<p>What are the top few cities and top few schools that come to mind for having down-to-earth students? This can be whatever your interpretation of down-to-earth might be. Thanks.</p>
<p>If you want to find really down-to-earth people of both genders, you may be best off looking at LACs or other similar havens. In terms of down-to-earthness, I've heard good things about Sarah Lawrence, Pomona, Swarthmore, Oberlin, Haverford, Tufts, Carleton....</p>
<p>My first instinct was to recommend midwestern universities, such as Iowa, but at large universities like that...it's not uncommon to find masses of the slightly arrogant fratty / jock type, when it comes to guys. I don't know if that would bother you.</p>
<p>Davidson and William & Mary come to mind in the South.</p>
<p>If you are into big cities, I would recommend U of Chicago. I have found the people there to be extremely friendly and down to earth. The undergrad college has a real LAC feeling to it and the students tend to support each other without that nasty competetive feel. As a city, Chicago has a lot of that Midwestern friendliness that is often lacking in some of the other large cosmopolitan areas.</p>
<p>What do you mean when you say "down to earth"?</p>
<p>I'd go with midwestern or northwestern LACs or small publics (in general) for schools. For cities, the big ones would be Chicago, Portland, Seattle, although there are a lot of smaller cities in those regions that are probably more down to earth and still a lot of fun.</p>
<p>And I'm just gonna throw this out there, because it's not one people normally think of, but: New York City. I wouldn't necessarily use "down to earth" to describe most of the people, but honest and open and friendly definitely comes to mind. After 9/11, the city really went through a tangible culture change. It is really so much more warm than it has been.</p>
<p>Miami .</p>
<p>I also have a problem with the term "down-to-earth," in that I don't really know what it means and I hear it used all the time. "Yeah, I'm really down-to-earth," says the Coach bag-toting, Ralph-Lauren-wearing girl as she gossips about her friends.</p>
<p>To me, down-to-earth means a few things...</p>
<p>1) Not caught up in trivialities (i.e. clothing, makeup, hair, grades, gossip, yachts, etc).
2) Ready to accept others for who they are, regardless of differences in intelligence, fashion, background, etc.
3) Aware of world issues and aware that one's problems are insignificant in comparison to the amounts of suffering that others endure.</p>
<p>If this definition is valid, I would say that Chicago is a pretty good candidate for a down-to-earth urban school. Also women's colleges might attract more down-to-earth types.... these women could have gone to school with boys had they wanted to, but decided that a sense of community was more important to them. Bryn Mawr (suburbs of Philly), Mt. Holyoke, Wellesley (suburbs of Boston), SIMMONS (in Boston!), Agnes Scott (Atlanta), etc.</p>
<p>"Down to earth" is relative term and depends on what part of the country you're from. For example, many consider people down south to be "down to earth". For a lot of people in the northeast, people down south appear to be just "slow".</p>
<p>Chicago fo sho.</p>
<p>The Midwest as a whole.</p>
<p>I've heard the students at Sarah Lawrence are of the "we're very alternative and sophisticated" variety, which doesn't sound really down-to-earth to me, if that's the definition of the word that you mean.</p>
<p>U of Michigan</p>
<p>University of South Carolina</p>
<p>Grinnell, Macalester and Carleton Colleges</p>
<p>Emory University</p>