<p>University of Texas at Austin
and any other school with amazingly HUGE classes
(each class at UT has 10,000 people, undergraduate total: 40,000)</p>
<p>I'm moderately liberal in my political and religious beliefs, so I doubt that I could have survived at any of the following: Grove City, Liberty, Brigham Young, Bob Jones, and/or Franciscan University of Steubenville.</p>
<p>Because I am not a football fan and because I am moderately liberal, Notre Dame is out. I find a lot of Notre Dame people to be awfully arrogant, too.</p>
<p>Even though I hold a master's degree from there, I wouldn't go to the University of Pittsburgh. As we said in high school: "If you can't go to college, go to Pitt."</p>
<p>According to mu daughter"
1. Sewanee..."Eww moom let's get out of here....it looks like Hogwarts, and is literally in the middle of nowhere" (we saw deer behind a campus building!)
2. No all girls schools
3. No schools in Texas (I really do not know why)
4. No giant schools (more than 10,000 undergrads)
5. No Ivys (even though she would have a good chance)</p>
<p>-No blatantly religious schools (though more schools like Liberty University and Grove City than say, Catholic U)
-No all-male schools (but there's what, four of them left)
-No schools larger than 30,000 (though I'm not too keen on going to UMCP, which is 25,000)
-No schools in the state of West Virginia (no offense to y'all in West Virginia)
-No Ivys
-No school more than 45 minutes off of an interstate (exception: Washington College, but that's one of the reasons why I'm having trouble considering it)
-No schools that go insane with sports (or, as my old Spanish teacher said, burn the town down every weekend there's a game)
-No schools where more than 25% of the freshman population is inebriated on the weekends</p>
<p>I went to USC and most of the people who want to and/or went to USC wouldn't be caught dead at UCLA!</p>
<p>-GWU (overpriced, ugly, not a real college feel)
-Schools in Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, etc. (not a fan of the region)
-Schools in Hawaii (island fever, anyone?)
-Highly religious schools (I don't having other people's beliefs and values shoved down my throat)
-Schools the size of my high school (ehhh...no)</p>
<p>Quote:</p>
<p>"Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Kansas, Kansas State... so-so schools in the middle of nowhere aren't too appealing."</p>
<p>Chernbabychern, I wonder how much you really know about any of these schools or their locales. I can't speak for Oklahoma or Oklahoma State, but KU and K-State are both good schools with some excellent programs and Lawrence and Manhattan are both fun, safe college towns. Add to that a low cost of living and some of the most genuine, friendly people that you'll ever meet and I think that you have a pretty good recipe for a great college experience.</p>
<p>University of Tennesse, being a vandy fan for my entire life has given me a deep, passionate loathing for UT...</p>
<p>I'm sure the people are nice and the region is safe, but when I say so-so schools, I actually really truly mean it. Kansas State is tied for 124 with Arizona state according to US News. I mean come on, that's pretty bad I'm sorry, you can't say that isn't at least deserving of the so-so label. And Kansas is number 85 tied with the University of Denver and the SUNY college of Environmental Science and Forestry. It is ranked lower than the Colorado School of Mines, Michigan State. </p>
<p>I acknowledge that you can get a great education at any school and your college experience is what you put into it. But You will have more opportunities at a top 25 school. Period. (that also isn't in the middle of nowhere)</p>
<p>here's the link if you don't believe me USNews.com:</a> America's Best Colleges 2008: National Universities: Top Schools</p>
<p>You Westchester people are all the same. It's pretty funny, actually. Grow up a bit and realize that there's more to life than what number some stupid magazine gives colleges.</p>
<p>Kansas, Kansas State, ASU, Michigan State, DU, etc. are all fine schools with some top top programs. Just because they're ranked outside of the top 30 or whatever pretentious number you like, doesnt make them bad. </p>
<p>To be honest, I was to some much, much smaller extent like you at one point. Going to a 'prestigious' school was important to me. So getting into a top 60, I felt pretty good. That is, of course until I got there and realized what a complete joke the school was. I just transferred to a school you, and others wouldn't call 'prestigious'. In fact, it's not on the US News top 125--it's a tier 3 (what a joke that is...). Do I care? After 5 minutes, I realized I couldnt care less. I'm very happy about where I am, and know that this tier 3 school suits me more and offers me more opportunities than the top 60 ever could. In closing, grow up, and realize there's more outside of your suburban bubble.</p>
