Outdoor activities on the east coast?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hey everyone, this is my first post here! I am a student at a CC, looking into transfer opportunities for next year. I live in Washington, and money is an important matter to me. </p>

<p>I'm looking into 4-year schools that have strong science departments (specifically biochem, but I'm still a bit unsure about specifics), decent financial aid for transfers, good study abroad opportunities, and offer a variety of foreign languages (specifically, Japanese, but I'd love to start learning another one!). </p>

<p>I've never once have left the west coast in my life. All I know about the east coast is that it's hot/humid in the summer, freezing in the winter, and mild in the autumn/spring. I'm a big outdoors guy, you name it, I'll at least have tried it. </p>

<p>Should I even bother looking at schools east of colorado? Academics are my first priority, but this is probably 2nd or 3rd among my list of important qualities. Otherwise, my first choices are in California, and then from there still deciding (But I guess Oregon, good ole WA, and colorado).</p>

2

<p>Things to do in the Northeast: Sailing, Rock Climbing, Rowing, Snowboarding, Skiing, Hiking, Horseback Riding, Swimming (in the oceans or lakes), Biking, etc.</p>

<p>Especially the schools in Maine and even in the rest of New England, there is plenty of “outdoor-ish” stuff to do.</p>

3

<p>c&s, there are many colleges in the Northeast located in rural, mountainous settings that are known for outdoorsy, environmentally friendly activities. </p>

<p>Transferring into the smaller schools is not so easy, but some of the best choices would be small liberal arts colleges like: Williams, Middlebury, Hamilton. Not quite as rural, but stilll within good access to the great outdoors: Amherst, Bowdoin, Colby, Skidmore. </p>

<p>These are all excellent academically (most offer excellent sciences) and all have a major focus on outdoorsy activities. Williams is the one I’m most familiar with and I can tell you from my son’s experience that the students take full advantage of their mountains in all four seasons.</p>

<p>In larger universities, you should look at Cornell, Dartmouth and the state universities in NY, MA, NH and VT.</p>

<p>Japanese is fairly common, though I didn’t check one by one. Middlebury is known for language study, but all would offer several choices. Amherst students also have access to the language programs at UMass.</p>

<p>Study abroad is widespread at all, and your aid package usually follows you wherever you end up.</p>

<p>Financial aid for transfers can be tricky, but as a very very general comment, if you get accepted you will most likely get enough NEED based aid to get you through. These schools, again general comment, do not offer MERIT aid, so it’s important to understand how much NEED based aid your family would be eligible for.</p>

4

<p>year round? Haha, stupid question. I can guess what seasons I can do all of those things in. I live in Washington, and aside from the snow looking pretty (and great for boarding in the mountains!), and the rain sometimes being relaxing, I loathe the winter here! Can I expect a similar, or worse, winter on the east? And then alot of people say that mountains on the east are “small hills” on the west, how does this hold up?</p>

<p>One of the draws to California for me is that you can do pretty much everything year round. Gah, I don’t want to have to add east coast schools to my “look into” list! But I guess another big draw to the west is it would be alot cheaper to visit my family in the off months. </p>

<p>Well, time to do some more research on the east coast! Thank you all for your help!</p>

5

<p>My son is also a snowboarder. The conditions are completely different East to West Coast, but if the point is to get an excellent education then you have to go where the schools are. There are some academically rigorous schools on the West Coast that have easy access to nature, but not as many as on the East Coast.</p>

<p>The advantage of schools like Williams, Middlebury and some of the others is that outdoorsy pursuits are just a short commute from campus. I haven’t been to all of them, but I can say that at Williams and Cornell there are hiking trails that can be accessed on foot from campus.</p>

<p>Winters in the northeast snow belt are long, cold and generally very snowy. My personal opinion is that rural winters in New England are beautiful and exhilarating, especially if you like to do something that involves snow, but weather is certainly subjective.</p>

6

<p>Please note that the schools Momrath listed, since they generally have good FA, are highly selective and hard to get into. Unless you have an outstanding HS and college transcript you may not make it. Since you are from Washington, can you afford OOS schools?</p>

