<p>"I wouldn't say that watching Stanford, Vanderbilt or Rice getting pounded regularly in sports creates much of a high."</p>
<p>The more Vandy loses in football the more the social aspect of a football date takes precedence.</p>
<p>danas,
My sports sources tell me that your impressions of sports at Stanford, Vanderbilt, Rice and Northwestern are more than a bit off. </p>
<p>Stanford was in the NCAA basketball tournament again this year and they are highly competitive and successful across a wide range of sports (they are ranked #1 in the NCAA Directors Cup). And even when Stanford stinks (like in football), when they play Cal, it truly is a "Big Game" and dwarfs anything in the Ivy League, including Harvard-Yale. </p>
<p>Vanderbilt is currently ranked #1 in the country for baseball, and both their men's and women's basketball teams were ranked in the Top 20 and won games in this year's NCAA basketball tournament. Rice is less prominent, but their baseball team is currently #2 in the nation. Northwestern's men's teams are pretty weak, but the Big 10 is truly big-time. Northwestern is no Brown or Dartmouth. Attend a Northwestern-U Michigan football game sometime-it is quite a different scene from what you'll find at any Ivy venue. Also, Northwestern's women's teams have had some great success, albeit in relatively minor sports (lacrosse, softball, tennis).</p>
<p>Agree about Northwestern womens' lacrosse and Rice baseball, but not much else. All these schools tend to be also-rans in their conferences.
Full disclosure- I'm a University of Florida alum!</p>
<p>why are you guys putting UPenn so high</p>
<p>
[quote]
Only 2 of the OPs 10 listed qualifications involved the surrounding city: musical scene and urban life/arts. As far as the "arts" part of urban life/arts goes, Yale creates plenty of that itself, with possibly the best university theater in the country, good museums, and strong music programs. Urban "life" is admittedly weak, and the musical scene probably isn't as good as it would be in Boston or New York. Regardless, those are only 2 of the 10 categories the OP created as criteria, and many of the other top 20 schools are just as weak in them, if not weaker (are Palo Alto, Durham, Hanover, South Bend, Princeton, or Ithaca particularly more vibrant cities than New Haven).
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</p>
<p>I think your points are valid and I agree New Haven (particularly the areas immediately surrounding campus) do have some offerings [atleast on par with the other cities you mentioned]. Yale also have a very tightly-knit community and in my expierence the students are down-to-earth. </p>
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I wouldn't say that watching Stanford, Vanderbilt or Rice getting pounded regularly in sports creates much of a high.
[/quote]
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<p>I disagree. Stanford, for an academic school, has been somewhat successful in major sports. The football team has struggled lately but they have some history and they are often atleast a bubble caliber team in basketball and often do well in the Director's Cup. Vanderbilt has historically struggled in football but has improved immensely under Bobby Johnson. Recruiting has improved (possibly from the publicity of Cutler) and the games are competitive (just ask Georgia). Several analysts have them making a bowl game this year (very favorable non-conference schedule). In basketball, they have three 20-win seasons in the last four years (including two Sweet 16s) and they are currently ranked #1 in baseball and the favorite to win the College World Series. Although Rice doesn't have much athletic history, they are also among the strongest teams historically in baseball (Rice won the College World Series in 2003). They also have one of the best attendence records for a private school for baseball. The students definitely support the team.</p>
<p>
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Why are you guys putting UPenn so high
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<p>UPenn seems to get the Ivy bid for March Madness every year and is considered by many to be the "social Ivy".</p>
<p>I'm not sure what goes into the Director's Cup ratings, but Stanford, Berkeley and Wisconsin #1-2-3?
Whatever it is, it isn't sports excellence to me.</p>
<p>We all saw Harold and Kumar, Princeton #1</p>
<p>I don't think it is necessary at all for elite colleges to have much of a sports presence. It is just that sometimes it can be an extra rallying point for non-competitive athletes at these schools.
