[iXavier]

Hi all,

I'm between the second and third year of college, and I don't especially like where I go to school since it's basically treated as a commuter school, there's not too much college culture on the campus, and the people who live on campus go home rather often on weekends.

Where does everyone go to college, and why do they like or dislike where they go to school? I need some ideas on where to visit on my road trip in the fall to try to find a better school to attend, and what schools to avoid.

Thanks in advance,
x.

[funkboy]

One word: tradition.

From what I can tell, schools where kids really enjoy it a lot, who are adamant that, "Hey, I love this school!" are ones that are rooted deep in tradition. Ivy leagues, of course, have this. The school I attend, not an ivy league, does not have a large body of tradition. I hope that this can change, that some traditions can pop up at my school, because I think all students would benefit.

Students would be more interested in staying and/or living on campus, the campus would be more lively, filled with more diversity, more ideas, more parties, more variety of opinions, everything. Tradition creates a good feeling because kids, and also alumni, feel a connection with the past. My parents, who graduated from my current school, feel almost no connection with their college. They talk about some experiences they had with roommates and all, but not with the college itself, any weird traditions or anything.

Tradition. The guy from Fiddler on the Roof knew what he was talking about.

[SupahCoolX]

NYU rules because it's in New York City. Can't go wrong with that. All the culture and stuff you could want, plus some great food, plus all kinds of people (for better or worse ), etc.
Oh, and it's only a few blocks from the SoHo Apple Store!

[G4ME]

UMaine,

Its cheap, and great parties every freaking weekend, did i mention it was cheap has an astounding engineering dept.

[Axo1ot1]

Originally posted by SupahCoolX:
NYU rules because it's in New York City. Can't go wrong with that. All the culture and stuff you could want, plus some great food, plus all kinds of people (for better or worse ), etc.
Oh, and it's only a few blocks from the SoHo Apple Store!

You go to NYU?

I go to NYU.

So does teh Dell kid.

[BlackGriffen]

If you want a full blown college experience, might I suggest you look to either Boston or Philadelphia. Both towns have a ton of colleges in them. Just naming the ones I know off the top of my head:
Boston: Harvard, MIT, Boston University, (D'oh! I don't actually know of that many there, but I know that they do have a lot of Universities there).
Philadelphia: Temple, Villanova, St. Joe's, Penn, La Salle, Drexel, etc.

The UC system (University of California) also offers a good experience, if I understand correctly.

BlackGriffen

[Kronos]

I currently attend University of California in Irvine. All and all I feel it is a really good school. The college life aroung here is not all that bad, could be better, but not bad at all. Plus if you want more of a college life experience UCLA is just a 30 or so minute drive away, which has a really good college life. The only thing that keeps me unhappy about UC Irvine is that it is too close to home here in Orange County. And let me tell you, Orange County is filled with rich prepyy kids. So you will se lots of bimmers in th eparking lot. Now if I could only decide on a major.

Matthew

[tikki]

Purdue blows.

It's so cold in Lafayette in the winter, the math department has some very archaic grading methods, it's ugly (compared to IU), and I am still pissed about all the bomb threats I had to deal with during all the September 11 stuff. dumbasses.

[DeathToWindows]

Originally posted by BlackGriffen:
If you want a full blown college experience, might I suggest you look to either Boston or Philadelphia. Both towns have a ton of colleges in them. Just naming the ones I know off the top of my head:
Boston: Harvard, MIT, Boston University, (D'oh! I don't actually know of that many there, but I know that they do have a lot of Universities there).

BlackGriffen

Here's a few more...

Boston College
Brandeis
Simmons
Tufts
Northeastern

[Cipher13]

The University of New South Wales... UNSW... NewSouth... Tokyo Tech... whatever you wanna call it

Nicknamed Tokyo Tech because about 80-90% of students are Asian (one reason I love it... Asian girls rule). Hehe.

I dunno... I just love it. It's in the heart of Sydney (not quite as close to the heart of Sydney as UTS, but still), it's 10 minutes away from the beach, I love the campus, and the people rock.

Oh... and you'll never go to a better Oktoberfest

Awesome gigs, parties, etc.

Everything about it.

[funkboy]

Originally posted by Cipher13:
Oh... and you'll never go to a better Oktoberfest

You just said Oktoberfest.

You... said Oktoberfest!

Oktoberfest!

Most North Dakotans are either Scandinavian or... relating to Oktoberfest... German!