7

<p>For an outdoor enthusiast, Middlebury would be hard to beat. It’s situated between two mountain ranges, the Green Mountains and the Adirondacks, both easily accessible from campus—and visible from campus, too, making for a lovely campus setting. Middlebury Outdoor Programs (MOP) organizes outdoor excursions, adventures, and classes (for PE credit), and also has equipment that students may borrow free of charge, so a lot of students participate in self-organized outdoor adventures. The mountain have nowhere near the elevations of Western mountains, but some of them are pretty serious mountains nonetheless, great hiking and climbing opportunities. Vermont is also a hotbed for Telemark skiing. You’ll need to get used to the cold and snow, though.</p>

8

<p>Would you prefer a research university or a small liberal arts college? If you’re interested in LACs, you might want to start looking within your own region at Reed, Whitman, or Louis & Clark. Reed accepted 74 of 269 transfer applicants for Fall 2010; Whitman took 60 of 125.</p>

<p>Middlebury received 180 transfer applications for Fall 2010 and accepted zero. </p>

<p>Cornell University accepted 702 of 3184 transfer applications for last Fall. That rate probably makes it one of the most transfer-friendly of the Ivies and other top private schools. It also seems to be one of the more outdoorsy private research universities in the East.</p>

<p>[The</a> Best Colleges For Outdoor Recreation | California | OutsideOnline.com](<a href=“http://www.outsideonline.com/adventure-travel/north-america/united-states/california/Outside-University--The-Top-40.html]The”>http://www.outsideonline.com/adventure-travel/north-america/united-states/california/Outside-University--The-Top-40.html)</p>

9

<p>OP, why don’t you give us some idea of your stats? There isn’t much point talking about schools where you have little or no chance of admission. We could be much more helpful with more information.</p>

<p>Why, for example, did you choose to go to a CC?</p>

10

<p>My college GPA is a 3.9, and I’m getting an associates in science designed for a transfers to four year universities. This will be my 2nd year of CC, if that wasn’t inferred already, and will be applying as a Junior. </p>

<p>My highschool career wasn’t quite as good. I had 3.2 (UW) with an IB-diploma schedule (science/history/english/math/Japanese for four years, and then the various requirement fillings). But, I didn’t test in any subject, as testing fees are ridiculous. I took the SAT once and got 1920.</p>

<p>As for why I chose a community college? Well, my family doesn’t make a ton of money. My parents combined make around $80,000-ish (I know, not poverty line or anything, and it’s not bad. But I was definitely on the lower tier of kids in my HS class). And neither of my parents went to college, so there wasn’t any pressure/assistance in that area.</p>

<p>I applied to three colleges (University of Washington/Western Washington, and then Santa Clara University). I got into all three, but I didn’t receive any money from the former two, and far from enough from SCU.</p>

<p>Perhaps it’s a bit arrogant, but the things I disliked about UW/WWU outweighed their virtues. And SCU was nice enough, but far from affordable. And I didn’t even bother applying to some other schools, because those application fees add up, and I just wasn’t a worthwhile enough applicant.</p>

<p>So, given that my options were to go to some relatively inexpensive schools that I didn’t like, go into debt to go to SCU, the military, or CC…well, CC was by far the most attractive option. It was far less expensive. The only thing I was “missing” was the “college experience” of a four year school (which, to most kids, seems to amount to a dorm, and drinking). I don’t have a sense of arrogance that only places value on a name/prestige/or even just living on a campus.</p>

<p>I basically figured I could have a good two years here, save alot of money, and then try again for some four-year schools that were more attractive to me. Worst case, I could always go to a state school, and then it would be far less expensive. But that’s the contingency here.</p>

11

<p>Have you looked at Whitman College?. It’s on the eastern side of the Cascades, so not as rainy, and lots of people do all sorts of outdoor stuff, skiing an hour away. Whitman likes people who have done interesting things and looks at applications holistically, not just test scores or grades. You should go visit.</p>

12

<p>You should search CC in the Transfer thread to find out which colleges are need-blind for transfers. Although a lot of the suggested colleges that were given to you are need blind for first year, a large percentage of colleges don’t have that for transfers. After you identify them, look for “outing clubs” in the student activities page of each college website. They will give you a good indication of outdoorsy events.</p>

13

<p>@Bopambo: I have looked at Whitman! I thought about applying in highschool, but based on the kids I already knew applying, plus not really being a stellar applicant, I figured it would have been a waste of money. I really do like it, I’ve been compiling research on their scientific research, that. But, aesthetically, yes, I love it! Only thing that detracts a bit is it is not quite close to an ocean haha.</p>

<p>And thank you mhmm, tk21769, bclintonk, and momwrath!</p>