I need advice!! What college best satisfies my list of what I want???

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hey,</p>

<p>I’m currently a junior and I need some advice on favorable colleges for me that I could possibly visit this coming February break.</p>

<p>I know what I want in a college – what colleges would most closely resemble these characteristics? (in order of importance):</p>

<li>Open (or fairly open) curriculum with little to no requirements</li>
<li>Not in the middle of no where (preferably urban)</li>
<li>Small class sizes</li>
<li>Good food accessible either on campus or not [people pick on me for this requirement, but I think it’s pretty important considering that I’ve lived on my mom’s cooking my whole life and four years is a long time =) ]</li>
<li>Tolerable weather</li>
<li>Nice dorms [they don’t need to be palaces, but clean/livable/comfortable/fun conditions are preferable]</li>
<li>Awesome/Aesthetically pleasing Library (or more than one library) [people pick on me for this one too – most colleges have good libraries, but for some reason I find the big comfortable ones with an exorbitant amount of books to be so great…]</li>
</ol>

<p>In terms of my status as a college candidate, I’m an <em>almost</em> straight A student in honors/AP classes with good XCs (no regional/state/national honors, but I have consistency in my high school’s music program and a couple of other clubs) who likes pretty much every subject in school. I also have a diverse ethnicity/origin (that’s not to say that will help me, but it might – I’m Hispanic/Jewish/Filipino) and I lived in London for four years of my life before High School. I go to a very good New Jersey public school.</p>

<p>Thank you so much in advance =)</p>

2

<p>Smith meets all of your characteristics (if you are female), except "tolerable weather" (but people DO tolerate it). It has the largest library of any liberal arts college, as well as a separate (and beautiful) music and dance library. 12-13 separate dining rooms, with different food - you get to choose. Very nice dorms. There are only about 8-9 colleges (including Smith) with truly "open" curricula - most have distribution requirements.</p>

3

<p>Brown
Amherst (less urban but lots going on)</p>

4

<p>New College of Florida</p>

5

<p>Hey,
Mini, I am female, and I was considering Barnard actually. Maybe I should visit Smith too, then =)</p>

<p>Sunsanr64, I've heard some good things about New College of Florida, what can you tell me personally??</p>

6

<p>While I do think most of your requirements are hilarious, the two obvious places to my mind are Wesleyan and Brown.</p>

<p>Wesleyan is a bit better on dorms and library thing, Brown is better on city and food.</p>

7

<p>You'll do better on the food, dorms, open curriculum, and library at Smith. Northampton is happening town, though it isn't New York. Barnard does not have an open curriculum (they have lots of gen. ed. requirements.)</p>

8

<p>modestmelody -- Haha, what can I say, I'm the quintessential JAP with a twist! =P Thanks for your suggestions; I'll need to go to New England this coming February it seems!</p>

<p>Mini - Barnard does have gen.ed. requirements but when I visited it appeared that the Nine Ways of Knowing are <em>somewhat</em> loose -- I don't know how accurate my perception of that is though. I guess juxtaposed with Columbia's core, the Nine Ways of Knowing feel like an open curriculum haha</p>

9

<p>University of Rochester</p>

<p>oh....well the weather isnt that great there but it covers the rest of the stuff u said</p>

10

<p>Well, as a Jewish guy from Long Island from a jappy area with cousins in Jersey...</p>

<p>I know where you're coming from.</p>

<p>I'm a senior at Brown, btw, so if you end up thinking that's one direction you may want to go, let me know.</p>

11

<p>University of Pennsylvania</p>

12

<p>haha modest, yeah, I might take you up on talking about Brown then =) PM?</p>

<p>LW my dad & grandpa are both Penn alumni but I never thought it would fall under my "requirements" -- doesn't it have gen.ed.,large classes, and particularly dingy dorms? (That's not to sound like a snob more than I already do hehe)</p>

13

<p>If you're willing to compromise on the open curriculum, WUStL is an excellent fit for your other criteria.</p>

<p>Johns Hopkins meets all of your criteria, as far I can tell.</p>

14

<p>IB how is the curriculum done at WUStL??</p>

15

<p>Overview</a> of Degree Requirements | Arts & Sciences</p>

<p>Clusters</a> | Arts & Sciences</p>

16

<p>Rae-- feel free to use my AIM name on here any time or email me at becker.jason.p AT gmail DOT com or jason_becker AT brown DOT edu.</p>

<p>But now it's time to head out for the night. Pre-game is over.</p>

17

<p>Yeah RaeBanging (interesting username, but I digress), I've heard that the dorms at UPenn aren't GREAT, but the average class size is relatively small.</p>

18

<p>ST. LOUIS!!!!</p>

<p>right in the heart of st. louis-tons of stuff to do</p>

<p>great student to faculty ratio-17:1</p>

<p>decent midwest weather-seasons</p>

<p>and the most beautiful campus in the world!!!</p>

19

<p>Suggesting Vassar. Beautiful library, nice dorms, nearish NYC and relatively close to CIA and restaurants owned by CIA grads</p>

20

<p>Pomona in CA meets all your requirements-but its very competitive. I'd call it a reach.</p>