That's where my college can start at - a big Oktoberfest!!

Thank you for an interesting idea

[Paco500]

I went to Bates College in Lewiston, ME, and liked it quite a bit. It gets really cold, but the environment was great. No frats (one of the primary reasons I chose it) and close to lots of beautiful places.

Cost a fortune though. I was on heavy financial aid. Your family either has to be dirt poor (mine) or wealthy as hell. Middle class folks get the big screw.

[wataru]

I go to UW-Madison.

It's ok. Not great, not bad. Just like everything else in and about the Midwest.

"The Midwest--Come for the mediocrity, and stay for it, too!"

[willed]

Magdalen College Oxford

I'd have posted a pic, but iDisk is down It would have made it obvious why I like the place!

[Ozmodiar]

I'm wataru's neighbor over here at Marquette. It would be great if Milwaukee wasn't such a **** hole.

I really like the school, though. It took a while for it to grow on me, but now I enjoy it. What are you looking for in a school? If you don't mind the winters and like to have a good time, then I would recommend you check out a few Midwestern schools.

[Flash2000]

Originally posted by iXavier:
Hi all,

I'm between the second and third year of college, and I don't especially like where I go to school since it's basically treated as a commuter school, there's not too much college culture on the campus, and the people who live on campus go home rather often on weekends.

Where does everyone go to college, and why do they like or dislike where they go to school? I need some ideas on where to visit on my road trip in the fall to try to find a better school to attend, and what schools to avoid.

Thanks in advance,
x.

That sounds just like my college, I am also in PA. Your college wouldn't happen to be in Radnor, PA would it?

[fat mac moron]

Originally posted by BlackGriffen:
If you want a full blown college experience, might I suggest you look to either Boston or Philadelphia. Both towns have a ton of colleges in them. Just naming the ones I know off the top of my head:
Boston: Harvard, MIT, Boston University, (D'oh! I don't actually know of that many there, but I know that they do have a lot of Universities there).
Philadelphia: Temple, Villanova, St. Joe's, Penn, La Salle, Drexel, etc.

BlackGriffen

PA is where it's at...

Not just Philly either! Carnegie Mellon, Pitt, Duquesne, East Stroudsberg, Gwynedd Mercy, IUP, Ursinus, West Chester, Widener, and the University I attended, Kutztown! Kutztown has the angry chicken! Rar!

[Kitschy]

I agree with funkboy, it IS all about tradition.

I just graduated from the University of Oklahoma. And I have to say that it was the most amazing time of my life. From top to bottom this is an awesome school. First off, the campus is simply beautiful. Fountains, walking paths, bush mazes, flowers, telephone boxes (the red ones like in England), trollies, trees, trees, trees, and the gothic architecture is a surprise for a university on the plains. I've heard the budget on gardening and landscaping at OU is more than several of the colleges at any school. Secondly, when you come into OU as a freshmen, President Boren welcomes you to the "family." And it sounds so cliche, but it's really true. Thirdly, girls. The girls at OU are the hottest in the nation, bar none. I've had friends from all over from different universities and they're always very pleased with the amazing amount of hotties. The greek system is very big here, so if you're into that, there ya go. I've heard OU is a top 5 party school and top 5 hottie school. Price-wise, it's a deal. If you're into dance, meteorology, engineering or business, OU boasts being one of the top in the nation.

And of course, football. With OU being in two of the top rivalries in the nation: OU/texass and OU/nebraska, there's always rivalry and passion around here. This is what holds our university together. When 90,000 fans, students and alumni get together every saturday, it's something special. An OU football game should be one of those things that everybody has to do.

So there ya have it, architecture, landscaping, hotties, football, parties and price...come to OU and you'll love it! I love it.



http://www.ou.edu

[Jim Paradise]

Originally posted by Cipher13:
The University of New South Wales... UNSW... NewSouth... Tokyo Tech... whatever you wanna call it

Nicknamed Tokyo Tech because about 80-90% of students are Asian (one reason I love it... Asian girls rule). Hehe.

I dunno... I just love it. It's in the heart of Sydney (not quite as close to the heart of Sydney as UTS, but still), it's 10 minutes away from the beach, I love the campus, and the people rock.

Oh... and you'll never go to a better Oktoberfest

Awesome gigs, parties, etc.

Everything about it.

