<p>Hi, I'm a Junior, and I am trying to make a list of colleges that I plan on applying to. Out of these (Duke, Harvard, Northwestern, Penn, Stanford), which best fits me? I realize that I should visit these schools to really get the feel for which is better, but I am just looking for some help nonetheless. Anyways, here is what I'm looking for:</p>
<p>-great pre-medical program (I want good advising to help me find research opportunities and internships, etc. I want a place that has great overall academics too with friendly and accessible teachers.)</p>
<p>-location in/next to a big city (I want to experience a cultural city that offers things from great restaurants to popular sports teams to fantastic shows. I know that I probably won't be able to see everything and will probably only go out to the city once or twice a week, but I want to have the option at least.)</p>
<p>-great school spirit (I want to be around a tight-knit environment with people of the sort. Also, I really enjoy watching sports (especially football and basketball) and want to go somewhere that has lots of school spirit and fans for their sports teams, which are at least pretty successful. I don't need the top ranked school in each sport, but entertaining, competitive sports would be super fun to watch.)</p>
<p>-competitive atmosphere, but not cutthroat (I like competition. I feed off competition in a way. And I want to be around competitive people, but not SUPER competitive people. I don't want to be around people who won't work with me on homework, help me out, etc.)</p>
<p>Only thing that I’m questioning about Penn with regards to his description was the big-time basketball and football. Yes, their sports are D-1 and competetive, but not to the extent of Stanford or even Northwestern sports for that matter.</p>
<p>all of these schools are great choices but i think northwestern is the best for you out of all of them. it has excellent academics but is honestly not cutthroat at all…everyone is extremely smart which probably makes things somewhat competitive but there is a real sense of community there in which people are willing to help each other out. also, it will definitely be the most fun as far as sports and city-life go. there is a TON of school spirit and if you like football you will love tailgates and football saturdays. also chicago city life cant be beat, and even evanston has tons of cool restaraunts and bars for undergrads. you cant go wrong with any of these schools, but if i were you i would pick northwestern.</p>
<p>I know the OP didn’t really solicit schools and I have no idea what fields s/he is interested in, but given the above criteria, perhaps other schools could be considered? In my mind, I would add:</p>
<p>WUSTL might be a good choice as well…great pre-med, competitive but not overly so and located in St.Lous (idk if that’s the type of city atmosphere you’re looking for but…)</p>
<p>I’m not sure any of those schools fit all of your criteria to tee.
Harvard - good school spirit from what I can tell, less so on mainstream sports like football (basketball getting better) but decent soccer.
Duke - great pre-med but ruled out because of Durham (I don’t know if Raleigh works for you)
Stanford also because of its city-less state. Great sports though
Northwestern because it has mediocre sports / school spirit (although sports have seen a turn-around in the past 5 years and often school spirit comes up with that)
Penn - sports? </p>
<p>That said, all are great institutes with good reputations (Harvard on top with that)</p>
<p>Out of those, Northwestern or Stanford (if you count 45 min outside of San Fran, but still in a highly populated area). Penn and Harvard don’t have as good school spirit or D-1 sports and Duke is nowhere near a big, cultural city.</p>
<p>Penn is cutthroat for pre-meds, believe me you’ve got to be really motivated to keep up with the work and the incredible difficulty of the exams. </p>