<p>I'll try a new thread idea here, and see what participants can contribute. The idea here is to say something good about some college you know about, WITHOUT SAYING ANYTHING BAD about any other college. It's "emphasize the positive, eliminate the negative." You can mention any college you know something about. Speak to what you like about the college. I invite anyone to post with good news about some worthy college or colleges. I'll give two examples to finish up this opening post. </p>
<p>UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA TWIN CITIES </p>
<p>The University of Minnesota Twin Cities is a large research university in a large metropolitan area. The University is surrounded by urban neighborhoods on most sides of its campus. (One part of the campus consists of research farmland, but even that part of campus is in the city limits of a core city.) What I liked about it when I attended it and still like about it now is that its large size allows a very diverse offering of courses in dozens of major subjects. It has a large research library with abundant journal subscriptions, a slick online catalog, and numerous online resources for registered students. </p>
<p>CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY (CALTECH) </p>
<p>Caltech was my favorite college growing up, although I never applied to it, and I'm still very fond of Caltech. I first learned about Caltech in an article in Reader's Digest during the 1960s that reported on "Ditch Day," a long-standing annual tradition there. Upperclass students leave their dorm rooms and the campus for a day, while underclassmen try to enter the dorm rooms to set up pranks. The upperclassmen, of course, have elaborate high-tech security measures to protect their rooms. Ditch Day really lets Caltech students let loose with their MacGyver tendencies. One famous Caltech prank sprung on other colleges was sending fake instructions to a half-time card-flipping show during the Rose Bowl. Students and other fans were trying to make a display to cheer on their team, but cheered on Caltech and its team mascot, the beaver. Thus Caltech appeared at the Rose Bowl without even having a football team. It is still a very challenging science and engineering school ready to serve up fun opportunities to students with a passion for math and science. </p>
<p>Your turn. Please let us know the good characteristics of some college(s) you like.</p>
<p>This is my state’s flagship school. It is consistently ranked in the top 5 of public universities. UNC accepts only the best NC high schools have to offer and out-of-state admissions is extremely competitive. UNC is an excellent, large research university with extremely strong graduate programs and medical school. It’s large size allows for any major conceivable and thousands of courses; however, you can find small class sizes despite the size of the university. Every top student in North Carolina applies to UNC-Chapel Hill and a good proportion of the top NC students head off to UNC every year for a tier 1 education.</p>
<p>Highly underrated in my opinion, possibly in part due to the coop program (5 year program) which is arguably its best characteristic. The school has put a ton of money into the school over the past couple decades especially and the campus looks amazing and has many new buildings (the honors program housing is top notch also). With coop you can get your foot in the door with many top companies and many will extend an offer to you full time based off your work in coop with that company. Top students can coop at companies like Goldman Sachs, Google, Apple, etc. The campus is right in the thick of Boston, but unlike its counterpart BU, the campus actually feels like its own separate little place even though the city is literally right there.</p>
<p>I like Penn State University, the best state university system in the country. Why? They have about 20 campuses, including the flagship University Park campus in the middle of the state, a.k.a. “Happy Valley.” The university operates on a 2 + 2 system. You can either spend four years at Happy Valley (the hardest to get into as a Freshman) or you can go for two years at one of the other 19 campuses around the state and automatically be forwarded to the main campus to finish out your four year Penn State degree. Unlike other state university systems where “branch” campuses are truly separate and you have to apply for transfer (if that’s what you want) to the main campus, Penn State makes it automatic. A handlful of students remain at the remote campuses for four years by choice, not because they have to.</p>
<p>There is only one admissions office for all 20 campuses and it is at University Park. In fact, if you decide you don’t like it in “Happy Valley” you can pick any of the other campuses and finish there, if the faculty at the other campus can accomodate your major course of study.</p>
<p>Half the upperclassmen at University Park spent their first two years at one of the other 19 campuses. It’s very cool.</p>
<p>Oh yeah, and the football stadium is now bigger than Michigan’s “Big House.” 110,000 crazed fans! It’s spectacular. Saturday afternoons in the fall are unreal. There is a reason it’s called “Happy Valley.” :)</p>
