<p>After a lot of thought and deliberation, I decided to throw everything back to the drawing board in my search for colleges. So, I was wondering if anyone could give me a suggestion, all stats aside, for a college.</p>
<p>-I consider myself a "nerd", and enjoy learning, enough that I would make a career out of it if I could. I want a college where I will be challenged, and where the student body is, as a whole, interested in learning as well. This is, more than anything, what I'm looking for a school. I don't want to go somewhere where I'm bored with the academics, surrounded by people who care about nothing but partying, and look down on me for actually wanting to go to class.</p>
<p>-Secondly, I'm a horribly indecisive person, and aside from a few very broad categories, I have no idea what I'll major in. Therefore, I want a college where I have some leeway if I decide that I'd rather study astrophysics instead of Latin or vice versa - thus, no schools that specialize in science, the arts, ect. enough so that other areas have noticeably lower quality.</p>
<p>-Finally, I live in Oregon, and would prefer to go to a college in either the eastern or western coastal states, and where the weather isn't insanely hot, but this is by no means a requirement.</p>
<p>Can anyone offer a college that would fit these standards?</p>
<p>Reed sounds like a good local school, as mentioned above, and I would recommend looking into Tufts University, which is in Medford, MA (right outside of Boston)</p>
<p>U of Iowa is a surprisingly serious place. Not at all your typical keg-party school. James Van Allen got his Ph.D. there and taught there. If you can find a better astrophysicist than him, let me know.</p>
<p>For the breadth of possibilities and the atmosphere you mention, and if your (unweighted) GPA and test scores are good enough, you and your parents should look into two types of schools in general. But only if your stats are good enough.</p>
<p>The first type is the smaller university. These generally have undergraduate student bodies of about 3000 - 6000 and thus are large enough to offer a full range of majors. Some examples are Tufts, Rochester, Brandeis, the Claremont Colleges (Pomona, Scripps, Pitzer, Claremont-McKenna, Harvey Mudd), Case-Western Reserve, and Washingon-St. Louis. Some larger ones with still excellent academics, but that are nowhere as near as large as state universities, include Rice, Tulane, Vanderbilt, William & Mary and the University of Denver.</p>
<p>The second type is the honors college of the top state university in your home state. You'll be in an island, so to speak, in a large university but your academic interests will be valued by your friends and your teachers (as long as you get good grades, anyway).</p>
<p>You don't say much about your stats, but if you like the idea of schools in the Reed, Swarthmore, Oberlin mold, but need slightly less selective choices, places like Earlham, Marlboro, New College of Florida, Clark University (MA), and closer to home, Evergreen State have reputations for possessing that "intellectual vibe," for being academically demanding, and for attracting serious students.</p>
<p>Not to split hairs, dadofsam, but Rice is actually smaller than Tufts, Rochester, Brandeis, Case-Western, and WashU, with an undergraduate enrollment of just under 3,000, although this number will be increasing to closer to 4,000 over the next few years. That quibble aside, I think your advice is pretty sound.</p>
<p>I most definitely third the UChicago recommendation, particularly when you mention your dilemma between fields of study. While a lot of schools cater to students serious about school, I think UChi is one of a few in which you'll find students with extremely disparate academic interests (I've met more classics/physics people than I can count) and a school that has been ranked number 1 in economics-- and religion.</p>
<p>Have you looked at Bennington? You can study many different things, and tie varying interests together. People here, while many do party, are all about their work. You are not considered a nerd at all if you are passionate about your school work, instead you are considered cool and interesting!</p>
<p>weenie, the OP wants to get an idea of the types of schools that he would ENJOY going to before involving stats/finance. This is a good idea because it wouldnt matter if he had great stats and could afford any school, if he went to UPenn and hated it. Instead he can find schools that suit his needs and then begin selecting schools from that group that fit his stats/financial criteria.</p>
<p>Since my college search, I've also learned about the Gallatin school of individualized study at NYU, which has also caught my interest. I don't know too many details, but it did appeal to my huge degree of indecision (hmm...engineering or English? I wound up being neither, for the record).</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>(More small hair-splitting: The Claremont Colleges are LACs, not a small university, although there's certainly some grey area in the categorization.)</p>