<p>can smbday plz tell about CSULA …</p>
<p>Cal States (CSU):</p>
<p>Bakersfield: located in the middle of nowhere, otherwise known as Central California. </p>
<p>Channel Islands: I don’t know very much about this campus. </p>
<p>Chico: notorious party school. </p>
<p>Dominguez Hills: it’s known to be a “ghetto” campus. Dorms are allegedly locked down at night. </p>
<p>East Bay: I don’t know too much about this campus. </p>
<p>Fresno: despite knowing someone who goes to Fresno State, I don’t know much about the campus. </p>
<p>Fullerton: one of the top-tier CSU campuses; tough to get into if you’re a non-local student. Has fantastic business, nursing, communications, history, and psychology departments.</p>
<p>Humboldt: for students who are obsessed with nature, Woodstock, and vegan diets. </p>
<p>Long Beach: a top-tier CSU. An excellent school for dance, art, psychology, and nursing students. </p>
<p>Los Angeles: reportedly hosts a large Hispanic population. Student life is nonexistent. Campus looks dull. </p>
<p>Monterey Bay: I don’t know anything about this campus. </p>
<p>Northridge: known to be a solid, good school, especially for students majoring in education. </p>
<p>Pomona: another top-tier CSU. </p>
<p>Sacramento: for Northern California students who couldn’t get into UC Davis and who want to stay up north.</p>
<p>San Diego: has a terrible party reputation. Top-tier CSU, despite being mockingly called “STDSU.” </p>
<p>San Francisco: beautiful, green campus; amazing location. An ideal school for students who love city life. </p>
<p>San Jose: from what I’ve heard, it has a good electrical engineering department. </p>
<p>San Luis Obispo: definitely a top-tier CSU. Incredibly competitive to receive admission to. Known for it’s engineering, pre-vet, and architecture departments. </p>
<p>San Marcos: lives in the shadow of SDSU. </p>
<p>Stanislaus: I don’t know anything about this campus, other than that it’s in the middle of nowhere.</p>
<p>ILLinois </p>
<p>SIU let’s all get drunk in southern illionis!
Western let’s all get drunk in the cornfields of western Illinois!
Northern let’s all get drunk in the cornfields of northern illinois!
University of Illinois uc let’s all get drunk but have amazing engineering and business programs when we aren’t wasted at football games
Augustana good liberal arts college middle of nowhere quad cities
Bradley u Middle of no where
Loyola good business pre med suburban kids
Depaul good business computer science theatre
Uchicago crazy eccentric kids mixed with ridiculous academics life of the mind
Northwestern more normal kids but just as qualified as uchicago pre med pre everything w big 10</p>
<p>PA
PSU: Party school for sure, but students work hard. Recognized as an excellent educational opportunity that also is not short on the occasional drink.
Pitt: Mainly a bunch of PSU rejects who act like they go to a Public Ivy. The exception to this is some of the science programs which are pretty good.
Temple: Basically where you go if you can’t get in anywhere else. In the ‘hood, and most of the students are dumb as a bar of soap.
UPenn: A bastion of snobbery. Everyone who goes to or went to the school in the area acts like that makes them better than you for every reason. You’d think it was friggin’ Cambridge the way some people talk about it. It’s a good school, but jeez, it’s not that good, especially if you aren’t in Wharton.
Drexel: A pretty good school, excellent co-op program. It is considered very easy to get in but they give out tons of money so they get lots of good students. “Campus” is awful, but it still has a solid rep.
'Nova- Emerging school, but still can’t shake the rich kids rap.
St. Joes, La Salle- Where you go if you can’t get into 'Nova.
West Chester, IUP, Kutztown, Bloomsburg etc.-13th grade.
Haverford, Swarthmore- Very pompous (especially Swathmore) but the students are workaholics.
F&M, Gettysburg, Muhlenberg- Very solid, LACs that churn out good, hardworking students who go on to big careers.
Ursinus- Lesser version of the previous 3.
