<p>however you would describe them in lets say two sentences....</p>
<p>University of Pennsylvania:</p>
<p>Columbia:</p>
<p>Boston College:</p>
<p>Villanova:</p>
<p>Cornell:</p>
<p>Dartmouth:</p>
<p>Notre Dame:</p>
<p>UPenn- A great school in a great city (well the good parts anyway). Awesome place to be, but comes with hostility towards Penn State</p>
<p>Columbia- In the heart of NY. A strong institution for serious and committed students. Must be able to balance work with living in most famous city in the world.</p>
<p>Boston College- Really involved in business. A Catholic-based university that is often confused with BU, but is much better in academic terms.</p>
<p>Villanova- Popular school, especially with sports.</p>
<p>Cornell- Big Red! this is biased, but the strongest ivy league school in physical sciences. A huge university in a beautiful rural area that offers so many people great opportunities. </p>
<p>Dartmouth- Big Green… haha. A great school. Battles with cornell for the most rural ivy. Beautiful area and a great place to study.</p>
<p>Notre Dame- a very good university. Excellent sports coupled with the offerings of a great education. how could you go wrong!?</p>
<p>Penn: an excellent all-around school, but few of its programs can match Wharton’s stratospheric standing. Probably in the middle of the pack in the Ivies, much improved form an earlier reputation as an Ivy slacker. Still has a bit of an inferiority complex, though, because the masses still confuse it with Penn State. Popular with New Yorkers who don’t get into HYP.</p>
<p>Columbia: an excellent school but probably the most traditional of the elite schools in its Core requirements. Less campus life than many top schools because with all of New York City at your doorstep, who wants to stay on campus?</p>
<p>Boston College: the Notre Dame of the East Coast. And it drives them crazy when you say that because they aspire to #1 in their class.</p>
<p>Villanova: very good academically but overshadowed in its home market by Penn and the Swarthmore-Haverford-Bryn Mawr Tri-Co, and among Catholic schools nationally by Notre Dame, Georgetown, and Boston College.</p>
<p>Cornell: very strong in engineering, best by far among the Ivies on that score, and a strong contender all around. Isolated, but in a beautiful spot which people tend either to love or to hate. A unique public/private hybrid; its private units are very strong, its public units somewhat less so, and the university-wide averages tend to mask its core strengths in engineering and arts & sciences which are very strong indeed.</p>
<p>Dartmouth: frat-heavy social scene + isolated rural location = heavy drinking, coupled with outstanding academics when sober. Outdoorsy types like it.</p>
<p>Notre Dame: not a research powerhouse but an excellent undergrad-oriented college, it aspires to compete with the Ivies academically and USC and the SEC on the gridiron, but it’s currently not on a par on either dimension. Also suffers a bit of role confusion as to whether it wants to be the nation’s #1 Catholic University, or a very good and basically secular national university that happens to have Catholic roots. The Administrations tends toward the former, the faculty toward the latter, the students probably mixed.</p>
<p>Penn: an excellent all-around school, but few of its programs can match Wharton’s stratospheric standing. Probably in the middle of the pack in the Ivies, much improved form an earlier reputation as an Ivy slacker. Still has a bit of an inferiority complex, though, because the masses still confuse it with Penn State. Popular with New Yorkers who don’t get into HYP.</p>
<p>Columbia: an excellent school but probably the most traditional of the elite schools in its Core requirements. Less campus life than many top schools because with all of New York City at your doorstep, who wants to stay on campus?</p>
<p>Boston College: the Notre Dame of the East Coast. And it drives them crazy when you say that because they aspire to #1 in their class.</p>
<p>Villanova: very good academically but overshadowed in its home market by Penn and the Swarthmore-Haverford-Bryn Mawr Tri-Co, and among Catholic schools nationally by Notre Dame, Georgetown, and Boston College.</p>
<p>Cornell: very strong in engineering, best by far among the Ivies on that score, and a strong contender all around. Isolated, but in a beautiful spot which people tend either to love or to hate. A unique public/private hybrid; its private units are very strong, its public units somewhat less so, and the university-wide averages tend to mask its core strengths in engineering and arts & sciences which are very strong indeed.</p>
<p>Dartmouth: frat-heavy social scene + isolated rural location = heavy drinking, coupled with outstanding academics when sober. Outdoorsy types like it.</p>
<p>Notre Dame: not a research powerhouse but an excellent undergrad-oriented college, it aspires to compete with the Ivies academically and USC and the SEC on the gridiron, but it’s currently not on a par on either dimension. Also suffers a bit of role confusion as to whether it wants to be the nation’s #1 Catholic University, or a very good and basically secular national university that happens to have Catholic roots. The Administrations tends toward the former, the faculty toward the latter, the students probably mixed.</p>
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<p>That may be the best short description of Villanova I’ve ever read.</p>
<p>I would recommend taking a close look at Villanova. Beautiful campus, close to Philly, very good academics and a nice size.</p>