Friendliness at these Colleges

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I applied RD to these colleges. I plan on visiting some of them, but I won't get the chance to visit all of them. If somebody could rank/comment on the general friendliness or atmosphere at these colleges, it'd be great. I visited Duke, UNC, Emory, and Davidson, so feel free to use these as a comparison. :)</p>

<p>Brown
Columbia
Johns Hopkins
Swarthmore
Yale</p>

<p>Also, I applied EA to Chicago, and I'd like to know where it stands relative to the other schools on my list (in terms of atmosphere).</p>

2

<p>Wow. That is a seriously eclectic list of schools. Some real extremes there! I see the common themes, but it's more of a "six degrees of separation" connection than a group of similar schools! As in, Chicago is like Columbia in that they are both urban, Chicago is like Swarthmore in academics, but Swarthmore is like Davidson in terms of size, but Davidson is like Duke in terms of being pre-professional and so on and so forth until you end up with schools that are very different.</p>

<p>You would really have to be a lot more specific about what kind of environment you are interested in to comment.</p>

<p>As far as schools that are "friendly" in terms of being warm and welcoming and unpretentious, I would say that Davidson, Swarthmore, Brown, and probably UNC are notable in being described that way. Yale may be as well, I just don't know the school well enough to stereotype it. </p>

<p>I don't think that "friendly" is a description that comes immediately to mind for Chicago, J. Hopkins, Duke, or Columbia -- although many students clearly find them to be friendly enough. Emory is a bit of a toughy. It is friendly and comfortable, although sometimes described as "cliquish".</p>

<p>Chicago and Swarthmore share a strong an "academic" atmosphere, although they really aren't that similar.</p>

<p>Duke and Davidson are most strongly pre-professional.</p>

<p>Hopkins is known as a grind school and somewhat on the bleak side as far as creature comforts. Nobody thinks of it as a country club.</p>

<p>Columbia is NYC, so it's going to be very different for that reason alone.</p>

<p>UNC is a state university, so it will be quite different based on its size and the wide range of students.</p>

<p>To me, Emory is Atlanta. A mix of new south and transplanted Yankees. Modern, gleaming, wealthy.</p>

3

<p>You can read up on places at <a href="http://www.studentsreview.com%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.studentsreview.com&lt;/a> or go to your local bookstore and browse through the "what these colleges are really like" books.</p>

<p>My daughter's final decision came to be between Brown and Chicago. (She also was admitted to UNC among the ones on your list, but it wasn't in her top category because of its course offerings relevant to her rather esoteric area of interest weren't as extensive as these other two schools.) After doing the reading, it was clear to her that she would be happier at Brown. Rather than categorizing what she found out, it would probably be better for you to read for yourself! </p>

<p>Her experience at Brown is that most everyone is friendly. Students study together and help each other out. The professors she's approached have also been nice. </p>

<p>Perhaps you should hold off visits until you know where you have been accepted, then use your time visiting those. Schools usually have special programs for admitted students in April. You don't want to have your final decision be to a place you've never visited. (And you don't want to fall in love with a place that doesn't accept you, either -- since you've already applied, you might as well wait.)</p>

<p>If you desperately want to look at the schools you've applied to before you find out who takes you, for those places you can't visit you can order videotaped campus tours from <a href="http://www.collegiatechoice.com%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.collegiatechoice.com&lt;/a>. It will be a tape of a regular tour, so you will hear people asking questions and so on. If lucky, they will ask what you would have asked.</p>

<p>You can go to the individual schools' discussion boards, too.</p>

4

<p>IB - you need to visit as many as you can after acceptances. "friendliness" none of these are going to be as friendly as UNC or Davidson - they aren't Southern. That doesn't mean the people aren't going to be nice or that you won't have many new friends - it is just different. Atmosphere in terms of friendliness - the Northern schools will be more like Duke or Emory - there are more NE at those 2 schools.
As for other aspects of atmosphere - it will all over the board! Chicago and Columbia have things in common, so do Chicago, Swat and Davidson - but these aren't the same things. Duke/Emory/Yale/JHU all have some things in common - a certain degree of pre-prof, for example, but they are still different schools with very different atmospheres - Brown, too doesn't group well.</p>

<p>Don't feel badly if people imply "what in the world do these schools have in common?!", there is nothing wrong with having disparity on the list, particularly if you can articulate reasons why you like each school. You just have more homework to do after acceptances come out. You have gotten some good suggestions for how to get to that info. I would add LiveJournal, to read what students are saying as well.</p>

5

<p>There are snobs everywhere, and "mean girls." There are also nice people everywhere. You may be lucky or unlucky when you visit any of these schools and it is impossible to say which atmosphere will suit you best until you visit. But wherever you visit you may end up with some you really can't relate to, or someone you would just love to get to know better. </p>

<p>I suspect the smaller schools are friendlier than the larger ones; I'd expect Swarthmore to be very friendly though with a different atmosphere in other ways. Even JH isn't monolithic; if you meet lacrosse players you are going to get a very different feel than if yu meet a devoted and driven premed (and that isn't to say there won't be overlap, but I do know that even at a school like JH with a strong reputation for serious academic pressure there is also a very different group that could just as well be mistaken for Duke students, though they are in a minority at JH). (Oddly enough, despite the fact that Swarthmore and Davidson are very different in many ways, I think they might be the most similar in how you would be treated.)</p>

<p>Bottom line, I think cangel has given you good guidelines. And once you are accepted, visit as many as possible and see which one feels most right then.</p>

6

<p>I think Brown and Yale students are pretty happy and friendly, Brown students especially. There's a good balance of academics and life outside of the classroom at those places.</p>

<p>Columbia, Johns Hopkins, and Swarthmore are known for having a lot of stressed out students who take the academic pressure way too seriously. Those are stereotypes, but I found them to be true when I visited Columbia and Swarthmore.</p>

7

<p>Let me clarify. :) I visited Duke, Emory, and Davidson, but I did not apply. Of the schools I did apply to, I thought that Chicago, Columbia, and Swarthmore were similar (with Swarthmore being more different than the other two) and Brown and Yale were similar. Anyway, my choices for colleges were limited because the major I want is very hard to find. I definitely plan to overnight-visit Chicago because it's my top choice (and I haven't gotten into the others yet), and I'd like to visit the others, but I'm not sure I'll get the chance to visit every one of them. Thanks for the input so far.</p>

8

<p>That makes more sense.</p>

<p>I think that Chicago, Columbia, and Swarthmore are all schools that you should visit before enrolling, if at all possible. They all have very distinctive personalities that some people would love and others would hate.</p>

9

<p>I can't compare to the other schools, but Chicago is serious. For years I folk danced at Chicago--and in the right context, it can be friendly. But there is a heavy, serious atmosphere at Chicago that contrasts to other universities that I've attended.</p>