<p>I was just wondering which universities you guys would consider to have a positive environment with cool, smart students (and faculty too I guess). To narrow this down I am specifically trying to find places that are science-and-math-oriented rather than humanities-oriented, but please include schools that are strong in both!</p>
<p>Clemson University!</p>
<p>uh Stanford</p>
<p>Well, what kind of science? Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, Engineering? What…what?</p>
<p>Regarding large public campuses, think about U of Wisconsin-Madison, Michigan State University and Purdue University. But there are literally dozens of others.</p>
<p>Johns Hopkins.</p>
<p>You have many options. Stanford, Rice, Duke, Emory, Michigan, WUStL, and others among universities. Carleton, Davidson, Haverford, Wesleyan, Pomona, and others among LACs. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, nobody can be more precise with knowing more information, including what your stats are. You need to be more specific. Perhaps the following criteria could help:</p>
<ul>
<li>Which part of the country (Midwest, Southeast, etc.)?</li>
<li>Public or private?</li>
<li>Rural, suburban, or urban?</li>
<li>Small (< 2000), medium (2000-10000), or large (10000+)?</li>
<li>Is cost a concern?</li>
<li>How selective do you want?</li>
<li>Do you want certain extracurricular activities, like a fencing team?</li>
</ul>
<p>IB is right…we need answers to…</p>
<ul>
<li>Which part of the country (Midwest, Southeast, etc.)?</li>
<li>Public or private?</li>
<li>Rural, suburban, or urban?</li>
<li>Small (< 2000), medium (2000-10000), or large (10000+)?</li>
<li>Is cost a concern?</li>
<li>How selective does you want?</li>
<li>Do you want certain extracurricular activities, like a fencing team?</li>
</ul>
<p>also, do you like a “rah rah” spirited school with big name sports teams?</p>
<p>Rice, Rochester, Cornell.</p>
<p>When you say “cool”…do you mean a school that is a good school, but isn’t some “pressure cooker” environment where everyone is super competitive and high-strung?</p>
<p>If you are looking for a university with strong sciences, laid back atmosphere, and quirky/interesting students, I suggest the following:
- Rice
- Duke
- Stanford
- WashU
- Carnegie Mellon
- CalTech
- Harvey Mudd</p>
<p>Thanks guys! I know I didn’t give a lot of info, but I’m just trying to get some basic ideas of where to start in my search… at this stage I’m not discriminating by the specific location, activities, or sports, cost isn’t a problem, etc, and I’m trying not to really think of selectivity yet. I tried to use the search tool on collegeboard to get ideas, but I just wasn’t picky enough! So I figured I’d try to get a more subjective view here. I’m specifically considering physical sciences, but again, I figured I’d be general in this post. 
Also, for “cool” I would agree with mom2collegekids’s definition.</p>
<p>I’d say Rice fits what you’re looking for.</p>
<p>[College</a> Navigator - National Center for Education Statistics](<a href=“http://nces.ed.gov/COLLEGENAVIGATOR/]College”>College Navigator - National Center for Education Statistics)</p>
<p>Enter your interests/stats and see what comes up.</p>
<br>
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<p>Ok, so you agree with the above definition. :)</p>
<p>We still need to know your stats. </p>
<p>SAT<br>
M ____ CR ______ W_____</p>
<p>ACT</p>
<p>GPA weighted and unweighted.</p>
<p>We now know $$ is not an issue. :)</p>
<p>Duke, Hopkins, Dartmouth, Tufts, Holy Cross, F&M.</p>
<p>Texas-Austin? Every science/engineering and humanities program in top 20 or higher… and it doesn’t get much cooler than Austin!</p>
<p>MIT can be academically harsh, but the students are much more cooperative than competitive with each other. Don’t know if that fits what you’re looking for at all. And Cambridge is pretty cool.</p>
<p>I could be wrong, but I would think that all the top 25 (or so) schools that have engineering would be largely populated with super-achieving, super competitive students, all competing to be top in the class.</p>
<p>Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, Princeton, MIT and Caltech if you’re looking fro big name universities with unparalleled global prestige. </p>
<p>Cornell, CMU, Northwestern and Michigan follow just right behind the schools listed above.</p>
<p>Mudd, Pomona, Swarthmore, Williams or Amherst and the like if you’re looking for less prestigious schools but with top quality science curriculum.</p>
<p>mom2collegekids</p>
<p>I don’t agree with your assessment of the super-competitiveness of the engineering students in the top 25 schools. My experience with Princeton engineering is that, while it is a difficult course of study, students are collaborative rather than competitive. I also know several Penn engineering students and they too don’t seem too competitive with one another.</p>
<p>Unlike pre-med, many engineering students are not going for advanced degrees so their relative GPA is not as much of an issue. In addition, at many of the top schools, engineering students are still getting job offers, so once again, there is no particular reason why students would be pitted against each other. </p>
<p>In terms of the original poster’s question, for schools that are laid back but strong in physical sciences, I would recommend the following (many of which have already been mentioned):</p>
<p>Rochester
Brown (very laid back in general and although not known for the physical sciences, Brown is putting resources into this area)
Michigan
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Williams–very strong in math
Rice
Wash U
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
UVA
Carleton</p>