<p>Hey guys. So I made a list of the things that my dream college would have. For research purposes, what colleges have you heard/know fit all of the things on my list? And which ones don't, so I'll know to avoid them?</p>
<p>In my dream college I would prefer....</p>
<p>-Located in a warm region of the country
-Located in a large city (and I don't mean CLOSE TO. I will accept 'close to' if it is under a 10 minute drive, but no more than 10-15 minutes please. Nothing like...oh it's only a half hour/ an hour away!)
-Small student-to-teacher ratio
-Small class sizes
-No TAs teaching!
-A low-pressure environment that is collaborative not competitive (however, considering I want a top school and most top schools are pretty high-pressure...this one I would be willing to overlook)
-A campus that is pretty. I don't want to walk to class every day and be like "Dang this sht is fuglyyyy"
-Amazing library/library system please!
-I do want somewhere that is known for being quite rigorous or known academically. I guess you could call this prestige.
-I want to do pre-med but with a major along the lines of creative writing. So some place that is strong in both of those departments.
-I would prefer at least a mid-sized college. A place where I would know a lot of people, but not go outside and know every freakin' student.</p>
<p>I know this is a lot to ask for...but anybody know any unis remotely close to this?</p>
<p>Well, if 2700 full time UG and Grad students would be large enough, and Winter Park (it is "near Orlando, but nice area) works, how about Rollins College in FLA? This is the first school that came to mind. Good luck with your search!</p>
<p>The small student-teacher ratio, small class sizes, no TAs teaching, and support for non-traditional (e.g., creative writing) majors who want to do pre-med all are the strengths of small colleges. I don’t know many places that are gong to fit the bill if you only look at mid-sized and larger. </p>
<p>Your desire for no TA’s seems like you are describing a liberal arts college and if you want academic rigor you are probably talking about top LACs. Unfortunately, very few are in cities. You might want to really examine your need for a city. Do you plan to be going to concerts, theater and ethnic restaurants every weekend? If you are going to be doing more traditional college things like going to parties and attending theater/music performances put on by students, you might not need to be in the middle of a city. Warm weather LACs----Davidson certainly comes to mind but I don’t know the size of the town. Occidental is in LA. Is Philadelphia warm enough? If a suburb is OK, you could look at Haverford. Macalaster is in a city but it’s freezing in Minneapolis. I think Rice is considered somewhat LAC-like.</p>
<p>I actually also posted this in another subforum, and also got the likes of Rice, Emory, etc. I wonder, however, why certain other LACs such as Occidental aren’t being mentioned? Do they not have strong premed programs?</p>
<p>EDIT: Didn’t see the above post haha. Being in a large city is actually quite important for me. I lived in a small town up north for a few years, and found that the combination sent me into a very long bout of depression. Not a mental state of mind that I wish to go back to, nor is it one where I would be able to thrive academically.</p>
<p>40 views and only 3 responses? Eek. Any comments are appreciated guys!</p>
<p>P.S. My parents are pressuring me quite a lot to apply to Johns Hopkins…does anyone know anything about their writing programs (or lack thereof)?</p>
<p>How important is it to you that the college be located in a “warm” part of the country? How do you define that? Also, what do you consider a large city?</p>
<p>I’d actually be willing to give up the warmth if if the area is large enough or the school is amazing enough to be quite honest. My ‘warmth’ is an area that has little or no snow during the winter (I currently live in Coastal North Carolina, which might have maybe an inch or two of snow during the winter).</p>
<p>I think the smallest city on my list so far is Durham, which only has about a quarter million citizens, but which has a metropolitan area (Raleigh/Durham/Cary) population of about 1.7 million.</p>
<p>I’ll actually be a new 11th grade student at Exeter (coming from a magnet two-year program at a local high school). My stats, I believe, are quite competitive and I hope to make them even stronger in the coming year and a half.</p>
<p>Getting a scholarship would be a blessing, however, I have discussed budget with my parents and my mother has said that if I don’t get one she would be willing to pay for me to get the best education possible.</p>
<p>Columbia fits very well apart form wanting to be in a warm region. it’s in manhattan, 6:1 student:faculty, extremely high % of classes under 20, Phd students rarely teach undergrads, I had 2 TAs teach me out of 45-50 classes that I took, both were outstanding. Environment is highly collaborative, stately campus, tons of libraries (with several main libraries being gorgeous), rigorous academically, many pre-meds and creative writing majors, 4-6,000 undergrads in columbia college and SEAS which is mostly whom you’d interact with.</p>
Located in a warm region of the country - not too warm, but not that much snow in general
Located in a large city (and I don’t mean CLOSE TO. I will accept ‘close to’ if it is under a 10 minute drive, but no more than 10-15 minutes please. Nothing like…oh it’s only a half hour/ an hour away!) - Philidelphia is definitely large
Small student-to-teacher ratio - 6:1
Small class sizes - average class size is between 10 to 19 students
No TAs teaching! - not TA’s teaching at Penn, I believe
A low-pressure environment that is collaborative not competitive (however, considering I want a top school and most top schools are pretty high-pressure…this one I would be willing to overlook) - Penn isn’t too competitive (aside from Wharton)
A campus that is pretty. I don’t want to walk to class every day and be like “Dang this ■■■ is fuglyyyy” - I liked the campus, but people generally give it mixed reviews.
Amazing library/library system please! - Penn has a great library system, and of course participates in the Ivy League library borrowing system (where you can get any book you want from any other ivy aside from Harvard - they don’t like to share )
I do want somewhere that is known for being quite rigorous or known academically. I guess you could call this prestige - Penn is definitely prestigious
I want to do pre-med but with a major along the lines of creative writing. So some place that is strong in both of those departments - All of Penn’s departments are great, although I do not know specifically about their creative writing dept. Medical school placement is excellent as well.
I would prefer at least a mid-sized college. A place where I would know a lot of people, but not go outside and know every freakin’ student - Penn has around 10 thousand students.
Also, although New Haven and Providence are probably too small to meet your criterion, Yale and Brown are excellent matches for the rest of your criteria (aside from the weather, again)</p>
<p>@metallika - Columbia’s campus is definitely closed, but it is right in the middle of New York City (also, the campus is really small, and I do believe that TA’s teach, although I am not sure about that. Columbia isn’t particularly known for its undergraduate focus, which is one of the reasons I didn’t mention it, but if that’s not too big of a deal for you, it is also a great fit) Also, you might want to look at Tufts - not as prestigious, but still a great school that seems to meet almost all of your criteria.</p>
<p>Thanks! I actually am looking into Yale too, however, I think I would get lost within the Brown curriculum since they don’t have core standards :x</p>
<p>So far my list is…(and it’ll probably change a bit until I apply, but still):</p>
<p>Penn
Columbia
UChicago (All three of the above are cold, but in large cities + great academics)
Duke
Emory
Rice
Vanderbilt
Tulane
Occidental
Stanford (even though it’s a small area, it’s warm enough)
HYP (Even though Princeton and New Haven are small…I’d be looking to overlook that for great academics)
Chapel Hill (for in-state tuition)
MIT, just because it was the first uni I ever wanted to apply to and it will always be close to my heart <3</p>
<p>Anyone see any uni on my list that definitely does not belong? I also realize this is a large list, but it’s a rough draft for now.</p>
<p>Chardo, I rank #1 in my class with a 4.8 GPA. The budget will be the last thing I consider.</p>
I was thinking more around 4-6 thousand undergrads?</p>
However, one question, is the Columbia campus a city campus or closed/semi closed?</p>