<p>The following comment is not so much for the OP, who will need to consider a variety of factors in finalizing her college list, but a general/corrective point of information in response to the preceding post: </p>
<p>Davidson is not actually in a rural part of the country; it is at the northern edge of the Charlotte metro area, and although Charlotte is not a world-class city, it is a real city with quite a lot of cultural activity and a rather sophisticated population. Similarly, Davidson itself is a preservation- and planning-minded small town with a growing not-from-there population of both corporate people and retirees as well as a core of highly educated and culturally aware long-tome residents who teach/work at Davidson. Charlotte itself is very well served in terms of transportation by air (as well as highways for shorter trips–and a growing light-rail system which may someday be a great thing for the area). Overall, I would say Davidson’s ambience–physical, intellectual, and social–feels a lot like those of its peer northeastern schools–fairly idyllic small-town setting (though oddly enough rather more convenient to reach from a distance than some of the others, which may be farther from hub airports or interstate highways) with a wonderful leavening of academia and all the social/cultural/political awareness that implies. These are essentially same things that I believe make Middlebury something more than a hill town overlooking Lake Champlain, or Williamstown more than a dot on the Berkshire map, or Brunswick more than a narrow place on the road to a lobster pound:) They are all wonderful places with wonderful schools.</p>
<p>This is the town of Davidson (NC) shot by satellite at about a mile up in the air:
[Davidson</a>, NC - Google Maps](<a href=“Google Maps”>Google Maps)</p>
<p>This is Davidson in relation to Charlotte, from about 10 miles up:
[Davidson</a>, NC - Google Maps](<a href=“Google Maps”>Google Maps)</p>
<p>My post and opinion are based on years of experience and quite a lot of time spent visiting both the NE schools and Davidson. It absolutely is at the northern edge of the Charlotte metro area and is most definitely a highly accessible and appealing community. Like any other school and place, it is not for everyone, but whatever one’s preferences, there is more to reality than Google maps:)</p>
<p>After a tour of Harvard (I have been in Cambridge/around campus before, but never took a tour), I absolutely fell in love with it. I realized that what I am really looking for is a school with a culture that really surrounds the students. I noticed this at Harvard, even though it was so close to a very big city, which is ideal for me. However, I think the whole student-focused experience is more important to me than being near a city. In other words, I would rather go to Dartmouth, which has the student-y vibe and is very rural, than NYU, which has an entirely different vibe but is in a city.</p>
<p>Are there any colleges on my list that are really not student-centric, and are more focused on the surrounding city?</p>
<p>Also, do any of the colleges on my list do a great job of striking the city/student balance quite well?</p>
<p>Also, how do Davidson and Northwestern do on the student vs. city/surroundings thing?</p>
<p>Edit: And thanks to quomodo for the info about Northwestern’s distribution requirements. For some strange reason, I always think of it the same way as I think of UChicago–and I know that Chicago has a very strong core!</p>
<p>Wow. That sort of puts everything back into play because nearly all the schools on your list have strong student cultures.</p>
<p>Also, apologies to Mattmom: I didn’t mean to contradict you when I posted the google map, merely to provide a little context. Twenty miles outside of Charlotte isn’t far, if you’re a Davidson student. OTOH, I’m pretty familiar with North Carolina too, and you can be driving down a four lane highway well within the boundaries of a metropolitan district and not even know it; when people Down South (I know this from visiting Richmond and Durham) say, they’re going “to the city”, what they’re usually referring to is a mall.</p>
<p>As to the OP’s last question, about “balance” between student life and city-life, just about the only two places on your list that I would cross off would be Williams and Stanford. For Williams, the nearest metropolitan area would be Albany (NY) and though I’m sure it has its literary (William Kennedy’s “Ironweed”) fans, it does not loom large in the Williams consciousness.</p>
<p>And Palo-Alto is a nice place, but, no one would call it a city, or even a terribly interesting small town in its own right. Almost everyone says after visiting Stanford that it’s a city on its own which means miles of parking lots filled with nothing but student cars; it’s literally a student culture without a context.</p>
<p>Is Dartmouth like Williams and Stanford with the whole no-city sort of thing? When I visited, it seemed that way.</p>
<p>What about Northwestern? How does that fit in with the city/student vibe? I know it is very close to Chicago, and I have heard that it doesn’t really have a campus. I’ve actually never been farther west than West Virginia, so I know nothing about the city (or the entire Midwest, for that matter). Is the mindset very different from that of New England/the East coast?</p>
<p>I would say, yes, trust your instinct. Dartmouth is a great place that creates its own climate of sociability and fierce alumni loyalty, but, it, along with Williams, Middlebury, Bates, Bowdoin and nearly every NESCAC college were founded specifically to bring higher education to what was then, the New England frontier. A lot of that camaraderie is the result of being snowed-in on long winter weekends.</p>
