<p>I was interested in seeing everyones thoughts in general about these universities. Which do you feel are the strongest OVERALL? Which are located in the best area?</p>
<p>I'm thinking about applying to all of these as a transfer student, and just wanted to see CC's take on them. I want a university that has a decent academic reputation but it also in an urban area. Money isn't an issue at all, all of these are OOS. I'm fortunate enough to where my family will have no problem paying for 2 or 3 years OOS, I just want to experience a new area.</p>
<p>I like how all of these are located in urban area, and I really have no preference as to warm/cold weather... I just like clean and exciting city areas.
OSU - Columbus
ASU - Phoenix
Minn - Minneapolis
OU - OKC
Rutgers - NYC/Philly
Pitt - Pitt lol..
SDSU - San diego</p>
<p>Whats everyones take lol? I may post this in other places to see different responses. I am an economics major if that helps.</p>
<p>I've only visited OU and Minn, so I kinda wanna get everyones view</p>
<p>also if anyone has any suggestions, theyd be kindly accepted :) (not UT lol, grown up around there and need to get away haha)
Thanks guys!</p>
<p>None of them stick out as being significantly stronger than another. What do you want to study? Pitt probably has the most urban feel to the campus. OSU is a very nice place as is Minnesota. Both of those are very good schools as well.</p>
<p>Rutgers is not in either NYC or Philly unless you count travelling to there by train for a hour? I don’t feel like New Brunswick can be described as an exciting and clean city.</p>
<p>Agree with the comment above- Rutgers isn’t Philly or NYC.</p>
<p>If you are looking for school in Philly, depending on your major and your “stats” you could consider U Penn or Drexel. There is also Temple U but the area is not quite as nice/clean!</p>
<p>There are also lots of suburban schools in the Philly area from which you could take advantage of the city. Examples: Haverford, Bryn Mawr, Villanova, St. Joe’s.</p>
<p>Or course, Pittsburgh is a nice city too. My D is a freshman at Pitt and very happy there.</p>
<p>OK, so we probably have similar stats and preferences because I’m about to apply to Pitt (late, I know…) and got into U Minn and just returned from visiting it. Not sure if you’re familiar with the school and city, but I’ll tell you my impression. First of all, obviously you applied knowing it would be a HUGE school and an urban environment, which is very true. The city is really beautiful. It has kind of an old industrial feel to it, but in a charming way. The kids there have a lot of school spirit and there seems to be very little complaining that happens; they just walk to class in the snow and accept it. Also, I don’t know if this is relevant to you, but their study abroad program is one of the best in the country. The one aspect that turns me off a bit is a personal one that I doubt would affect you - lack of an Indian dance team - but overall I liked it pretty well.
However, I’m applying to Pitt too because I just recently fell in love with it and feel I would personally like it better than Minn.
I don’t really think you can go wrong and I hope I helped! Good luck :)</p>
<p>Maddyk, I also really liked Minneapolis the one time I was there. I think you’ll find Pittsburgh has more urban density though. However, I’ve never been on the UMinn campus but I think Pitt is probably also more urban, dense, and vertical, but it has several large lawns and is adjacent to a huge park. I don’t think Pitt’s study abroad program takes a back seat to any school’s.</p>
<p>@southeastmom and by urban feel… is Pitt directly in the downtown area or something? I haven’t visited yet but everyone keeps telling me how urban it is lol…</p>
<p>@everyone lol… also…which of these do you guys feel are the strongest schools academically speaking? Weakest?</p>
<p>Pitt is in what I would call the city’s second downtown. It’s about 2 miles from Downtown Pittsburgh in the Oakland neighborhood. Oakland has some sizable buildings, lots of stores and restaurants and lots of hustle and bustle. There are not only students but also hospital workers and many others in the area. This is very different from Ohio State where pretty much everyone walking around is associated with OSU. Students get a free bus pass so travel to downtown and other neighborhoods is simple. I highly recommend exploring your list of schools using google maps street view as well as the Birds Eye Feature of Bing maps.</p>
<p>As for quality, I would put OSU, Pitt and Minnesota at the top. The others are a notch below.</p>
<p>My son is coming home today after just visiting Minnesota. He called me last night and said that he is going to be a Pitt Panther. He has visited Pitt as well as Northeastern. He was looking for an urban university. It ended up being like Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Minnesota was too big and sprawling, Northeastern’s campus was too limited, but Pitt was just right. Minnesota does have a very highly rated Econ department if that is the deciding factor for you.</p>
Cal State schools are not very well regarded, so that goes for SDSU. UC schools, including UCSD, are a different story. OU and ASU are also not well regarded. Those three schools are the weakest, by a good bit. The rest are pretty equivalent with different strengths.</p>
<p>The Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, btw, is the third most dense are in Pennsylvania after downtown Philadelphia and downtown Pittsburgh.</p>
<p>USD would be in between UCSD and SDSU. However it is private and very expensive. If you want to consider private schools, that would give you more city options. You can do well at any of the schools on your list - it’s all a matter of what you put into it.</p>
<p>I really don’t much about USD. I live in San Francisco, and never heard anyone talk about it at all. I can tell you that USF (University of San Francisco) which is a private, Jesuit university here, is not that good (and I’ve taught there).</p>