even though it’s still overwhelming majority American white (63%) the campus is still more diverse than many other state flagships. The US, along with a few other countries, is a nation of immigrants, and IMO OU better reflects these immigration waves than most other schools you’re considering. </p>
<p>This thread is so deja vu, did you post this previously? Why are some Calif universities still on your list if you ruled them out? You still didn’t answer which UNC location? </p>
<p>Good luck wherever you decide to go; hope this thread has been helpful, it’s been fascinating to read with so many thoughtful contributors.</p>
<p>It’s UNC Asheville :)</p>
<p>Thanks so much for all your info.</p>
<p>I have finally got my 5 choices:</p>
<ol>
<li>University of Missouri (Columbia)</li>
<li>University of Kansas</li>
<li>University of Oklahoma</li>
<li>University of Mississippi</li>
<li>Louisiana State University</li>
</ol>
<p>I don’t know how to rank them, obviously no1 is my top choice and no5 is my bottom.</p>
<p>What would you advise?</p>
<p>I mean it would be helpful to know why you placed University of Missouri - Columbia as number one and LSU as number 5. I can’t imagine it’s for the weather or nightlife. </p>
<p>@whenhen @November9 I don’t think that those are ranked, but I think that OU, LSU, and Ole Miss would give you the most of what you want.</p>
<p>I put them in the order that I could remember them; there’s no specific order.</p>
<p>I would say that U Missouri is an odds choice since it doesn’t have a lot of things you’d want; is that because their cost of living is low?
Can you tell us what is a MUST HAVE and what is a “would be nice to have” among all your criteria?
I do think that if you plan to do on-site research
URichmond sounds like a no-brainer to me: capital of the confederacy (for research), not too hard to get to DC, quintessentially all American LAC feel but larger than a LAC, with a big Greek scene, lots of upper-level classes.
(Even if academic experience isn’t at the top of your list, you want to avoid colleges like Roanoke that captured your imagination, although it’s the type of school which in Britain would attract a 2 C A-Level student.)
Check out the offerings at 400 level in history at Louisiana State.
Ole Miss would be a prime university for your research needs but politically (in British terms) it’s likely to be UKIP and further right from there.
I agree with your assessment of URI though :).
North Carolina Asheville would require a car but NC is prime grounds for Civil Rights study. Pristine campus, mountain landscapes, revitalized downtown in the small town, but no football/basketball. North Carolina is great because you get all 4 seasons and the beaches are awesome in September and May.
On the list above, UKansas and UOklahoma probably have the most potential, although the balance would probably tip to Kansas for history.</p>
<p>Wow, Roanoke is really that low??</p>
<p>For reference, at A level I got an A in history, a B in government and politics, and a C in English literature - so ABC (easy as 123 ;)).</p>
<p>Right, the only criteria that is a must have is:
- It must be in an affordable location.
- I’d like the college I study at to offer a uniquely American college experience.
- I am supposed to use my year abroad to research a topic on historical significance so the school must be located in (or near) a location that would offer me ample research opps.
- I’d prefer the college to have a small international student population.</p>
<p>I am not too bothered about travelling around tourist hotspots, but it would be nice to go to a city more underrated/unknown to foreign travellers…cities such as St. Louis, Kansas City, Oklahoma City and Nashville.</p>
<p>I am going to be learning to drive over the summer and I don’t go away on my Year Abroad until September 2015, but we need to make a shortlist ASAP to ensure we get our desired places. So the travelling aspect won’t be too bad. I could rent a car in the US (I will be 21 by the time I do my year abroad) and travel.</p>
<p>So in American equivalent you have roughly a 3.6-3.7 GPA. Type “college name” + college data admissions in your favorite browser and look for universities with admission averages in the 3.5+ range. For SAT range, </p>
<p>No American college will offer an “Un American experience”, except for the commuter schools.</p>
<p>More comments on other schools…
Tulane offers top-level classes, an “American experience” on campus and with New Orleans, lots of opportunities to study the South, and in particular the peculiar society that existed in New Orleans, for instance the upper middle class and middle class African American society that existed there. (Oh, have you read Lost German Slave Girl? it’s fascinating). New Orleans isn’t as expensive as other American cities but I don’t know how much Tulane charges exchange students for R&B. it can be sweltering, but October to March are very fine weather-wise.</p>
<p>St Olaf and UMN Twin Cities would work for affordable location and uniquely American college experience - one of the LAC variety, the other of the Big10 variety. You’d have history to research (the frontier, Native Americans) but not much about Civil Rights, Revolution, or Civil War. When you read about/watch life of pioneers in the late 19th century in Little House on the Prairie, well, it takes place around there. 
UMN Twin Cities is in the middle of the cities and they have excellent (for US) public transportation. There are Native American sites in the cities as well. St Olaf is 45mn south of the Twin Cities, in a “historic” (= old for MN) river town famous for having thwarted a Jesse James attack, which is duly celebrated every year (so, if you’re into historiography and memory/history…) There’s another university which is nationally famous and hyper competitive to get into, Carleton, so you’d have access to resources, and they run buses to the Twin Cities. They’re the archival place for Norwegian American history or something, due to the author of classic Immigrants-on-the-frontier novel Giants in the Earth. Both are in Minnesota, which is like the country’s icebox.</p>
<p>@MYOS1634: Thank you!</p>
<p>UMN looks VERY nice indeed.</p>
<p>I have been reading up about Ole Miss and it seems a little too conservative for my liking. I think I may take it off of my list.</p>
<p>Out of curiosity… what are the students like (generalisation) at University of Oregon?</p>
<p>I am not a hippie type so I don’t think I’d get along with the students there. Is UO really that “hippiefied”?</p>
<p>U of Oregon tends to have very ‘laid-back’ yet outdoor oriented students. School spirit is high and sports are big, but there’s not much else in the area of Eugene other than the uni. Reed would represent a good choice in Oregon, as Portland is a terrific city and their dedication to academia is strong.</p>
<p>That said, my vote would be for LSU or Tulane. Much lower cost of living, relatively easy transportation to other areas and a strong sense of their own local history in both cities. The primary difference here is that one is public and the other private. In the US, that generally means that one may have substantively lower class sizes in the private schools than the public’s, for any General Ed/Distribution requirement courses. Because of the smaller class size, many private schools pride themselves on begin discussion-based (as opposed to large lecture-style) and boast full professors teaching classes (as opposed to graduate student teaching assistants, also known as TA’s).</p>
<p>You have many good schools on your list. Best of luck to you.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone :)</p>
<p>I handed in my shortlist on Sunday.</p>
<p>My final 5 are (in order of preference):
- University of Kansas
- University of Oregon
- University of Mississippi
- Louisiana State University
- University of Oklahoma</p>
<p>Again, thank you for your advice.</p>
<p>I have to wait for my university to name the university I can apply to and then I’ll be off to either KS, OR, MS, LA or OK.</p>