Perfect college... is it possible?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I need some help from you guys to help me find the "perfect" college/university. </p>

<p>I'd like the college to have the following characteristics:
- An undergraduate student body size of 15,000 or more.
- The student body to be diverse (about 75% or less is white).
- The campus to have aesthetic beauty.
- The campus to be located in a city where the population is over 100,000 or so. I'm open to cities the size of Madison, WI to the size of Chicago, IL.
- Entering freshmen have an average ACT score of 25-30.
- The campus to have a "college town" feel. I definitely don't wanna go to a "suitcase" college where everybody leaves on the weekend.
- The student body to be friendly.
- The weather to be nice. I live in Ohio right now, so I'm used to hot summers and cold winters. All around nice temperatures would be nice, though.
- As I said before, I live in Ohio, but I'd like to go out-of-state.
- A large majority of the students live on campus and do not commute back and forth to school.
- At least 10-15% of the undergrads are out-of-state, even though 20-30% would be better.
- The student body to be more liberal than conservative.
- The college to have a strong science department. I'm unsure about my major right now, but I'm leaning towards biological sciences.</p>

<p>Got any suggestions? I know it's pretty much impossible for a college to have all of these characteristics, so I'm willing to sacrifice a few of them if there are other great qualities that make up for it. I'm pretty open to new ideas. Okay, I'm ready...</p>

2

<p>You have just described the University of Michigan and the University of Wisconsin…minus the warm weather.</p>

3

<p>UCLA/UC Berkeley? They fit almost everything.</p>

<p>-UCLA: Not sure about college town feel/ACT scores
-UC Berkeley: Not sure about ACT scores</p>

4

<p>I second Alexandre’s UMichigan. Perhaps U Washington as well…</p>

5

<p>Cornell University (cold, college town with fewer than 100,000 and average ACT is 30)
Indiana University-Bloomington (Cold, college town with fewer than 100,000)
University of California-Berkeley (90%+ are California residents)
University of California-Los Angeles (not much of a college town feel, 90%+ are California residents)
University of Florida
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor (cold)
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (ACT average for OOS students may be over 30)
University of Texas-Austin (not that much of a college town campus, 90%+ are Texas residents)
University of Virginia (not that liberal, but not conservative either)
University of Washington
University of Wisconsin-Madison (Cold)</p>

6

<p>UVA and Cornell are also a bit smaller than 15,000 undergrads. Others might be too, but those are the only ones I know offhand.</p>

7

<p>Sounds like USC minus the “college town” part. Wisco, Cornell, Indiana, UMich also come to mind.</p>

8

<p>eh this definitely doesnt fit all of your criterias but many: clemson univ</p>

<p>good weather, great spirit and close student body and big size, great science program, not as competitive as mich., UCB, UCLA
but the town around is dull</p>

9

<p>SMU!</p>

<p>about 6000 undergrads and ~1300 incoming freshmen each year
it’s located in dallas, tx so it definitely has the “college feel” with a great big campus
smu students are really respected in dallas
and of course, since its in tx…the weathers nice</p>

<p>but hten i dont know about its strength in the sciences…</p>

10

<p>Pitt!

  • An undergraduate student body size of 15,000 or more. Check
  • The student body to be diverse (about 75% or less is white). Check
  • The campus to have aesthetic beauty. Its good for a city campus. Cathedral of Learning is beautiful.
  • The campus to be located in a city where the population is over 100,000 or so. I’m open to cities the size of Madison, WI to the size of Chicago, IL. Check, Pittsburgh.
  • Entering freshmen have an average ACT score of 25-30. Check
  • The campus to have a “college town” feel. I definitely don’t wanna go to a “suitcase” college where everybody leaves on the weekend. Check
  • The student body to be friendly. Check
  • The weather to be nice. I live in Ohio right now, so I’m used to hot summers and cold winters. All around nice temperatures would be nice, though. Weather’s not that great, rains a lot. But its ok.
  • As I said before, I live in Ohio, but I’d like to go out-of-state. Check, PA.
  • A large majority of the students live on campus and do not commute back and forth to school. Check.
  • At least 10-15% of the undergrads are out-of-state, even though 20-30% would be better. Check.
  • The student body to be more liberal than conservative. Check.
  • The college to have a strong science department. I’m unsure about my major right now, but I’m leaning towards biological sciences. One of the best. Its pre-med, nursing, biology, and chemistry departments are very good.</p>
11