I don't know.. I think Waterloo throws a damn amazing Oktoberfest.... considering it's the thing this city's known for! (Hell, Kitchener was named Berlin until WWI!) Plus the UofW has that same ratio of Asian students (and yes, Asian girls do rule.. he he he).

[iXavier]

Originally posted by Flash2000:
That sounds just like my college, I am also in PA. Your college wouldn't happen to be in Radnor, PA would it?

Sorry for the late replies (and resurrecting a thread that I started), but I attend Temple University at the moment.

As a nod to the replies that Philly and Boston are good, I agree, and I'm definately going to check out Boston when I go off road tripping in the fall. As for Philly, I suppose being born and raised here makes it lose its charm a bit, but I don't have any basis of comparison...yet.

Thanks for all the replies, and keep 'em coming. Love your school? Hate it? I'd like to get as many different opinions as possible so that I can map out some schools to check out all over the place.

x.

[JLFanboy]

UMaine,

Its cheap, and great parties every freaking weekend, did i mention it was cheap has an astounding engineering dept.

G4ME, you go to UMaine? I live in Orono. Glad to hear you like it. Their engineering department does rock.

This isn't to imply that I go there. Heaven's no. Had to avoid the UMaine syndrome that affected so many of my high school classmates. No, right now I go to Emerson College in Boston, and couldn't be lovin' it more!

[maxintosh]

I'm going to Columbia University next year...

I've spent some time down there visiting, overnights, sitting in classes and so far I can say that I LOVE it.

First of all, it's in New York City, which is just an amazing city to be young and living in. You'll never run out of things to do.

Second, despite its location right in the middle of the city, it has a real campus! They own several consecutive city blocks with no roads running through it. The campus is gorgeous -- red brick, columns, fields, statues and the weird all-glass slanting student center-- it's like you're in another little world -- but walk outside, and you're right on Broadway street and there is a subway stop literally feet away (the 1 and 9 lines -- the stop is even called Columbia University). The dorms are nice too. This is one aspect of CU that really made me prefer it over NYU, which is scattered randomly about the Village.

Third, it's an Ivy League without the pretentiousness of Harvard or Princeton. So you get the kick-ass education, professors, funding and sports, but without the image of "preppiness".

Columbia holds strongly onto their CORE curriculum tradition -- there are a lot of requirements, but they're the best funded and some of the most interesting courses you can take -- they're highly interactive, as well, and exploit NYC as a great resource. They also have weird traditions like the swimming test (dating from World War II -- they were worried that students couldn't swim across the Hudson).

I'm very enthusiastic to be going there - the people I know there love it. If you're applying, APPLY EARLY as they accept about 30% of early applicants as compared to about 8% of regular applications. It is one of the ten most selective colleges in the country.

They have top notch engineering at the Fu School of Engineering but it's even more selective.

[Timo]

When this old man was in college, he really liked college, because in college no one was telling him what to do anymore.

He had to tell himself and so he grew up quick.

Tradition is good, but too much tradition can be stultifying.

[Avenir]

I have to throw in mine... i'm going into my 4th (of 5) years at Univ. Notre Dame and I think that it's great. The tradition is definately a huge part of it. I would type more, but I am learning Dvorak and it's a pain right now

[t_hah]

Talking about tradition, ASU would be the best college to go to as far as tradition goes.

We traditionally have really really hot girl wearing really short shorts, walking around making you drool. Nice "muscles", or as we call them here "batteries" seem to be a necessity too these days which just adds to the whole tradition thing. All you see is a bunch of DDs with see through shorts and tops.

I mean we are a really serious school! Really!

t

[Richard Edgar]

I quite like my college - for a start, it's been good enough to provide me with cheap accommodation for the past seven years. The odd free meal hasn't gone amiss either. The architecture grows on you too (even though it looks a bit dull at first).

[willed]

Originally posted by willed:
Magdalen College Oxford

I'd have posted a pic, but iDisk is down It would have made it obvious why I like the place!

Ah! iDisk is working, so here we are: why I like my college

http://homepage.mac.com/willed/magd1.jpg

http://homepage.mac.com/willed/magd2.jpg

http://homepage.mac.com/willed/magd3.jpg

http://homepage.mac.com/willed/magd4.jpg

[EDIT: NO BIG INLINE PIX! NOT MODEM-FRIENDLY!!! -- tooki]

[waffffffle]

Originally posted by maxintosh:
Third, it's an Ivy League without the pretentiousness of Harvard or Princeton. So you get the kick-ass education, professors, funding and sports, but without the image of "preppiness".

