<p>I would some input on my finalized list. I have applied to almost all of these schools already. I would like to find the school with the best combination of academic reputation and party scene.</p>
<p>Info About Me:
-Male
-Go to a large public high school in the San Diego Suburbs
-Varsity soccer player (will not play in college)
-3.6 Unweighted 3.8 Weighted, 1920 SAT
-I do drink on the weekends. I only mention this because I do NOT wish to attend a school where the norm is playing boardgames on a Saturday Night.</p>
<p>My List:
UW Madison, U of Michigan Ann Arbor, Tulane, Vanderbilt, Lehigh, USC, UCLA, Cal Poly SLO, San Diego State, UCSB, UCSD, CU Boulder, Dartmouth( complete reach but I'm a legacy)</p>
<p>If you were going to apply to Dartmouth then you probably should have applied to Cornell or UPenn instead since they are known to be a slightly easier than Dartmouth and have good party scenes as well. </p>
<p>Other than that it looks like you have a good list. Most of those schools are known to have great social scenes as well as academics prestige. As a biased alum, I say go with Wisconsin! Make no mistake, YOU WILL HAVE THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE!!! If you like to party and you like to study, Madison is the place to be!!</p>
<p>money has to be a part of this conversation, so I’ll leave it to you to assure that your family can afford each of these and address only your admissions chances and fit.</p>
<p>You’ve chosen well. I think you fit well at each of these except Dartmouth. There are some good party schools in here. I attended Boulder long ago. My D has a friend who is in love with UMich and the social scene there. Another attends Madison and says much the same thing. Lehigh can party pretty hard as well but there’s still an engineering study ethic there that influences a lot of students’ social lives. </p>
<p>As for admission, Dartmouth, USC, and Vandy are highly unlikely. UCLA isn’t far behind because you’re from SD. Madison, Michigan, Tulane, Lehigh: you’ll get into 2-3 of them. Boulder will love having your oos money and scores. Even when I was there it seemed half the students were from socal. You’re more familiar with the cali state schools, but I cannot see any reason you won’t get into several of these. Tulane and Vandy in particular will like seeing some ECs beyond the soccer. Good luck.</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses! I forgot to add that I am also the student government VP.</p>
<p>From my original list, I’m mostly leaning towards USC, Tulane, Lehigh, and UW Madison. They seem like really good fits for me but also very different experiences. </p>
<p>UW Madison has the awesome football/frat scene but the school is just so huge. Not sure if the size would be a pro or con. Lehigh is a prestigious school and seems to be really fun…but I’m not crazy about the location in rural Pennsylvania. USC also has an amazing football/frat scene but i know from many visits that it’s located in the ghetto of LA. Tulane almost seems to be the best balanced of the 4 so far…but I’m also not crazy about going to school in the south. I guess I’m nitpicking a little bit.</p>
<p>nitpick away. you want to fit in. Lehigh is not rural. It’s in the city of Bethlehem, an old heavy manufacturing city, steel mills, that has fallen on harder times. It isn’t city like Philly or NYC, more like Scranton. It sits up on a hillside that sometimes is quite beautiful but no one is going to mistake it for rural or suburban even. There are nearby hard times cities like Allentown and Easton, where Muhlenberg and Lafayette are located. I don’t have any affiliation with Lehigh other than having visited it many times.</p>
<p>Dart, Vandy, U of M, UCLA, USC are all reaches. All have the highest academic reputation but don’t have party scenes on par with the best of the best.
UCSD and SLO are not party schools but have pretty good academics. SLO will likely be the cheapest option on the list.
Madison and UCSB are probably your best bets. Your academic profile matches the admits to these schools and both are the best party schools in their states. Both give you the option of being entirely academic as well, given their good academic reputations.
Tulane and Lehigh don’t have a party scene as good as those of Madison and UCSB.
SDSU and Boulder don’t reputations as good as the others, and Miami is probably better than either in most categories.</p>
<p>Might add Holy Cross(1 hour from Boston) and Colgate both rivals of Lehigh. Both HC AND Colgate imo are better academic schools. Holy Cross has JAN15th application due date.</p>