I am a senior in Arizona looking to major in math and physics.
My GPA is 3.9 UW and 4.4 W and my SAT is 1580 and I’m looking to apply to some good schools around the country.
Things I’m looking for:
Good and well known math and physics programs
Campus is in a relatively large city
Academically well rounded and happy students (the reason I’m not applying to Caltech is because I feel like it’s too stem-y)
A not-tiny student body (no liberal arts colleges lol)
My list so far is:
Stanford
UC Berkeley
UCLA
UChicago
Rice
Columbia
I’m asking CC for any potential colleges to add that are on the East coast (living in AZ I’m not as familiar with them).
I also feel slightly biased against Ivy Leagues because the Ivy alums I know (Cornell and Penn) didn’t actually like them much because they had too much of the preppy northeastern elite culture. Feel free to tell me otherwise though.
I also don’t want to apply to too many schools because my thoughts are that I’ll either go to a top notch school and pay the money or just go in-state (where I can basically go for free) because a B tier school isn’t worth $70k a year.
I think that Rice would best satisfy your criteria for atmosphere / vibe / quality of life, and it would be very competitive cost-wise with UCB and UCLA (since you are OOS for the CA schools). Overall, though, that is an impressive–and very “reachy”–list of schools. Stanford is the outlier, since admission is becoming increasingly unlikely for applicants without some sort of compelling hook, but you ought to be a competitive candidate at the other schools.
Penn is not preppy elitist. That’s an absurd statement. Cornell is only “northeastenr elitist” if you count the equivalent of hikers and ornithologists as preppy and elitists. Come on!
If you’re seeking well-rounded, students (and eliminated CalTech for that reason) you may want to reconsider Chicago. That school is fairly intense, hyper-intellectual and competitive.
Michigan… Has what you want and Ann Arbor is a great city to live in. It’s a math centric research school and both programs will land you a good job. Strong alumni also. Overall I haven’t met a student yet that doesn’t love being there.
Cornell undoubtedly has a “northeastern culture”. IIRC 1/5 of its endowed colleges (which house math and physics majors) and 1/2 of its contract colleges are from New York alone.
Typically significant chunks of most private colleges are full-pay, which is a large amount of money. So the elite, and people who can and do afford prep schools, will be represented.
On the other hand half of the students at Cornell’s contract colleges receive lower tuition, which attracts more middle class people than would otherwise be the case. Plus the range of majors attracts “types” that may not be so present at a university with less diverse colleges.
So: northeastern yes, “preppy and elite” yes and no, probably no more so than lots of other private colleges, maybe less so than many. Is my guess.
https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?q=cornell&id=190415#finaid says that Cornell students are 47% no-FA (top ~3% income) and 16% Pell grant (bottom ~50% income), which is fairly typical of the most selective colleges (i.e. highly skewed toward the top of the SES distribution).
I wouldn’t do OOS for the UCs – you’re better off at a private uni or an in-state public (or even an out-of-state public with a lower price tag than you’ll find at the UCs).
Is MIT too STEM-y?
Hopkins, Rice, WashU, UChicago, Columbia, Carnegie Mellon, Brown, and Princeton might be good choices (although you will find the northeastern preppy elite thing at Princeton and it’s not in a city – then again, neither is Stanford). TBH, the “northeastern preppy elite” will be ubiquitous at many elite private schools…there will also be no shortage of down-to-earth, non-elitist people at those same schools.
CMU is a nice school for Math and Physics. It’s right beside Pitt so you have a large number of students in the neighborhood and Pittsburgh is a nice city. You’re going to have 4 seasons in Pittsburgh with cold, icy winters - and windy as it sits where the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers converge to form the Ohio.
My D visited and didn’t really like CMU but my neighbor’s D19 just visited a few weeks ago and loved it and 2 other class of 2019s we know(twins) went to Govern’s school there this past Summer and loved it. I think demographics are similar to MIT. A different mix of students though due to the Design/Art and Music offerings.
As far as happiest students - look at Vandy and Rice.
Someone mentioned Princeton and it’s great for Math/Physics but it’ll be a bit of a pressure cooker (so is Columbia) with lots of work piled on (so does UChicago) without the grade inflation you’ll find at other elites. Not in a city but easy train to NYC and Philly so there are trips and students will go on their on for events. if you plan to go to grad school it’s a great place to prepare you for that.
@Dustyfeathers today’s Uchicago is not the same as it was even 10 years ago. I felt that way until we visited with my son and found it to be much less niche then you paint it to be. I think the transformation that Zimmer and Boyer undertook nearly 12 years ago has vaulted UChicago up to rival anyone in the disciplines that it participates.
I’d agree that UChicago is well-rounded and not like Caltech but “intense, hyper-intellectual and competitive” still applies. I’d also not argue with anyone that calls UPenn ‘preppy elitist’ as that’s an apt description though it’s more than that.
“Wouldn’t OP think Rice to be too small and too pre-professional track oriented?”
Most of the Rice students whom my daughter has encountered during her time there have been incredibly well rounded, with a diverse array of interests than transcend a merely vocational focus. It’s the sort of school where you can be a humanities major, enjoy the life of the mind, . . . and still end up with a nice consulting gig after graduation.
With the exception of Caltech, it is indeed the smallest of the elite universities, but that relative intimacy (3900 undergrads) also comes with a number of social and academic advantages. Really, unless a student longs for the roar of the football crowd at a SEC or Big Ten flagship, he or she is unlikely to find Rice “too small.”