<p>The U.S. has about 2,500 4-year institutions...so, being at the 125th ranked college is still in the top 5% of U.S. universities.</p>
<p>chernbabychern,</p>
<p>I think that BO5TON and UCBChemEGrad have already made my point for me, but if you are judging colleges and universities based largely on the USN&WR rankings, you are naive indeed. Yes, K-State ranks 124th, but it ranks 124th on USN&WR's list of top national universities, which puts it ahead of about 2,400 other schools. The following information from K-State's website might also interest you: </p>
<p>K-STATE'S STELLAR COMPANY</p>
<p>K-State ranks first nationally among state universities in its total of Rhodes, Marshall, Truman, Goldwater, and Udall scholars since 1986. Our students have won more than $2 million in those five competitions and have earned K-State a place among the nation's elite universities.</p>
<p>Rank among the 500 state universities
1. K-State: #1 in all-time Truman and Goldwater scholars; #2 in Rhodes scholars since 1986; #2 in Marshall scholars since 1986 (tied); #3 in all-time Udall scholars (tied)
2. Penn State
3. University of North Carolina
4. University of Kansas
5. Arizona State University
6. University of Virginia
7. University of Michigan
8. University of Illinois
9. Montana State University
10. University of Washington at Seattle </p>
<p>Rank among all 2,400 public and private universities
1. Harvard
2. Yale
3. Stanford
4. Princeton
5. Duke
6. K-State
7. Brown
8. Chicago
9. Cornell
10. MIT </p>
<p>In short, don't be too quick to judge. It's one thing to say that a national university in Oklahoma or Kansas isn't for you. It's quite another to call it a "so-so" school.</p>
<p>I would not recommend attending any school with an average freshman retention rate below 88%. This suggests that there are too many unhappy or unqualified students at schools with a low retention rate. For example, the University of Arizona reports a 79% freshman retention rate, while Arizona State and the University of Kentucky report a dismal 78% freshman retention rate. These are the worst of USNews' Top 124 National Universities. Two "Top 50" LACs, Pitzer and Rhodes, have poor freshman retention rates of 87% and 86%, respectively.</p>
<p>^That criterion doesn't make a whole lot of sense and would eliminate many good public universities from consideration. Remember that a significant part of the mission of most public universities is to make a low-cost quality education available to as many in-state residents as possible. To that end, admissions standards for many publics are lax compared to private schools and, yes, some students are admitted who can't make the grade. That doesn't necessarily mean, however, that they shouldn't be given a reasonable chance to prove themselves, nor does it mean that the school itself is of poor quality.</p>
<p>Any large universities. I know many of them are excellent schools, but I need a small environment. </p>
<p>And I have no problem with being in the middle of nowhere. ;)</p>
<p>Several large state schools are very concerned with freshman retention rates below 88- 90%. Most are considering a requirement which mandates that all freshmen live on campus to address high attrition rates. Arizona is considering this now, while, for example, Alabama instituted this requirement within the last two years. Freshmen retention rate is one of the biggest concerns among university administrators. This is mostly a large state school issue due to low admissions requirements and high rate of commuters. gbesq: I agree with your post, except your comment re: retention not being an important factor. It is, and it should be, to those who have choices.</p>
<p>^I didn't mean to imply that it's not an important factor, merely that it should not be the decisive factor. Most large publics weed out a considerable number of their freshman and that is to be expected if admissions standards are relaxed. In my view, however, that does not necessarily indicate that the academic quality of the institution is poor or that many students are unhappy -- it indicates that a certain segment of the entering class can't do the work.</p>
<p>Low freshman retention rate is an indication of the quality of academics at a particular school.</p>
<p>UIUC
Northern Illinois
Eastern Illinois
Western Illinois
Southern Illinois
Illinois State
DePaul
UIC
Oakton Community College
Loyola University Chicago</p>
<p>^^^ You could've just said every school in IL besides UChi and NU...</p>