<p>No one seemed to reply on my recent thread in the college search area, so i came here to seek for insightful advices from experienced parents.
Thankyou very much!!</p>
<p>How would u rank these colleges in each category?
1. strong Pre-med program
2. campus location (2 hr drive within a city-at least 100000 people)
3. have a laid-back, friendly, home-like atmosphere
4. weather condition
5. campus aesthetics
6. dormitory cleaness
7. class difficulty (grade inflation....etc)</p>
<p>Carleton, Colby, Colgate, macalester, Middlebury,lafayette, and Williams</p>
<p>better, I'm most familar with Williams so that's the only one I'll comment on.
1. Excellent track record for sending graduates to medical school
2. Boston is about 2-3 hours, New York 3-4 (depending on how you drive) Albany's not too far but the surrounding area is decidedly rural.
3. Friendly, home-like atmosphere for sure. Laid-back, maybe not as these are very energetic, driven kids.
4. The weather is subjective: a severe winter with lots of snow and cold, gorgeous fall and spring.
5. A traditional leafy campus, pristine New England village, surrounded by profoundly beautiful mountains
6. The dorms are great, a high percentage of singles, plenty of common space
7. Rigorous classes, very little grade inflation, but excellent professors</p>
<p>I live close to Macalester and my brother went there. I can try to evaluate that one:</p>
<ol>
<li>The pre-med program is strong</li>
<li>Campus location is unique in that it's a small, liberal arts college right in a city. In St. Paul proper, albeit a residential area, not downtown. </li>
<li>Laid-back and friendly and home-like. . . not so sure about that. Students, especially in pre-med, generally aren't laid-back. Mac is not pre-professional, however; students are there for liberal arts and aren't plotting their best career move every semester. Lots of students are politically active, most if not all liberal. Have never heard Mac is off-putting or unfriendly.</li>
<li>Weather condition: Having lived in Minnesota for 44 out of my 51 years, I CAN say that our winters are less severe and less snowy than they used to be. They are, however, long, stretching from November until April, a full six months. Early December can be bitter cold as can January.</li>
<li>Campus aesthetics: Mac has a lot of money due, I believe, to successful managemenf of Wallace Foundation (Reader's Digest) funds. The campus is mostly red brick buildings with white trim, very well maintained. There is a wonderful new student center with good, eclectic food. The surrounding area features gracious older homes.</li>
<li>Dormitory cleanness: Again, the maintenance budget is ample and dorms look very good to passersby. </li>
<li>Class difficulty -- geared toward a fairly high-level student. Grade inflation: I don't know.
Good luck!</li>
</ol>
<p>I don't have answers to most of your questions, but I can tell you that neither Maine (Colby) nor Vermont (Middlebury) have ANY cities over 100,000. Believe it or not. In Maine, however, Portland (pop. ~70,000) functions and lives like a larger city in all of the good respects (culture, restaurants, architecture...) and none of the bad (v low crime, minimal traffic congestions, etc). So it probably fulfills your desires, anyway. Lafayette is under 2 hours to Phila.</p>
<p>The few qx I can answer:
3. Friendly atmosphere - yes to Colby,Middlebury, Lafayette
4. Weather: Winter is present in all 3 and it is BIG! at Colby and Middlebury. Fall will be spectacular at Colby, Middlebury and nice at Lafayette. Spring will come sooner to Lafayette.
5. Campus aesthetics: all have lovely, traditional campuses; lots of red brick at Lafayette and Colby. Stone buildings predominate more at Midd. Lafayette is noted as a hillside campus. Lovely (and you'll get a free workout navigating around).</p>
<p>I've a problem though... i'm trying to cut down schools from this list, but everyone of them seem to qualify for my needs (portland is okay). So what should i do?? I really don't have the money to visit the schools, and most college review websites gave these schools very high scores......so....what should I do next ? Should I just cut some off by ranking their acceptance rates??</p>
<p>You might try to match your stats against the median stats reported in each colleges admission statistics. The schools you have identified are different in terms of exclusiveness so you should figure out where you fit on academic terms. A second tact would be to identify areas of academic interest: sciences, humanities, social sciences or even individual subject areas if you know and then start to look at postings about these departments at your identified schools. A third approach would be to look at the strengths and weaknesses of the social communities at each of the schools. If you have specific interests for theater, music, athletics, etc, how do each of the schools match or not match those interests. If you go through this process you should be able to rank these schools so you can make choices about where you want to apply.</p>