Potential transfer curious about college town and location

College Search & Selection
1

I am currently researching schools to transfer into for the fall semester. The school I am leaving was in a somewhat boring location, the people were all the same (and from the same place), and the size (mid size) did not work for me. I am looking for schools that have a fun college town (shops, bars, main street, restaurants), a more diverse student body, and either a smaller or bigger school than 6,000. I would also love to be near the mountains and outdoor activities which I have realized is important to me. Academics are important to me and I am not very picky about whether or not it is liberal arts.

Some schools I have been thinking of are:
Skidmore
St Micheals
McGill
Wesleyan
Colorado state u
Montana State U
University of Oregon
Ithaca College
Middlebury
CU Boulder

I would love some feedback and some more recommendations. Ideally I would like to stay in the North East but also open to the West.

2

University of Vermont might be worth a look.

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3

Wesleyan/Middletown: Very interesting combination of a typically wealthy LAC and an ethnically diverse, largely working-class, southern New England town of, as the OP puts it

It’s really come into its own during the last twenty years or so.

4

You’ll get mountains – including a college owned ski area – but little diversity and no real town to speak of at Middlebury.

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5

Ithaca checks all your boxes so that’s a good pick. Skiing is so-so, but it’s there. Hiking is fantastic.

6

You say prefer NE but then list western cities

The Northeast is hard to ski - but McGill does have, which to me is the best east coast place to ski - in Tremblant not far.

UMASS is diverse. UNH is not - and it’s in range of Vermont. Montana State is 80%+ white…not diverse. CU Boulder (liberal town) and CSU - nope not diverse.

U of NM - diverse.

But get back to your Eastern side. Skidmore - small and not really diverse. Ithaca less so.

So I’m not saying the towns aren’t great because they are but.

Most diverse college in the East - NYU, Amherst (great town), and CUNYs.

I’m not sure what you seek - NE but mention west. Mountains. Smaller or more than 6K - maybe you mean not more but you put schools far bigger. Skiing, etc.

I’d say you need refinement about what really is important.

You may google best college towns and maybe that’s a start - you’ll read about everywhere from Fayetteville Arkansas to Athens GA to Madison WI to Bloomington IN to Austin TX and more.

Not sure what you seek is what you can find - but UMASS might be the closest (in my opinion).

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Your list is pretty diverse, so it’s hard to nail down what is a priority. UVM came to mind, but a very different experience academically from Middlebury or Wesleyan.

8

You have a rather wide range of colleges and universities that you are considering transferring to. They differ in terms of size, academic rigor, location, and other factors. I am a bit concerned that you might not know exactly what you are looking for, which in turn makes it hard to find a good fit.

If we knew your major and what school you are transferring out of that might help us to give better advice.

It is hard to imagine a university with 6,000 students that does not have at least some range of different types of students with different interests and different backgrounds.

McGill is very large, somewhat bureaucratic, and is academically very challenging. It will be quite transfer friendly. If you come in as a U1 student then there will be many other students coming in at the same time – including the various students from Quebec who are coming in after two years of CEGEP. “Diversity” in Montreal will include native English speaking Canadians, native French speaking and fully bilingual Canadians, and many students from outside of Canada. This is a difference in culture and background, which is different from the way that the US talks about “diversity”. McGill is right in the middle of a very interesting, culturally rich, and bilingual city with French being the majority language. You will hear lots of French and lots of English and some other languages spoken in the area, and you will overhear some conversations that switch back and forth between languages right in the middle of a sentence. The small mountain in the middle of Montreal is not going to support much in the way of downhill skiing, but I am told that many buses full of downhill skiers head off to nearby ski slopes on Saturdays in the winter.

What is your home state and what is your budget?

A small school such as Ithaca College (6,000 students) or St Michaels (2,000 students) will have fewer majors compared to somewhere like McGill (40,000 students) or Colorado State (34,000 students). It will be a very different experience.

Colorado State is a school that I have thought of as an example of how either rankings do not matter at all, or depend a great deal on what your major is, or both. The last time that I looked US News had it ranked 153rd overall, but 3rd in the US (and 4th in the world) for Veterinary Medicine. It certainly deserves its high ranking for Veterinary Medicine – the program is superb. I have no idea whether it deserves its lower ranking overall (other than there being 152 other universities that are also very good).

