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<p>Lots of students attend universities where they are members of a racial or ethnic minority group.</p>
<p>I wonder how come not a lot of people on CC are in to huge state-schools like Penn State, UGA, Maryland, etc. I’m not criticizing anyone, I’m just wondering…</p>
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<p>I’d guess that, at the average university in the U.S., about 50% of the population is non-Hispanic white, making it a rough microcosm of the U.S. population. 50% does not constitute “overly dominating.” It seems that bcadran doesn’t want to go to a historically black college, which tend to have well over 80% black students. That’s totally reasonable in my eyes - he doesn’t want to feel like an outcast for a reason out of his control.</p>
<p>Personally, I’m not too picky about racial or gender makeup, though I’d feel uncomfortable anywhere with over 80% or so of one race or 2/3 of one gender.</p>
<ol>
<li> location (could not see it first).</li>
<li> little or no financial aid </li>
<li> majors (like very limited)</li>
<li> atmosphere on campus (bad vibe when you visit or lousy facilities).</li>
<li> dorms that look like they are 1950s army barracks.</li>
<li> schools that are a joke</li>
</ol>
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<p>However, there is considerable regional variation, and the regional variation is accentuated in state universities that attract a predominantly in-state student population that is often biased toward local students. For example, University of New Hampshire is 82% white, while University of Hawaii - Manoa is 21% white and University of California - Riverside is 17% white.</p>
<p>Religious atmosphere</p>
<p>Location (Couldn’t go to a school in Oklahoma)</p>
<p>Political atmosphere of the school</p>
<p>Cost</p>
<p>Majors</p>
<p>…Not in any particular order.</p>
<p>Smoking on campus. Like seeing a lot of students smoking or smelling ciggarretts/weed</p>
<p>Interesting, at least to an old fogey. Few if any on this thread mentioned anything about the quality or types of students they found on a visit, other than the don’t-like-preppies comments. What sold me on what became my alma mater, other than the ridiculously beautiful grounds (UVA), was the quality of the students I met when I visited. This became even truer during my four years. Far and away the greatest part of the experience, and the majority of the real learning, was gained through the good, talented and brilliant people I went to school with. Admittedly that can be hard to glean from a single visit, but it’s interesting that “a place where I’d feel like I didn’t fit in” or “a place that didn’t seem to have many people of my same intellectual level or interests” hasn’t really been mentioned.</p>
<p>I think the cost will have alot to do with it, but I recently came acroos this article what do you guys think? [Financial</a> Benefits of a College Education Are Smaller Than You’d Think - DailyFinance](<a href=“http://www.idealkeypoints.com/financialbenefits]Financial”>http://www.idealkeypoints.com/financialbenefits) it was written in 2011 so a little old but it’s interesting.</p>
<p>For me I crossed a school off my list if:</p>
<p>1) It wasn’t strong in my intended major
2) I didn’t like the campus (such as it was too urban, or concrete and lacked green space)
3) If the cost was too much and they weren’t known for good financial aid
4) If they didn’t have the language I wanted to learn (for me it was Chinese)
5) If the school was large
6) If it was too close to home
7) If it wasn’t coed</p>
<p>it’s different for each person, but these are a few of the things I considered</p>
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<p>You’re right, it wasn’t very long! Georgetown was the least selective US school I applied to. But that’s also why I said “about 700,” it’s been several years since I picked out my colleges and I really don’t remember the exact ranges. If I’m going to pick out a nice round number, 700 is closer to what I mean than 650.</p>
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<p>I’m quite certain that’s not the case. Looking at US Census data for full time students, 9.33 million are Non-Hispanic whites, 2.28 mill are black. 2.04 mill are Hispanic, and .96 mill are Asian. So, 64% of full time students are white.</p>
<p>In this thread it seems like every possible combination has come up: too rural/too urban, too large/too small, too much sports/no D1, too STEM/too LAC. The only uncontradicted thing I think I saw was single-sex. </p>
<p>The only ones I would strike completely would be:
- financially troubled
- academic scandal in a relevant department
- unsafe campus/area
- draconian speech codes</p>
<p>Anything else would probably be worth investigating further even if it doesnt seem agreeable at first blush.</p>
<p>Re: #92</p>
<p>You don’t consider the following baseline criteria to be as important as the four you mentioned?</p>
<ul>
<li>Affordable. (Net price after financial aid and scholarships.)</li>
<li>Has worthwhile degree programs in the student’s possible majors. (This also means relevant major-specific accreditation in majors where that is generally needed or desirable.) A scandal might affect only a specific faculty member, not the general program, while poor quality programs may be scandal-free.</li>
</ul>
<p>Well, I took the question as what schools would you cross off your list early in the evaluation process. </p>
<p>Affordability cant be determined until after aid awards so I doubt you could tell that up front. Harvard could be cheaper than CC.</p>
<p>Degree programs could be an issue but I think that is a little student specific. If they have Chemistry but not Chemical Engineering is that a dis-qualifier? Maybe not since the kid might end up in biomechanical anyway. </p>
<p>I am ok with people crossing off things for whatever reason pleases them. I am just curious what the minimal list is- which I thought was the original point.</p>
<p>^which was the point</p>
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<p>Net price calculators can give you a pretty good hint. Merit scholarships are somewhat harder to guess at, though in the situation where the net price calculator estimates too high a net price, and there are not sufficient in-reach merit scholarships, then it is reasonable to assume that the school cannot be affordable, and therefore not worth applying to.</p>
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<p>For an undecided student, suitability means having enough of the possible majors, which actually screens out more schools than for a firmly decided student who applies the screen using a smaller set of majors.</p>
<p>Also, chemistry has much worse job prospects than chemical engineering, so a student otherwise equally interested in the two may choose the latter using the job prospects as a tie breaker.</p>
<p>here’s a relatively weird one that i’m sure hasn’t popped up yet. </p>
<p>if the admissions office is disorganized and rude. i spoke with the head of the program i applied to over the phone several times with questions regarding the application process. i got 3 conflicting answers and a very curt and rude director answering them. immediately rescinded my application.</p>
<p>1) High cost after financial aid assessment.
2) Safety.</p>
<p>And that’s it.</p>
<p>You’d cross a safety off of your list?</p>
<p>^No, I meant campus safety.</p>