Can anyone speak to quality of life at.. USC, Vandy, Rice, NU, Mudd, Cornell, Tufts,

College Search & Selection
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<p>I have narrowed down my college search in the reach category down to seven, but eventually need to narrow it down to four. Help me out with establishing the quality of life at each college.</p>

<p>I will be applying as either a mechanical or aeronautical engineer.</p>

<p>I want to be around bright, vibrant, happy, social people, not cynical, pessimistic, or introverted. Maybe not neccesarily spirited about school sports teams, but students who love their school and who are spirited about life.
I want to have a blast partying and drinking, but I dont want it to be too extreme, I dont want to drink more than 2-3 nights a week. I am interested in greek life.
I want to be social and have fun w/o drinking as well. I dont want partying to be the only social activity. I want to play a game of ultimate frisbee, or go hiking. I want the college and/or surrounding areas to have cool and fun things to do. I hate the idea of a school were partying and sports are the only thing.
I prefer a nice campus, nice dorms, nice food and a city and area that has nice restaurants and nightlife. I don't mind if its rural as long as theres lots of opportunities to do fun stuff.
I am willing to work hard but I don't want the school to be a total ballbuster where the culture is all studying.
I want professors to be engaged with the class and people to like learning, but again it's not too much of an obsession. A geeky/nerdy vibe isn't really my thing.
So if you can comment on these things at any of these schools I would appreciate it very much.
I'm kinda trying to eliminate these schools at the moment so If you can point out at a school that's lacking in these places that would be even more appreciated.
Thanks!</p>

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<p>but really you should just go to the library and get a Fiske guide and look up your schools. It will take about an hour and you will answer your own question.</p>

3

<p>Cornell is in Upstate NY. Cold, snowy and don’t underestimate what it means to have gray skies most of the winter. it’s a beautiful campus though–especially if you like hills. </p>

4

<p>At the Harvey Mudd website (HMC dot EDU), the “admission and financial” page bottom has several blogs written by students. The various students write about their social interactions, classes, and parties. This might provide some interesting answers to your questions.</p>

5

<p>The schools you have listed are for serious students. If you want to party as much as you indicate, forget all of them. Save the partying for when you graduate or go to a school that is less academically challenging (big state school).</p>

6

<p>In general, you have to be a motivated student to succeed in engineering, because of the added course load relative to a liberal arts degree. It is pretty hard to schedule all your classes and labs in four days, so the idea of the weekend starting on Thursday night is not typical in engineering. Depending on your definition of “party”, that tends to leave 1-2 potential “party” nights. </p>

<p>I would argue that pursuing engineering at a school full of “serious” students is easier because the gap between engineering and liberal arts workloads is less, so you don’t perceive as much of a difference. Data on retention rates for engineering programs tends to suggest this as well.</p>

7

<p>Having said that, it’s possible Tufts engineering could be really fun for you (it was for me)…</p>

<p>Ultimate Frisbee is big at Tufts –we had one of the first ultimate teams in the country. They were scheduled to play the first intercollegiate game in 1972 (a few years before I became a Jumbo), but deferred the honor to Rutgers/Princeton who pleaded with Tufts to delay their game. (Which gives some insight into the culture)</p>

<p>Now there are 4 club teams –two men’s teams and two women’s teams. The top women’s and men’s teams are currently among the best in the nation (Tufts is division I for ultimate Frisbee). Women’s “A” team was ranked #5 in the country last season and the “B” team was regionally ranked. They have a reputation as a real fun group of people (both men and women). Check out the bios on the roster (second link) to get a feel for personalities. The club welcomes all -even those have never played – feel free to contact the captains. </p>

<p>Northwestern is the only other ranked team on your list, but Chicago is known as the windy city, and everyone knows that playing Frisbee in high winds is no fun :-)</p>

<p>It takes the entire consortium of Claremont Colleges just to field a D3 team….</p>

<p><a href=“Tufts Ewo » A Little Ewo Disc”>http://sites.tufts.edu/tuftsewo/&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://sites.tufts.edu/tuftsewo/ewo-roster-2013/”>http://sites.tufts.edu/tuftsewo/ewo-roster-2013/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>The Tufts Mountain Club is one of the most active clubs at Tufts. They organize activities every weekend as well as run a “Loj” in New Hampshire. Another fun group.</p>

<p><a href=“http://admissions.tufts.edu/life-at-tufts/students-voice/newcomers-weekend/”>http://admissions.tufts.edu/life-at-tufts/students-voice/newcomers-weekend/&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://tuftsobserver.org/2012/03/escape-to-the-loj/”>http://tuftsobserver.org/2012/03/escape-to-the-loj/&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://www.tuftsmountainclub.org/about/history-of-tmc/”>http://www.tuftsmountainclub.org/about/history-of-tmc/&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://www.tuftsmountainclub.org/loj/”>http://www.tuftsmountainclub.org/loj/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Tufts is located partly in the town of Medford and partly in the city of Somerville. In Medford,(about 2 miles from Tufts) is a 3,400 acre reservation where TMC runs some of their activities. </p>

