Help narrow down college list

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I'm trying to get a list of colleges together but need some help narrowing down my list. Based on the information I give alone (not on test scores or grades) what colleges sound like they might be a good fit for me?</p>

<p>-am Catholic and might want a Catholic school, or somewhere people are really friendly and Christian-like, but school doesnt have to be religiously affiliated
-Small to medium size university (nothing huge like a state school) so a private school for sure (the only large and/or public schools I would consider would be UW Madison, Michigan, and NYU)
-weather is not an issue
-prefer more suburban campuses with lots of grass, quads, etc and pretty buildings (excpetions would be the urban NYU , Loyola Chicago and Yale)
-good journalism/english departments (want to be a writer, journalist, or editor)
-not a HUGE partier but won't mind having a beer or two in college</p>

<p>Some schools that have really caught my eye are:</p>

<p>Pepperdine University
Santa Clara University
Catholic University of America
Fordham University
Villanova University
University of Wisconsin, Madison
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Loyola University Chicago
New York University
College of the Holy Cross
Boston College
Washington University in St. Louis
Stanford University
Yale University
Emory University
Northwestern University
University of Notre Dame
Columbia University
Duke University
Vanderbilt University
Rice University
Georgetown University
Brown University
Cornell University
Dartmouth College
Harvard College
Princeton University
Pomona College
Davidson College
Saint Joseph's University
Creighton University
Xavier University
University of St. Thomas (MN)
Hillsdale College
Salve Regina University</p>

<p>Any input or opinions of these colleges would be great!</p>

2

<p>I’m in Northern California and can comment on at least 2 on your list.</p>

<p>Santa Clara is a small campus but it doesn’t have a large number of attractive buildings or quads (not counting Mission Santa Clara which is absolutely beautiful). It’s also surrounded by a lot of strip malls along the Alameda (street linking Santa Clara to San Jose). But it’s also near the Rose Garden District which has beautiful old houses.</p>

<p>Stanford is a very pretty campus. I used to attend their summer basketball camps and stayed in a few of the dorms (Branner, Toyon) They were nice. It has a lot of green areas and gorgeous buildings. It’s also in Palo Alto which is a very nice town.</p>

<p>I love the campus of USF (another Jesuit college like SCU) but it’s not on your list.</p>

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<p>Holy Cross sounds like it would be a solid match. The campus is on the outskirts of a decent size city but enclosed within wrought iron gates and the campus has won numerous national awards for landscaping and most of the buildings are old and ivy covered. It is Jesuit and has lots to offer Catholics from weekly/daily Mass to various retreats and other spiritual development activities and groups. One of the smallest schools (2800) that offer Division 1 athletics.</p>

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<p>bump…</p>

5

<p>bump again…</p>

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<p>Wow you DO need to narrow down. You’ve got big, small, impossible, likely… If you want catholic the one I know about is BC, run by Jesuits who are wonderful and deep thinking. Nice smart people I know go there. How about Fordham in NY? Its not a great campus, but its in the big apple and is getting better all the time. Good Luck</p>

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<p>I know my list seems so random…but I like all the campuses and other aspects of all of them and the only really big schools would be UW Madison, Michigan, and NYU but I like all of them and they are exceptions b/c of connections and other reasons so I’ll prob apply to all or most of them..but the rest are more similar in size (med-small schools)…</p>

<p>I just have no idea how else to eliminate any b/c I’m not picky in regards to location or w/e and all these schools have everything I could possibly want (and I want to apply to a bunch of religiously affiliated schools but also some secular ones…)</p>

8

<p>You have a huge list, but if you can get into Yale, some of the others on the list seem a little silly. Xavier is clearly your full ride school along with St. Joes. Villanova would be a good match as well. S will be a freshman there and d graduated in 05. He also applied to only Catholic schools…Xavier, St. Joes, Loyola of Md and Villanova. They are all lovely schools but out of those 4 Villanova is, IMO, the best. He got lots of merit and scholarship $ at the first 3 and non at the last. My niece is a sophomore at Georgetown and loves it. She is a copy editor on the Hoya. She couldn’t imagine going anywhere else as my kids also couldn’t imagine going anywhere but where they are. Good luck with your search…</p>

