Does ANY college fit this criteria?

College Search & Selection
21

<p>::shrugs:: We have a parking lot full at Harvard v. Brown games in football (where we've won the Ivies twice since I've been here), though our parking lot may be smaller. And we definitely know how to party. And we definitely have our fair share of preppy folk here.</p>

<p>Most often, snap shot summations of school communities are tough, especially after about 3k students, IMO.</p>

<p>While Tulane may be a great choice to look at, from what I know from a student who transferred there (and this was from before Katrina really hurt their resources), there are a lot of reasons why she may want to look in the Northeast as well.</p>

<p>Senor-- you know you can apply to more than one school, and considering the difference in admission rates, I'd have little doubt that the OP may in fact apply to Tulane alongside some of the other schools listed here.</p>

<p>But don't knock Wesleyan, which I'm surprised is not getting more support. Open curriculum, extremely high participation in sports, idyllic campus, strong academics, a bit of a sleepy town, but a rather busy campus...</p>

22

<p>Oh wow, thanks for all the responses guys, seriously.
I probably will apply to Tulane, although I'm not sure I'd go there because I'm from Florida and I HATE even the idea of hurricanes so being in New Orleans just wouldn't be for me for four years.</p>

<p>Out of Princeton, Duke, Dartmouth, Wesleyan, and Vandy, which one is the least competitive with more down-to-earth/sporty people than cut-throat.</p>

23

<p>Wesleyan, if you ask me, which is why I recommended it. Actually, by far more down to earth and definitely less cut throat than many of those places. More sporty in the sense that more people are participating in sports in some way than any of those places, I would think, although it's not like you have the massive killer sport tradition that you'd have at Duke.</p>

<p>I don't really think of Princeton as sporty at all, and Dartmouth is more outdoorsy than "sporty", but Dartmouth is WAY in the middle of nowhere.</p>

24

<p>the claremont schools</p>

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<p>I suggest you give Rice a look, as it gets a lot of cross-applicants with Duke.</p>

<p>However, with the list of schools you're looking at, you better get some matches and safeties.</p>

26

<p>Yeah, I know I just have to figure out where to apply as a safety lol.</p>

<p>And I think I worded one of my criterion wrong. I don't mind kids from private schools, it's just the jappy girls that I wouldn't exactly want to be surrounded by.</p>

27

<p>Cornell fits all but one. It's an ivy, kids aren't competitive, i hear work hard play hard is like their motto, somewhat of a school spirit, a ton of parties and a pretty decent collegetown, BEAUTIFUL campus, you actually have to pass by a waterfall to get to class from the frosh dorms. The only thing is I heard it's a really tough school, so probably not a lot of grade inflation. Otherwise it fits everything.</p>

<p>.</p>

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<p>How about Kindergarten?</p>

29

<p>troll.......</p>

30

<p>College of Charleston!!!!</p>

31

<p>shallow. . .</p>

32

<p>Boombox, while Tulane is a fine school, how are you defining "brilliant kids"?</p>

33

<p>haverford is more sporty/preppy than you might think. it's one of the clearest differences between it and close neighbors, swarthmore and bryn mawr. OTOH, if you don't like Brown, you probably wouldn't like Wesleyan either. Wesleyan definitely has a sports component (Bill Bellichick and Eric Mangini went there), but, I wouldn't call that its primary identity (a kick-ass LAC, with a lot of smart kids, is its primary identity.)</p>

34

<p>Duke was the first college I thought of when I read your criteria. Brown and Wesleyan are great choices too, but Wesleyan isn't as sporty as Duke.</p>

35

<p>actually no college fits your criteria</p>

<p>what are you gonna do now?</p>

36

<p>Michigan State University
University of Wisconsin- Madison</p>

<p>As much as I would like to add University of Michigan- Ann Arbor to the list, it is said they tend to just study, or in other words... not as fun.</p>

37

<p>hmom5, i think brilliant kids are intelligent enough to figure out how to do well academically and socially. they're well rounded, confident, and competent- not necessarily just book smart/people who get a 35 or 36 on the act. i'm sure many schools have balanced students like this but i noticed them moreso at tulane instead of the smart/social dichotomy at other schools.</p>

38

<p>Lindsay,
There are a number of sources where student surveys have been done and which touch on a number of the items you list as important to you. </p>