CMU- Excellent school, slightly worse version of UChicago.</p>
<p>^wouldn’t the Penn State students be the Pitt rejects?</p>
<p>Massachusetts, from what I’ve seen:</p>
<p>Harvard- Its Harvard. No one is thought to have a shot. Extremely liberal, “The People’s Republic of Cambridge”.</p>
<p>MIT- Like Harvard academically but math/engineering focused. Very well respected.</p>
<p>Boston College- Academically respectable but more known for sports. Rich white kid stereotype. Its hard to not find at least one Eagles shirt in the hallways on a given day.</p>
<p>Tufts- A bit overshadowed by the above, MIT and H academically and by BC sports, but it is very well regarded. Known for arts a lot.</p>
<p>Boston University- Good enough school, great academics, but lacks a traditional campus and is know a bit as the school for BC/Tufts rejects.</p>
<p>Northeastern- Solid school, nice people, not at BC or BU’s level though.</p>
<p>UMass Amherst- Rediculous party school, like 1/3 of the class ends up here.</p>
<p>Amherst- Its prestige is not really known by many, but is respected by those who do.</p>
<p>WPI- Good tech/engineering school for MIT rejects.</p>
<p>@informative, not really. PSU is harder to get into. Pitt’s stats are slightly higher, but that is because they give out a lot more money and they have a bigger (but far inferior) Honors College. Pitt is better in the sciences, PSU at everything else. Basically everyone at my school applies to both Pitt and PSU (safeties, reaches and matches) and while I know many kids who got into both or only Pitt I don’t know a single one who got into only PSU.</p>
<p>well according to the Princeton Review, the University Of Pittsburgh’s selectivity rating is a 92 while Penn State’s selectivity rating is a 92. Both schools are very excellent public schools with different strengths and are just as hard to get into/</p>
<p>La Florida</p>
<p>U of F - The dream school of like half of the student body. Most people apply here. Big party/football school. Tons of engineers.</p>
<p>FSU - The dream school of a significant groups of students who refuse to apply to UF because of a football rivalry. Also, a significant portion that couldn’t get into UF. Big party/football school.</p>
<p>University of Miami - Considered about as academically high as UF. Better area, richer kids, less parties, but that’s not saying much. The dream school of another significant group of kids.</p>
<p>New College of Florida - Tons of LSD parties, professors smoke weed with the students, really good academics, surrounded by old people, everyone’s gay, a hipster, or both. Few I know applied here.</p>
<p>Univ of Central Florida - Lots of students who didn’t get into UF, almost on par with FSU. Also, lots of National Merit kids. Good for engineers.</p>
<p>Univ of South Florida - Not quite as good as UCF, but similar. A number of kids from my school end up here.</p>
<p>Univ of North Florida - Basically a commuter school, but adding dorms.</p>
<p>Florida Atlantic Univ - Same as above. Nice area.</p>
<p>Florida Gulf Coast - I don’t actually know anything about this.</p>
<p>Palm Beach Atlantic - Christian version of FAU.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that I have only visited one of the above; these are just the reputations largely gathered from my classmates. I neither condone nor condemn them, as I don’t know enough to do so.</p>
<p>Missouri</p>
<p>Wash U - A midwestern Ivy, very expensive, fanstatic school overall.</p>
<p>SLU - Doesn’t cost as much as Wash U, still a good school, it’s in downtown, while Wash U is on the far west side of the physical city of St. Louis.</p>
<p>Rockhurst - Kansas City version of SLU, maybe not as good academically, but pretty comparable.</p>
<p>Mizzou - Like others have said, it’s a party school that’s got some decent programs, it’s journalism is fantastic. Not a great flagship, but Columbia is an underrated college town.</p>
<p>Missouri S&T - It’s about 75% guys, and Rolla isn’t a very fun town, but the school is great for engineering and science-related majors.</p>
<p>UMKC - Good 6 year med program, nothing special about it besides that.</p>
<p>UMSL - Commuter school in a part of St. Louis County that’s not so great.</p>
<p>SEMO/NWMO/MO Western/MO Southern - Each are small, typical directional state u’s. They’re cheap, they serve a purpose, but the towns are not too much and the schools are in the lower tier of publics.</p>
<p>Truman State - Best public school, it’s a fantastic value and a good school overall, but the town is nothing. Has outgrown the directional state u label that was attached when it was NEMO.</p>
<p>Central Missouri - A lesser version of Truman, it’s a little better than the other directionals.</p>
