<p>@warblersrule I am interested in ecology, molecular biology, and several other aspects of biology. Honestly I want a school that is strong everywhere biology-wise so I can choose which part I like most. </p>
<p>@dustypig: I live in the Denver-metro area, Colorado</p>
<p>Curious about when the student visited, @dustypig. In the summer the Claremont campuses do feel pretty “dead” (we toured Pomona and Mudd on a 100+ degree day a couple of summers ago – the most activity we saw was in temperature-cool basement labs at Mudd with summer research students working on robots). </p>
<p>Okay, I went back and re-read your original post, and I think you should take U of Chicago off your list. You said you want a school without harsh weather, you want to be near an ocean, and you want a marching band, none of which Chicago has. You also mentioned lack of school spirit at Columbia as a problem for you – this will also be a problem at UChicago. And you probably won’t have time to visit this fall. Take it off.</p>
<p>It sounds like the campuses you’ve visited and you know you like are Cal and Yale. You visited Stanford and didn’t like it because it was too clean and artificial – but you still intend to apply because of the location and the reputation. Based on that, I agree with whoever said you should consider Duke and USC (though I have no idea how they are for biology, which I think you said you want to major in). You might also consider UCLA.</p>
<p>I’d take off UChicago, Columbia and Pomona. Pomona has the weather you want, but no marching band, and as I said before it just doesn’t sound like it will have the kind of campus atmosphere you want. Certainly don’t spend an app on Pomona without visiting to make sure you want it.</p>
<p>I hope you do have some time to visit campuses – and I think you should go to Seattle and visit UWashington. It is more important to be sure you like your safeties than your reaches, because the odds are greater you’ll be attending one of them. Also, I know you are local to Boulder, but have you actually gone to the campus? No excuse for not making yourself familiar with that campus. You have to LOVE your safeties or you might be a very sad person this April.</p>
<p>@intparent, I’m not sure when this family visited Claremont – it might have been during spring break. But when my daughter and I visited it was when classes were in session and we both noticed the difference in feel between the huge, busy UC campuses we’d visited previously. Mind you, this was a huge plus for both of us! My D1 still remembers UC Davis primarily as the place where you can’t step into the street without being in danger of being run over by a horde of bicycles.</p>
<p>Lol… skateboards are probably a bigger risk on the 5C campuses, but in general I doubt you would be run over.</p>
<p>
I too thought Duke would be a great fit, but I was afraid that was my bias speaking. </p>
<p>Duke is great for the sciences in general. Only Princeton and Harvard have produced more Goldwater Scholars than Duke, and it’s comfortably in the top 10 for NSF production. </p>
<p>Duke really shines in biology and environmental science, however. Its biology program has more concentrations – animal behavior, primatology, plant science, marine biology, evolutionary biology, neuroscience, biochemistry, pharmacology, genetics, and more – than any other top private university except Cornell. I’ve waxed eloquent on biology and earth science at Duke in past posts.</p>
<p><a href=“Duke Biology - #2 by warblersrule - College Search & Selection - College Confidential Forums”>Duke Biology - #2 by warblersrule - College Search & Selection - College Confidential Forums;
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/4722123/#Comment_4722123”>College List for a Science Major - #9 by warblersrule - College Search & Selection - College Confidential Forums;
<a href=“strongest colleges undergraduate enviromental sciences - #5 by warblersrule - College Search & Selection - College Confidential Forums”>strongest colleges undergraduate enviromental sciences - #5 by warblersrule - College Search & Selection - College Confidential Forums; (Ignore the weird formatting; the new forum has messed up some old posts.)</p>
<p>Duke’s marine lab allows students to spend a summer, fall or spring semester, a full year, or even a year + summer at its wonderful campus in Beaufort. (I could write a very lengthy post about only the marine lab. I’ll refrain for now.) It has been trying to appeal to a wider audience than just marine biology undergraduates, so in addition to oceanography it offers policy courses and general courses like molecular biology and physics. If you’re going to prep for med school, why not do it at the beach?</p>
<p>DUMB is relatively laidback as marching bands go (4 hours of practice a week, compared to ~8 at Michigan), but students take it seriously. It’s a good, tight-knit group. I don’t know about its current policies, but when I was a student it was required to play for football games in the fall if you wanted to play for the basketball games in the spring. (Needless to say, that was back when Duke went an entire season without a single football win.)</p>
