<p>I don't really care about rankings, average scores, acceptance rates but I was wondering if someone could compare these schools with respect to:</p>
<p>their social atmospheres of these schools - what kind of things people are involved in and what a typical weekend would entail (parties/clubs/sports)</p>
<p>their academic life/reputation - whether at one school I will constantly be working and not have time to go out and also whether one school offers better post grad opportunities than the other</p>
<p>How strong their programs in the social sciences are - including psychology, international relations, and polysci</p>
<p>The quality of dorms/living accommodations also like food and athletic facilities</p>
<p>What fellows program were you accepted for?</p>
<p>I can only speak for wake and elon, unfortunately.</p>
<p>I know Wake has a reputation for being very very difficult. The classes are really hard. Their undergrad business school is among the top 20 hardest working in the nation or something like that.</p>
<p>Elon is very focused on the engaged learning, so I don’t think it is straight sitting in a classrooom and learning. It also has quite a party reputation, so you’ll be able to have fun if you choose to. It also has an incredible amount of service organizations if you are interested in that.</p>
<p>Colgate’s alumni network is supposed to be quite good. Its grads have the highest salaries of all of the LACs (excluding Harvey Mudd, which as an engineering school, doesn’t really belong in the same category), according to this survey.</p>
<p>All great schools. Did you pick them based on campus beauty? All very nice! </p>
<p>The fact is, these schools probably have more similarities than differences so choosing between them is sort of a no lose proposition. </p>
<p>UR will give you the best access to off campus activities since the others are somewhat remote (Colgate is very remote). </p>
<p>Any of them can get you where you want to go academically, but I think Elon trails the others in terms of overall resources and reputation. Depends on what you plan to pursue though. You will also have no problem finding weekend parties at any of them, but I’d probably give Colgate the edge in that department - as I said, the campus is somewhat more isolated. </p>
<p>Wake offers the added benefit of major D1 athletic teams in the ACC if you are into sports. It also has a well deserved reputation for grade deflation, but that sentiment varies depending on who you talk to so I wouldn’t let that scare you away. Wake is also more national in scope while the others are more regional IMO</p>
<p>UR and Wake both have some graduate program resources, which may or may not be useful to you. </p>
<p>I too have heard that UR’s IR program is very good, not to mention they are located in a capital city which could make for some added opportunities regarding political studies as well. </p>
<p>thank you very much. I’d say UR is a bit below the others right now (but im going to an accepted students day in a week so you never know). Its hard cuz like i like parts of all of the schools and wish i could just combine them. and i was just wondering, for colgate, about the climate (im from the new jersey and was not a fan of this winter thats still here) and also the culture (one of the reasons why i really like some of the southern schools is the southern culture and nothing against the northeast, but I kind of want something a little different)</p>
<p>Well, I don’t think you are going to see too many “southern” influences on the campuses you’ve selected. UR and Wake especially draw very heavily from the northeast. I don’t even think of them as southern schools, really. That said, the surrounding communities would certainly offer some different venues for you which could prove interesting - especially Richmond. </p>
<p>I remember our visit to Colgate a few years back - it was about this time of year. Because it was so nice where we were coming from we were completely unprepared for the weather there - I guess we thought it was Spring everywhere. Not so. There we were walking around in sandals and springwear … under the snowflakes and frost covered grounds. We still enjoyed ourselves there very much - just froze our butts off a little. </p>
<p>I have a good friend from N.J. and her daughter attends Elon. She’s in her 4th year now and very sad to be graduating - loved her experience there.</p>