I was wondering about the differences in environment at the top colleges. What differentiates the college socially, ideologically, politically, and academically?
i.e. Are there mentorships available? Is the course load so hard that you don’t have time for extracurriculars? Is it competitive? Are students friendly? Is it left-leaning or right-leaning? Do you like the campus/food? What is the nearby city or town like? Do you prefer a smaller or larger school and why?
Thanks!!
honey- you have to define what you mean by “top colleges”.
top 10?top 20? top 40? Top 20 U’s? Top 20 LAC’s? top private? top public?
See what I mean?
there are a LOT of TOP colleges in the US, depending on your definition.
A lot of information is already available on the individual CC college forums.
start there.
Look at the Friske guides as well.
With your unspecific use of “top colleges”, you’ve left this wide open for interpretation. The only good answer is that “experiences will differ”.
Top colleges is a very vague thing. Tell us what specific colleges you are looking at. At Ivies, I would say they politically lean liberal but some are a little more conservative.
Even, for example, “Top 20 LACs” would need further clarification. Top 20 according to what source?
Right because despite the word “Liberal” in the name, many LAC’s can be conservative.
Sorry for the confusion over “top colleges”! When I was writing this post, I had clarified a list of colleges that I was interested in (Stanford, Yale, Pomona, UVA, University of Chicago, Amherst, Brown, Columbia, UC Berkeley, UCLA, Duke, etc.). But then I deleted it because I didn’t want the responses to be limited to the colleges I had on my list. I’m still deciding on which type of college would be right for me, so information on LACs, public, or private colleges would be helpful. I’m really open to information on any type of college. However, I am only interested in only challenging, academically rigorous schools, which is what I was trying to say by “top colleges”. I am aware that “top colleges” is a term that is up to interpretation but please use your best judgement to post information on any college that you feel falls in that category.
Maybe use top 40 schools as a general guideline??
Another note: It would be great if each commenter could give info only on the school(s) that they have personal knowledge of.
If you haven’t done so yet, I’d try to look at some opinion-based college guide book such as Fiske, Insiders Guide, Princeton Review to name a few. These books probably can be found at your guidance office, a library, a bookstore etc.
backrow
you are going to have to do a lot more research beyond just giving us the names of well known colleges.
WE have NO idea what kind of college would be right for you, because you have told us nothing about yourself.
we cant offer opinions in a vacuum.
We have no idea what your GPA, SAT’s , EC’s interests, skills, abilities are, let alone if your family would be able to pay for you to go to a top college, if you were accepted.
your query is too open ended.
Have the $$ talk with your parents- find out what they can afford, then run the FA calculations at a number of non tip top colleges , then come back to us with that info.
You need to assemble your college list by FIRST finding safety colleges, where you are likely to be accepted, not with reaches where you [ along with most other highly capable students] are likely to be rejected.
Anyone can find a top “dream” college that they would LOVE to attend- smart students look for the colleges where they are likely to be accepted AND can afford to go to.