<p>I've been nominated for the Posse Foundation scholarship and passed to the second phase of interviews. Next month I'll have an interview and I need to choose three schools that I'm considering to attend.</p>
<p>Here's a list of schools:
UC Berkeley
UCLA
Syracuse University Dickinson College
Tulane University
University of Wisconsin - Madison Grinnell College Kalamazoo College
Bucknell College</p>
<p>Now, the bold ones are the schools I'm most interested in, for they are small LACs. However, I want to know which would fit me best, for I am looking for a combination of...</p>
<ul>
<li>A school with a great creative writing community;</li>
<li>A good city to live in, with malls, theaters, etc.;</li>
<li>A place where it snows (:D :D :D big plus since I live in Cali).</li>
</ul>
<p>Also, I would like to know in which of these three schools I would have a better balance between academics and extracurricular activities/social life during the weekends.
My test scores are alright for this schools, btw</p>
<p>I am also accepting input on the other schools; I feel like I'll be just a number in most of these other schools (especially UCLA, UCB and Madison D:), hence not having the necessary attention from my professors and advisers that I'm so used to :(</p>
<p>I’m surprised you haven’t gotten answers. Maybe you should caption your question—Posse: Grinnell or Dickinson and it will get more attention. I tend to agree about big schools but Wisconsin and Berkeley are two of the best and some people might say that they would take one of those over Kalamazoo which is much less known. Kalamazoo seems to be 60% in-state residents and I wonder if that feels a little overwhelming for out-of-state students. I think it’s less prestigious than Grinnell and Dickinson. Grinnell is supposed to have fabulous facilities but it’s in a small town. It may be a little more liberal/artsy than Dickinson. Somehow the Pennsylvania LACs are more fraternity oriented (but there have been threads on that which give more detail) and a little more conservative than the NE schools and some of the midwestern ones. Maybe you should keep one big school for variety (Berkeley or Wis. maybe Wisc. for the snow?) along with Grinnell and Dickinson? Look at some of the Dickinson vs. Bucknell or vs. anywhere threads to get a sense of what people are saying.</p>
<p>You probably noticed that if you search “Posse” in the Grinnell forum of CC you get some threads. Maybe that’s the case with all these schools. Grinnell does seem to have significantly higher (but still low) percentages of black and hispanic students if that matters. Don’t feel too much like you need a city to balance academics and extracurricular activities because most of these colleges have so many activities----newspaper, music groups, environmental groups etc.</p>
<p>I’m a huge Grinnell fan (S is a student there and loves it) but this is definitely a rural LAC. It’s an hour from Des Moines and from Iowa City. If being in or near an urban area matters a lot to you, then this may not be the right choice.</p>
<p>Go to the Grinnell forum and read the ‘Why Grinnell’ thread. It will help you to decide if this school is a good fit or not.</p>
<p>Ditto M’s Mom re: Grinnell. Location is rural, but it is two blocks from the downtown (not a mall there, though…). All of these LACs, though, bring in alot of entertainment and speakers, so there is always something to do. My personal feeling is that people have their whole lives to live in a city, but only one chance to experience the closeknit community of a small LAC. </p>
<p>I have no personal knowledge of the creative writing department, but I do have personal knowledge through my S, a current student, of the personal attention that can be had at this wonderful wonderful school!</p>