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<p>Are you sure you’d like NYU? Its probably the most divisive college in the country. No campus, no quads, not much community.</p>

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<p>you should look into University of San Diego…a small-medium jesuit school that is GORGEOUS!!..and if you are aiming at HYPS, then without looking at your grades/test scores, you could potentially get a lot of merit $$…
otherwise, try to think about what you really want. For example you said…I don’t want this, but these schools are an exception. What makes those schools an exception? What about those schools really draws you to them? If, for example UW Madison, Michigan, NYU, loyola chicago, and yale don’t fit your most basic criteria, think about why it is that these schools have to be on your list at all. Those are some very easy ones to bump off the list.</p>

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<p>Coffeeaddict9716, you’re not alone–my daughter started out with a very large and diverse list like yours. We spent 3 long weekends visiting 3 or 4 at a time that were geographically close by, and altogether represented a sampling of big, small, urban, suburban, Christian, catholic, not, etc…This really helped her to define the things she liked or not about each college or type of college. Whenever possible we tried to visit with her high school alumni at each one, and scheduled visits when classes were still in session to get an idea of what they were like. Her list is narrowed down now to about a dozen, many are on your list, but her list is still very diverse. Seems there’s always something really special about one, but something else it doesn’t have that another one does…but she feels she could be happy at any of them. She’ll probably narrow the list down further and apply to 8 -10. Here it is now (in some sort of ranking from “super hard reach” to “safety”: Princeton, Yale, University of Chicago, Notre Dame, Washington University in St. Louis, Davidson, Vanderbilt, Wake Forest, Wheaton, Furman, Hillsdale, Centre, and University of Kentucky. She wants to major in history or english. As of today, her favorites are probably Notre Dame, Hillsdale, and Davidson. My best advice to you–start visiting as soon as you can! Much easier and more fun than preparing too many applications and sending them out to places you’ve never even seen. If you get accepted everywhere, you’ll only have about a month to decide! Also, a great book we’ve found to be pretty accurate for the ones we’ve visited: “Choosing the Right College, an ISI Guide.” Good luck!</p>

12

<p>Please help! We are struggling trying to find the top second tier colleges/ universities that is budget friendly. Does any one have a list of schools</p>

13

<p>Robert Frost attended Dartmouth! So did Dr. Seuss!</p>

<p>I believe I make a compelling case. =]</p>

<p>In all seriousness though, I had a very good impression of Dartmouth when I visited, which is partly what made me decide between it and Northwestern. Both have beautiful campuses – the former has this very natural setting, secluded in the woods; the latter is just a man-made wonderland, absolutely gorgeous.</p>

<p>Academically, both are extremely competitive. It’s socially where it differs. Northwestern is reputed to have this everyone works hard and rarely parties attitude, whereas at Dartmouth, it’s work hard, play hard. Of course, Northwestern is considerably larger than Dartmouth.</p>

<p>As for financial aid, I had the good fortune to receive great offers from both schools. Dartmouth is reputed to be better with giving out money, and Northwestern a bit more stingy. However, in my case, Northwestern offered me an academic scholarship, giving me about 10,000 more than Dartmouth did, and Dartmouth matched it when I made an appeal.</p>

14

<p>Definitely apply to Rice!</p>

<p>Let’s address your concerns:</p>

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<p>Rice people are among the most friendly and most approachable people you will ever meet. There was a recent thread floating around CC about most accepting/friendly colleges located here: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/518606-most-accepting-friendly-colleges.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/518606-most-accepting-friendly-colleges.html&lt;/a&gt; which I see <em>you</em> originally authored it! haha.</p>

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<p>At =<3000 undergrads, Rice definitely will afford you the undergrad attention, small 5:1 student-faculty ratio, and small class sizes that you’re looking for.</p>

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<p>Houston is HOT. <em>Very</em> hot and humid, but you’ll get acclimatized soon enough! AC is on full blast 24/7, never fear.</p>

