<p>Which colleges do you think are better by reputation? </p>
<ul>
<li>Dartmouth </li>
<li>Cornell</li>
<li>Columbia</li>
<li>Williams</li>
<li>Stanford</li>
</ul>
<p>Depends on which fields of study you're considering. </p>
<p>There are 10,000 threads like this btw :)</p>
<p>All five of those colleges are stellar.</p>
<p>if I had one choice, I'd go to Stanford, just overall impression.</p>
<p>While Stanford would actually be my last choice from among those five, I believe the general consensus would be that it is the "best"...though at the level all of those schools are, it's pretty pointless to nitpick, and of course they all do better in certain fields.</p>
<p>My aim is to do a Liberal Artsish course. </p>
<p>Apart from Stanford, which of those would be best? </p>
<p>cheers :)</p>
<p>Williams, being a Liberal Arts College, is very strong in the humanities. Darmouth is also a very "Liberal Artsy" school.</p>
<p>Cornell is a much larger school, and generally does not focus as heavily on the humanities, although I'm sure that, being an Ivy league school, they have great humanities departments. </p>
<p>Stay away from Columbia. Columbia has what's known as "The Core," a rigorous core curriculum devoted to studying the "founding texts of our civilization." In short, murderously intensive reading of the classics, and overall a very structured curriculum that will leave you less room for personalization than, say, Williams, which only has distribution requirements. However, if you were determined, you could get some great instruction in the humanities, ESPECIALLY if you major in them. For me, personally, the tradeoff was not worth it.</p>
<p>Which is why I chose Amherst. Great school, open curriculum, liberal arts...it's worth considering ;)</p>
<p>Stanford also has this advantage: it doesn't force you to choose between a big city and a more rural location, as the others do. AND it's a lot closer to home, if Sydney is really home!</p>
<p>Have you been accepted yet? :)</p>
<p>Any of them will suit you academically. You need to look at other factors. You can't even begin to compare Dartmouth and Stanford in terms of weather, for one thing. Similarly, Columbia and Williams are vastly different in size and location. Dartmouth and Williams are fairly similar, but the other colleges are all distinctly different.</p>
<p>Based on your description, certainly Dartmouth & Williams.</p>
<p>Stanford may have the most prestige, but it sounds like Dartmouth/Williams is what you are looking for. Dartmouth has the reputation of being the "funnest" ivy if that matters to you.</p>
<p>This is solely by reputation:</p>
<p>Columbia
Stanford
Dartmouth
Williams
Cornell</p>
<p>However, all five are so excellent that a prestige rating is next to meaningless.</p>
<p>While Williams may not have the name recognition of, say, Stanford, it is the cream of the crop for liberal arts, and, thus, would probably be your best choice (followed by Dartmouth).</p>
<p>Overall reputation (liberal arts)
1 - Stanford
2 - Dartmouth/ Columbia/ Williams
3 - Cornell</p>
<p>"Warm and fuzzyness" i.e. strong community, friendly students, campus, etc
1- Dartmouth/ Williams
2- Stanford
3- Columbia/ Cornell</p>
<p>My personal choice:</p>
<p>Stanford or Dartmouth</p>
<p>I agree that Amherst is also a great option.</p>
<ol>
<li>Stanford</li>
<li>Columbia / Cornell</li>
<li>Williams / Dartmouth</li>
</ol>
<p>I would agree with slipper, although you can still do anything from any of them. However, I would put Columbia below Cornell in your warm and fuzzyness category.</p>
<p>
[quote]
My aim is to do a Liberal Artsish course.
[/quote]
If that is your hope, I would give serious pause to what the poster in post #13 has advised.</p>
<p>Clearly, it's Dartmouth & Williams of the schools you mentioned; Amherst, as well.</p>
<p>I would suggest looking at more liberal arts schools, Middlebury, Swarthmore, Claremont, Pomona etc….even Brown or Princeton, rather than being sucked into schools of a completely different character like Cornell or Berkeley for reasons other than your own.</p>
<p>ok presitgiuo wise:
1. stanford
2. dartmouth
3. cornell
4. columbia
5. williams (unless u live in the NE - then williams would be about 3ish)</p>
<p>where u should want to go:
1. Williams (fun community - meet people)
2. dartmouth - same reason
3. stanford - excellent school, most prestigious, but a lil to spread out
4. cornell
5. columbia - NYC is not a great place to live</p>
<p>You're really selling Columbia pretty low. It's got better name recognition than any of the others livies on that list. It's on par/slightly lower than Standford prestige wise.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Based on your description, certainly Dartmouth & Williams.
[/quote]
[quote]
where u should want to go
[/quote]
Rubbish. On what "description" are you basing that "certainty"???? The OP has given no information whatsoever other than an exeedingly vague desire to study liberal arts.</p>
<p>Any of the colleges listed are perfectly fine in liberal arts. They each have their strengths, of course. Williams is the obvious choice for art history, Stanford would be great for English, and Cornell is the best for archaeology. Is it really that clear that Dartmouth and Williams are the best for the OP? I really don't think so. The OP didn't give nearly enough information for posters to make suggestions or comments. </p>
<p>
[quote]
Stay away from Columbia. Columbia has what's known as "The Core," a rigorous core curriculum devoted to studying the "founding texts of our civilization."
[/quote]
Apparently a core curriculum is now a BAD thing for a liberal arts curriculum. That sure surprises me!</p>