We are NOT pretentious and the vast majority of us are NOT "preppy." 50% of Princeton students went to public school, I am one of them. While I admit that myself coming from Long Island I found it strange to meet so many private school kids, it is not what you think. It is just a stereotype labelled on us by other Ivy league schools, particularly the kids at Penn who really hate us.

[Proudest Monkey]

I love my college. St. Cloud State University. Not much is known about my school outside of Minnesota, so let me inform ...

16000 Students
Located in St. Cloud Metro, population 150,000 - about an hour north of mpls/st. paul
70% of all teachers in MN graduated from SCSU

its great though - whats not to love about college. I feel like i'd have the same experience at any college i went to, but i especially like this one. And its in downtown st cloud, so there are tons of student bars.

[Sherwin]

I quite liked the last college I went to. Mainly because they used to give me $54 an hour to teach music stuff to hot chicks in dance gear (performing arts section, much like Fame).

[bkatran]

i love uc berkeley
great diverse college

[DigitalEl]

Man, as if I didn't feel bad enough about my lame college experience. I went to a crappy, small, private college in Downtown Pittsburgh.

Being downtown, you'd think would be cool... But not if you're a poor college student with no wheels. And like the thread-starter's, it was very much a commuter school and dead on the weekends.

I sure as hell wish I'd gone to a big, state school. Now I'm not in the northeast anymore and no-one's even heard of the school I went to. That's great when you're looking for a job with a Fortune 500. All this, and my small, private college was crazy expensive! Hell, I could've gone to Pitt, saved a ton of money, met more/better chicks, had a real campus and a degree worth more than the paper it's printed on.

On the upside, at college, I met my (now ex-) wife and two of my best friends on the planet. It wasn't all bad.

My only advice: Stay with a major university.

[beb]

Jeez, I guess that I haven't lived...

[Alex00087]

ugh it's all so competitive now..my dad told me that back in the day.. if you had the money, you could go anywhere you wanted..Harvard, Princeton, Stanford...and now I can only dream of going to an ivy...

I am going in my senior year of high school and so I have decided to just try for the University of California (UC) System and take whatever I can get with only my 3.7 GPA and a 1250 SAT score..im not expecting UCLA or Berkely, but im hoping and praying for UC San Diego (yea right), or hopefully UC Santa Barbara, UC Irvine, or UC Davis...

[Kronos]

I would not worry too much Alex. I only had a 3.51 in high school along with about a 1200 on my SAT. To my amazement I was accepted to UC Berkley, however, I went to UC Irvine due to family reasons and needing to stay near home. I come to find your GPA really is not everything. Hopefullt you can write a good personal paper and have lot of extra activities. Another thing I have found from my friends is apply for a major at the school of your choice that has little comptetion, then if you get accepted switch to the major you really want later on.

Matthew

[quesera]

My parents were clearing out their spare room yesterday and had come across my "really important documents to save" box. All my college admissions materials circa 1988 were there, including early admission acceptance to Notre Dame, full ride offer from UT Austin, acceptance to Princeton, Harvard, and letters about mislaid application docs for Yale.

Ultimately I chose Stanford, and I continue to wonder why.

The experience changed me, in most ways for the better, but it was a difficult time, emotionally, intellectually, and financially. I had some amazing professors but I had a fair share who were real arshlochers. Same goes for the student body. I think I truly believed in the spiel from the admissions catalog, all the touchy feely part about personal attention and lofty goals. Some of it was true in part.

I squandered some of the opportunities presented me, either being immature or uninterested, but other pursuits begun there continue to yield good things, and some are yet to bear fruit.

I try not to play what-ifs, and where I now find myself, I try to take advantage of whatever resources surround me. If a situation is lacking in facilities or faculty, cultural or social opportunities, or intellectually challenging peers and mentors, I try to look within, to the backlog of ideas and interests in my inner "really important box" of things to save.

[kidtexas]

Originally posted by waffffffle:
We are NOT pretentious and the vast majority of us are NOT "preppy." 50% of Princeton students went to public school, I am one of them. While I admit that myself coming from Long Island I found it strange to meet so many private school kids, it is not what you think. It is just a stereotype labelled on us by other Ivy league schools, particularly the kids at Penn who really hate us.

