UMiami, Brandeis, Tulane, and URochester: Choose 2 out of the 4

College Search & Selection
1

<p>These four schools are going to be my lower match schools. I have one complete safety that I'm sure I'll get into, and I'm pretty sure I'll get into these schools, but I can't be sure.</p>

<p>Either way, I have room on my list to choose 2/4 of these schools, and I'm having a hard time deciding which one.</p>

<p>Here are things that I liked when picking colleges:
-Near a city
-mid-sized school
-Warmer area
-Good overall academics
-Strong in Sciences (Biology and Math)
-LGBT friendly
-Research opportunities</p>

<p>Which of these 2 sound like my best options?</p>

<p>** PLEASE DON'T TRY TO TELL ME A NEW SCHOOL **</p>

<p>Here are some of my thoughts on these schools
UMiami: warm area, LGBT friendly, but even though it's rated pretty good I worry about the type of student it attracts. It seems like it may be too much of a party school.</p>

<p>Brandeis: colder, and semi close to boston, LGBT friendly, seems like it would have the right type of student.</p>

<p>Tulane: warm, LGBT friendly, not as much of a party school as UMiami, but I still am not sure what kind of students it attracts.</p>

<p>URochester: Really cold which is one of the major turn offs about it for me. Also it's not located in a very big city, but I think it has the best academics out of all of them, I'm really not sure though.</p>

<p>I won't be able to visit any of these since they're not at the top of my list, but I need to be able to choose 2 out of the 4 hopefully by the time school starts.</p>

<p>Also, if you don't know much about these schools, but you know a good reason why I shouldn't go to one of them you can tell my that too and I can narrow my list down to 3 schools.</p>

2

<p>I would recommend URochester and Brandeis. These are two very well regarded schools with Great academics and research opps at the undergrad level. Although you will probably have to give up the dream of living near a warm city.</p>

<p>Miami and Tulane are great too.</p>

3

<p>Ditto what was said above. My personal preference would be Rochester > Brandeis > Miami > Tulane</p>

4

<p>Miami and Brandeis</p>

5

<p>I would recommend Brandeis & Tulane.</p>

<p>Rochester is a VERY depressing place if you do not like the cold weather. The school itself is great, but if you already know you prefer warmer weather do NOT put yourself in a place as cold & grey as Rochester can become. </p>

<p>I know many students who transferred out of RIT and 2 from URochester due to the winters being much harsher than expected.</p>

6

<p>The hardest part in my opinion is because the rankings for academics seems to be the reverse of the rankings for how much I like everything else.</p>

<p>Academically it seems like it goes:
Rochester
Brandeis
Miami
Tulane</p>

<p>Bust for the aspects of the school that aren’t academic it seems like it goes
Miami
Tulane
Brandeis
Rochester</p>

<p>I have 7 schools on my list that are all more selective, but I really like them all, and I hope I get into one of those, but if I don’t I want to make sure I make the right choice for these schools.</p>

<p>With all your help, so far Brandeis seems like one of the best options, since it’s close to boston, LGBT friendly, it’s not super warm, but Tufts and Northwestern are both on the list so I guess I could add that.</p>

<p>I’m a person who really doesn’t like the winter. I think I possibly have Seasonal Affective Disorder because really, the cold just makes me sad. I think that’s reason enough to cross Rochester off my list. Now, if you had to choose, would you pick Miami or Tulane? Both seem very LGBT friendly, are warm and in cities, and the right size, so really between the two it comes down to academics.</p>

<p>So, does Miami or Tulane provide better undergraduate education in Biology and Math? Also research opportunities?</p>

<p>I know Miami is ranked higher, but I’ve asked on the Tulane thread, and people have told me that Tulane deserves to be ranked higher but their 6 year and 4 year graduation rate are bad because of Katrina and that is a big factor for US News so that’s why there rating is so low?</p>

<p>Which of the two should be the final school on my list?
Thanks</p>

7

<p>they are all pretty even academically</p>

<p>I would choose miami over tulane</p>

8

<p>Id choose tulane and miami!!!</p>

9

<p>Honestly, don’t let the weather screw you out of a good school. I live in Northern NY, farther up even than Rochester, and our winters aren’t too bad. Maybe I’m used to the cold, but I don’t like it either. The last few years especially have been warmer than usual with a lot less snow. Maybe it would be a hard adjustment from a warm climate, but it’s definitely not the arctic. Just my two cents.</p>

