college atmosphere?

<p>I'm currently looking at several schools, including UPenn, Duke, and Northwestern. What are the atmospheres like in these schools? Specificially, I am looking for </p>

<ul>
<li>Does this school have a community feeling? Or is it very spread out, w/o a central campus (i.e. NYU, which has buildings all around, and there is no real sense of COMMUNITY among the college students)?</li>
<li>Do they have a lot of school spirit? Rah rah football, bball, etc.?</li>
<li>Are there many Asian people? When I say Asian, I mean Chinese, Korean, Japanese, etc., not Indian.</li>
<li>Are the students more collaborative or highly competitive with each other?</li>
<li>What kind of political preferences do they have - is the student body liberal leaning, conservative leaning, or moderate leaning?</li>
</ul>

<p>Thanks so much for all your help.</p>