<p>Well, after about a five-month hiatus to deal with my CC addiction, I have returned. DD, our second child, now needs to have some planning put in place (she's a sophomore).</p>
<p>So the question is, where do those kids we all meet go to college? You know the ones I mean, the ones that have natural exhuberance combined with an innate likeableness and decency. The ones that make you smile before you've met them, just by the way they carry themselves.</p>
<pre><code>DD thinks a college with more of these kids would be great to attend!
</code></pre>
<p>Uh -- a little more info would be helpful. Like, where do you live? Stay local or go far? Type of kid? Interests? Grades? Big or small school? Urban or rural? Warm weather or cold?</p>
<p>We live in the East, but DD can go anywhere is the US. At the moment she is looking at small schools that teach engineering, in the places where it snows, but frankly as a 10th-grader she is very open to looking at different schools.</p>
<p>Also, the key ideas are not necessarily specific to her search, she would like to know where the kids who are exceptionally nice to be around tend to go to college. It's sort of a generalized question, and I'm hoping it won't degenerate into a "my favorite school is cooler than yours" type of debate. But if anyone has noticed a school with a lot of very likeable, happy kids, please speak up.</p>
<p>Of the top of my head the two colleges that consistently have the nicest kids are St Mary's in Md and Grove City. Don't think either have an engineering program. A firend who is a nurse at a catholic highschool commented to me that the nicest kids at that school seem to all be applying to Stonehill.<br>
Kids going to Johns Hopkins, Cornell, CMU seem to have the most "edge" t them.<br>
Kids who go to the "fun" state flagship unis seem to be a happy lot, and, oh, yes, College of Charleston. I know about a dozen kids from there, and every single on of them are happy, joyous kids. But this is just on bird's eye view.</p>
<p>I would definitely say that the kids at Vassar College are very nice (as is the faculty and administration) ... Northeast location, small school with a beautiful campus, snow (not this year, though!) but straight liberal arts - no engineering.</p>
<p>Knox in IL is friendly and has 3-2 engineering program with WashU St. L. Beloit is friendly, but I don't know about sciences there. Carleton and, I think, Grinnell are strong in sciences and friendly places. I would say Goucher also (strong in sciences, not sure about engineering).</p>
<p>You will probably get a lot posts like this, from people like me who did college visits last year. Just INITIAL impressions, but...
I would put in a word for Tufts. We visited twice, S. spent a day there this fall. We saw diverse groups of students talking and laughing between classes, and friendly, outgoing ones who offered us assistance or directions without being asked first. Relatives in Boston say the kids there seem to love it, and it is on the Princeton Review list for 'happiest students' or something, if that means anything. We visited a few campuses where the student body seemed quite homogenous, and one top school where there were many kids walking, but hardly any speaking to each other - a strange, intense atmosphere. Who knows, though, it could have been mid-terms or some other stressful time.</p>
<p>twinmom- A kid I know at Vassar said he's never seen so much pot smoking in his life. Just thought I would mention that in case the OP's daughter isn't into that.</p>
<p>lspf72, I noticed that about Tufts, too. If you walk around with a map and look bewildered, people come up to you and offer help. On a lot of other campuses, they walk right by.</p>
<p>I would add William and Mary to the list. I liked the young people I met there.</p>
<p>Three schools where I got that "We Are Fa-mi-ly" vibe, confirmed in the guidebooks are Colby, Muhlenberg, and Vassar. I'm guessing that Christian Colleges would rate high on the nice kid index.</p>
<p>I'm always impressed by the friendliness and lack of pretense of the Caltech kids. Sure, its in CA, but people drive to mountain area to ski for the day.
Engineering, of course, is offered. Girls appreciated. Great financial aid and merit $$$. Only pass/fail grades for first 2 terms. No frats/sororities, but 7 Hogwarts style houses. After a week of exploration, one is sorted into their house, and usually lives there all 4 years.</p>
<p>I always felt that everyone I met at Wesleyan, my D's school, were just about the nicest kids I know. Just amazingly friendly, and exceptionally kind. I realize that this is not objective, but on the other hand, much as I like my S's school, I wouldn't make that claim for it (not that there aren't nice kids there too, of course, just not as universally).</p>
<p>However, Wes does not have an engineering school (or snow, this year.) How about Swarthmore? I get good vibes about their students, and they do have engineering.</p>
<p>I wonder if the list would be shorter if people listed the campuses where the kids weren't nice? I'd love to add to the nice list, but every campus we've visited has been at least somewhat friendly, and I hesitate to judge on a few hours' experience. My comments would be anecdotal. For instance, at Emory, as we were studying the map, a student driving past stopped his car, and helped us figure out where we were going and how to get there. That was nice. I have no idea if it was typical.</p>
<p>Responding to the earlier post about Grove City - yes it has engineering. My sister is an engineering graduate from there (with a masters from GA Tech.)</p>