<p>If a baseball athlete has a choice between these schools what would you pick? I like athletics, a lot of school spirit, but want a great education (something in math/science). Want a good overall experience and have some fun, but with a great education.</p>
<p>Please rank and why. Thanks. </p>
<p>MIT, Swarthmore, Haverford, UPenn, Harvard, Brown, Williams, Princeton, Bowdoin, Cornell, Villanova, Dartmouth, Georgetown, Holy Cross, Davidson, Furman, Rhodes</p>
<p>These schools offer completely different environments it would be tough to choose based on just your reasons listed above.</p>
<p>Financial aid, location and student body size would be huge factors in the decision.</p>
<p>That being said, I’d choose Harvard or Princeton… :p</p>
<p>Don’t need financial aid. Could be happy in rural or city, but prefer suburban. Want a “true” college feel so small surrounding town is fine. I prefer and environment that is friendly, fun, yet has people who want to succeed. I am an athlete who loves football, basketball and baseball.</p>
<p>Guess I’m worried about people who say MIT is ONLY nerdy people and all they do is study. And I’m worried about the safety around UPenn. </p>
<p>Any other suggestions?</p>
<p>Williams (I am biased but I think you’ll see that it fits all of your criteria) should definitely be on your list, as should Princeton, Dartmouth, Davidson, maybe Bowdoin. I’d also add Middlebury, Amherst, maybe Northwestern.</p>
<p>Story that talks about the integration of baseball and academics at Rhodes:
[The</a> College Sports Project](<a href=“http://www.collegesportsproject.org/voices.html]The”>http://www.collegesportsproject.org/voices.html)</p>
<p>Once upon a time Poli Sci Professor Mark Nelson was writing a book, Serious Play: A Year in the Life of the Division III Rhodes College Baseball Team. I haven’t heard anything about the project in a while, though. Prof. Nelson spent an entire year with the team, going I believe to every single game home and away as well as a lot of the other team-related functions. It was really neat to read his blog about the experience.</p>
<p>Princeton sounds ideal given your want of suburban. Dartmouth and Williams have the fun/friendly/spirit part but are very rural.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t want to balance academics and a sport at MIT or Swat.</p>
<p>If I were a great baseball athlete, I would be sure to have Rice on your list. If you really want an excellent baseball school with excellent academics and amazing social life and interesting students, apply to Rice (although you have to be very good to be on the Rice baseball team).</p>
<p>I agree with Ephman; Davidson should make the cut. It sounds like exactly what you’re looking for.</p>
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That would not be, at all, the way I would describe my MIT education. There’s a very diverse bunch at MIT, and there’s a lot of freedom for students to be whoever they happen to want to be.</p>
<p>And the work is tough, but people manage. About 20% of the student body plays a varsity sport, 80% play club or intramural sports, 60% participate in the arts, and virtually everybody does undergraduate research. MIT students are very busy, but not always with schoolwork.</p>
<p>Sending you a PM.</p>
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</p>
<p>You should try talking to actual MIT students and alums, instead of random high schoolers who know nothing about MIT. There are a lot of us on the MIT board.</p>
<p>MIT has a lot of nerds, but you are thinking in terms of a bunch of joyless grinds, when you should be thinking Real Genius. 
And like Mollie said, about 20% of the undergraduate student body plays a varsity sport, and about 80% participate in some level of sport, so it’s not like you would be the lonely athlete, and it’s not like varsity sport + schoolwork is unmanageable.</p>
<p>In some ways, the fact that you would be coming in with an identity that’s not entirely based around academics would be very useful for your psychological well-being. It’s the people who have no identity outside being good at school who get hit hardest, emotionally, by the difficulty. Eventually, they almost all take this opportunity to develop a real-person, multi-faceted identity, but if you already have one, you get to skip over this often-painful process.</p>
<p>However, if you want big crowds at your games, and random people with no connection to your team other than attending the school it represents caring about how your team is doing, that may be a sticking point. MIT athletic culture is very participation-focused, and not very spectator/fan-focused. Your close friends and hypothetical significant other(s) will care about how your team is doing because they care about YOU, and you might even get them coming to your games, but you are not going to get big crowds. You are not going to get any special adulation on campus for being a varsity athlete, though among your acquaintances you will get the general respect that dedication and competence in ANY area tend to earn in the MIT community.</p>
<p>I can only say that I had friends on the baseball team at Brown (like three). They all graduated on time, one is going to law school, they all had a pretty great time (though one of them hated the coach), and I think we offer great science/math education. We won the Ivies two years back too, so we’ve had good enough coaching when the talent was right to be successful. So I guess I can only say check it out.</p>
<p>No, no, no. Not MIT. Regardless of what they tell you. I’d advocate Brown too.</p>
<p>Are you a varsity recruit? Are you good enough for Rice or Vanderbilt? If so, they should be on your list.
