<p>Hi, I'm looking into various universities right now including most of the ivy league colleges. I was wondering, can someone tell me which of the 8 schools are the "old monied, posh, conservative, and preppy" ones of the group and then which ones are the more "flashy, liberal, less old-fashioned" ones... You guys get the idea ;) My whole application decisions are not riding on this but I just want to know, it's all part of the process and I take EVERYTHING into consideration so help would be very much appreciated! Thank you all.</p>
<p>Interesting question. I'd say Brown is your most liberal. Your classic settings like the ones you see in movies...well I got that vibe when I visited Dartmouth, and Princeton is somewhat old fashioned in that regard. In all, you're not going to lose with any of them and they're all nice people for the most part. I think UPENN has a nice urban feel to it, although some people hate its location.</p>
<p>The most liberal and un-old fashioned is Brown, definitely. Brown is just like a bigger LAC, with their open curriculum, laid-back environment, etc.</p>
<p>The most conservative/post/preppy has got to be Dartmouth, but I've heard they're trying to shake that image.</p>
<p>Princeton is big on preppy rich kids, too, stereotypically. IMO the rest of the Ivies fall somewhere inbetween Dartmouth and Brown. UPenn and Cornell seem pretty balanced, sitting in the middle of the scale. Yale is pretty liberal, but you'll run into the same rich kids there, too, albeit less preppy. Harvard is Harvard. :)</p>
<p>EDIT: Damn, I forgot about Columbia - very liberal and politically active. Might give Brown a run for it's money in terms of liberal-ness/flashiness/newness. :p</p>
<p>You would be wise to try to avoid describing the schools in one-word adjectives and letting that affect your decision. I remember that Fred Hargadon, who was Dean of Admissions at Swarthmore, Stanford, and Princeton, mentioned this in a book called "Admission Matters."</p>
<p>^ Yeah, I agree with dchow that none of my categorizations is basis to decide between schools - it's just a representation of the general perception of those schools, which can still come in handy.</p>
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The most conservative/post/preppy has got to be Dartmouth, but I've heard they're trying to shake that image.
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<p>It's apparent that you have not been to Dartmouth which is definitely more liberal than it is conservative.</p>
<p>I'm with sybbie.</p>
<p>I'd say that the preppiest/poshest is Princeton. The most liberal is probably Brown.</p>
<p>Brown is a hippy college...They started a project with Wal-Mart to pass out CFL bulbs to low-income people....Why don't they pass out food and clothes instead?
Who knows..... </p>
<p>I like Brown, The Campus is weird(Providence is probably the size of some large campuses, so classes are spread all over the place), but the people are nice and smart too.</p>
<p>All 8 have much more in common than they do differences, with all "types" found at each.
The most liberal, IMO, are Brown and Yale, in that order. However there are facets to this concept. Brown was the last to go need blind in admissions, and comparatively skimpy financial aid has led to a particularly rich student body. Yale, in almost every year I have been following this, has had the lowest percentage of public school kids in the Ivy League. Liberal does not mean economically egalitarian. Both have had relatively low percentages of students with need based grants from their institutions.
Princeton and Harvard have had a more affirmative policy toward enrolling kids from modest economic circumstances, and Dartmouth for some time has had a high level of Pell Grant students, at least by Ivy standards.
I don't think Harvard, Princeton and Dartmouth will ever shake off their images as schools for the elite. But the reality on the ground is changing, at least to some extent.
None of these places are State U. I don't think that's in their plans.</p>
<p>There seems to be a lot of talk about Brown, Princeton and Dartmouth, but what does everyone think of Cornell U? Does it lean more towards the old fashioned/conservative and posh setting, or the newer/liberal and hipster setting?</p>
<p>Yeah Dartmouth is far less conservative/ preppy than its image. Its an image lingering from the 80s but its changed a lot. If anything Dartmouth is the "relaxed, fun" Ivy.</p>
<p>The notion of "old monied, posh, conservative" no longer applies at Harvard. The socioeconomics of the student body are very diverse.</p>
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There seems to be a lot of talk about Brown, Princeton and Dartmouth, but what does everyone think of Cornell U? Does it lean more towards the old fashioned/conservative and posh setting, or the newer/liberal and hipster setting?
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<p>Cornell is very liberal and tolerant; it's not a hippy school though. Its motto is "I would found an institution at which any person can find instruction in any study." Cornell admitted students without regards to their race and gender long before its Ivy League peers did; it's a very diverse school.</p>
<p>If you get accepted to an IVY and had selected an engineering major but then wanted to switvh to a business major ex. SEAS at upenn to wharton...could you do that??</p>
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If you get accepted to an IVY and had selected an engineering major but then wanted to switvh to a business major ex. SEAS at upenn to wharton...could you do that??
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<p>Upenn knows that many people try to backdoor their way into Wharton, so they make it very difficult to switch to Wharton once you're there. Columbia also makes it extremely difficult to transfer to arts and sciences from engineering. At Princeton and Cornell, it's pretty easy to switch from engineering to Arts/Sciences.</p>
<p>If you want to go to Wharton, apply directly to Wharton.</p>