<p>I'm having trouble judging the "personality" of schools and how I would fit in if I were to go. From the following list of my personal characteristics, does anybody have a few suggestions of schools to consider?</p>
<p>-competitive student but not OVERLY ambitious (definately don't spend all day studying but still get A's)
-never participated in sports but their presense doesn't bother me
-liberal
-sarcastic
-musical
-serious but sociable
-don't want to be in the middle of nowhere, but huge cities scare me
-love international cultures
-not preppy, but not artsy... classic style?
-don't know about specific major, but definately in the social sciences
-independent
-ambivalent about sororities
-not shy, but I prefer being approached to doing the approaching</p>
<p>I think my main problem is that in order for me to know where I want to go, I need to gain a deeper understanding of my own personality. What should I be using as a way of judging how well I would fit in?</p>
<p>This reminds me of what I was looking for in a school, actually. Visiting is a great way to get an idea of personality, if you're able to do so. If you don't like approaching people, take a look at the types of people walking around, or the posters that are up, or the articles in the student newspaper. It also helps to sit in on a class and really observe the students - during the lesson as well as before and after.</p>
<p>You should definitely, definitely look at Oberlin - you sound a lot like the students I met while I was there. Their academics are great in the sciences and humanities, the liberal activism is legendary, and the musical scene is amazing thanks to an internationally-ranked conservatory. There are no fraternities or sororities, but there is a housing and dining co-op system that's a more welcoming and unconventional alternative to Greek life. Though some might consider the location to be "the middle of nowhere": it's a town of about 8,000 people in the middle of the cornfields, but it's only about 35 minutes from Cleveland.</p>
<p>Macalester comes to mind immediately for international cultures. You might also like Carleton; Swarthmore and Reed (though they're more academically intense); and Vassar and Wesleyan (though they're more artsy).</p>
<p>If you don't mind being at a women's college, Mount Holyoke, Smith, Wellesley, or Bryn Mawr would also be good choices.</p>
<p>Thank you quaere! Unfortunately, I'm pretty limited to the East Coast... so Oberlin and Macalester are out. I really like Brown University, but the New Curriculum intimidates me... I think I need a little more structure, esp. since I'm not POSITIVE about what I want to do; however I don't want a LAC because I need to be ready for a career straight out of college and I feel like a more specialized major would be more helpful. Anyway, any more suggestions?</p>
<p>"I think I need a little more structure, esp. since I'm not POSITIVE about what I want to do"</p>
<p>Don't think that having an open curriculum prevents you from expanding your interests or that it means that you have to know route you want to take; I could be wrong, but I really believe that the exact opposite is true. In allowing you to take pretty much whichever courses interest you, open curriculums are actually great for students who aren't sure of what they want to do yet.</p>
<p>helenrez--An LAC is no different than unis for most undergrad majors unless you plan on majoring in certain career oriented things that many LACs don't have (Business, engineering, etc). A history or gov or sociology major will be more or less the same at a uni vs. an LAC (ie. not more specialized). So I wouldn't count them out if I were you.</p>
<p>Your list made me think of Tufts right away. Also check out Yale, and University of Rochester. Maybe Bowdoin and/or Amherst. And since you like Brown you should look at Wesleyan and Vassar although, as quaere said, they are on the artsy side.</p>
<p>I immediately thought Macalester too, but if you want East Coast, I'd say you should look at Goucher, near Baltimore. Skidmore is another thought.</p>
<p>I'd describe myself similarly to the way you describe yourself, and I pretty much fell in love with Amherst a few weeks ago (could it have been the beautiful weather? :-P)
It's not rural but it's definitely not a big enough place to be scary at all.</p>
<p>This is a silly way to pick a college. Kind of sounds like choosing a husband...</p>
<p>At most schools -- unless they are religiously oriented, have a large percentage of greek life, or are very small and very rural -- you will find people will every single type of personality. (It doesn't sound like you are looking for any one of those schools.) There will be people like you and people very different from you. Playing a "guessing game" based on their marketing materials is not going to be very helpful to you when you actually get there, so I'm not sure how people come up with these names...</p>
<p>Instead of focusing on personality aspects that are very subjective, I would look at course offerings, extracurricular offerings and location rather than personality or "fitting in".</p>
<p>I don't think it's at all a silly way to pick a college. I think some colleges are better social fits than others. It's not exactly like choosing a husband, but it's a very close 4 year relationship.</p>
<p>mrezni</p>
<p>I think you are sister of the OP? Maybe you're just yanking her chain.</p>
<p>Thank you bethievt! sis is all about yanking the chain! ;-) I think that personality has a lot to do with how well you do at a school. for example, I know that Notre Dame is very big on sports, and that the social scene really revolves around that week's football game. I imagine that I would be a lot less happy there, pitched in a tent for 3 days waiting to get my football ticket, than I would be sippin' a hot chocolate at a cafe near brown.</p>
<p>Yank, yank, yes, I am the sis but I stand by my answer :). I've seen way too many disaster cases where "personality" was no.1 factor in choosing a school... I'm not denying it's certainly a factor (like sports="ick" is a good example for Notre Dame or large Greek life for crazy partying), but here you are listing subjective characteristics...</p>
<p>A better question to ask is about predominant extracurricular programs in schools instead of "style" or sarcasm levels. A musical person might look for after-school clubs or activities--like strong a cappella activity or drama program. A person who likes sports might ask how many sports teams there are and how they do, and so on. That and location are probably good early determinants of what people do in their spare time. </p>
<p>By asking about predominant activities on clubs you are more likely to get answers that have weight. You'll find out what's going on socially and what people are interested in. My point is that you can have common interests but also loads of different personalities in one place, so it's important to focus on something that can be objectively compared and contrasted rather than stating personal attributes that can be found in many places. ;)</p>
<p>I do agree with above posters that experience outside of class is very important -- I guess I'd just pose the question differently. Good luck!</p>