<p>how crummy are those winters at U of Rochester? Avg temp?</p>
<p>Schools visited... The * are my top choices.. i'm still deciding which one to apply ED to.. any advice would be greatly appreciated! i'm looking for a school with a lot of school spirit, friendly students with a non-competitive atmosphere (except with oneself), good sports, good teacher relations and somewhat small classes, good science programs, good chances for internships.
*Dartmouth
*Duke
*Williams
UVa
Georgetown
Bucknell
Colgate
BC
Hamilton
Bowdoin
Wesleyan
Brown
Yale
didn't take a tour though, just walked around...UNC, Amherst, Wake Forest
Wake Forest- didn't take tour, just walked around
Amherst- didn't take tour, just walked around</p>
<p>Winters in Roch are very crummy...average 100 inches of snow per winter!</p>
<p>Most of the academic buildings at U of R are connected by tunnels. The size of the campus is not overwhelmingly big - so even on cold snowy days, you are not going to be walking around in blizzard like conditions. I went to school in Oswego NY- which gets more snow and gets alot of wind as we are off Lake Ontario. As I have explained to my kids, the upstate cold is sometimes not too bad. There were days when it was 10 degrees and snow on the ground, and yet you could walk around with your jacket open. The cold just doesn't go right through you. My d who is now at Cornell now sort of agrees with me. Even in Ithaca when the temperature can be real low, the cold doesn't seem too bad.</p>
<p>I am just really worried because I am from Hawaii, and it isn't exactly cold here...</p>
<p>Best bet for small classes is probably Williams. Dartmouth offers lots of school spirit and great outdoors opportunities of all kinds, probably more "going on" than at Williams. Big climate contrast between New England and Duke, so consider your weather preferences (much snow/ no snow). Dartmouth's flexible calendar might be good for internship opportunities.</p>
<p>hello32: could you give your impressions on Hamilton, BC, and Brown?</p>
<p>Vassar: Just visited yesterday. Before I visited this was prbably 3 or 4 on my list of 11, now I think it's off. Don't get me, there are many great things about Vassar, I just don't think it's right for me. There were probably over 75 people there yesterday for a tour and info session. The campus, in general is alright, but wasn't as gorgeous as I was expecting. The only building that I actually like was the library.Poughkeepsie is run down and not that great. Not somewhere I would want to spend the next four years of my life. Pets are allowed in dorms, which I found odd. It wasn't right for me because it's very theater and science oriented, which isn't me. It's also ranked 17th for drug use and after visiting and seeing people on campus, I felt like princeton review was right. Also, it seems behind the time with technology and the majority of students are artsy and creative. Just wasn't the place for me...hope this helped. Any questions anyone has I'd be willing to answer. </p>
<p>I've also visited...
-Hartick
-Ithaca
-Colgate
-Bucknell
-Lycoming
-Muhlenberg
-Fairfield</p>
<p>Next weekend I'll be going to Middlebury and later this fall Tufts, Stonehill, Brown, and maybe Boston College.</p>
<p>How did Muhlenberg compare with Vassar?</p>
<p>boston university- the first school i visited. definitely the best tour guide i had throughout my entire searching process. although the campus was very urban, that was something that i could deal with. the school is located in back bay, i believe, and the student body seemed very diverse. also, it's right in boston, so what is there not to love about that? things i didn't like however: worst dorm rooms EVER! no cable tv, very little wireless throughout the campus, etc.</p>
<p>boston college- very pretty, but way too homogenous for me. everyone there seemed to have stepped out of an abercrombie catalogue. i had a decent tour guide, but he didn't really presuade me in any fashion. i didn't end up applying here.</p>
<p>cornell- visited with my best friend who was verrrry interested at the time. (she ended up going to brown). I think that my entusiasm was altered because i was with her. at the time, i really enjoyed it. i loved ithaca, but after going back this past summer, i realized that i don't think i myself would have been happy at cornell. it seemed really laid back at the time i went, but i was also there when students were not. everything i have heard about the school says that it is ultra cut-throat. the thing that really put me off about the whole thing was the application process itself- i found the application to be confusing, and don't let them tell you that you don't have to do an interview! i suffered through one after the guy blew me off twice, once without calling me at all. </p>
<p>uchicago- tour was pretty nice, the buildings were pretty. in sort of a scary part of chicago, it seemed. this is how they started out the information session: "some people say that uchicago is "where fun comes to die."" That was the exact point that they lost me. </p>
<p>northwestern- loved it. absolutely beautiful campus, wonderful tour guide, great information session. the lake was just gorgeous. it was my top choice for a long while, but unfortunately, i got waitlisted. although i am sure there are some negatives to it, i couldn't really pinpoint any at the time.</p>
