<p>Hey I just need some help making a finalized list. I'm so conflicted with this.</p>
<p>Academically, I want a strong liberal arts focus but still a university focus. I plan on majoring in economics and political science, but something I am also interested in physics and foreign languages. </p>
<p>I want a school with a relaxed and friendly social atmosphere. Preferably a school with a strong sense of school spirit. An intellectual student body, but not completely focused on studies. I definitely want a fun college campus, with something occurring at all times. However, I don't want a college with a social scene thats consumed by partying. The ideal is a school with "intellectual frat parties." A medium sized school between 5000 and 10,000.</p>
<p>I want a school thats has a great surrounding college town, thats fun and involved with the school, or in a major city. I don't want a school where everyone is too preoccupied with the surrounding city. Coming from Florida, I'm used to the heat, but I'd really like a school that hovers around the 60s and 70s most of the time. The sweltering heat just doesn't appeal to me anymore. However, I will miss having a beach nearby, but I wouldn't refuse to attend a college if it lacks one.</p>
<p>I definitely want a school with sports! One where the cheers of the crowds can be heard beyond the stadium. Also intramurals are a must! I love playing Ultimate Frisbee or Kayaking, maybe even fencing?</p>
<p>Right now I'm looking at:</p>
<p>Harvard
Yale
Columbia
University of Pennsylvania
Dartmouth
Northwestern
University of Florida
Vanderbilt
UNC - Chapel Hill
Notre Dame
Boston College
Duke
Stanford
UCLA</p>
<p>Any recommendations would be appreciated! I'd love to hear more schools that fit the criteria, and I definitely need help weeding out some schools on my list.</p>
<p>If student interest in spectator sports is a must, cross all the Ivy schools off your list. You can probably nix UCLA, too. They play their football ten miles away at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.</p>
<p>Also, if you want 60s or 70s all the time (meaning throughout the school year) you are pretty much reduced to California and Florida. Even Nashville will be regularly in the 50s and 40s throughout the winter.</p>
<p>Well, I expect a dip in the winter, it is the Northeast. I meant as far as the spring and the autumn seasons. </p>
<p>And sports are definitely a plus. I wouldn't mind if attendance at sports is significant lower than compared to a large state university, but the school atleast needs a football team!</p>
<p>stats??? 8 of the colleges on you list are reaches, in most cases huge reaches for even the best students. so what are your safeties- the schools you are confident that you will be accepted at AND you would be happy to go to?</p>
<p>Oh I forgot to mention Tufts and Carnegie Mellon. As far as stats go I have a 33 on the ACTs which is reasonably in range for a lot of schools. I'll be retaking them this month. Also, I consider UF my safety school, I am in-state and meet the requirements of the Honors College. </p>
<p>I know a lot of them are reaches, thats why I was hoping, with assistance to remove some schools from my list.</p>
<p>Harvard
Yale
University of Pennsylvania
Dartmouth
University of Florida
Vanderbilt
UNC - Chapel Hill
Notre Dame
Boston College
Duke
Stanford
Georgetown
UMich
Tufts</p>
<p>Might want to add Holy Cross - 1 hour from Boston. HC has great combination of academics and athletics and is the 1 LAC that plays the most Ivies in football, basketball,etc.</p>
<p>HAWKETTE: High level collegiate athletics can be enormously exciting, dramatic, and fun even if your school loses. My point is that the great college sports scene is NOT available at the academic-only schools. Northwestern may not have won many games of late, but contrast their football scene with that of any of the other Top 20 USNWR schools that did not make my Honor Roll. Its not even close. For many students, that is a big deal and a big difference and it is very noticeable in the nature of the undergraduate experience that a student will enjoy. </p>
<p>As another example, the Big Game (Stanford-Cal) is an event and a happening on both campuses and in the Bay Area and is a great time for the scores of thousands who attend the games and the hundreds of thousands locally and around the country who follow the sport and are interested in the result. Similar scenes happen at many, many schools across the country, but only a handful of those schools have the high level academics as well. The schools that do it best (as defined by a combination of the USNWR rankings and the Directors Cup rankings) are:</p>
<p>Stanford
Duke
Northwestern
Vanderbilt
Notre Dame
U California (Berkeley)
U Michigan
U Virginia
UCLA
USC
U North Carolina
Wake Forest
U Wisconsin
Georgia Tech
U Washington
U Florida
U Texas</p>
<p>Given what you seem to be looking for, of the schools on your list and those above, I'd argue Stanford, Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Penn, Duke, UNC, BC, Georgetown and Notre Dame most fit the bill. None are perfect fits. All will provide excellent academics. Stanford and Duke have little to offer in terms of surrounding towns (Chapel Hill small though it may be - still one ups both in this regard) but they do offer the relative warmth of Cal/NC and great sports. Northwestern has The Big 10, great surrounding towns in Chicago/Evanston, and even 2 beaches on campus, but a dip in Lake Michigan is not for the faint of heart. Vanderbilt, alternatively, may get a little too Florida-like for part of the school year. It may also be a little too traditionally frat/party driven for your tastes. Don't know your feelings about BC, Georgetown, and ND's Catholic affiliation/strong religious tenor, but the first two do offer great towns in Boston and Wash respectively and the latter offers hard-to-match school spirit. You might find Penn too "inner-city," but it certainly appears a much better fit for you than Columbia-Yale-Harvard-Dartmouth. You sure you aren't being swayed by Ivy cache in this regard?</p>
<p>Thanks everyone! And thank you wbwa. Thanks for the insight! I actually have Columbia/Dartmouth and Harvard/Yale vying for spots against each other on my list. I just wrote every school I'm considering rather than my list as of now. Thanks for the input though!</p>