<p>Out of these schools, which seems to not fit in as well as the others in terms of both the intellectual and social environment?</p>
<p>Cornell
Duke
Johns Hopkins
Harvard
MIT
Rice
Stanford
Washington University in St. Louis.</p>
<p>Also, would UPenn or Pomona go well with this list? Thanks!</p>
<p>All of the colleges you listed are fairly large, and you can probably form your own intellectual environment with the friends you choose. However, if I had to pick a school that doesnt seem to fit in as much it would be: Duke/Stanford. </p>
<p>Duke because it has a stellar sports program, Stanford just because of geography.</p>
<p>Most of these schools have pretty good sports programs and geography really isn't an issue for me. I'm looking more into the whole atmosphere.</p>
<p>I can't speak for Pomona but Penn would fit right in there</p>
<p>(though it might still be a few SDs above in terms of awesomeness)</p>
<p>MIT is a bit different from the others, since it is primarily a tech school. It has an atmosphere of math/science nerdiness 24/7 that is not quite so prevalent at the other schools on the list.</p>
<p>The one thing that alarms me about this list is that it consists exclusively of highly-selective schools. I hope you also have another list of matches and safeties.</p>
<p>Pomona attracts the same caliber of student (middle half SATs 1370-1520) but as the only LAC will have few classes over 50 students (i.e. 1%), more discussion-oriented teaching than lecture-style, no graduate TAs, all classes taught by professors. Many CCers tout elite LACs as providing a superior educational experience because of this. Seems to be a well-kept secret in the real world though, so unlike the ivys you won't find many students who go there just for the "name". (This is a good thing).</p>
<p>@: Coureur: yes, this is only my high match-high reach list. I have other schools. I just wanted to know which one of these schools seems off with the others. </p>
<p>Do you guys think Cornell seem a bit off with the others. That's what my counselor been telling me. He wants me to add UPenn and take out Cornell.</p>
<p>Hmm, that might make sense. UPenn might fit in only slightly better than Cornell.</p>
<p>Slightly better...hrm....So do you think I should take it out?</p>
<p>Well, it depends on your reasons for wanting to go to Cornell versus Penn.</p>
<p>Cornell only stands out because it is in a more remote location than the others.</p>
<p>well, the thing is that I never really thought about applying to Penn before because I felt that it was a bit more rigid than I'd like but my counselor (penn alumnus) is really pushing it...</p>
<p>I think Duke is most different, atmosphere-wise. Although every school has a social scene, Duke is more of a party school than the others on the list. More sports-obsessed too.</p>
<p>Cornell seems a bit off too though, although I can't put my finger on the reason...</p>
<p>
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well, the thing is that I never really thought about applying to Penn before because I felt that it was a bit more rigid than I'd like but my counselor (penn alumnus) is really pushing it...
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</p>
<p>To me this screams "Don't apply", but...does your counselor explain why you should apply? Does (s)he explain why you allegedly shouldn't apply to Cornell? Cornell is an excellent school.</p>
<p>I don't know anything about Wash St. Louis, but as an MIT alum I'm going to agree with the poster who said that MIT's the odd one out there (though I applied to many of the schools on your list in addition to MIT). It has a different focus - you'll be required to take more math/science classes, and the social atmosphere is geekier. Of course, it depends on what you want to major in - if you want, say, to major in bio, which is what I thought I did when I was applying, or political science, all of those schools are first class. If you want to major in electrical engineering, you might want to consider tech schools like MIT more strongly. If you want to major in the classics, you should drop MIT from your list. Just to provide examples.</p>
<p>Well, my counselor says that he felt Penn really wasn't rigid at all and that it provided a lot of freedom for him to explore his options. He also says that he felt Cornell to be the more academically rigid one. But I'm still not sure...maybe I'll apply to both?</p>
<p>@Jessieh: I'm thinking of majoring in bio and MIT has one of the best biology programs there is. Also, I really like the feel of MIT. It just seems right somehow.</p>