Help me choose a school

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hi guys,</p>

<p>I'm about to go headfirst into the college application process, choosing my final list of schools. I also have a little bit of time to visit colleges, as well. I feel confident that I have a decent enough shot to get into any school not named Harvard, Yale, Princeton, or Stanford, so you can consider more or less any schools.</p>

<p>About me/what I want:</p>

<p>~ I want a school that is intellectual. A place where people are actually aware of what's going on in the world, who won't respond with blank stares when you attempt to discuss current events with them. A place where the conversations aren't vapid.</p>

<p>~ I also would like a place that is not too politically correct - a place where people can say what they think or feel and be accepted for it. In essence - though I myself am quite liberal - I don't want an excessively liberal school.</p>

<p>~ I don't want a school that is too artsy/weird. I'm a pretty intellectual guy, but I'm not really "eccentric." I'm a six-foot tall, polo/sweater wearing Catholic kid, who can hold as good of a conversation on the Giants game as I can on the Euro crisis. </p>

<p>~ Not too pre-professional/competitive. I'd like it if my fellow students were just as, if not moreso focused on learning for the sake of learning instead of getting a job.</p>

<p>~ I don't want to attend a small liberal arts school, though there could be an exception given certain circumstances. I'm all for the idea of liberal arts schools, on how they are undergrad-focused - I just think that 2,000 students is too small a student body.</p>

<p>~ The school needs to have a decent amount of flexibility in its scheduling. I don't want a terrible core curriculum to contend with.</p>

<p>~ I plan on majoring somewhere in the humanities or social sciences. History, education, economics, something. I am not interested in engineering or the hard sciences or anything like that. </p>

<p>~ I don't care if a school is a party school or not - only that it's still a more intellectual school. But if the attitude is "screw class, let's get drunk" then it's not for me.</p>

<p>I know that's a pretty big laundry list, and no school is likely to fulfill all of the above, but if any of you have some ideas then I would really appreciate a post or a message.</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

2

<p>Until I got to the “no core curriculum” criteria I was thinking U. Chicago. Also they have early action. Are you willing to re-think the curriculum issue? But you don’t say anything about scores/grades so it’s hard to tell…</p>

3

<p>I don’t think UChicago would fit me very well…the core is just too oppressive. I don’t need a Brown, just somewhere in the middle in terms of curriculum openness (or towards Brown, haha).</p>

<p>And my stats aren’t really important. Just know that I have a good chance of getting into most colleges - the tippy top (HYPS) notwithstanding.</p>

4

<p>I think some of the top catholic schools would work. ND, Holy Cross, etc.</p>

5

<p>That’s a tough cookie. Most universities around my area have some sort of core curriculum, and the only schools I know of that don’t have one are Amherst and Williams, but they are very small liberal arts colleges in the middle of nowhere. </p>

<p>I suggest that they give these schools a shot anyway. They are the only schools that come close to meeting your specifications, even if they do not match one or two of them.</p>

6

<p>It is hard to find a school that is exact, but what about…William & Mary? Tufts? Northwestern? Boston College/Notre Dame/Georgetown? U of Michigan? Emory? Wash U?</p>

7

<p>Also think Northwestern and Georgetown fit the bill.</p>

8

<p>If it wasn’t for the no small LAC I would say Macalester. I third Georgetown. What about Johns Hopkins? Not sure about the curriculum angle, though.</p>

9

<p>Sorry guys for the ambiguity, I meant to say that I didn’t want a really oppressive core, i.e. like the ones at Chicago and Columbia. I’m not going to write off 90% of schools because they don’t have near-open curriculums.</p>

<p>Thanks for the responses, by the way. You guys are definitely not the first to suggest Georgetown for me.</p>

10

<p>Holy Cross, Notre Dame.</p>

11

<p>Any of the Jesuit or other Catholics…</p>

<p>Look at **Santa Clara and Gonzaga **along with the other mentioned Jesuits and Catholics (Georgetown, ND, Holy Cross, etc). </p>

<p>I think Santa Clara would be a safety for someone with ivy stats, but is largely filled with smart kids.</p>

<p>You sound kind of preppy (that’s fine :slight_smile: ), so look at USC as well. </p>

<p>**You mention “opressive cores”, but if you have AP credits and the school lets you use them to cover Core, then what’s the big deal? ** My kids only had to take ONE CORE class because their AP credits covered the rest of Core. so, no biggie at all!!! This left their schedules open to take some extra interesting classes, do extra minors, etc.</p>