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<p>Have you ever visited Rice’s campus? It’s incredibly lush and green to the point of it being park-esque. Many trees around it. If you were on Rice’s campus, you wouldn’t have known it’s actually situated right by downtown Houston. My friend who’s lived in Houston and near Rice all his life doesn’t really consider Rice to be part of Houston because Rice is just so different and just so much better and much nicer than the rest of the city. It’s definitely got a suburban feel to it, and a lot of grass and quads. The Spanish Mediterranean architecture of Lovett Hall will blow you away! Lots of pretty buildings, no doubt.</p>

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<p>Rice doesn’t have a journalism school or department (as far as I’m concerned), but its humanities and English departments are pretty good, even though Rice traditionally is known for engineering and sciences (besides architecture and music). </p>

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<p>In 2007, Princeton Review ranked Rice as #1 for Best Quality of Life and #3 for Best Overall Undergraduate Academic Experience; at Rice it’s definitely a work hard play hard environment–ask anyone who’s at Rice or knows a student there! Rice ranks fairly high and well on the list of the top 20 colleges with the best social life. </p>

<p>Rice doesn’t have any Greek life, as its founder didn’t like elitist organizations (as he described it), but its residential college system is highly unique (more so than those of Yale and Harvard) because it’s incredibly integral and essential to the overall undergrad experience. This unique feature of Rice is a huge draw for many prospective students and a favorite among its current students.</p>

<p>Rice is also a wet campus, so no one needs to go off campus for parties and alcohol–it’s all available right there on campus. But of course, no one will force you to drink if you don’t want to. With Rice’s baseball team headed to the College World Series this weekend, it can get a bit hectic and crazy with lots of school spirit, but that’s part of the fun!</p>

<p>Haha, sorry for such a long post–but DO apply to Rice! :slight_smile: It’s an amazing place!</p>

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<p>Thanks everyone. Hotasice, Rice is one of my favs :slight_smile: </p>

<p>I guess I justneed help narrowing my list down so I have a good amount of reaches, and match/safties. Obv. the ivys and such are reaches as they are for almost anyone…so for now I want to focus on getting rid of a bunch of the other schools b/c I only need a handful of match/safties to ensure me a spot and for finaid/scholarship options…</p>

<p>Some schools that I do not know a ton about and would like to learn more from the helpful people on CC w/ info that can’t easily be found on the web are:</p>

<p>Santa Clara University
Creighton University
Xavier University
University of St. Thomas (MN)
Loyola University of Chicago
Franciscan University of Steub.
Denison University</p>

<p>If anyone has any interesting things to say, feel free to. Maybe that means sharing why you think the school would or wouldn’t be a good fit, why you like it, why I shouldn’t consider going there at all, whatever you want. I’m all ears…thanks!</p>

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<p>coffee addict. </p>

<p>Dartmouth seems like a good fit for you. </p>

<p>1) The only not 100% fit. Yea people are liberal (and thus not too Catholic in their views) but there is a Catholic Society that does great work at the college, and no one will try to convert you. </p>

<p>2) 4000 Undergrads. Small classes. “Take your professor out to lunch” vouchers. Really great. </p>

<p>3) Weather is not the best, but is a non issue for you so phew.</p>

<p>4) Very “suburban”. Pretty, in a small city.</p>

<p>5) The Dartmouth. Oldest college newspaper. Look it up. </p>

<p>6) #4 Biggest Beer Drinking College according to Princeton Review. HUGE frat scene, but at the same time no pressure to drink in a frat. Its amazing.</p>

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<p>Dartmouth also has some of the funniest undergrads around. I love the “Drinking Time” video. [url=<a href=“http://youtube.com/watch?v=avYUL1A-WUM]YouTube”>http://youtube.com/watch?v=avYUL1A-WUM]YouTube</a> - Drinkin’ Time<a href=“This%20was%20a%20massive%20undertaking%20for%20the%20benefit%20of%20a%20few%20tourists”>/url</a>.</p>

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<p>Oh my gawd, that is quite possibly one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen… LOL! Man, I kinda wish I applied to Dartmouth now! haha. </p>

<p>Dude, EVERYONE needs to see that video!</p>

19

<p>HAHA that is pretty funny! :slight_smile: - goin under my favorites</p>