<p>Thank you everyone for your wonderful suggestions :)</p>
<p>I have been researching public universities, and have so far considered the following:
- University of California - Berkeley
- University of Maryland - College Park
- University of Wisconsin - Madison
- University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
- University of Minnesota - Twin Cities</p>
<p>The first two seem to have more math-focused intermediate economics courses, but all of them have pretty decent advanced quantitative offerings, so I think I should be alright at any of them. </p>
<p>Socially, almost all flagships seem to:
- Have a ton of parties and a large Greek presence,
- Rank very well in playboy’s list of party schools, yet
- They have very diverse social and extracurricular scenes so more serious and introverted students should be able to find their place.
- They also mostly seem to go by the “work hard, play hard” motto. </p>
<p>I know that students from all flagships (or for that matter all colleges, but certainly big state universities) drink and party, and am fine with that. I would just like to know where there would be more people like me - I usually hang out with a few very close friends; I also love research and volunteering. I would very much prefer it if others would not negatively judge me for who I am (e.g. “she’s that nerd who studies all the time”, in a contemptuous tone). </p>
<p>So, how should I differentiate the flagships? Offhand, which of them do you think would be best for me? What about publics not on the above list?</p>