Princeton is a bit preppy, a bit more than the college i went to (swarthmore), though in my time here at princeton, I have met about as many private school rich kids as I did in Swarthmore, which is about as liberal as it gets. I personally went to a podunk public highschool where they offered 1 AP course in the school (which I didn't take) and about 10 kids out of 250 go to out of state colleges every year.

I think princeton would be a pretty nice place to go for undergrad. Just watch out for us sketchy grad students

[SimeyTheLimey]

I went to Georgetown for undergrad. It was stuffed full of prep school kids. I'd be amazed if any of the Ivey's are much different. It's basically the same pool.

Georgetown had some plusses and some minuses. If you are in to government or foreign relations-type majors, its very good. I went to the School of Foreign Service, which is the oldest specialized foreign relations school in the country, and arguably the best (at least for undergrad). The plusses include great professors - especially the adjuncts, and the students are pretty smart too.

The negatives are: if you have other majors in mind, I wouldn't necessarily recommend the university. It really isn't what I would think of as a full service university. In particular, the sciences are weak and there is no engineering. Other negatives include a borderline incompetant administration with lots of stupid fights over trivial issues like crucifixes in the classrooms. Oh, and did I mention it is damned expensive?

On the other hand, the location is nice if you want to be in the city but still have a real campus. Parts of Georgetown are downright pretty. Just a pity about the hideous library building.

[Phanguye]

what is the ivy league besides a name and an endowment?

i am at Indiana University currently and am getting my doctorate in Econ at U of Chicago after i finish there

[Nawoo]

Freshman at Georgia tech. Man the campus is in downtown atlanta. Ghetto place.

Girls, where are the girls?

Dining hall food is fast, junkfood all the way.

I'm only there for the degree....

[Weezer]

Originally posted by waffffffle:
It is just a stereotype labelled on us by other Ivy league schools, particularly the kids at Penn who really hate us.

haha, we sure do

[Cipher13]

Originally posted by funkboy:
You just said Oktoberfest.

You... said Oktoberfest!

Oktoberfest!

Most North Dakotans are either Scandinavian or... relating to Oktoberfest... German!

That's where my college can start at - a big Oktoberfest!!

Thank you for an interesting idea

My pleasure

[Scotttheking]

Originally posted by t_hah:
Talking about tradition, ASU would be the best college to go to as far as tradition goes.

We traditionally have really really hot girl wearing really short shorts, walking around making you drool. Nice "muscles", or as we call them here "batteries" seem to be a necessity too these days which just adds to the whole tradition thing. All you see is a bunch of DDs with see through shorts and tops.

I mean we are a really serious school! Really!

t

Hehe. UofA has the same thing, but actually has some intelligent people there, too. ASU is just all parties. Too many people, too. What is it now, 50K students?

And ASU doesn't have this:


/flame

ASU isn't a bad school, but ASU and UofA are massive rivals. UofA wins

[coolmacdude]

Originally posted by Nawoo:

I'm only there for the degree....

Yep, same here, although there really are more women than most people say. You just have to look in the right places.

[sniffer]

Many pretty universities.

I am starting as a freshman at the University of Troms� (Norway) next month. It claims to be "The world's northern-most university". It's pretty nice, but I don't much about how it's to go there.



(It's a old picture)

[Captain Obvious]

I went to UW-Madison for undergrad. I had a ton of fun but I can't say I got much out of the education experience. In fact the highschool I went to challenged me far more and fostered a greater sense of competition than 5 years at Madison did. Unless you are going to study in a field like engineering, computer science or some researched based science then I would NOT advise anyone to go to a public university.
40K students might be great to have around when you want to have parties but not when you want to sign up for classes. The curriculum for most majors is too narrowly structured to allow students to develop a thorough education. Public universities of that size are made to crank out degrees and bring in research money but not to develop students minds. You are really forced to take as many classes in your major as fast as possible and wandering outside that curriculum will only make completing college in a reasonable amount of time more difficult. It is not impossible to take a random class here and there but the whole concept of a balanced education is lost on them.

I for one will not allow my kids or siblings to go to a public university unless they are set on having a major like engineering. The benefits of a classical education at a private school far outweigh the money that might be saved from going to a state school. In the end it ultimately matters what graduate school you get into and I'd rather have my offspring be able to think in more multifaceted ways than can be learned in public universities. If all you want is a degree go to a state school if you want to learn go private.
Grad school is a different story. I like DC, I like the fiercer competition, and I liked the challenge.