<p>dreams:</p>
<p>Duke is one of those schools that has a rep for little race/class interaction. UVA is another. (Don't get me wrong. I like the school. I did my undergrad work there. It's not that race relations are strained. It's just that the races tended to self-segregate, which disappointed me quite a bit.)</p>
<p>Matt: If you had been paying attention, you would realize that UCLA has moved to holistic review of admission candidates and dream16 has a whole lot of the whole package they are looking for.</p>
<p>I think i may just apply to Duke anyways despite little race/class interaction what other schools should i consider outside the states i mentioned before?</p>
<p>dreams:</p>
<p>Why? I really, really don't understand your criteria and why they're relevant to you. I mean, what do you want out of the college experience? Partying? Boot camp academics? Socratic classrooms? 1000 person lecture halls? Wesson oil bimbo girl wrestling? All we really know is that you once visited a few states and you liked them. We don't even know why you liked them.</p>
<p>You are free to choose a school in any manner you choose, but it really might be useful to both you and us if you had some sort of rational criteria you could share with us.</p>
<p>I want to go to a school where people are smart but don't spend every night and day studying. I want the school not to be filled with people who are closed minded or too conservative. Also i want a school where there are a diverse group of people.From my college expeedrience i want to find myself and have a little fun too. But i don't want to go to a "party" school. I want really want to go to a school outside California because i lived here my whole life so i want a change so a state like North Carolina would be a good change but going to a school in Alabama would not</p>
<p>OK. Now that's helpful.</p>
<p>Duke has a reputation of being conservative and cliquish. A son of mine was a recruited athlete there, and we visited and spent a lot of time interviewing a lot of people. We also bought all the college guides. The kids are plenty smart, and I really liked the campus. But there was an air of arrogance there that we both found off-putting. Ideally, you'd visit and come to your own conclusions.</p>
<p>Here are some schools that sound a bit like what you want:</p>
<p>Universities</p>
<p>Northwestern (most people like Chicago)
William & Mary (more on the rigor side than the party side, but not quite as intense as some of the famous boot camp schools)
U. of North Carolina (maybe a bit partyish, but not overly so. Moderately conservative)
U. of Virginia (a lot like UNC)
Wake Forest (preppy to a tee and pretty conservative)
Georgetown (Jesuit rigor, but not as intense as nearby J. Hopkins)
Washington University in St. Louis
Tufts
NYU (very popular these days because it's in the city)
Penn
Harvard/Princeton/Yale
Darmouth (seems a bit like Duke)</p>
<p>LACs</p>
<p>There are a bunch. Basically, Swarthmore seems more rigorous than what you're looking for. The others are well known. Off the beaten track, you might look into Connecticut College, Sarah Lawrence, and Dickinson.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>A few diverse private schools
Stanford
Columbia
Georgetown
Harvard
USC- you would likely get a ton of scholarship money from them
Wake Forest- not as diverse as the others on this list, but it's in North Carolina</p>
<p>LAC
Williams College
Pomona</p>
<p>Publics
UCLA
Berkeley
University of Maryland- not on your list, but it's near DC. It's a very good public school.
UNC</p>
<p>I think that i am going to apply for USC, UCLA and NYU for sure</p>