<p>I'm glad your considering Georgetown. Don't worry about the theology requirement. It's two classes, one is the Problem of God which is a very inclusive look at philosophy and religion. The other is any other theo class which is anything from yoga to the class I'm taking next semester the Islamic State. Neither are meant to be instructive from the Catholic church. The religious community is present at Georgetown but it is by no means a dominating force. Diversity is something the university prides itself in and while it's more even than its peer schools, the celebratory run to the white house when Obama won was a very large majority of the school. Georgetown also has a location advantage over the other dc schools if you want a more suburban feel. Georgetown the neighborhood is home to many of the senators and the townhouses are beautiful. The opportunities of the city are still just over the bridge but you don't feel like you are living in a busy city.</p>
<p>O and despite today's tough loss against Pitt, Georgetown's mix of top 10 basketball and academics is hard to beat.</p>
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If you are academically competitive, how about WashU in St. Louis and Rice. I believe WashU is a D3 basketball power, and Rice has D1 sports.
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<p>Correct me if I'm wrong, but I've always kind of dubbed WashU as a very pre-med oriented school, and Rice as a very techy school. Are these stereotypes true, and if so what are considered other great programs that WUSTL and Rice offer? I know that Rice offers a very liberal arts-esque education (also being a kind of tweener school like Brown, JHU, Dartmouth perhaps?), which I love, but I know very little about Wash U. I will definitely look into both, especially because they both have good distances from home (not too close or too far). Thanks!</p>
<p>Also, @hec2008 thank you for your input on Georgetown!! It's been on my favorites list for ages although I know essentially no one who goes there and thus have heard no anecdotes about the student body, so your input was extremely helpful. My friends who go to GWU told me about the mad rush to the White House on election day, and I was practically bubbling with jealousy haha; I think that's a true sign I belong in DC, but who knows. Also liked the input about religion classes—they actually sound VERY interesting, I was planning on taking philosophy classes in college (and am fascinated by religion's impacts on politics) so those two requirements sound not only manageable but very intriguing.</p>
<p>If you have any other questions I would be happy to answer them. Good luck!</p>
<p>Tulane!!!!</p>
<p>In reading your opening post, you seem tailor-made for Georgetown. DC is a great place to go to college and the vast majority of students at Georgetown seem to absolutely love their time there. </p>
<p>As for other colleges of similar selectivity that might merit a look, you might want to explore Northwestern, Rice, and Vanderbilt. Though to varying degrees, all have that combination of academics and athletics that you seem to like. BTW, Rice has far more than "techy" academic options (less than 15% engineering) and, while it is not as broadly known, is a truly fabulous place.</p>
<p>FWIW, regarding Dartmouth -- when we visited, a dad on the tour asked the tour guide if anyone got out of Dartmouth without being an alcoholic. The (female) tour guide's response: "I don't know, I'm only a sophomore".</p>
<p>^I lol'ed at that. Are you sure she wasn't joking?</p>
<p>I don't know that Amherst is a big party school...I also don't think that Williams, Middlebury, Carleton, and Oberlin are big party schools either.</p>
<p>You're also not an idealist for your visions of who hangs out with who. Those artificial demarcations between "bookworms," "jocks," etc. virtually disappear in college. You're just you, and people are not cooler because they play sports. It's college; mostly everyone is a bookworm, especially at the colleges you're looking at.</p>
<p>Anyway, you're looking at mostly reaches...so I'm going to suggest some matches and safeties. When you said a big party school that's strong academically, I immediately though of Penn State -- it's a very strong school academically but has a reputation for being a party schoola and it has a HUGE sports following, especially in football. But of course, it's much larger than 10,000 students. The University of Georgia is similar in stats but of course it's huge and much bigger than 10,000 undergrads.</p>
<p>Also, Vanderbilt came to mind. Nashville is a city, but it's certainly not a city in the same sense that NYC and Philadelphia are cities. There are certainly a mix of conservative and liberal students there; their academics are strong; as far as I know it's not too large (around 6500 undergraduates), and the Greek scene is strong there.</p>
<p>I also thought of Duke -- Durham is a smallish city/town, the academics are great there but there is a good mix of both liberal and conservative students (the South is good for that). Greeks are strong there and the students are generally work hard, play hard, and sports are really strong there, too. Duke requires all of their undergrads to live on campus for three years.</p>
<p>Thanks juillet! I definitely like both Duke and Vanderbilt a lot—it's so fun to watch Duke basketball games, and I think I would definitely enjoy four years at both. But like you said, I definitely have a lot of reach schools on my list, and both Duke and Vanderbilt would probably be reaches (Vanderbilt might be a "low reach" but definitely not in the bag by any means). I'm not too too sure about Penn State and U of Georgia, they both seem a bit too big for my tastes and I'd probably prefer to go to say, UCSB or UC Davis over a huge OOS state school. Thanks for the suggestions though! </p>
<p>I definitely don't have that many safety options as of yet; I love Pitzer, but would probably consider that more of a likely or low match than a safety. Occidental is sort of in the same "low match" boat. I also like Lake Forest College, Gettysburg College, and Connecticut College but it's harder for me to gauge my chances at these schools without my SATs than to throw Amherst, Stanford, Georgetown, etc. into one big "Reach" category haha. :)</p>
<p>I've heard Amherst, Williams, and Middlebury have decent party scenes (though by no means comparable to Penn State), but with a more "we're in the middle of nowhere and it's freezing cold, let's drink" kind of feel. Carleton, probably less so... I've heard they have less of a drinking scene there, and more of a goofy (yet still fun) party scene. Don't know as much about Oberlin. I've also heard that the rivalry between Amherst and Williams sparks school spirit at both schools, but again not nearly as much as UMich/ND or Stanford/Cal haha.</p>
<p>How about Wellesley? It's a brilliant, small LAC near Boston (about 30 min).