<p>One source is Sparknotes. Below is how the schools in the USWNR Top 30 National Universities compared on the following questions:</p>

<p>1 . Felt that faculty involvement was better than at most colleges
2 . Felt that students's work habits were balanced
3 . Felt that the dorms were palaces or at least, not too shabby
4 . Felt that their campus was equal to Heaven on Earth
5 . Felt that their classes were more than they ever expected and/or were inspired by them</p>

<p>Rank Based on Student Responses , Total Points , College</p>

<p>1 , 16 , Princeton***</p>

<p>2 , 32 , Notre Dame***
3 , 38 , Vanderbilt***</p>

<p>4 , 50 , Dartmouth***
5 , 51 , Wake Forest***
6 , 51 , Yale***
7 , 52 , Emory***
8 , 57 , Stanford***
9 , 58 , U Chicago***
10 , 60 , Rice***
11 , 61 , Duke***
12 , 61 , Cal Tech***
13 , 62 , U Virginia***
14 , 68 , Wash U StL***
15 , 69 , U Penn
16 , 73 , Brown***
17 , 79 , Georgetown***
18 , 79 , U North Carolina***</p>

<p>19 , 90 , Tufts***
20 , 91 , Cornell
21 , 95 , Columbia</p>

<p>22 , 105 , USC
23 , 107 , UC Berkeley
24 , 111 , U Michigan
25 , 112 , J Hopkins
26 , 114 , UCLA
27 , 115 , MIT
28 , 116 , Northwestern***
29 , 118 , Carnegie Mellon
30 , 120 , Harvard***</p>

<p>***indicates college was recognized by USNWR for Classroom Teaching Excellence</p>

<p>A 2nd source is Fiske’s Guide to Colleges. They compare based on academics, social life and quality of life. With regard to your inquiry about social life, here is how the USNWR Top 50 National Universities compare:</p>

<p>Fiske Social Life Rating College</p>

<p>5 , Dartmouth
5 , Penn State</p>

<p>4 , Stanford
4 , Brown
4 , U Virginia
4 , Duke
4 , U North Carolina
4 , UCSD
4 , Wash U
4 , Georgetown
4 , U Wisconsin
4 , U Texas
4 , Cornell
4 , Vanderbilt
4 , UC Berkeley
4 , UC Santa Barbara
4 , U Florida
4 , Boston Coll
4 , Tulane
4 , Lehigh</p>

<p>3 , Harvard
3 , Columbia
3 , Rice
3 , Tufts
3 , Princeton
3 , Yale
3 , U Penn
3 , MIT
3 , Northwestern
3 , Emory
3 , UCLA
3 , U Michigan
3 , W&M
3 , U Illinois
3 , UC Davis
3 , Johns Hopkins
3 , NYU
3 , U Washington
3 , Notre Dame
3 , Carnegie Mellon
3 , Wake Forest
3 , Brandeis
3 , U Rochester
3 , Rensselaer
3 , USC
3 , Syracuse</p>

<p>2 , U Chicago
2 , Georgia Tech
2 , Case Western
2 , UC Irvine</p>

<p>1 , Caltech</p>

<p>Finally, I created a thread about social life at top colleges and there were many, many responses. Here is the thread (and I hope that anyone who is so inclined will add their own rankings) and the up-to-date “rankings” as voted on by CC contributors. </p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/348753-ranking-social-life-usnwr-top-20-a.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/348753-ranking-social-life-usnwr-top-20-a.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>1 Vanderbilt
2 Stanford
3 Duke
4 Dartmouth
5 U Penn
6 Notre Dame
7 Northwestern
8 Rice
9 Cornell
10 Brown
11 Princeton
12 Wash U
13 Harvard
14 Yale
15 Emory
16 Columbia
17 MIT
18 Johns Hopkins
19 U Chicago
20 Caltech</p>

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<p>I think that the best source for whether or not a school has a great social life are the students, themselves. As I have said before, I have had a great time at Hopkins, and I am so sad to be leaving the best four years of my life behind, upon graduation. Posters might do a really good service by letting prospective applicants know their feelings about their own experiences, and not let anyone else speak for where he might rate your school in those terms, especially since it is obvious that the poster who seems to have a survey about everything, could not have any first-hand knowledge, and whose input on social life is therefore inconsequential and should be taken with a grain of salt by any future applicants.</p>

40

<p>yes, the poster in question basically likes big schools.</p>