<p>
To be fair, Lake Michigan could pass for an ocean. Northwestern even has its own beach.</p>
<p><a href=“Northwestern University Recreation - Official Athletics Website”>Northwestern University Recreation - Official Athletics Website;
<a href=“http://www.nusoccercamps.com/Assets/NU+Soccer+Camps+Digital+Assets/NU+Soccer+Camps/Beach.JPG”>Error Page;
<p>It’s definitely lacking the other two criteria. </p>
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<p>True. OP, why is being near an ocean important? Having lived in Hyde Park and now living in the Bay Area, and having often vacationed at California beaches and once on the East Coast, there’s a difference between “I want to be able to hear the waves” and “I want to be able to go to a beach every now and then.”</p>
<p>@dustypig you are exactly right about the things that I want. I don’t know about taking UChicago off, though; I still really like just their general academic atmosphere. I will consider USC. I’ve been to UCLA and really liked it; I think I took it off because of the size of the student body, which seems a little silly now that I compare it to Berkeley. Duke does seem really nice, but I’ve never really considered it, probably because it’s in the south. I might look into it. Are the other departments as good as its biology? I want the freedom to be great in whatever departments I choose. I didn’t mention this before, but I am also interested in a strong Japanese curriculum, since I’ve taken the language since middle school and am interested in pursuing it further. </p>
<p>I have visited boulder. I really like it, and many of my best friends go there. </p>
<p>The reason I want to be near an ocean is because I am tired of my grassy, dry, suburban surroundings. I don like having to travel across miles of flat plains to get to anywhere else. I love just looking at an ocean, and I love the climate that comes with ocean fog and mist, which regulate the temperatures and humidity. That’s why id be ok with UChicago; it has a lake. And I’m honestly ok with cold, if I like everything else. It gets pretty cold where I live, but I was looking for something different. </p>
<p>Hi! As someone who lives five minutes from a beach, I get what you’re saying about them. Which is why I suggest looking into UCSB as a safety school. Its research is about tied with Berkeley’s in terms of impact, and it’s easy for undergrads to get involved with impact. The school spirit there is about mid-tiered I’d say, but everyone goes out to watch the soccer games. The marching band is alive and well, and there are a million clubs on campus. The atmosphere is super laid-back and chill for a university of its size, but this is also probably because of its location in Santa Barbara. SB is a super awesome suburb-type city, and there’s a surprising amount of things to do in a suburb like SB. A lot of activities have to do with being in nature because of its prime spot on the Pacific. And you’ll definitely get in, OP. </p>
<p><a href=“http://■■■■■■/KUmdIA”>http://■■■■■■/KUmdIA</a>
<a href=“http://■■■■■■/9LpRuQ”>http://■■■■■■/9LpRuQ</a></p>
<p>Also worth noting: SB is about 72 degrees or so year-round. So you can hang out on the campus’s beach (Campus Point) any day of the year. </p>
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Durham and Chapel Hill differ from southern towns like Lubbock and Fort Worth, just as Boulder differs from Colorado Springs. You will find liberal and conservative people everywhere, and many of the most diverse and fastest growing cities in the country are in the South. Moreover, southerners are a minority at Duke, as most students come from other regions of the US or from other countries. </p>
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It’s a top research university, so yes, it has other good programs. Top 5 programs include anthropology, religion, classics, BME, public policy, and environmental science. Top 10 programs include English, statistics, and political science. It’s top 15 in history, sociology, psychology, and art history and top 20 for economics and math. I’m probably forgetting some programs, and some of Duke’s unranked programs are considered very strong like dance and women’s studies.</p>
<p>Duke offers cross-registration with UNC, and a bus runs between the two campuses every 30 minutes. Two strong research universities sharing resources results in more courses and opportunities than any undergraduate could adequately utilize. </p>
<p>I have a hard time imagining the same student being happy at UC - Boulder and U of Chicago. VERY different vibes and academic cultures.</p>
<p>Update: I have looked at UCLA, USC, Duke, and UCSB. I didn’t like USC too much; the focus seemed to be more on business, communications, and film. I think I will apply to UCLA though. I’ve visited the campus and found it really nice. </p>
<p>Duke actually seems great! I will probably apply there. It’s interesting how it was never mentioned to me before. </p>
<p>UCSB was intriguing, but the atmosphere seemed a <em>little</em> laid back to me. I might apply there, but I probably won’t have room. </p>