<p>Missouri State - Viewed mostly as a school on the rise, it’s not great, but it’s pretty cheap and is a decent school. Was also a directional school (SWMO), but has been growing pretty well, and is on its way to being a respectable state school.</p>
<p>UW: Most of the smart kids staying in state go here. Its said that on campus whites are the minority to Asians. Supposedly lots of GE classes are taught by Graduate Students or TAs who don’t speak English, but I’m not sure how true that is. But still has the best reputation of any school in the state by far.</p>
<p>UW-Bothell and UW-Tacoma: Around here they are considered community colleges basically, with very few programs, tiny student bodies, and no sports teams or anything like that of their own. Most people at these campuses are not first time degree seekers. No one outside of the immediate area has heard of them.</p>
<p>Western Washington U-Hippies/Stoners. Word has it that there is quite a vibrant drug scene including ecstasy up there. Lots of freethinkers and individuals find their home at this mid-sized public school</p>
<p>Central Washington and Eastern Washington Universities-Basically no one has heard of these. They are the back-ups for instate kids who couldn’t get into Washington State. Some good programs at each, but generally not great schools. </p>
<p>Washington State: People go to Wazzu for one of three reasons. 1. They want to study Comm or Vet medicine (WSU has highly ranked programs for both) 2. They love to party. or 3. They aren’t too bright are fell back on the assured-admittance that WSU offers to any Washington state resident with a 3.5 gpa or higher. </p>
<p>As far as private universities go, Gonzaga U and Whitman College get a lot of respect and attention. UPS is relatively unknown, even in my area roughly 40 mins away from its campus.</p>
<p>New Jersey!</p>
<p>Public:</p>
<p>Rutgers-New Brunswick: This is the flagship campus of the state university. Sporty, in the Big East, known for lots of diversity, but unsafe area, with heavy partying; students who end up at Rutgers either love it to death, or got rejected from all of their other schools, since it is very easy to get into as an in-state</p>
<p>Rutgers-Newark/Camden - Other Rutgers campuses, very small, not very well known</p>
<p>The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) - Solid public school, mostly known as a school for teachers</p>
<p>Kean - Not as smart kids, most of them are URMs, but they seem to like it</p>
<p>Montclair State - Party school!</p>
<p>New Jersey City - Not sure of real rep, but know that a fair number of urban kids go there</p>
<p>NJIT - Good technical school, near Newark in its University City district</p>
<p>Richard Stockton - Southern NJ, near Atlantic City, relatively unknown</p>
<p>Ramapo - All the way up north, known for heavy partying, my mom refers to it as “Ram-a-ho” due to the alleged promiscuity of the girls and guys up there.</p>
<p>Rowan - In the Pinelands, HUGE party school, more so than MSU, mostly druggies, drinkers, floozies, but people love it</p>
<p>Thomas Edison State - Unknown, not many go there</p>
<p>UMDNJ - Solid dental/medical school, though it may not be Columbia or UPenn, it serves its purpose</p>
<p>William Paterson - Another party school, but more well-known due to the fact that Sammi Sweetheart from Jersey Shore played soccer there.</p>
<p>Private:</p>
<p>Princeton: Ivy League, #2 in the country enough said.</p>
<p>Bloomfield: Unknown, not a lot of kids go there</p>
<p>Caldwell: Ditto</p>
<p>Centenary: Not the brightest students, college is advertised in billboards and TV ads</p>
<p>Drew: Not well known, and only a few go there, but many like it</p>
<p>Fairleigh Dickinson - Average school all around, kind of looked down upon</p>
<p>Felician: Same as Centenary, but more urban</p>
<p>Georgian Court: See Bloomfield and Caldwell</p>
<p>Monmouth: Think of Montclair State or Rowan, but only you’re paying much more and it’s near the Jersey Shore. Many partying students from wealthy areas (i.e. Central Jersey) frequent this school</p>
<p>Rider: Near Princeton and TCNJ, average school, serves its purpose, but better rep than FDU</p>
<p>St. Elizabeth: Again, see Bloomfield</p>
<p>St. Peter’s: In Jersey City, many URM students, many are happy, nursing program popular</p>
<p>Seton Hall: Part of the Big East like Rutgers, but in a much more unsafe area (East Orange), Basketball is meh, law school is popular and well-liked.</p>
<p>Somerset Christian: Advertised on TV, think of a miniature Bob Jones University in the only part of NJ where we had the KKK.</p>
<p>Stevens Institute of Technology: Known, but I personally know little about it.</p>
<p>CCRI- a Drop-out factory where the 100 levels are 10X harder than at URI or RIC.
