What colleges have this sort of environment?

College Search & Selection
1

Hey everyone! I’ve having trouble choosing specific schools based on their environment/student life. I know there are plenty of resources that describe statistics and those sorts of things, but I can’t really get a good sense of what it’s actually like to go to a certain school. Of course there’s information sessions and tours, but a lot of that I feel is just trying to get you to go there and is not as honest.

I want to go to a school where the environment is very balanced - where the students work hard, but also socialize. I don’t want to go somewhere where all the students do is study, but I also don’t want to go to a party school, per say. I’d like to have the option to go out and party if I wanted to, but if I just wanted to stay in, I wouldn’t be judged. Also, preferably I wouldn’t go to a school with a large Greek life presence. There doesn’t have to be no Greek life at all, but I don’t want the school to be run my sororities/frats.

In terms of location, I’m open to anywhere in the country. I don’t mind if the school’s in the city, but I want a campus. So, somewhere like NYU is not what I’m looking for. It could be a large urban area or small, or even a large town area. I think I like diverse/kind of artsy cities, because when I went to Seattle, I really liked it. My parents said Austin was similar too. I am considering UTA.

I would prefer schools that are diverse and more liberal than conservative, since I am Chinese. However, I don’t need to go to a school that’s overwhelmingly Asian or anything. Just not where everyone is white. I went to BC, and the environment was too conservative for me and really lacked diversity. Although, the campus was beautiful.

If you have any suggestions, just throw them out there. I know I didn’t really mention much about academics and sports and other things. I want to go somewhere with good academics and sports, but I can figure that out, and I already have an idea of what colleges I’m considering. It’s just a matter of learning about the actual environment. One I’ve been thinking a lot about is USC because it has good academics, sports, and weather. It’s also diverse from what I understand and has a good social scene. The only thing is I don’t know if it’s too much of a party environment for me. Anyway, any suggestions would be appreciated. Thank you for your time!

2

USC is very diverse, as are most California schools. Nobody’s going to force you to go to parties if you don’t want to.

3

Vandy

4

USC is a top 5 party school in the nation…

5

You can often find out % Greek in each college’s Common Data Set (search for it on the college website). The CDS also has a wealth of other information such as detailes about financial aid, class sizes, etc.

College Navigator and/or College Scorecard will show you the diversity by race, international, male/female, etc.

College Navigator will designate the campus as urban, suburban, etc, but you’ll have to research more to learn the particulars. College review websites such as Niche can shed light, just don’t take everything as gospel, check multiple sources.

Big college guidebooks such as Fiske’s or Peterson’s will give general descriptions of campus and college life for each college. Your library may have these books or you can buy slightly outdated ones pretty cheaply online. Not much will have changed if you buy a 2-year-old edition.

6

Penn

7

Stanford, UPenn, Duke, Georgetown, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, Michigan, UVa, UNC-CH, Wisconsin, University of Colorado - Boulder.

What about costs?
Can your family afford private school sticker prices of up to ~$70K/year without aid?
Can your family afford the sticker price of an out-of-state public university (which usually don’t give much need-based aid to OOS students)? Typically, that would be about $35K to $55K
Can you cover the Expected Family Contribution at a college that claims to cover 100% of demonstrated need? To estimate EFC, run the online net price calculators for any schools that interest you.

8

When reading your post I thought of Case Western and Univ of Rochester

9

University of Michigan is awesome. Weather kinda stinks, but there’s a ton of diversity, excellent academics, Ann Arbor is a really fun town, and it’s a big ten school.

10

The University of Washington fits your description, and as you said, “I think I like diverse/kind of artsy cities, because when I went to Seattle, I really liked it.”

11

What major(s) are you interested in? That could make a difference.

12

Use Fiske, Princeton Review’s best colleges, and Insider 's guide to the colleges, both describe what it’s like to be a student at each college.

Macalester, Dickinson, Kenyon, St Olaf, Beloit, Fordham, could all match at least some of your wishes. Many universities in California and Texas will be diverse.

What’s your budget? Have you run the npc on UT or UW It your parents?

13

We may need to take out a loan for the more expensive schools, but money isn’t really a problem. In terms of majors, I’m pretty undecided, but right now I can see myself going into digital communications/multimedia, political science, computer science, or something with physics. I know it’s all over the place.

14

What is your income? People who make $150k are sometimes shocked that almost all the “good” OOS and privates actually cost $70k+.

UVa, UMich, and UCLA all come to mind. University of Utah also comes to mind, although 69% of students are white there. I would visit before crossing it off your list. Maybe UIUC would be a good choice if you’re gunning for a compsci major. Georgia Tech, UNC, UF, and UGa would also be solid choices.

15

You might want to take a look at the schools in Boston (northeastern, tufts, Emerson ) and the ones in DC (American, Gwu, Georgetown ) and see if the appeal to you. Lewis and Clark came to mind - Portland is a nice city.

16

http://www.bestcolleges.com/features/most-diverse-colleges/

This is an excellent listing of the most diverse colleges and universities in the country. One is a list of biggest and most diverse, the other is universities, and another is colleges. Not surprisngly, the most diverse colleges and universities are generally extremely selective. Stanford for example is number 1 for universities, Amherst for colleges. In general alos, many of the most diverse schools tend to be a little more balanced in terms of liberal and conservative. If avoiding overly-white or overly-Asian colleges is important, have a look through these lists. There is a wide range of selectivity on the lists.

17

“I went to BC, and the environment was too conservative for me and really lacked diversity.”

Really? How is it, then, that it ranks 49th on the list of the top 100 universities ranked by diversity (link provided by Lindagaf, see above).

Looking at the bar graph, there is less than 60 percent white. That means there’s over 40 percent ‘diversity’. That seems plenty diverse to me.

FYI - it is also more diverse than a number of colleges other posters have suggested you may like.

18

it may seem socio-economically homogenous?

19

BC has a hefty financial aid budget and meets 100% of demonstrated need. They key word is “demonstrated”.

20

UTA is University of Texas at Arlington.

University of Texas (in Austin) is just “UT.”