10

<p>Depending on how big of a factor weather is for you, I would also take Brandeis off of the list. As someone who has lived in Upstate NY my entire life, yes, we do get more snow than some parts of the NE, but it really isn’t significantly colder than a place like Boston or even Chicago.</p>

<p><a href=“National and Local Weather Radar, Daily Forecast, Hurricane and information from The Weather Channel and weather.com”>National and Local Weather Radar, Daily Forecast, Hurricane and information from The Weather Channel and weather.com;

<p><a href=“National and Local Weather Radar, Daily Forecast, Hurricane and information from The Weather Channel and weather.com”>National and Local Weather Radar, Daily Forecast, Hurricane and information from The Weather Channel and weather.com;

<p>I would highly recommend you visit UR and Brandeis (and your other NE schools) in the winter to see if you can stomach it.</p>

<p>Purely based on conjecture, I would choose Tulane over UMiami. Miami has more of a reputation as a party school (not that New Orleans doesnt attract its share of partiers…) and Tulane has top bio research ops (so I hear). </p>

<p>Some other schools of similar selectivity that might even wind up being better fits:
Wake Forest
Richmond (big LAC: personally know 2 gay alumni that never had any problems and really enjoyed their college experience)
Rhodes (less selective and may be too small, but worth a look)</p>

<p>I can’t comment on the LGBT environment at Wake or Rhodes so that might be something you want to research more</p>

11

<p>I would go for Miami.</p>

12

<p>UMiami and Tulane.</p>

13

<p>UMiami and Tulane.</p>

14

<p>Brandeis and Tulane appear to have the best reputation for math (of your two subjects of interest, math generally has better career prospects) out of those four schools.</p>

<p>But you may want to check the course catalogs to see if the specific course offerings in your subjects of interest are more interesting to you at any of these schools. Academic quality is not just about rankings and reputation; academic fit also matters.</p>

15

<p>^^^On what basis? UR ranks higher than Tulane in both NRC and US News graduate school math rankings and higher than Brandeis in NRC rankings. </p>

<p>[NRC</a> Rankings Overview: Mathematics - Faculty - The Chronicle of Higher Education](<a href=“NRC Rankings Overview: Mathematics”>NRC Rankings Overview: Mathematics)</p>

<p>[Best</a> Mathematics Programs | Top Math Schools | US News Best Graduate Schools](<a href=“http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/mathematics-rankings/page+3]Best”>http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/mathematics-rankings/page+3)</p>

<p>Honestly, the difference is probably not really noticeable and agreed that non-academic factors are also very important.</p>

<p>Also, I apologize for suggesting to you a new school earlier…didn’t notice it in the original post…</p>

16

<p>Thanks for the help guys. I think I’ll probably end up applying to Brandeis for one of them, and then for the other one either Miami or Tulane. I just don’t like Rochester’s location, both in terms of the city it’s near, and the climate.</p>

<p>I’ll see what happens with Tulane and Miami, if possible I’ll apply to both, but I might not be able to.</p>

17

<p>(Posted recently on CC UMiami by SVMMOM)</p>

<p>Once Again The University of Miami is Not Even on the List
The party school list, that is:</p>

<p>Here is the full list of the top 20 party schools:</p>

<p>1) West Virginia University
2) University of Iowa
3) Ohio University
4) University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
5) University of Georgia
6) University of Florida in Gainesville
7) University of California-Santa Barbara
8) Florida State University
9) Miami University of Ohio
10) Syracuse University
11) Penn State University
12) DePauw University
13) University of Wisconsin-Madison
14) University of Mississippi
15) University of Texas-Austin
16) University of Maryland
17) University of South Carolina
18) James Madison University
19) University of Maine
20) University of Tennessee</p>

<p>West Virginia ranked as No. 1 school, for partygoers - CNN.com</p>

18

<p>Hey, run…definitely check course catalogues before you decide! My son was looking at Tulane until he discovered that its math program is pretty much all applied math…and he’s a theoretical guy. So, Tulane got nixed for that reason for him. Just a thought…because you do want math and bio programs you’ll be happy with if you end up at a particular school. :)</p>

19

<p>Brandeis and Tulane.</p>

20

<p>Based on your criteria I’d knock out Rochester first. If the warm weather is very important, then Tulane and Miami seem the best bets. If you can deal with Boston winters, then I’d put Brandeis atop the group.</p>