<p>Linfield College, my alma mater: Great financial aid for bright kids, beautiful campus, tons of opportunities to get involved in whatever EC’s you want without them being mutually exclusive. Football team with the most consecutive winning seasons in NCAA history. (It’s DIII, but still fun to watch; we bring couches out to the stadium and sit just past the end-zone).</p>
<p>Macalester College
Rigorous academics, intellectually stimulating environment even outside of the classroom, great Twin Cities location, exceptional global and community focus and internationalism. Very impressive new student move-in effort/new parent orientation; very personal. As a freshman, daughter is getting the kind of education she has longed for in terms of its connection with her interests and her long-term goals. Lovely campus with very well maintained grounds and buildings, a dorm and room that exceeded our intentionally conservative expectations. Best of all: the warmth and openness of the people! We all feel as if we’ve struck gold!</p>
<p>The bigger stadium capacity that PsU enjoys now will be gone in a couple of years after the renovations at the real “Big House” are completed. :-)</p>
<p>Positive for the win. Show that you know how to say something good about some college you like without saying anything bad about any other college. It’s harder than some people might think.</p>
<p>I’m in love with my D2’s school - the University of Oregon. I would have loved to have gone to school there. The campus is the perfect size, there are so many trees it is ridiculous ( can never have too many trees LOL ) , the choices of classes are great, the food is really good ( I am told), the town of Eugene is very cool, and you can get to the mountains or the beach in a short scenic drive! Also, there is a river right next to campus so you can relax by the water for a change of pace. She is only a freshman so I can’t really comment on the quality of classes yet, but so far so good! </p>
<p>I really enjoyed college visits with both of my daughters because there are so many great schools out there with different options for different people. It really was an exciting process.</p>
<p>East Carolina University, a big school with a small school feel less than two hours from the beautiful beaches of NC.
Greenville,NC, home of ECU, is extremely supportive of the University. Everything from the Taco Bell to the city firetrucks are painted purple and gold. Football Saturdays are unbelievable with alumni and fans from all over pouring in hours before gametime. Pirate pride is fierce.<br>
The campus grounds and facilities are very well kept. The student recreation center is beautiful. The student busline is very user friendly with routes all over town and to nice off campus living apt. complexes for upperclassmen . The choice of majors is very broad (plus a Med. sch. and soon to be built Dental sch). </p>
<p>I really like that they admit students who were not “top of the class” in high school and give them every opportunity to succeed.<br>
Most of all, kids just seem to love it. I have never met anyone who went to ECU who didn’t enjoy their time there.</p>
<p>I’ll keep with the overall pattern and choose schools less discussed on these boards…</p>
<p>SIMMONS COLLEGE</p>
<p>Unbeatable location (Boston) and cozy setup (women’s liberal arts college). Honors program, merit aid, later application deadlines, particularly good programs in education and English. </p>
<p>SARAH LAWRENCE COLLEGE</p>
<p>Small LAC that I feel often goes unsung for its intellectual student body-- I’ve run into a bunch of SLC alumni and they’ve all been impressive. Close to NYC for work and play, charming campus.</p>
<p>SHIMER COLLEGE</p>
<p>A teeny tiny eentsy college that used to be affiliated with the U of C and is now hosted on IIT’s (Illinois Institute of Technology) campus. Great books college somewhat similar to St. John’s. Happy to enroll non-traditional students and early entrants.</p>
<p>Total coincidence that all those schools begin with “S”…</p>
<p>A small LAC in Ohio with a truly unique curriculum. Each semester, students take 3 12-week courses and then 1 intensive 3-week course. I find the calendar especially appealing because it lets you focus intensively on one subject, a la Cornell College (IA) and Colorado College, but isn’t a 4-year commitment to the one-course-at-a-time schedule.</p>
<p>It also runs on rolling admission and isn’t highly selective, but offers merit aid for top students. A CTCL school, too.</p>
<p>College is situated on a very steep hill side so you are constantly going up or down massive flights of stairs so you never need to go to the gym to keep your butt and legs toned and looking great!</p>
<p>My state’s flagship. Only $12k per year tuition before scholarships. HAD a great football team. Good actuarial science program. Will accept me despite my 680 and 670 subject tests (hopefully). </p>
<p>Now on to the main stuff. Ranked 26th. Great school of business. Ann Arbor is a cool little college town. Other stuff…</p>