I agree that the University of Vermont is an interesting university to consider. It is rather expensive unless you are either in-state or qualify for a presidential merit scholarship. I also agree that U.Mass Amherst is a school that you should consider.

If budget matters then something that is in-state for you is worth considering. Students often tend to under-appreciate their in-state public universities.

9

CU Boulder ticks all the boxes except diversity. Boulder is a vibrant college town beloved by foodies and outdoor enthusiasts alike. Food options from street tacos to fine dining can be found in town. Hiking, biking, climbing, kayaking—you can do it all in Boulder. Eldora, the hometown ski hill, is easily accessible via public transportation. If you yearn for more, Denver is a mere twenty-five miles away. Plus, CU is no slouch in academics. It’s engineering and business schools are both well-regarded.

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Either smaller or bigger than 6000? Not exactly 6000?

Budget? Can you pay rack rate? What state are you a resident of? What’s your current college GPA? What do you want to study?

It seems to me that you’re looking at where you want to live, not where you want to get an education. If you’re a resident of MA, then UMASS Amherst would fit the bill for you. Pretty location, cute town (Amherst) with lots of attractive shops/restaurants, a large and diverse student body, many majors, 5 college consortium so you can also take classes at the 4 nearby schools, reasonably good and pretty hiking nearby, and not far from Vermont for skiing and better hiking.

11

Thank you for the feedback. I am from Maine and my gpa in college is 3.8. I definitely will be relying on financial aid as well. I am currently studying computer science but I am not fully sure if I’d like to stick with it.

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Hi thank you for this great feedback. I do have a pretty wide range of criteria which is hard to refine. I am from Maine and my gpa in college is 3.8. I will definitely be relying on financial aid. I am transferring from Marist college. It had pretty good academics. As far as diversity with the school, almost everyone who attends is from New Jersey and the tri state area.

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Marist has around 5000 undergrads, I’m not sure I would call that mid-size, regardless I don’t understand why your conclusion is mid-size doesn’t work for you.

Your list in terms of schools near mountains and outdoor activities is OK…but it’s all over the place in terms of geography, vibe, etc. I get you want diversity…but most people at U Oregon are from Oregon/Wa/Cali, and most people at CSU are from Colorado and the immediate area, etc.

What are you looking to major in? Where do you want to live when you graduate? What is your budget?

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When you mention diversity, what exactly are you referring to? Diversity in terms of race/ethnicity and/or socioeconomic background, or diversity as in students come from throughout the US, with a healthy number of international students? Or is it all of the above?

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You might want to consider including an application to the University of Maine. You will have some time to decide whether you want to go there, but it is very likely to provide an affordable option which is somewhat closer to home.

I spend quite a bit of time in Maine and I quite like the state and the people there, mostly (we will not speak about one single exception).

U.Mass Amherst is very good for computer science. Whether it will be affordable for you or whether you will get in I cannot predict. U.Mass Lowell will be easier for admissions and is also good for CS, but I would choose U.Mass Amherst for several reasons if I had a choice and if both were affordable.

I am biased, but to me applied mathematics is a good alternative to computer science (at least it worked for me). Some CS knowledge is useful for a math major but if you have started with a CS major then you already have this.

16

Poughkeepsie. Need I say more?

I think that money is going to be the issue stopping you from transferring. There is a New England interstate tuition agreement, but I think it’s still worse than in state, something like 150% of in-state tuition, plus it’s only for majors that your state doesn’t have - and most states have both Comp Sci and “undecided”.

I would think that it would be very difficult to arrange a transfer when you need financial aid, but I’m sure that if a need-blind school would accept you, that they’d consider you for financial aid, too.

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You aren’t going to get much of that at CU, CSU, or probably Oregon unless you are Pell grant eligible (and even then, the Pell won’t go far at CU).

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18

About size: Attending a school with a student body bigger than 6000 and attending a school with a student body smaller than 6000 are very different experiences. What is it about your school’s size that you don’t like? Is it because there are so many people that you don’t feel like you know everyone there? Or is it the opposite- that you keep seeing the same people (not the same type of people, the same PEOPLE) and want to meet more people. I’m kind of under the impression that people who would be happier at a smaller school would be miserable at a bigger one and vice versa.