<p>The city of Somerville has the second highest density of young adults in the US and has been rated one of the coolest places in the country for young people to live. The adjacent city of Cambridge (less than 2 miles away) has the third. The Boston area has the highest density of students in the US – so there is plenty of nightlife and daylife suitable to young adults including a couple of indoor climbing facilities nearby. </p>

<p>Food is great at Tufts – top ten according to this national ranking. Also, the food is very healthy due to involvement by one of the top schools for nutrition in the world. Cornell is also top ten (and also has a top nutrition school), Northwestern is top 30 (no nutrition school).</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.boston.com/yourcampus/news/tufts/2012/11/mass_best_college_foods_rankings.html”>http://www.boston.com/yourcampus/news/tufts/2012/11/mass_best_college_foods_rankings.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Tufts does have a small (about 15% of population), but active frat community. Both engineers and pre-meds join the sororities, so they contain some “serious students” that also like to party. The sororities/frats also do community service.</p>

<p>The Tufts engineering culture is arguably one of the most female friendly in the country and tends to attract women that defy the engineering stereotype. </p>

<p>Here is a list of the activities for the current board for the Society of Women Engineers,
<a href=“Page Not Found - ASE - TUFTS UNIVERSITY”>Page Not Found - ASE - TUFTS UNIVERSITY;

<p>In fact, Tufts has a nationally acclaimed organization dedicated to breaking down the nerdy stereotypes associated with women in engineering. The name actually pokes fun at the stereotype and speaks to an attribute of the the Tufts culture - take your education seriously, just don’t take yourself too seriously and have some fun!</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.prism-magazine.org/apr07/feature_tufts.cfm”>http://www.prism-magazine.org/apr07/feature_tufts.cfm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

8

<p>Vanderbilt and USC are the most socially balanced schools on your list. You should also take a look at Lehigh. </p>

9

<p>I agree with timetodecide. Lehigh may be an excellent choice. Most schools with strong academics, especially in engineering, are going to require hard work. Lehigh has a work hard/play hard mentality. Greek life is prevalent, but one can also find alternatives. Although Bethlehem isn’t terribly exciting, there are plenty of activities on campus and Philly is close enough for the occasional road trip. Overall, it is fairly balanced school with a good mix of students and has the vibe you are seeking. It has a good ME program and engaged professors, but I am not sure about aeronautical engineering. </p>

10

<p>NU fulfills all your requirements as well. It’s in a vibrant city (Evanston) and a short train ride to Chicago. They have Greek life if you want it and are part of the Big 10. The students are very diverse and socially mixed because of their excellent schools - McCommack, Bienen, School of Communications, Medill, etc. Definitely worth including.</p>

11

<p>Son is soph iMech Eng major at Cornell and loves it. He graduated from a science and tech magnet school so he also had multiple APs, calc A/B, and linear algebra. Don’t remember is SAT score, but he was national merit finalist. That said he finds classes interesting and workload manageablei. He is in a frat and participates Ina couple of different intramural sports. There is a wide variety of students, his roomie is from Berkeley. I would think the weather could be an issue but they don’t let it slow them down.last year S and some friends took “pool paddling” for PE in the winter. As partying the school has a serious alcohol policy and they enforce it. One frat was kicked off campus for repeated violations and two others put on probation last year. So if partying means drinking and/or drugs I don’t think this is your school. If possible you should visit, the campus is great. </p>

12

<p>NU - My son is at McCormick - and almost the entire Ultimate team is in some type of Engineering.<br>
link: <a href=“NUT 2014 Tour – Northwestern Men's Ultimate Team (NUT)”>http://nutultimate.com/nut-2014-tour/&lt;/a&gt; </p>

<p>Great campus on the lake, and talented, fun kids, based on what my daughter (recent grad) and son have to say. </p>

13

<p>Clearly, the term “socially balanced” can mean different things to different people.</p>

<p>If one’s notion of “social balance” aligns with that of Playboy Magazine, then one would have to agree that USC and Vanderbilt are the most socially balanced schools on the list. They are in fact the only two schools to make Playboy’s Top 10 Party School list. </p>

<p>If one’s notion of “social balance” aligns with that of the Engineering Education Society, then one would have to agree that USC and Vanderbilt (along with Lehigh) are the least socially balanced schools on the list. They are in fact the only schools that failed to make the list of schools that graduate a high percentage of female engineers. </p>