please help me create my college list. i want schools like rice, my number 1 choice

<p>What are schools with a smaller size, pretty campus, d1 football and baseball that people goet excited about and many people go to the games, flexible distribution requirements, small classes, strong academics, plenty of parties, something like the rice owls marching band, and some sort of cool unifying thing like Rice's residential college system.</p>

<p>i've heard so far that duke, uva, and stanford meet this criteria somewhat as they are schools where you can party a lot and go to well-attended athletic contests even though there are strong academics even though they aren't as small as rice , is this correct?</p>

<p>please please please suggest me schools I need to finish my college list soon.</p>

<p>so far i'm sort of considering applying to american university, johns hopkins, darmouth, ut plan 2, vandy, brown, penn, cornell, uva, duke, weslayan (I know, very reach-heavy), but nothing is set in stone.</p>

<p>You could consider.... Duke University (NC), University of Notre Dame (IN), Boston College (MA), Lehigh University (PA), College of the Holy Cross (MA), Vanderbilt University (TN), University of Virginia (VA), University of Miami (FL), Elon University (NC), Villanova University (PA), Wake Forest University (NC), Tulane University (LA), and Clemson University (SC).</p>

<p>lettleathiest -- some of the schools you list at MUCH larger than Rice...</p>

<p>Of those you list, I resonate with Duke and Notre Dame. </p>

<p>Others of similar size and quality ar John's Hopkins, Wash U, maybe Georgetown, though I don't know how they are in sciences.</p>

<p>OP - Stanford is more than three times the size of Rice... no comparison really.</p>

<p>How about Davidson?</p>

<p>thanks.</p>

<p>i liked hopkins when i toured, but i didn't get the sense that the kids liked to party or have fun as much, maybe i'm wrong.</p>

<p>at rice you can party a lot and go to awsome populated football and baseball games.</p>

<p>I didn't like georgetown at all, didn't seem like much school spirit, campus did not strike a chord with me, not enough grass, freen or trees, seemed too big and unfriendly.</p>

<p>It's really annoying that practically every school except the impossible-to-get-into Yale doesn't have a residential college system.</p>

<p>and even similar schools like Duke and Notre Dame don't have Rice's small size</p>

<p>I guess it seems like Rice or bust...</p>

<p>I'm exaggerating but it's annoying that Rice is such a unique institution in its combination of a residential college system, small but not too small size, awesome d1 athletics, strong academics, small class sizes, undergrad focus, pretty green campus, and party-if-you-feel-like-it atmosphere.</p>

<p>or maybe I'm wrong and there are some other universities that have that combination?</p>

<p>Definitely Vandy.</p>

<p>Rice has always stuck out as an outlier... it's alway like... Duke, Penn, Williams, and Oh Yeah, Rice... but it's kinda different</p>

<p>OP, it sounds like you really love Rice. Are you considering applying ED?</p>

<p>
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Rice has always stuck out as an outlier... it's alway like... Duke, Penn, Williams, and Oh Yeah, Rice... but it's kinda different

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I agree. Rice gives off a "different" kind of vibe but in a very positive way, at least in my opinion. I consider it to be one of the most underrated schools on this board, mostly because it offers an undergraduate experience that is second to none among top universities.</p>

<p>My daughter is a Rice graduate and we keep trying to come up with comparable schools. Vanderbilt has a lot of the same strengths, but has a Greek system that is very strong (not a plus, in my opinion), and has a better athletic scene (this IS a plus). Nashville is an awesome place.</p>

<p>tufts is kind of like rice but colder.</p>

<p>Duke, Northwestern, and Holy Cross. Holy Cross has a strong sports tradition and very strong school spirit. HC has a nice campus and is less than 1 hour from Boston.</p>

<p>You won't get any Ivy with a "big" football/baseball season as it would be at other schools.</p>

<p>coolcool thanks.</p>

<p>so, i think that i;m going to add vanderbilt to my list:</p>

<p>and considering but undecided about: duke, notre dame, tufts, maybe possibly northwestern.</p>

<p>so my list now is sort of like:</p>

<p>cornell
rice
dartmouth
vanderbilt
ut plan 2
brown
penn
american
vanderbilt
wesleyan
usc
hopkins
uva</p>

<p>going to pick 1-3 of the following:</p>

<p>carleton
oberlin
kenyon </p>

<p>yeah that list is probably too reach-heavy for someone with non-incredibly-stellar stats (like me) to some of you, but that's my list.</p>

<p>hopefully ill just get into rice and that will be the end of it.</p>