<p>^^ You can find more or less whatever you want wherever you want, and the sampling of students you stayed with overnight isn't scientific.... who knows if the kids down the hall, the ones you didn't get to meet, went to a frat party?</p>
<p>That said, I've been to some really awesome U of C parties ;-)</p>
<p>(cross-posted with phead)</p>
<p>I'd really love it if some more posters would add their rankings for Top 20 or Top 10. Anybody else want to give it a try!?</p>
<p>To be honest, I feel far from qualified to begin to express opinions on schools I don't know well (the only other school I feel quasi-qualified to discuss is Cornell, because of family legacy, but even then I know a lot of select things about the Cornell experience, like Ruloff's, hockey, the low-rise dorms on north campus, their history department, the hot truck, Risley, etc. and not what the school is like as a whole).</p>
<p>I would even argue that I don't know what Chicago is like "as a whole," because I'm only one of about 4,499 undergraduate students who go here.</p>
<p>I also resist the idea of a ranking-- for example, in your ranking, hawkette, CalTech came in last. But I know there are lots of kids for whom CalTech is a paradise, and these are kids who would not fit in as well at the higher ranked schools.</p>
<p>But in fairness, I'll play along.</p>
<p>For me, the "best school" socially would:</p>
<p>-- Have a wide spread of activities going on, some on weekends, some during the week, some which involve partying, some which don't.
-- Have a wide range of parties... some with a lot of music, beer, and dancing, some with a lot of angry people in a room discussing politics and Paris Hilton
-- Have a wide range of non-party crazy events (you know who you are and what you do for fun, I won't out you here)
-- Be able to bring a lot of interesting speakers to campus
-- Have access to a city and encourage students to use that city with student discounts, etc.
-- Have a lot of good and cheap restaurants in the neighborhood
-- Have a student population that's small enough to feel together but large enough so that students feel comfortable being themselves, whether they are or are not like other students on campus.</p>
<p>I think the schools I'm describing most closely here are: Carleton, Wesleyan, Yale, Brown, Reed, Macalester, Harvard, Berkeley, Chicago, Rice.</p>
<p>Few observations:
If a school has to put together some sort of "capture the flag" thing then obviously it needs to be forced and the social life isn't all that great. We're also talking about mainstream here; neat, CalTech is a "paradise" for the people that don't fit in so great elsewhere, meaning it's not that great socially when referencing the mainstream. One of the purposes of a highly touted academic university with a great social scene is the peer students have phenomenal networking skills that bear fruit later in life for both themselves and the friends they made in school...similar but quite different for the two people that were sneaking around dark alleys in MITs or UChicago's 4AM capture the flag extravaganza.</p>
<p>Personally, I think it's important for students to choose what feels best for them socially/academically/other-dimensionally because that's where they are going to grow the most confidence, and that confidence will spread to other aspects of life. Chicago has helped me to become much more people-oriented because I've been able to feel so comfortable around people who are like me and unlike me. That confidence was bolstered because I saw that it was okay to be nerdy, to geek out about physics and Jane Austen, to watch foreign movies, to go to classical music concerts. As a result, I have a lot more friends now than I did in high school, some who are pretty goofy and others who are pretty mainstream, and I feel about a bazillion times more confident introducing myself to a total stranger and making new friends. I think it's great that I feel comfortable with just about anybody, not only a group that reflects who I am or what I'm interested in. As I write this, I'm thinking of a lot of Chicago/MIT posters who would be writing something similar right now.</p>
<p>So I agree that social skills are important to develop in college, and I agree that 4 AM frisbee is not everybody's cup of tea. But I just think that social skills can be developed and harnessed in all sorts of different ways, and the hallmark of good social skills is not necessarily a lot of drinking or partying, but rather an ability to get along with as diverse a group of people as possible.</p>
<p>Finally, a list where Penn gets to be on top!</p>
<ol>
<li>Vanderbilt</li>
<li>Notre Dame</li>
<li>Stanford</li>
<li>Duke</li>
<li>UPenn</li>
<li>Northwestern</li>
<li>Brown</li>
<li>Dartmouth</li>
<li>Rice</li>
<li>Cornell</li>
<li>Emory</li>
<li>Yale</li>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li>WashU</li>
<li>MIT</li>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>Columbia</li>
<li>U Chicago</li>
<li>Johns Hopkins</li>
<li>Caltech</li>
</ol>
<p>ilovebagels,
We have not seen your complete ballot yet. Wanna give it a go??</p>
<p>I am going to enter in the middle of this thread just to make a simple point.</p>
<p>In my opinion, schools like JHU and CalTech are sometimes given negative attention. I feel a school should not be penalized because of motivated, hard working students. </p>
<p>However, i agree that the most important thing a college needs is BALANCE! Ignoring people on CC, i have talked to seven or eight Johns Hopkins Students and they gave me a fair all around picture of life at Johns Hopkins. Although it has its struggles, it is misleading to say that 'fun comes to die' at some of these schools.</p>