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<p>Northwestern definitely has a campus; it is both urbane and urban in its own way; handsome granite buildings and shade trees are everywhere. Evanston is not that big a deal but, Chicago is close enough that people follow its sports teams and everyone can pretty much tell you who occupies City Hall. When people in the midwest say, they’re visiting Chicago or virtually any other industrial city, it’s very similar to the East Coat: they mean the downtown area where there are streets and sidewalks and people park their cars next to meters while they walk around and shop or eat.</p>
<p>So, if I add Northwestern to my list, would this be a reach? Or would it be a match?</p>
<p>I’ve heard also that Northwestern has a sort of “work hard, play hard” atmosphere, which is something I feel like I’d really fit in to. While I do work very hard, I also don’t want my college years to be spent cooped up in a library. Are there any colleges on my list that seem to be on one end or the other? I realize that anywhere I go, there will be students who want to party and students who want to work hard, but I want a place where I won’t be in the minority for wanting to do both.</p>
<p>I’d chip in here about the atmosphere at NU. Yes Northwestern is mostly a work hard, play hard atmosphere. There will be people who study or too much, but the student body in general, balances both pretty well.</p>
<p>Don’t worry - you won’t be spending all, or even close to that, of your time in the library. While the quarter system is demanding, I used to go to Chicago every weekend at least besides the usual partying. And I was an engineer ;)</p>
<p>Also the city/campus balance is perfect. If you want to stay on campus, there are always a ton of events happening. A lot of people also go to Evanston on weekends. But if you want to go to Chicago, again, you’ll find a large number of people willing to go with you.</p>
<p>What other colleges is NU on par with? I am already having trouble narrowing down my list of reaches, so if it’s a big reach, then I will probably not add it to my list.</p>
<p>Still, I can’t seem to figure out which schools to take off my list. Are there any schools out of the list that really stick out from the rest?</p>
<p>I’ll relist them because the list was on the last page:
Brown
Dartmouth
Davidson
Duke
Harvard
Princeton
Stanford
Wesleyan
Williams
Yale</p>
<p>Also, I do have real reasons for wanting to go to each of these places–that is, I’m not just applying to these places because I like their names.</p>
<p>Judging from the NYTimes admissions tally, Northwestern would be no easier to get into than Davidson and probably on a par with Wesleyan. If you’re trying to avoid more reaches I would avoid NU.</p>
<p>The real split seems to be between the small colleges and the big universities on your list. At the very beginning of the thread you did seem to draw the line in your search at 5,000 students. The biggest LAC (not counting Dartmouth) on your list is Wesleyan at 2,800. That’s a significant come-down from 5,000.</p>
<p>Well, my ideal size is 5,000, but the problem is that I haven’t found a ton of schools that are that size that meet my other criteria. So, I am willing to go smaller as long as it doesn’t FEEL too small. What I mean by this: Trinity and Holy Cross are roughly the same size, but Holy Cross felt way smaller than Trinity. What didn’t help was that all the students at Holy Cross looked sort of alike. So, given that, are there any colleges that will really feel small?</p>
<p>(Note: I have yet to visit Wesleyan and Williams, but will be doing that once the school year starts; I would not visit Davidson unless accepted, because it is far away and my family is just too busy.)</p>
<p>So, if I take Davidson, Wesleyan, and Williams off my list, would it be a ridiculous list of reaches? That would be some Ivies, Duke, and Stanford. Would it be a better idea to keep on Davidson and Wesleyan and try to eliminate some out of, say, Harvard/Yale/Princeton/Brown/Dartmouth?</p>
<p>The weather at BC is not as cold as ND. Daughter from CA goes there and loves it and doesn’t complain that much about the winters. He stats were very similar to yours.</p>
<p>Leave Rice on your list. </p>
<p>USC is a good match for you and NOT a safety school, imo. Son is applying there and his stats are similar to yours and it is not a safety school for him.</p>
<p>According to my counselor, a lot of the safety/match/reach stuff is based on where people from my school have gotten into. And nearly everyone who has applied to USC from my school (with same or lower stats) has gotten in, so I’m considering it a safety. This is reasonable, right?</p>
<p>Again, I am not the one who declared it a safety–my guidance counselor did.</p>
<p>Also, while I am set with my safeties, does anyone have any suggestions for matches? I want liberal-leaning, school-spirited, medium sized (around 5,000, but this is definitely not the biggest of my concerns), preferably near a city, but with a campus, and a visible student culture. Location isn’t a big issue–my favorite spots are the Northeast and California, I’m open to really anywhere.</p>
<p>Well, you stated somehwere else (post #28?) that you’re essentially locked-in to applying to Brown and Princeton because they’re both legacies for you. Frankly, if you don’t get into either of those two, you’re chances of getting into Harvard or Yale as a non-legacy look pretty dim.</p>
<p>However, I feel like I have a better shot at Dartmouth than at Princeton, Yale, and Harvard, and can see myself being happy there. Same with Stanford–my school has a pretty good acceptance history there.</p>
Twenty miles outside of Charlotte isn’t far, if you’re a Davidson student. OTOH, I’m pretty familiar with North Carolina too, and you can be driving down a four lane highway well within the boundaries of a metropolitan district and not even know it; when people Down South (I know this from visiting Richmond and Durham) say, they’re going “to the city”, what they’re usually referring to is a mall.</p>