There is a big difference between D1 and D3 athletics, so keep that in mind. There is also a big difference in what help you will get with admissions.</p>
<p>No one listing those schools would be recruited by Vandy and Rice. Those are top baseball programs. Lets not kid ourselves here…</p>
<p>Anyway, if you like hockey: Harvard, Princeton, Cornell, Holy Cross.
Basketball: Nova, Cornell, Harvard, Penn, Georgetown, Davidson, Holy Cross.
None of those are FBS football. Nova has the best football team of all of them.</p>
<p>I would go with Harvard, Cornell, Holy Cross or Davidson. If you dont have any interest in hockey (esp. @ Harvard and Cornell), I’d go with Davidson.</p>
<p>Oh, and a few more points on Williams – you’d be hard-pressed to find a school with a more impressive group of non-player alumni involved in baseball: George Steinbrenner and one of his sons, Pirates’ owner Bob Nutting (as well as his Dad), Jim Duquette (former Mets GM, currently in mgmt for the Orioles), Michael Weiner (General Counsel, MLBPA), and Matt McGough (who wrote a book that was made into a TV series about his experiences as a Yankees’ bat boy). Given how notorious loyal Ephs are, a great network to have if you are interested in working in the industry during the summer or after college. </p>
<p>Moreover, Williams played a major part in baseball history, as Williams and Amherst played in the first ever intercollegiate baseball game: </p>
<p>[Williams</a> College - 1st college baseball game – Williams vs. Amherst – returns to Pittsfield May 3rd](<a href=“http://williams.prestosports.com/sports/bsb/2008-09/news/0427_1st_college_baseball_game_--_Williams_vs._Amherst_--_returns_to_Pittsfield_May_3rd]Williams”>http://williams.prestosports.com/sports/bsb/2008-09/news/0427_1st_college_baseball_game_--_Williams_vs._Amherst_--_returns_to_Pittsfield_May_3rd)</p>
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<p>That’s not exactly very impressive.</p>
<p>Ummm, I’d say claiming as alumni the owners of two franchises, one of them the most valuable and successful in baseball (I mean, say what you will about George, he won a ton of World Series), from one 2000 person liberal arts school qualifies as impressive. Oh, and I somehow forgot arguably the most prominent baseball alum, Fay Vincent, former commissioner. So again, we are talking, from a very small alumni pool, two ownership groups, one former commissioner, the head of the player’s union, and one top executive. If you are potentially interested in a career in baseball management (granted, a super duper long shot), no school is close when it comes to networking opportunities, and on a per capita basis, no school is in the same universe …</p>
<p>Swat, MIT, and Cornell have reputations for lots of studying. Harvard too, but the grading apparently isn’t severe. Penn, Holy Cross, and Georgetown are right in the city with limited space…not the expanses of lawn like at Williams. Furman is gorgeous but I don’t recall much of a college town around it. Harvard is scattered around bustling Cambridge…very much an urban feel to it.</p>
<p>The rest that I’ve been to all have that true college feel you want: Williams, Bowdoin, Dartmouth, Princeton. Don’t know about Haverford, Rhodes, Villanova, or Davidson.</p>
<p>I’d definitely take out MIT, Cornell and Swarth</p>
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<p>Yeah, two terrible, terrible owners; one who spends so much money, he drives up the market and has helped dry out the availability of quality players, and another who doesn’t spend jack despite having perhaps the nicest stadium in the league.</p>
<p>I’m so jealous…</p>