Even then, outside of a "major" sport, it seldom gets people excited, outside of some traditional strengths, like Lacrosse at Johns Hopkins and Princeton.</p>
<p>^^^
Sports often create lots of school spirit on campus. If your school has good sports teams it gives you the opportunity to see free sporting events every week. Definitely a positive.</p>
<p>Duke is well-known for its school spirit (due to the success of its basketball team). I doubt Emory being in the AAU has as much school spirit.</p>
<p>Danas, Duke should be higher on your list. I spent a weekend at Brown, and it made me appreciate Duke's social scene so much more.</p>
<p>gcards1...
You could be right.</p>
<p>1) Penn
2) Notre Dame
3) Stanford
4) Vandy
5) Duke
6) Cornell
7) Emory
8) Columbia
9) WashU
10) Johns Hopkins
11) Rice
12) Dartmouth
13) Princeton
14) Yale
15) Harvard
16) Brown
17) Northwestern
18) MIT
19) CalTech
20) Chicago</p>
<p>For the sake of comparison, we can stick by the OP's parameters and definition of "social" school, but we should also keep in mind that "social" means different things for different people.</p>
<p>For me, "social" meant students who wanted to talk to each other about academics, a small frat party scene, and a large city scene. Chicago was a great fit for me in that respect, though by the parameters given by the OP, it performs extremely low on these lists.</p>
<p>danas,
You say "I don't think it is necessary at all for elite colleges to have much of a sports presence." You're absolutely right, but isn't it great and exciting when they do. </p>
<p>My sports source is chuckling that there are unquestionably people at Princeton still talking about how they beat UCLA in basketball not that long ago. And undoubtedly, people at Vanderbilt are still savoring their conquest of Florida this season in basketball and Georgia in football. Also, I checked the Vanderbilt website. They recently swept U Florida in baseball in three straight games by a combined score of 40-12. </p>
<p>And how about when Duke was winning those national championships in basketball-don't you think that the students and the entire Duke family LOVED that! (Just as the Florida fans certainly loved winning BOTH the football and basketball national championships) Big-time college sports are fun and it is very different than what you watch in the Ivy League (that is, if you even bother to pay attention to the Ivy League games).</p>
<p>amykins,
I love Chicago. Great town. Sensational arts scene and fun, nice people. I have tremendous respect for U Chicago and its students and think it is a very underrated school (whose students probably have a lot more fun than they are commonly given credit for). I completely accept your comments about U Chicago and, if it was the right fit for you and your social interests, then please ignore me and everybody else.</p>
<p>Oh no! I'm not disputing others' rankings at all, actually-- I realize my post did sound a little passive-aggressive.</p>
<p>I just wanted to point out that Chicago, though it lacks in some criteria that you've mentioned, has other things going for it. We do have parties, we do have on-campus events, we even have sports teams-- but they're not as visible or accessible as they are at other schools mentioned.</p>
<p>you people are out of your minds if you think notre dame (south bend, catholic, no girls in dorms past 1am, etc.) or washu (pre-med, intense, hard to get to anything major) are above northwestern as far as "fun" goes at school</p>
<p>My opinion:</p>
<p>1) Stanford
2) Dartmouth
3) Vanderbilt
4) Notre Dame
5) Northwestern
6) Duke
7) Yale
8) Penn
9) Cornell
10) Brown
11) Rice
12) Emory
13) Harvard
14) Princeton
15) Columbia
16) Washington
17) Chicago
18) MIT
19) Johns Hopkins
20) Caltech</p>
<p>I would agree that social life is better at NU than the other two schools.. but I think saying that Notre Dame has one better than NU isn't too crazy.. people at ND party pretty hard despite the fact it's a religious school.</p>
<p>Wow. I heard Rice has a pretty crappy social scene. And btw, I think that you guys are missing out University of New Haven. They share their facilities with Yale, so students have a vast amount of resources. It's not all about academics, of course. UNH is notorious for their outgoing students, who really show off their social skills.</p>
<p>see: Matt Renzuli</p>