Part IV: Student Opinions of USNWR Top 30 (Which most resemble Heaven?)

College Search & Selection
1

<p>The following question was asked of students:</p>

<p>Overall, your campus:</p>

<li> A kind of heaven on earth. The pictures don’t do it justice. You have to see it to believe it.</li>
<li> Generally a nice place to be. Living here is a good experience. I enjoy walking to my classes and looking around.</li>
<li> A celebration of ugliness, created by people who obviously hate humanity, or me in particular.</li>
<li> Someday, I dream of leaving this place and going somewhere nice—like a landfill, or a parking lot. I can dream, can’t I?</li>
</ol>

<p>The answers for the colleges of the USWNR Top 30 national universities were:</p>

<p>Heaven on earth , Generally nice , Ugly , Landfill is nicer , College , # of student responses</p>

<p>87% , 6% , na , na , Notre Dame , 105
83% , 11% , na , na , Rice , 18
80% , 10% , na , na , Princeton , 40
76% , na , na , 14% , Stanford , 50
75% , 17% , na , na , U Virginia , 52
71% , 21% , na , na , Wake Forest , 56
69% , 22% , na , na , Duke , 51
69% , 19% , na , na , U North Carolina , 68
68% , 19% , na , na , Vanderbilt , 47
66% , na , na , 16% , Yale , 82
63% , 25% , na , na , Cornell , 52
62% , 15% , na , na , Caltech , 13
58% , 36% , na , na , Emory , 36
58% , 29% , na , na , U Chicago , 48
57% , 30% , na , na , Brown , 47
57% , 26% , na , na , Dartmouth , 47
56% , 35% , na , na , Georgetown , 66
54% , 38% , na , na , Columbia , 69
53% , 23% , na , na , USC , 64
52% , 29% , na , na , UCLA , 79
41% , 47% , na , na , Wash U , 34
40% , 44% , na , na , Northwestern , 45
39% , 52% , na , na , U Penn , 54
37% , 50% , na , na , Tufts , 30
31% , 52% , na , na , U Michigan , 95
29% , 52% , na , na , UC Berkeley , 58
23% , 67% , na , na , Johns Hopkins , 39
17% , 61% , na , na , Carnegie Mellon , 23
na , 51% , 18% , na , MIT , 39
na , 29% , na , 30% , Harvard , 217</p>

2

<p>Who asked the question? For some reason I get the feeling there was a touch of rebellion in the responses. (Look at the only 4 who checked the boxes for #3 and #4).</p>

3

<p>haha 30% of harvard says “a landfill is nicer.” these definitely need to be taken with a grain of salt.</p>

<p>Regardless, ND’s campus is certainly [one of] the most beautiful in the world.</p>

4

<p>All of these surveys respondents really seem to hate Harvard. There’s no way 30% of reasonable people would say Harvard’s campus is ugly.</p>

5

<p>

</p>

<p>I was just about to say that–when the options are funny, people are more likely to be rebellious and choose that one. Honestly, 14% of Stanford’s responses were for option 4? Even those who dislike the school wouldn’t think Stanford’s campus is that bad! (And I think most would agree that it’s pristine–probably the cleanest college campus I’ve been on.) Harvard isn’t that bad, either.</p>

<p>And of course we have the ND cheerleading squad making sure ND appears better than all the others. ;)</p>