<p>How about the Honors Tutorial College at Ohio? It’s known as a party school, but the HTC has top academics.</p>
<p>Isn’t your dismissal and stereotyping of supposedly snobbish people also condescending? Since you are able to counter most of the school suggestions here, I think you have a good sense of what you want so you can probably find your ideal school by yourself.</p>
<p>I’ve edited and deleted some posts which contained an off-topic conversation inappropriate for the College Search & Selection forum.</p>
<p>Conversations about non-search and selection topics should be confined to the CC Cafe or the College Life forums.</p>
<p>I know others have said it but you should definitely check out Michigan. It’s big, strong academics, great sports & school spirit, liberal, very accepting of cannabis, and as for the pretentiousness question, I didn’t get that vibe when I visited, but with 25,000 undergrads there’ll definitely be some of every type.</p>
<p>You said you weren’t sure how you’d handle Midwestern winters, but since Michigan is on the trimester schedule you could probably take classes summer and fall terms and do an internship somewhere warm in the winter, if you find the weather absolutely unbearable after freshman year. (I don’t know where you’re from and how big of an adjustment Michigan winters would be for you).</p>
<p>People, chill out. The OP never said he wasn’t being a bit close-minded or even condescending. It’s OKAY to be those things when looking for colleges, because there are just some environments you don’t want to be with. I am a black working-class girl from the South and I didn’t want to attend a northeastern Ivy for undergrad – didn’t even apply, although I certainly had the stats to get in. I KNEW I didn’t want to be reminded of all the things I didn’t have growing up.</p>
<p>I can’t believe someone suggest the Claremont schools – they are like the exact opposite of what the OP is looking for.</p>
<p>Anyway, you should look at the University of Georgia, MickJag. I’m not sure about the pot-friendly part (I’m almost positive that’s there), but I know there is a HUGE sports scene there, the students are generally laid-back and friendly, and although there are some mildly pretentious students from wealthy families the majority that I’ve met are just really chill. It’s huge, it takes up the entire town of Athens, GA, but it has a beautiful, sprawling, huge campus and town-gown relations are awesome (UGA loves Athens and Athens loves UGA). They have an honors program that’s really good and well-known for it’s rigor, so you can certainly get the academic side there – they are a really good school – but the social aspect is certainly there.</p>
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I’m from Los Altos, CA so the Winters would be pretty brutal for me. After doing some research, it appears that students are a lot more chill at Wisconsin. Michigan seems to have that elitist attitude that I’m not looking for a school.</p>
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Great post. I actually never considered Georgia. The only thing that would concern me about Georgia is its reputation on the West Coast. On the West Coast, there is a strong bias against Southern schools and people certainly continue to hold stereotypes about people from the South. While I’m open to looking at most schools around the country (Northeast excluded), I’d prefer to live on the West Coast after I graduate.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice.</p>
<p>No question - Washington University, St. Louis.</p>
<p>^^^ Agree with the unpretentious and the top university part, but the OP has indicated he prefers the Div. 1 big sports scene, which is not the vibe at WUSTL.</p>
<p>Seems to me that you have a bit of an elitist attitude pertaining to southern schools. Perhaps you should look at Michigan again?</p>
<p>I think this is easy. The OP said he doesn’t want A) A private school, B) A school in a cold environment, C) not a “top” university, D) A school without big-time sports or E) A school that doesn’t have a good reputation on the west coast.</p>
<p>Well, Big Time sports are in 6 conferences: Big Ten, Pac 10, Big East, SEC, ACC, Big 12. All Big Ten schools, All Big East schools (sans USF) are in cold weather - not what the OP wants. SEC schools don’t have national reputations for their academics, outside of Vanderbilt, which is private. </p>
<p>So you’ve got the ACC, Big 12, and Pac 10. The Pac 10 is 100% what you are looking for, however the OP has already shown a distaste for UCB, USC, Stanford. That leaves Oregon, Washington, Arizona and Arizona State, UCLA, and Oregon State and Washington State. Oregon State and Washington State are a bit low in academics.</p>
<p>Public schools in the other conferences are: ACC - Georgia Tech, Clemson, Virginia Tech, Virginia, Maryland, Florida State, UNC, and NC State. Big 12 has Nebraska, Kansas, Kansas State, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Colorado, Missouri, Iowa State. Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, Virginia, Maryland, UNC, Texas, Texas A&M, Colorado are all good schools. Maryland/Virginia/Colorado/North Carolina aren’t states immune from the winter, but they aren’t bad.</p>