RIC- Slightly easier than CCRI poor financial aid package
URI- unlike CCRI they grade you compared to how well you do compared to your classmates. The Easiest State School. Offer great financial aid package as well.</p>
<p>I have a good friend from camp who lives in central Florida, and from what I’ve heard from him and where he’s applying:
UF - Everyone applies here just because it’s UF. Great academic reputation although it’s also known as a major, major party school.
FSU - As far as state schools go it’s pretty good, but seems to be mostly popular for its football.
UCF/USF - On the level of FSU academically although they don’t have a big draw like football so they’re generally not as popular (or as big, I believe). I think UCF is slightly better all-around.
UM - This is Florida’s super super dream school. I think UM is regarded as better than UF although not by a lot. I have two friends there who adore it. Academically a top-40 school.
Rollins - Apparently only snobs and airheads go here and it’s a big party school but isn’t too great academically. I don’t know much else.</p>
<p>I just found this forum searching for info on a Maine school. Interesting viewpoints on lots of colleges across the U.S. from student and parent perspectives. Gives more info than what you would find online or from brochures.</p>
<p>As a PA resident whose school sends tons of students to Pitt and Penn State I’m pretty shocked at how many people are saying Pitt is for PSU rejects. I know several people who were rejected at Pitt and accepted at Penn State Main but I haven’t met one student who was accepted at Pitt but rejected at PSU. </p>
<p>Perhaps it’s partially because my school is in eastern PA and Pitt might be inclined to accept more western PA applicants, but the numbers also show that Pitt is more competitive. If you look at the schools’ average SATs Pitt’s are far higher than Penn State’s (Pitt’s mid-range is 1200-1400/1600, Penn State’s is 1090-1300). I was accepted at both and were I to attend one of them I would choose Pitt over PSU in a heartbeat. Both of them are very respectable schools, don’t get me wrong, but I’m inclined to think that Pitt is selective in the admissions process.</p>
<p>Overall, both of them are pretty much equal on the admissions front, with Pitt being a bit more selective overall but with Penn State having a better reputation because of its huge alumni base. It’s all about perspective and personal preference - a geeky liberal type like myself would be more inclined to go to Pitt, while a more conservative party type would surely choose PSU. </p>
<p>And there seems to be quite a bit of Temple-bashing as well, but it’s actually getting far more respectable, particularly with its expansion of the Honors College, its renowned art school, and its growing reputation for the Fox School of Business. My mom works at Fox and every day she raves about how brilliant the students are (and how attractive some of the men are…ahem). Plus the campus is gorgeous, although the same cannot be said about the surrounding area.</p>
<p>Connecticut…</p>
<p>UCONN: 20% of my school goes here, 50% applies here. Solid honors program for many who want a cheap option. Not really looked down or up upon for going here, many average students make their way to Storrs. Everyone went crazy when they won the NCAAB championship last year, that was crazy!</p>
<p>Wesleyan: Well respected but no one knows too much about it. Not many apply because many people in my town don’t want to go so close to home (about 20-30 minutes away) and they have the money to afford a good school further away. </p>
<p>Yale: It’s freaking Yale… In the past 4 years 7 kids got into Yale, 2 were recruited for sports. Everyone knows that the New Haven area surrounding Yale is pretty dirty though. </p>
<p>Trinity: Nice school for smart preppy kids. Perceived as a bit snobby though. </p>
<p>West Conn.: Below average students apply here</p>
<p>Central Conn. State: See above</p>
<p>I can’t think of any other schools at the moment.</p>
<p>Florida!</p>
<p>UF- everyones first choice. College town. Party school. Tebow. Very good academics. </p>
