<p>Yeah, I know, shame I'm so wildly indecisive. Anyone have any comments about any of these? I'm potentially going to major/minor in Japanese with possibly some economics thrown in there. I loved all of them and was surprised to get into them all, so to me so I guess its coming down to the fine details. Any suggestions would be of great help! thanks!</p>
<p>How much Japanese do you have already? Will you be starting at the beginning?</p>
<p>Sorry, should have said. I've been studying for four years in highschool but I'm not japanese or anything... I've passed the level 4 JLPT if that means anything to you.. So a reasonably good basic understanding of the language but by no means anywhere near fluent</p>
<p>Ah soo. Because if you're interested in potentially majoring, and you already have the skills to go into 2d or 3d year courses, then you should look very closely at the number and content of upper-level literature courses. Takusan arimasu ka? You would max out many schools' Japanese programs in less than 4 years, and even at schools where you won't, you may have just a few classes to choose from as an upperclassman. IMHO, you want more than just a couple of choices.</p>
<p>Most of the school's have a pretty good set of courses for Japanese. I've heard some especially good things about the Tuft's and Georgetown programs and how vigorous they are. Colgate might be a little lacking in course selection if any of them are. Anyone have anything to add about the schools? Other than Japanese or academics possibly?</p>
<p>Just a sidenote, for fun: Murakami was a professor in Tufts' Japanese dept. for like a decade. Isn't that cool?</p>
<p>I'd say go with Tufts or Gtown for location & academics relating to econ</p>
<p>I would go Colgate or Middlebury, but mostly because I would enjoy the atmosphere there more. I don't think that any of those schools are really any better than any of the others that one is going to allow you to go onto do something that another will stop you from.</p>
<p>Thanks for all your help guys. I do agree they're all great schools which is why this is so tough =( . Also, I love the fun, exciting city locations of Tufts and Georgetown... but am also a big campy, nature-loving guy too, so Middlebury or Colgate would be amazing. Any comments about the social life at any of the schools? They are almost all looking so good that I might actually end up basing my decision on where NOT to go. I've heard a decent amount of cruddy stuff about each of the schools. Tufts is boring... Colgate is nothing but frats and drinking parties... Middlebury will drown you with work and their Japanese program doesn't hold up to their high language standard... Georgetown is too "big University"-like... anyone have anything to say about the validity of any of this stuff? Thanks again for all your help!</p>
<p>I know a little about Tufts and Georgetown becuase I go to the former and was accepted to the latter and visited several times before making a decision + I went to visit friends who go there. </p>
<p>I think that Tufts and Gtown's locations are really great and similar; though I think Tufts does get more greenery due to its suburban location vs. Gtown's urban locale. The great thing is they both get to feed of the cities they're nearby. What is your preference? D.C. or Boston? (For me it was Boston>D.C., especially for a college student -- 1 of 3 people in the city is a college student)</p>
<p>If you were to give the stereotypical student at either place: at Gtown, it's an Abercrombie/J.Crew crowd who goes to athletic games and yell, "Hoya Saxa!" 'til they've lost their voices. It is a quintessential All-American experience -- preps, jocks, and academics. At Tufts, on the other hand, everyone wants to save the world. The most popular student groups are not athletic teams (who goes to the see the Jumbos, ever? -- the most widely attended athletic event is Homecoming, but everyone sticks to the tailgate, not the football stadium :)) but the "Save Darfur" or "Kosovo Landmine Group", etc. You get a lot of artsy kids in addition to the IR students due to the dual-degree program with the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, which is run through Tufts. </p>
<p>If you want outdoorsy, I think Tufts would offer that more than Gtown, due to lcoationa nd kids it attracts. The Tufts Mountain Club goes hiking all over New England all the time.</p>
<p>As a sidenote, Tufts has a really good study abroad program in Japan. I know two friends who went and came back nearly fluent (they'd taken Japanese since they'd gotten to Tufts freshman year)></p>
<p>GTown has a fabulous language program...
I like to think of Georgetown (the actual town) as very similar to Harvard Square. I did not feel that it was urban in an intimidating way (as GWU's location or Boston proper or NYU's location can be to some people). The campus is enclosed and very picturesque.</p>