It is liberal, very diverse, has D3 division sports, no TA's, no graduate school and around 2000 students.
Its staff and students have a reputation to be very friendly and if you are looking for a beautiful campus, Wellesley's is by far the best I've seen.
Also, it is very strong in the field of polysci, IR, and esp. language
I think it would be great for your taste.</p>
<p>you said that you want a balance between republicans and democrats, and from what i have heard, brown is one of the most liberal schools in america. i have never visted the school, that is just what i have heard about it.. good luck with your selection though</p>
<p>Just apply to Swarthmore, you'll love it and never want to go back home.</p>
<p>Patriot League colleges also would be a good fit The</a> Patriot League - Official Athletic Site</p>
<p>I suggest Tulane for parties and academics, but it occurs to me that your definition of party culture may be different than mine; by your screen name, I am wondering if your party requirements are more along the lines of marijuana than beer and alcohol. </p>
<p>So, assuming the former, I would suggest the University of Vermont in Burlington; Tulane in New Orleans; and definitely not UC Davis because it is not a party school.</p>
<p>I live in Spokane and my sisters went to Gonzaga. (Actually, one works there now. ;) ) I think there's a pretty good mix of Republicans/Democrats there. It's a Jesuit school and Jesuits tend to be a more liberal order. Not a lot of diversity as far as race or class, really. Especially race. The city itself, Spokane, is conservative. Nice weather--warm and sunny summers (not that you'll be at college in the summer I suppose ;) ) and snowy winters. Usually not TOO snowy. (This year is an exception.)</p>
<p>Edit: As far as religosity, one of my sisters had an atheist roommate. ;)</p>
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by your screen name, I am wondering if your party requirements are more along the lines of marijuana than beer and alcohol.
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<p>Haha, definitely a good assumption but my screen name actually refers to a song by Justin Timberlake, not weed. After creating my account I realized that my universal G-mail/Yahoo/etc. account name might be misinterpreted on College Confidential, but nothing I could do after the fact. I'd prefer the typical college drinking scene to alternatives (especially hard drugs, which I'm adverse to), so I'll look into Tulane. I didn't know that UC Davis wasn't a party school... I thought it was pretty average and actually knew a bunch of partiers at a nearby public school who liked Davis for its party scene, but I know it's bad to generalize a college by a handful of students who attend there. Thanks for the insight!</p>
<p>@Naturally: Thanks for the info on Gonzaga! I absolutely love the state of Washington, and have only been to Spokane once a few years ago but thought it was beautiful. Next time I visit my grandma in Seattle maybe we'll go on a road trip to visit Gonzaga, Whitman, and other colleges in Eastern Washington.</p>
<p>And of the Patriot League colleges, I definitely like American the best (largely for DC), followed by Colgate and Lehigh. I don't know much about the other schools however, and will look into them.</p>
<p>""Boston College (it's Catholic, so it might not be as liberal as you want it to be) ""</p>
<p>In name only, from what I have heard. BC is no Villanova or Providence College or Loyola. It has a pretty diverse student body, the relgiousity is low key, and the student body tends to have a good amount of liberalism. Oh, and BC has a pretty well developed drinking culture from what I have heard and read on here too.</p>
<p>A little antidote about the williams/amherst rivalry: It's real, and it does bring A LOT of school spirit with it. Both schools are very much into it, and both schools have a strong identity among themselves in general. Both really great places, and before you say no to Williamstown because it's too small, I think you should visit it, many others have fallen in love with the "littleness".</p>