<p>I’d suggest North Carolina, seems like a great fit. Texas is a good school as well, but has 95% in-state students. I would suggest UCLA, but I believe you said you didn’t like the competitive environment there?</p>
<p>I’d check out U Mich first hand. Dismissing a student body of that size as being elitist is pretty broad-brush. One of the reasons to seek a large university setting is that you can pretty much find what you want. Sure, there are elitist folks there, but they need to hang out with other elitists, because the rest of the folks won’t deal.</p>
<p>Winters: that is why polar fleece exists. I actually think it is much easier to deal with cold, because you can use high tech layers, than with hot/humid (even when you strip to naked, it’s still hot and sweaty).</p>
<p>I feel like you should look in Vermont, like U of Vermont (which is a public ivy) or Bennington.</p>
<p>Both are liberal schools and very accepting of cannabis culture</p>
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<p>Well, I just came back from UVA’s Orientation, and the least I can say is – whoa, both OOS and IS peers are very laid back and reluctant to show (off) their cards. Which almost made me uneasy, for a very different reason: When I tried to talk about academic subjects and what I and they knew, it almost felt that I was being pretentious. (I was just excited to be plunged into a more intellectual environment!) </p>
<p>I cannot see how at all UVA is preppy. I tried very hard to look for some trace of the rich southern frat boy stereotype over there, and quite failed. Maybe Orientation is different from when school actually is in session, but nevertheless I remain quite impressed by my humbleness of my peers (even though everyone has very good stats).</p>
<p>Virginia is out of the question. I’ve actually been to the school. Something like 30 % of the students are involved in Greek Life and the students definitely seemed very preppy.</p>
<p>I’ve already decided that I’m going to visit Wisconsin and possibly Michigan.</p>
<p>Tomorrow, I’m flying into Portland and will drive to Eugene to check out University of Oregon. In the next few days, I’ll drive up to Seattle to check out University of Washington.</p>
<p>So my current list of schools that I’m definitely applying to:
University of Oregon
University of Texas
University of Washington</p>
<p>I was curious what got you interested in UT-Austin? I’m an alum and still live in Austin. To me, it’s got a lot. Strong academics, great resources, but not much pretentiousness. Big sports scene, especially football (can be overdone to me, but that’s up to the individual). Austin is the best thing about U.T. It’s just got a good vibe. I’m sure you know the story. A liberal island in the sea of Texas conservatism. Beautiful weather, except for summer, when it is damned hot. Being laid-back is almost a requirement for living here. </p>
<p>I’ve been to U.W., but not Oregon. U.W. seemed like a great place. I’ve heard great things about Oregon, too. I don’t think U.W. or Oregon would be that different from U.T., except just that hard to define difference in feel from being in a different part of the country. I think weather would be the biggest difference. It’s a big, bright, blue sky here almost all the time. Hills, scrubby trees, earthy feel – not the mountains or as much water as you’re used to. If you haven’t been here, come check it out.</p>
<p>I’ve always thought pretty highly of UT. I’m liberal and I’ve heard that Austin is an amazing city. My mom’s friend moved to Austin because he’s a musician. Apparently the live music scene is incredible in Austin. The one thing that worries me about Texas is the size of the school. I know a few people from my high school who go there and they love it. Texas has a good reputation on the West Coast too.</p>
<p>I’ve heard that Texas is incredibly difficult to get into as an out of state student. Hopefully, I’d be a competitive applicant.</p>
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<p>30% in Greek Life => everyone is preppy? How?</p>
<p>I wonder if you actually sustained any sort of conversation or whether you only even glanced at the student body.</p>
<p>So far, I don’t know what you exactly mean by “pretentiousness”.</p>
<p>Read any of the student reviews about UVA and people talk about the preppy students.</p>
<p>"There’s a strong Greek presence, so the typical student might be classified as preppy. " - Princeton Review</p>
<p>[UVA</a> - University of Virginia Videos - theU - UVA: “The Crowd”](<a href=“http://www.theu.com/college_videos_view/theu_uva_the_crowd_64]UVA”>http://www.theu.com/college_videos_view/theu_uva_the_crowd_64)</p>
<p>I might have missed one of your post but why not Berkeley..pretty laid back
schools i think match your criteria
UC boulder
UT austin( you already applying)
Northwester university
UW madison
UM</p>
<p>Northwestern is 40% Greek- Obviously we’re all really pretentious.</p>