Combining great academics with HUGE school sprit and great parties?

College Search & Selection
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<p>I also should have mentioned U Georgia. A little more than a decade ago, the state of Georgia started dedicating lottery proceeds to fund the HOPE Scholarship for high achieving high school students from Georgia. This program provided full tuition with the unsurprising result that more top students stayed in Georgia and began going to the flagship university. Still about 85% in-state, the quality of the student pool is much improved over the last decade. In addition, there is an excellent and thriving honors program as well for the top 8-10% of the entering class and which has a strong statistical profile (SAT 25/75 of 1420-1490 and ACT 25/75 of 31-33). </p>

<p>On the spirit side, the Dawgs are HUGE and very, very popular throughout the state and beyond. Athletics are big at U Georgia from football (the scene at Sanford Stadium is outstanding!) and basketball to things like gymnastics (the Gym Dogs) and men’s tennis. And the social scene might be the very best in the country with a raucous and very active Greek scene and a robust local music scene. Best of all, U Georgia is set in the great college town of Athens, GA. If you don’t have a good time at U Georgia, well, God help you.</p>

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Ole Miss would be a huge change coming from SF, but UW-Madison probably would not be (except in terms of weather). Madison has a lot in common with Berkeley and SF -- it's very cosmopolitan, politically aware, and quite crunchy-left. But they sure know how to drink beer.

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<p>That's interesting! Thanks for your input, Hanna—sometimes it's hard for people at my school to relate progressive politics and "crunchy-left" to the Midwest because most are shipped off to liberal east-coast schools like Tufts and Brown, so I had no idea about Madison... admittedly I'm quite interested in the area and school now, even though its large size does seem a bit overwhelming. </p>

<p>Hawkette, your info about Ole Miss, UVA, U Georgia, U Wisconsin and Vandy was very informative! Previously I tended to lump many public schools into the "huge" category (lecture halls, not knowing your profs, etc.) without being well-informed; I like that UVA is a bit smaller, even though the OOS competition for schools like UVA, UNC-Chapel Hill, and even UMich is a bit daunting. I'm also quite appealed to the idea of its relative intimacy compared to other public schools of its caliber, even though mephist0's comment "it has decent school spirit/parties but so many people there are extremely stuck up so I wouldn't consider it a "fun" place" was a bit of a turn-off. </p>

<p>U of Georgia, while I never would've considered it without your suggestion and explanation, seems like a fantastic school to look into as well. Again, the culture shock would probably be a big factor at any of these schools (coming from not only the SF Bay Area, but also my school in particular), but I do consider myself a very adaptable person (have had many a family reunion near Nashville, and trust me it's always a good time!). </p>

<p>Does anyone know about the intimacy of the education at other schools among the ones mentioned? I'm not sure how happy I'd be sitting through a ton of lectures with 350+ people who aren't really interested in what they're learning (however much the parties that night may make up for it), and even if there are many good students who had great SAT scores and boosted the caliber of the admissions process at a given school, I'd still like an engaging learning environment during college. It definitely sounds like Vandy and UNC would provide this... again I'd like to shamelessly reask my question about Vandy's political leaning (more conservative than most colleges?) and whether its government/poly sci program is any good? Sorry for being so repetitive haha, and thanks again for everyone's help!</p>

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<p>For a great mix of acedemics and social life, I'd add Northwestern.</p>

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<p>Social/ fun top 10:
Dartmouth
Penn
Princeton
Duke
Stanford
Northwestern</p>

<p>Top 25:
Vanderbilt
UNC
Michigan
UCLA
UVA</p>

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<p>William & Mary would def provide a great, "intimate' environment to learn. More intellectual than UVirginia/UNC but a lot of fun, just not in an Animal House sort of way.</p>

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William & Mary would def provide a great, "intimate' environment to learn. More intellectual than UVirginia/UNC but a lot of fun, just not in an Animal House sort of way.

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<p>Ooh, this sounds perfect! Definitely adding W&M to my list. It sounds a bit like Dartmouth (which, on paper, sounds like it'd be more intellectual than UVA/UNC albeit being the actual inspiration for Animal House) and maybe Stanford? Also I'm definitely adding Northwestern; Chicago's one of my favorite cities and would be a fantastic college town I think, especially with Barack in the White House and my loving the Midwest. Now I'm just wondering how I'm going to visit practically every corner of the country during my one-week spring break haha... thanks again for everyone's input! Extremely helpful and I'm loving the diversity of my 50+ college list haha, always good to start out big and work my way down right? :)</p>

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<p>If you're looking for top journalism school with great social scene look into University of Missouri Columbia and University of Florida. Great schools with a huge party scene and school spirit. Also with students that care about their academics but knows how to have a great time.</p>

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<p>UT-Austin FTW! Except if you're not in-state, it's pretty damn hard to get into. But it has all of what you're looking for and more :)</p>

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<p>To be totally honest program rank for undergrad doesn't mean much. As an example look up time, NYT, or newsweek editors and top writers. 75% top 10 school grads, none of which have undergrad journalism programs.</p>