What colleges are best for my personality and interests? Respect points if you read

<p>oh i didnt read your most recent update so here are some of my responses</p>

<p>-- also in support of columbia, it's in morningside heights aka college town. the manhattan school of music or whatever (very renowned but the exact name escapes me at the moment) and julliard-- are both institutions you can benefit from attending columbia. also its extracurriculuar, academics-- it reminds me a little of cornell, and its a huge university as well. the biggest difference, of course, is if you want to be in a small town, in the middle of nowhere, or the big big apple. anyways, I'll be attending NYU next year, so if you have any questions about NYU as well, i can answer them for you. And its true, it's the biggest private university in the nation!</p>

<p>I know this may sound strange, but, next time you visit Wesleyan, swing by the University of Connecticut in Storrs, it has a very similar "big U in the middle of nowhere" feel to Cornell. In fact, several New England flagship state universities offer a similar ambience with good to excellent facilities and smart, hard-working students. Among them are UVermont, Umass, UNew Hampshire and the aforementioned UConn.</p>

<p>What about M.I.T.? I second the Rice suggestion.</p>

<p>Also, if you don't like Preppy, why would you consider Williams and Dartmouth?</p>

<p>I third the Rice suggestion.</p>

<p>;)</p>

<p>I'm not sure how much you can accurately deduce about the people at Colgate with a mid-July visit.</p>

<p>I'm going into my sophomore year at Wesleyan, and I just wanted to give you my perspective, because we're really not quite at that stereotype level you've heard about. :P The students I've met tend to be laidback but passionate, very intellectual, fun-loving and independent thinkers. They tend to bathe fairly regularly (maybe only once every two days during finals week ;)) and are from from all being hippies. Believe it or not, we have fraternities on campus - which host well attended and easily accessible parties, and do plenty of community service, but don't do the stereotypical crazy hazing you'll find at other colleges - and we do have sports, be they Division III. You'll find that Jewish NYC/Philly/Boston/California kid is quite well-represented... so though we're fairly diverse compared to a lot of other colleges in terms of other minorities, we're over-represented in that area. Don't know if that would appeal to you or if it would be disheartening or not :D We have a wonderful warm fuzzy Jewish community that really likes to sing.</p>

<p>We're a FANTASTIC liberal arts school for the sciences. We're a university, so that means we have graduate-level funding and resources - but we don't have a ton of grad students, so undergraduate research is incredibly important, and easy to get involved in... and after the intro classes, science classes, like all others, are very small. The CRC will help you do well as a pre-law student, even as you major in something entirely different. As a fellow AMC and AIME participant and math major, I can say that my math professors have been... inspiringly awesome and brilliant.</p>

<p>Really, Wesleyan is just such a fantastic place to be for well-rounded people. In fact, that's what I'd use to describe Wesleyan students overall: well-rounded. Unlike in high school, I never meet someone who is just interested in business or pre-med, or only cares about creative writing - everyone seems multi-talented and eager to learn along different dimensions.</p>

<p>I have yet to witness anyone throw paint on a fur coat, if that makes you feel better :P Then again, I can't be sure I've seen anyone with a fur coat, maybe...</p>

<p>If you have any more specific questions, feel free to PM me! I love it there, and almost everyone I know loves it, too. We are pretty different from Cornell, though - i guess it comes down to more of a preprofessional, large university setting with an intense workload, or a more laidback (in atmosphere and academics) small close-knit campus. Of course, I'm terribly biased :P</p>

<p>What about Carnegie Mellon? Does that seem like a fit? I've heard it is somewhat like MIT in the sense that there's mostly hard work going on, though for all I know that's just another misinforming stereotype. They have a biophysics track in both physics and biological sciences, so that's a plus. Do they have an active Hillel? Does a 7:3 ratio of men to women really seem like that much of a difference?</p>

<p>Oh and thanks for the info about Wesleyan. I've been trying to research it more for its Biophysics concentration, but the one thing I am concerned about is the fact that it doesn't offer a BS degree (something which can be unfavorable for my possible career path), but I really like the fact that it is renowned for undergrad research in the sciences.</p>