<p>Harvard University (MA)
Princeton University (NJ)
Yale University (CT)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Stanford University (CA)
University of Pennsylvania
California Institute of Technology
Columbia University (NY)
University of Chicago
Duke University (NC)
Dartmouth College (NH)
Northwestern University (IL)
Washington University in St. Louis
Cornell University (NY)
Johns Hopkins University (MD)
Brown University (RI)
Rice University (TX)
University of Notre Dame (IN)
Vanderbilt University (TN)
Emory University (GA)
University of CaliforniaBerkeley *
Carnegie Mellon University (PA)
University of Virginia *
Georgetown University (DC) </p>
<p>Alright so most likely you guys will say UCLA is not better than HYPSM but what about the other colleges on this list. When I say " better", I am not strictly talking about academics, but rather the entire undergrad experience which includes, but is not limited to: academics, dorm food, professors, fun, research opportunities, weathers, student body, location, and sports.</p>
<p>What you or one person is looking for in a college, someone else might dislike. This is entirely a personal, subjective and relative answer.</p>
<p>College is what you make of it. People might have an extremely happy (or not so happy) experience at UCLA and similar situations can be found at every college in the country, including those on your list.</p>
<p>One person’s great (or not so great) experience at a college should not dictate how your college experience should be; again, I repeat that college is what YOU make of it. The undergraduate experience at Harvard (or insert another college on your list) is not “categorically” better, so to speak, than the one at UCLA.</p>
<p>It is entirely personal, subjective and relative.</p>
<p>Stanford University (CA)
Harvard University (MA)
Princeton University (NJ)
Yale University (CT)
Duke University (NC)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of Pennsylvania<br>
Columbia University (NY) UCLA
University of California—Berkeley *
Northwestern University (IL)
Dartmouth College (NH)
Georgetown University (DC)
University of Notre Dame (IN)
Washington University in St. Louis
Cornell University (NY)
Johns Hopkins University (MD)
University of Virginia *
Vanderbilt University (TN)
Emory University (GA)
Brown University (RI)
Rice University (TX)
Carnegie Mellon University ¶
University of Chicago
California Institute of Technology</p>
<p>^^^^^^ UCLA easily tops Stanford on school spirit alone. Stanford football and basketball fans are VERY apathetic, and their marching band is so horridly behaved that a few years ago they were banned from their own home games. UCLA is also right next to Westwood Village for restaurants, shopping, etc, while Stanford is isolated at the end of a very long driveway.</p>
<p>I asked for opinions, not facts. Obviously there’s no right or wrong answer. If college was really all that you make out of it then why don’t you guys who believe this just stay home a study from a textbook then? Obviously, when you’re paying tuition money, you receiving something in exchange whether that be education, the college experience, learning to live with others, college degree, etc. To make this point more concrete think of it this way: would you pay 200 dollars for an ipod if you could make one yourself. Probably not right, but since you can’t that is why you pay money to buy it.</p>
<p>Back to the topic: Sure if you are a very motivated student, you can go above and beyond the curriculum at any college you are attending, but for example it’s NOT easy to make a sports scene out of nothing if your college is not big in sports. A lot of what you experience in college is a result of what the college offers and then to large extent the opportunities the students take advantage of.</p>
<p>I think rsxwheeeee assessment is pretty accurate. In terms of opportunities offered by the college, UCLA is definitely up there. With so many student clubs and organizations, guest speakers, and academic breadth not many colleges can compare with UCLA. With a few exceptions, UCLA is one of the only colleges mentioned that offers the “academics, dorm food, professors, fun, research opportunities, weathers, student body, location, and sports”.</p>
<p>I’m amazed that there are so many people on CC who have attended each of the top 25 universities in America and have some basis on which to judge the quality of campus life at all of them!</p>
<p>The big issue for me is that UCLA has so much less money per student than almost all of those schools. It would be at the bottom of that list for me where undergrad is concerned.</p>
<p>I always wonder why alumni giving is so low if so many loved the experience.</p>
<p>And by the way, hmom, public universities aren’t the only schools feeling the pinch in the latest downturn, private schools have lost massive amounts in their endowments and can’t fall back on state funding the way the public schools can.</p>