<p>One last point, some people seem to be a bit too proud of their college's social/non academic life. I have read about a few CC posters and met a couple of top 20 college students who say, 'Social life is amazing!!! We get drunk every night mannn.' Obviously, that is not what social life necessarily means. However, drinking/drug use and whatever is a big part of it. I may be the only one but getting drunk every night and partying is not exactly how i want to spend my four years. Again, balance is good but some people pride their schools on social life. That is not really what colleges are supposed to be for. Supposed to be for learning in a good environment.</p>
<p>
[quote]
. . . getting drunk every night and partying is not exactly how i want to spend my four years. Again, balance is good but some people pride their schools on social life. That is not really what colleges are supposed to be for. Supposed to be for learning in a good environment.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Good points Shad Faraz. Students can have a good social life and build quality friendships without resorting to drugs, drunkenness and wild partying.</p>
<p>shad and integrity and others,
I hope you will provide your "vote" on how the social life compares at these colleges. Give it a try!</p>
<p>There were several recent threads on student life and which drew on data presented on the Sparknotes website. One of the questions asked dealt with the degree of balance that students exhibited in their collegiate lives, in particular with regard to their study habits. For colleges ranked in the USNWR Top 30, here is how they compared:</p>
<p>% of students describing their peers as having balanced study habits , College , # of student responses</p>
<p>72% , Rice , 18
72% , Vanderbilt , 47
70% , Notre Dame , 105
69% , Duke , 51
68% , U North Carolina , 68
65% , Columbia , 69
60% , Princeton , 40
60% , U Virginia , 52
59% , UC Berkeley , 58
57% , U Penn , 54
57% , Dartmouth , 47
57% , U Michigan , 95
56% , Emory , 36
55% , USC , 64
53% , Wash U , 34
53% , Brown , 47
53% , UCLA , 79
53% , Tufts , 30
52% , Georgetown , 66
51% , Northwestern , 45
46% , Yale , 82
46% , Wake Forest , 56
44% , Stanford , 50
38% , Caltech , 13
31% , Cornell , 52
31% , Johns Hopkins , 39
28% , MIT , 39
23% , U Chicago , 48</p>
<p>na , Harvard , 217
na , Carnegie Mellon , 23</p>
<p>
[quote]
Students can have a good social life and build quality friendships without resorting to drugs, drunkenness and wild partying.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Haha.....</p>
<p>that was a joke right?</p>
<p>bescraze,
You have a lot of strong opinions about these schools. Care to cast a vote??</p>
<p>why not look at freshmen retention rates? obviously there are issues dealing with this outside of the social realm but i believe this data would be a decent indicator as to how content students are</p>
<p>Someone just defended Caltech's social life down there. Please. Also Yale's vastly underrated. It at least needs to be better than Harvard, everybody hates life at Harvard.</p>
<ol>
<li>Vanderbilt</li>
<li>Notre Dame</li>
<li>UPenn</li>
<li>.....</li>
</ol>
<p>
[quote]
ilovebagels,
We have not seen your complete ballot yet. Wanna give it a go??
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Now now hawkette you know I don't believe in meaningful participation in debates. I stick with snide commentary, armchair analysis, and sniping from the sidelines.</p>
<p>When it comes to social life, I don't have much to go off besides the few schools at which I've spent any time. So I can say for sure is:</p>
<p>-Penn was great
-Princeton was lame
-Columbia was eternally distracted by New York City
-NYU is just NYC spelled wrong
-Drexel made me pay to go to one of their parties
-Swarthmore is the boringest place in the universe
-or maybe that's Bryn Mawr College
-Johns Hopkins is simply depressing
-Brown...I don't remember what happened at Brown</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Well hawkette, I am not really one to voice my opinions, but if you insist. No, but seriously social life at schools is something that is very hard to qualify without attending the schools. From what i heard
Penn/dartmouth/vanderbilt/brown, O and of course Stanford</p>
<p>Emory and Yale would fall in middle, I have heard they are good depending on how you can adapt and what you are looking for. I bet most schools like Northwestern, Wash U, rice ect.. fall here</p>
<p>Columbia I am putting in the middle of middle and bad, since I have heard mixed things</p>
<p>For worst, hands down Chicago and Hopkins have that privilege. O and of course Cal Tech and probably MIT. (cool engineers is that an oxy moron?) ---joke O I also hear Princeton is lame</p>
<p>From what i know and hear:
1. Vanderbilt
2. Stanford
3. Duke
4. Northwestern
5. Rice
6. U Penn
7. Dartmouth
8. Brown
9. Notre Dame
10. Princeton
11. Cornell
12. Wash U
13. Johns Hopkins
14. Harvard
15. Emory
16. Columbia
17.MIT
18. Yale
19. U Chicago
20. Caltech</p>
<p>I will casr my vote if you insist. First of all, Bescraze about you joking about not having a good social life without getting drunk every night, it is possible. I have done that all throughout highschool and i do have many friends(shock!!).</p>
<p>bescraze,
Are you saying something like this? Also, fill in for the ??? schools. Thanks.</p>
<p>1 U Penn
1 Dartmouth
1 Vanderbilt
1 Brown
1 Stanford</p>
<p>5 Emory
5 Yale
5 Northwestern
5 Wash U
5 Rice</p>
<p>??? Duke
??? Notre Dame
??? Cornell
??? Harvard</p>
<p>15 Columbia
15 Princeton</p>
<p>20 MIT
20 Caltech
20 U Chicago
20 Johns Hopkins</p>