<p>FSU- people who didn’t get into UF but still a great school. Otherwise, it’s the same as UF. </p>
<p>UMiami- almost as good as UF. Very expensive. Mostly out of state kids. Good football</p>
<p>UCF - right after uf fsu and um</p>
<p>USF- slightly less than ucf but almost the same</p>
<p>FAU- commuter school</p>
<p>UNF - commuter school</p>
<p>UWF - I don’t know much abut this place</p>
<p>Sorry typed all this on my iPod.</p>
<p>Texas:</p>
<p>UT Austin- Dream school of probably 75% of kids in my school. Most slightly above average students are able to get in as it is pretty easy for in-staters. Pretty great in all subject areas, great party school, crazy football fans, and Austin is seen as the only liberal city in Texas. </p>
<p>Texas A&M- Dream school of the remaining 25% of kids at my school. Many aggies are absolutely OBSESSED with the sports culture of the school, especially the football team, even though it sucks (don’t say this around them though). You will never find a school with more spirit and pride (if you randomly mention A&M in a conversation someone will yell “WHOOP” which is their saying or something). Seen as a great school for pre-med and engineering. The people that choose this over UT are usually more conservative. Has a vicious football rivalry with UT, although UT doesn’t really care that much about it. Good college town with a decent party atmosphere.</p>
<p>UNT- Huge public school that parties a lot, people that go here usually want to get away from their hometown (I live in central texas) or are interested in some specific program they have there. Not comparable to UT or A&M for academics.</p>
<p>Baylor- Large religious school that is known for constantly pestering kids to go there. Many people go here that are looking for a specific program (not sure what all they specialize in). As it is a religious school (catholic i believe) party atmosphere is non existant.</p>
<p>Rice- Not many people know of it, those who do see it as a great school but would still prefer to go to UT because Rice is too expensive and more difficult to manage. We had one kid go there for football.</p>
<p>University of Houston- Not much is known about it. Apparently a lot of minorities go there. </p>
<p>Texas State- If you can’t get into A&M or UT you go here. Not a great academics school. Parties are on par with other state schools.</p>
<p>Texas Christian University- Exactly what it sounds like, just a decent university that has a religious background. No fun.</p>
<p>Southern Methodist University- Pretty prestigious academics on par with UT and A&M, but social scene is much worse. WASPy.</p>
<p>FLORIDA</p>
<p>The “Big Two” are clearly UF (Gators) and FSU (Seminoles). UF is the state’s flagship university and the most difficult to get in to academically, but it really depends what you want to study. For example, FSU has a stronger reputation in the arts than UF (music, voice, dance, drama). Both are great choices, but bring everything that a big, public university brings with it. Because the state of Florida offers residents very low tuition and Bright Futures scholarships are automatic if you achieve certain levels in high school, applications to these colleges are very high and getting in from out of state is that much more difficult (they have to save room for the FL residents who qualify).</p>
<p>Next tier and coming on strong would be UCF in Orlando, followed by USF in Tampa. UCF is really moving up, and I would look at them if UF and FSU don’t fit the bill. After that, you’re really into the more regional/commuter schools like FIU, FAU, UNF, UWF, etc. Much easier to get in to than the above 4.</p>
<p>If you’re into a private college, University of Miami is clearly the leader. There are other “niche” colleges that excel in certain areas, such as Rollins and Stetson…however, other than UM, very few people outside the state have heard of these other schools and they do not bring the national reputation if that is a factor. Rollins is overrated regionally, and quite expensive. While scholarships can make attending these schools more competitive, you are generally dealing with higher costs.</p>