<ul>
<li>lots of grass</li>
<li>a good reputation</li>
<li>strong english program</li>
<li>even stronger pre-med/biology program</li>
<li>good financial aid</li>
<li>passionate & involved students</li>
<li>sunny/spring-like weather</li>
<li>good location - in urban center</li>
<li>intellectual atomosphere</li>
<li>caring and professors that "bring material to life"</li>
</ul>
<p>any suggestions? i am applying this fall and i need to form some sort of list (only 3 weeks before i go back to school!) so far i am liking brown and princeton for the 'reaches' category. </p>
<p>Yale, UCBerkeley, & Johns Hopkins University would be best bets in that order (I would seriously consider Kenyon & U of Chicago aswell):</p>
<p>Kenyon, Vassar, & Bannard are English major's heaven, but are not urban campuses.</p>
<p>Wellesley College
Bryn Mawr College
Sarah Lawrence (English, moreso than pre-med, however the do have go acceptance rates for pre-med, but not sure on strength of the program)
Swarthmore College
Wesleyan University</p>
<p>Depends on which Tufts campus, and I took urban centers as meaning within a major cities metro area, for instance, UCBerkeley isn't in Oakland or San Fran, but you'd have to be dumb not to see San Francisco was just across the bay and Oakland was on the same hillside!</p>
<p>An urban campus with lots of green is not impossible, look at Northeastern, they have parks and fields!</p>
<p>Swarthmore is an 8 minute train ride from downtown Philadelphia and the train station is on campus! Same for Bryn Mawr, but I don't think any one would complain with the second largest mall in the country being 5 minutes away.</p>
<p>Duke fits everything except maybe the last few bullets. Its weather is nicer than Brown's but location isn't as great. Dartmouth fits most except the weather and city haha. Georgetown fits most except I don't know if they have a strong natural science program. The Claremont Colleges in California have most of that.</p>
<p>It would be easy to list schools that are similar to Brown and Pton that don't fit all those characteristics though</p>
<p>Well, Swat to Philly, try a minimum of 25 minutes on the train itself (not 8!), and doesn't include wait times, and getting to and from each of the stations. Figure an hour or so - it's still terrific, but not something you are going to do everyday - though you could. (30th Street will put you a 15-minute walk from UPenn, or 20-25 minutes from Center City, though you could hop a trolley.)</p>
<p>"The College is readily accessible from Philadelphia by train. Amtrak trains from New York and Washington arrive hourly at Philadelphia's 30th Street Station. From 30th Street Station, the SEPTA Media/Elwyn R3 rail line takes 25 minutes to reach Swarthmore. Tickets cost $3.25 ($4 during peak hours) when pre-purchased. An additonal fee applies when purchased on the train. The last train to Swarthmore from 30th Street Station leaves at 12:09 a.m. on weekdays and at 11:26 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays."</p>
<p>No one's mentioned Columbia yet, so I will.</p>
<ul>
<li>lots of grass - has a good amount on campus for a city school, and you've got Riverside Park a block away.</li>
<li>a good reputation YES</li>
<li>strong english program YES</li>
<li>even stronger pre-med/biology program YES</li>
<li>good financial aid NO (well, it depends)</li>
<li>passionate & involved students YES</li>
<li>sunny/spring-like weather - In the spring and early fall it does...</li>
<li>good location - in urban center YES</li>
<li>intellectual atomosphere YES</li>
<li>caring and professors that "bring material to life" - Some do, some don't. Use <a href="http://www.culpa.info%5B/url%5D">www.culpa.info</a> to find out.</li>
</ul>
<p>thank you guys so much!! well i live in baltimore MD, like 15 minutes away from JHU, and i have heard they have a strong science program but i'm afraid of all the "cutthroat competition" and their policy that doesn't allow all pre-meds to apply to medical school. also, i feel that their campus is a tad bit too small..</p>
<p>no all-female colleges for me :) i also don't think i'll go all the way to cali (plane tickets would cost so much! though i'd have to if i applied to rice, too)</p>
<p>the grass thing... well, not LOADS of grass, i just didn't like georgetown when i visited cause i felt there wasn't any grass.. weird for me. but being near an urban center is ok (like swarthmore)</p>
<p>also, does uchicago have a good pre-med program? i thought they were mostly known for their english..</p>
<p>Well if you thought JHU has a small campus, Columbia is about the same size. </p>
<p>I thought Georgetown had grass though...I spent a while just sitting on their big lawn. </p>
<p>I'm going to put in a plug for my school, Princeton, since you don't mind a bit suburban. It's about an hour to an hour and a half to both Philly and New York City. Definitely a lot of grass, beautiful campus with gothic architecture. Not single sex, EXCELLENT english program. No set pre-med program but mol bio is good. Very generous financial aid; involved students and alumni (tiger for life!) sunny for...well the non-winter months. Intellectual atmosphere, and a lot of well-known professors. Undergrad focus, so professors are more accessible, though I'm sure you will find boring profs at every school.</p>
<p>when ever I see people who are interested in both liberal arts and premed/biology, I have to make a plug for uchicago, you really get the best of both worlds, you will get to experience excellent programs in both science and english. Besides, it is fundamental to the chicago educational philosophy and experience that one is able to academically excel in multiply fields.</p>
<p>I thought the OP wanted a warm climate...personally I don't think the schools in the NE or Chicago fit that bill. Rice sounds good. How about Emory? UNC-Chapel Hill is good. Wake Forest, or Duke. University of San Diego (can't beat the weather) or UC San Diego (reportedly good in the sciences and humanities).</p>
<p>I'm not too fond of Vandy, so I wouldn't be one to reccomend, Emory is excellent for pre-med, business, & poly-sci, but I have no clue about the English department.</p>