<p>American, but minus the strong science department part.</p>

12

<p>DePaul in Chicago.
I think it fits all of your criteria.
Try to visit! The feel, energy, vibrancy on campus is terrific. The students are happy. The campus is in a fun, hip neighborhood.
(If stats make it look like they don’t have as many students on campus as you’d like, see the campus; they really do - there are privately owned apartments mixed in with college buildings around the edge of the campus - the upperclassmen in those apartments are on campus, really.)</p>

13

<p>maybe university of colorado denver or boulder.</p>

14

<p>My daughter’s looking at similar colleges…including Pitt, UM & DePaul (also Loyola in Chicago). My question about DePaul…are the sciences (bio, etc) very strong there compared to the other 3 schools? Otherwise…wow, they are all great schools and she hasn’t been able to make up her mind yet.</p>

15

<p>Thanks everybody. My top three schools as of now are U of Wash, U of Wisc, and U of Pitt. </p>

<p>Moxymom, I don’t really know much about Depaul, but I think it’d be safe to say that Pitt and UM both have stronger science departments.</p>

16

<p>Southern Methodist University.</p>

<p>Top notch! Gorgeous Campus! Great Students! Nice part of Town! Big City! Great Networking! Stats are on the rise! Wonderful Profs!</p>

17

<p>it’s smaller, but Stanford is pretty much the perfect school</p>

18

<p>I found a college that satisfy all the requirements you ask for except for weather</p>

<p>University Of Michigan - Ann Arbor</p>

<ul>
<li>An undergraduate student body size of 15,000 or more. </li>
</ul>

<p>Michigan: 25,916 undergraduates</p>

<ul>
<li>The student body to be diverse (about 75% or less is white).</li>
</ul>

<p>Michigan: 66% white</p>

<ul>
<li>The campus to have aesthetic beauty. </li>
</ul>

<p>Check</p>

<ul>
<li>The campus to be located in a city where the population is over 100,000 or so. I’m open to cities the size of Madison, WI to the size of Chicago, IL.</li>
</ul>

<p>Ann Arbor over 100,000 check</p>

<ul>
<li>Entering freshmen have an average ACT score of 25-30.</li>
</ul>

<p>Michigan: 27-31</p>

<ul>
<li>The campus to have a “college town” feel. I definitely don’t wanna go to a “suitcase” college where everybody leaves on the weekend.</li>
</ul>

<p>Ann Arbor: college town</p>

<ul>
<li>The student body to be friendly.</li>
</ul>

<p>Check </p>

<ul>
<li>The weather to be nice. I live in Ohio right now, so I’m used to hot summers and cold winters. All around nice temperatures would be nice, though.</li>
</ul>

<p>Ann Arbor is in Michigan…similar to Ohio weather but weather isn’t too bad.</p>

<ul>
<li>As I said before, I live in Ohio, but I’d like to go out-of-state. </li>
</ul>

<p>Michigan, not Ohio</p>

<ul>
<li>A large majority of the students live on campus and do not commute back and forth to school. </li>
</ul>

<p>63% of people live on campus at Michigan</p>

<ul>
<li>At least 10-15% of the undergrads are out-of-state, even though 20-30% would be better. </li>
</ul>

<p>32% are from out of state at Michigan.</p>

<ul>
<li>The student body to be more liberal than conservative.</li>
</ul>

<p>Many students of both liberal and conservative thought</p>

<ul>
<li>The college to have a strong science department. I’m unsure about my major right now, but I’m leaning towards biological sciences.</li>
</ul>

<p>Michigan: strong science/biological sciences program</p>

19

<p>Definately check out Wisco. It’s an amazing school in an amazing town, and like everyone has said, it fits all your criteria except the weather. I’m going there probably in two years so that is a plus, too!!!</p>

20

<p>Boston University (minus the warm weather)
-great city
-great academics
-nice students</p>