<p>Hello friends!
I am a student in Southern California.
I am just testing the water that is the college admissions process and looking around at different schools.</p>
<p>This is mostly in regards to all the Ivys but Cornel and Dartmouth (too cold).</p>
<p>I am unsure (assuming that my application is strong enough) if Ivy life is right for me. I am Hispanic, a liberal on the far left (I am very interested and active in politics), a vegetarian, and I enjoy spending time in cities as well as natural places such as forests and rivers.</p>
<p>(I don't mean to generalize but...) I prefer not to surround myself with the rich "daddy-money" type of kids. I just don't not make friends easily with people of this background, to be honest. </p>
<p>What I am looking for in my college experience besides great academics and one-of-a-kind connections are
• cool non-jerk-like people; I like down to earth kids
• girls who are actually interested in the dating scene and, quite frankly, are good looking
• fun parties (twice or thrice a month is okay with me)
• ethnic diversity
• fun social scene (city life; fun campus events)</p>
<p>Thank you to anyone who fills me in on what life is like at these schools!</p>
<p>I think you need to do some homework in your college search before posting here. Separate from determining whether you would have the academic credentials to be admitted to or to succeed at an Ivy League or equally selective school, you should be better informed about the considerable diversity–intellectual, socioeconomic and ethnic-- at these schools. You also need have a clearer idea about what you’re looking for at a school academically. You were pretty specific about your social interests, but if good looking girls comes ahead of good looking libraries, maybe you’d be happier elsewhere.</p>
<p>Well, it didn’t take very many replies before you got a taste of Ivy League condescension. Take a look at Penn and Columbia for their generally more down-to-earth vibe, and Brown if you are looking for something in a laid back, quirkier vein. It’s too bad you crossed Cornell off your list because they are rumored to have the best looking and probably the most traditional dating scene. In all seriousness, though; everything is relative; all eight schools are big places with all sorts of possibilities. I wouldn’t cross any of them off for purely social reasons.</p>
<p>The percentage of students receiving Pell grants at Berkeley, UCLA, Davis or Riverside is ~30-40%. At the Ivies, it’s about 9% (Harvard/Yale/Penn) to 17% (Columbia). From all these numbers, I’d estimate that a typical Ivy family income spread is roughly 10% lower income, 50% middle, and 40% upper-middle income or higher (>= $150K or so). At Columbia, it might be more like 20-30-50. </p>
<p>So yes, Ivy demographics are a little different than state school demographics. You’ll have to decide if that’s a feature or a bug.</p>
<p>^^I generally agree with TK (on this and many other of his posts), but, I would take the “60% of our students are on financial aid” bromide with a grain of salt. With the high-tuition/high-financial aid business model in place at virtually every prestige school, a family making $200,000 a year can be on financial aid.</p>
<p>Do you mean to use the word “Ivies” to refer to those specific 8 schools, or are you using the word “Ivies” in general to refer to top of the line, elite / selective schools?</p>
<p>Because it would be really odd to isolate the Ivies in doing a search, because they simply happen to be 8 among the top schools that happen to have a shared athletic conference. It would be as odd as looking for selective schools and deciding to isolate only those with one syllable in the name. </p>
<p>Decide what you’re looking for, THEN start searching. Don’t grab onto the Ivies as a whole - they are not at all alike from one another.</p>
<p>^^ I’m unaware of any tables that show the distribution of aid by amounts. Therefore, when a college claims that N% of its students get n-b aid, it’s hard to know for sure how much of it is going to low-income v. upper middle-income students. However, we do know (from the Common Data Set section H.2.j) the average amounts of n-b scholarship and grant awards. At Harvard for 2011-12, it was over $42K. At Princeton for 2012-13, it was almost $38K. Also, keep in mind that all the Ivies claim to be need-blind in admissions. So I don’t think the bulk of Ivy League n-b aid is being trickled out in small discounts to upper-middle-income (~$200K) families. </p>
<p>Still, a lower-income student can expect some culture shock at Ivy League and other expensive private schools. You won’t necessarily face blatant snobbery and in-your-face displays of wealth … but you will be surrounded by many smart, confident kids who come from money. So what? Just, suck it in, do your thing, and you’ll be fine.</p>
<p>And isn’t that one of the goals – to be able to function well / effortlessly in a “higher” world than the one you’ve been playing in? </p>
<p>There is money everywhere – you could go to Ole Miss or U of Alabama, which are not academically on the level of the Ivies or similar schools, and you’ll find some families / kids there with more money than God. </p>
<p>You can’t “be afraid” of it, or you’ll never learn the tools to be able to compete in an upper middle class world.</p>
<p>secretguy, it seems given your stated criteria that you ought to be looking in your own backyard at USC. Large enough to find people of every kind, unlike some ivies, with many of the traditional benefits of an ivy: great academics, research opportunities, professors who are leaders in their fields, etc. USC will not be your social high school.</p>
<p>But I’m a firm believer, having learned the hard way, that the trail to the right college begins with asking your parents what they can afford to offer you in support (get a firm number) and what the college is going to ask them to contribute (net price calculator). Then look for colleges that suit your needs and desires. The Rolls Royce is a beautiful car, but its value to you is dependent upon your ability to put gas in it.</p>
<p>Check the Net Price Calculators at Top 25 national universities and top 25 LACs (minus any school that would be “too cold”, although be warned any Massachusetts, Connecticut, etc would seem very cold to a student from CA). Then check with your parents that these schools are affordable.
Check out Carleton and Grinnell for down-to-earth students, Hamilton for good-looking (and Hamilton also seeks out first-gen students).</p>
<p>Macalester would probably be a good match, except it’s in St. Paul. One of the most liberal student bodies in the nation, politically active, in a cool city with nature near by.</p>
<p>yup, almost all the colleges that fit OP’s criteria are in “cold” areas…
Seriously, I don’t think there’s a prize for good weather to be won between Boston in February and St Paul in February…
I suppose that OP could check out “days of sunshine” instead of temperatures because finding good schools in tolerable climates will be hard outside of CA: Pacific Northwest = rain, Southeast = humidity… (People from the Southwest often underestimate how unbearable humid heat is, because it’s hard to grasp until you’ve lived it. I’d take a cold crisp day over a humid hot one but ymmv.)</p>
<p>So would D, she hates the heat, which is exactly why she’s headed out of humid country and into the Northeast for school. And it’s cold here in the winter anyway, only it’s a damp cold.</p>
<p>There’s a reason they locate monasteries in places with rotten weather and nothing to do - cheap real estate and it focuses the mind.</p>
<p>1.cool non-jerk-like people; I like down to earth kids
2. girls who are actually interested in the dating scene and, quite frankly, are good looking</p>
(and Hamilton also seeks out first-gen students).</p>