<p>Anyone know of any smaller schools with a small average class size that has a lot of school spirit? School spirit meaning their sporting events are well attended, and preferably get national recognition. Also a school that is fairly well-known, and one that I can be proud of and still cheer on after I graduate. I have a low GPA (3.4) and a somewhat high ACT (31).</p>
<p>What can your parents afford? </p>
<p>Maybe some of the Catholics that have popular basketball? </p>
<p>Are you looking for football? If so, the school probably has to be larger.</p>
<p>Yes, you’re looking at basketball and a few hockey schools among the small schools. Gonzaga, Butler, St. Joseph’s ¶, and Creighton have all had exciting March Madness runs and a lot of spirit in recent years. Villanova is pretty sporty and not too big.</p>
<p>As for football, Notre Dame is mid-size and one of the smallest schools with a powerhouse football program, but a 3.4 is probably too low unless you are in an elite private school or magnet program. Washington & Lee is the only small college I can think of where a lot of people attend the football games with enthusiasm. (Well, it’s probably true at the directional public schools in Texas and the deep South, but that’s not what you’re looking for.)</p>
<p>I think you should look at some big public flagships that have separate honors colleges. The residential college at Michigan is perhaps the strongest example. You can have all the sports fun you want, and then go home at night to your LAC.</p>
<p>Check out the University of Tulsa. Excellent academics. About 3500 undergrads. Small school with a bigger feel. D1athletics - football team went to a bowl last year. Basketball team has been good in the past, and they have hired Danny Manning so they should be good again soon.</p>
<p>I live in Illinois, but there’s a good chance I will be able to get in-state tuition in the state of Michigan too.</p>
<p>How would you get instate in Mich?</p>
<p>You’re premed? You need to go to school where you’ll emerge with the highest GPA. Very competitive schools may not work out for you.</p>
<p>Is that your weighted GPA?</p>
<p>Syracuse has crazy school spirit and the average class size there is pretty small - only 3% of classes have over 100% students, and 61% of classes have fewer than 20 students.</p>
<p>At Duke, 72% of the classes hve less than 20 students, and only 2% have over 100 students. Competitive, of course, but a lot of school pride.</p>
<p>Clemson is a medium-sized university in South Carolina with a lot of school pride, but also where only 4% of the classes are larger than 100 students. 51% of their classes have 20 or fewer students.</p>
<p>I know it’s not small - but if you are in-state to Illinois, you have UIUC. Incredible school spirit and a great public university. It’s not a small school by any means, but it has a huge faculty and more than likely most of your classes will be relatively small (30 students or less).</p>
<p>Lafayette (a LAC) and Lehigh (a small university) in PA have a spirited rivalry and might be worth looking into although they don’t get national attention.
And I agree, some of the Catholic schools mentioned in posts above may fit the bill as well.</p>
<p>Colgate comes to mind; it’s a LAC that has Division 1 sports. Sports seem to be a big deal there (maybe because there’s not much else to do in Hamilton, NY). I know of a few current students an alum who follow their sports teams.</p>
<p>To mom2college kids: I might be able to get in state tuition in Michigan because my mom lives in Michigan. And I’m not sure if I really want premed, my mind changes all the time.</p>
<p>And it doesn’t really matter about whether its football or basketball. Just some strong support for either team. And the high school I go to is a pretty competitive private school, but its definitely not so esteemed that it can get me into places like ND or Duke with my stats.</p>
<p>I would definitely put Villanova on your list(not sure how the financial aid will be).</p>
<p>Look at the Patriot League schools. They are D1 and have some great teams. The schools
include Bucknell, Colgate, Lehigh, Army, Navy, Holy Cross, Lafayette and American.</p>
<p>Some of them usually excell in basketball and hockey.</p>
<p>Union College in NY has D1 hockey and the team does extremely well. There around around 2100 undergrads. Other sports are all D3 though and not extremely well attended</p>
<p>Butler - they’ve done amazingly well at basketball in recent years.</p>
<p>Holy Cross top LAC with 23-25 Div1 sports and greay school spirit. HC HAS NICE CAMPUS 1 HOUR FROM Boston.</p>
<p>Butler and the university of Dayton both great basketball but both expensive.</p>
<p>I agree that the schools you should be considering should all be BCS conference schools.</p>
<p>Duke, Wake Forest, Boston College, Notre Dame, and Vandy all fit the bill nicely. </p>
<p>Also, you may want to consider some of the schools in the Big East. Villanova, Butler, Creighton, Georgetown are all good examples of small schools with great spirit and alumni bases.</p>
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<p>These schools would all be high reaches for a student with a 3.4 GPA.</p>