<p>SUNY geneseo- literally 15 minutes from my house. just a safety school visit, although i had been there before. i was never a huge fan of it. i went once in august, and then again in february, and the february visit really killed any chance of me going there. the main street in geneseo is TERRIBLE and it is literally in the middle of no where.</p>
<p>university of rochester- also been there a few times, being from rochester. beautiful campus, wonderful tour guide. the only things that i didn't like about this school was it's close proximity to my house, and it's size (it was definitely smaller than the school i wanted to go to). however, it's programs really are top-notch and i think it is on the same caliber as schools ranked much higher. </p>
<p>bucknell- ultimately the reason why i didn't apply to LAC's like colgate and wake forest. seemed very homogenous, very small. everyone was in the dining hall at the same time... and they all fit. haha. my tour guide was also not very good, but i realized that i wanted a larger school in a more urban area.</p>
<p>NYU- one of my top choices before i visited. truly, i don't think very many students go there because they want to go to nyu... i think they go there to be in nyc. it has great programs, but the campus is nothing special. i went in february and washington square park looked so incredibly bleak. also, after getting my financial aid package, i didn't feel so bad about disliking it (so expensive!!)</p>
<p>UNC Chapel Hill- I applied to this school on a whim, because i never thought i would have a chance at getting in from out of state. it is very competitive. it was also pretty different, at least geographically, from my other schools. anyways, i got in in january, having done early action, and decided to go visit in april. i was not really interested in it until i visited, at which point i just loved it. absolutely beautiful campus, chapel hill as a town was so nice, and i had a fantastic introduction to life at unc. my view may have been a little bit skewed, because i visited the day after the national championship win, but that show of school spirit was also just so incredible that i decided to go there.</p>
<p>All of BU's dorms have cable TV as of January 2005.</p>
<p>That's great about BU! Good to see that. Oh, and p r stats.com sometimes posts about their college tours on there too so that's helpful.</p>
<p>bc- i actually visited this during the summer as i was a rising jr. so i'm prob not the best person to ask on exact details but overall its a very pretty place. i've heard its mostly a homogeneous campus- white upper middle class, but idk. i've heard the guidance system isn't that great there.</p>
<p>brown- verrrry liberal place. no core curriculum. it just wasn't for me. however, it is pretty. my friend is applying there ed.</p>
<p>hamilton- liked this school the least out of bucknell, colgate, and itself.. which i consider comparable. half of the campus is very pretty but the other half just isn't. idk exactly why i didn't like it, can't put my finger on it.</p>
<p>pyewacket: Comparing Muhlenberg and Vassar...hmm. They're about the same size as far as students go, Vassar has maybe 50 or so more people. Vassar has a greater percentage of females. Vassar is more artsy/sciency in my opinion, although muhlenberg seemed strong in the sciences as well. Overall, I just like Muhlenberg better. It was a better fit for me. The campus is a lot prettier, the surrounding community was better, safer. But the biggest factor in my decision was the people. People at Muhlenberg just seemed more like me. They were friendlier and more down to earth. Hope that answered you question.</p>
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<p>BC's grad placement trails that of Georgetown, Holy Cross , or Notre Dame. Also the other 3 Catholic schools have much higher alumni giving rate-ND and HC are around 50% while Boston College is only 25%.</p>
<p>ceruleanne, could you tell me about bard?</p>
<p>U of Chicago-- I LOVED it... the classes were tiny (smaller than my HS) everyone walking around the area was having some really cool discussion + Chicago is awesome. Their library is beautiful and massive---> Very harry potter</p>
<p>anyone know anything about barnard or gw?</p>
<p>I am interested in schools for Music. The only one I have actually been to is The Berklee School of Music (in Boston). It has a wonderful program, but I'm not so sure I would enjoy the winters there. I am curious about the Peabody (Johns Hopkins), the Shenandoah Conservancy, Frost School of Music (Miami Univ), Florida State, or any suggestions of schools to look at.</p>
<p>nyu - not for people who cannot handle living in a city. I mean a big big city. Coming from the perspective of a NYer, it amuses me deeply when people comment that there is no campus or "the campus sucks" after visiting NYU. Its NYC , what do you expect?there is no place for hogwart-type buildings or grassy areas.</p>
<p>Hartwick: Beautiful campus, new top-notch science center, nice people all around. Lots of work on the campus going on...apparently major upgrades to athletic facilities and dorms. Tends to be preppy. <a href="http://www.hartwick.edu%5B/url%5D">www.hartwick.edu</a> </p>
<p>Trinity (CT): Pretty school, very preppy, good looking student body, a bit snobby and not in such a safe area of Hartford. </p>
<p>Wesleyan: Impressive campus, smart kids, not real friendly though.</p>