Perfect college... is it possible?

lamoore09 · 03-24-2009, 01:58 AM

I need some help from you guys to help me find the "perfect" college/university.

I'd like the college to have the following characteristics:
- An undergraduate student body size of 15,000 or more.
- The student body to be diverse (about 75% or less is white).
- The campus to have aesthetic beauty.
- The campus to be located in a city where the population is over 100,000 or so. I'm open to cities the size of Madison, WI to the size of Chicago, IL.
- Entering freshmen have an average ACT score of 25-30.
- The campus to have a "college town" feel. I definitely don't wanna go to a "suitcase" college where everybody leaves on the weekend.
- The student body to be friendly.
- The weather to be nice. I live in Ohio right now, so I'm used to hot summers and cold winters. All around nice temperatures would be nice, though.
- As I said before, I live in Ohio, but I'd like to go out-of-state.
- A large majority of the students live on campus and do not commute back and forth to school.
- At least 10-15% of the undergrads are out-of-state, even though 20-30% would be better.
- The student body to be more liberal than conservative.
- The college to have a strong science department. I'm unsure about my major right now, but I'm leaning towards biological sciences.

Got any suggestions? I know it's pretty much impossible for a college to have all of these characteristics, so I'm willing to sacrifice a few of them if there are other great qualities that make up for it. I'm pretty open to new ideas. Okay, I'm ready...

Alexandre · 03-24-2009, 03:46 AM

You have just described the University of Michigan and the University of Wisconsin...minus the warm weather.

Chairman Meow · 03-24-2009, 03:51 AM

UCLA/UC Berkeley? They fit almost everything.

-UCLA: Not sure about college town feel/ACT scores
-UC Berkeley: Not sure about ACT scores

ilovebagels · 03-24-2009, 05:22 AM

I second Alexandre's UMichigan. Perhaps U Washington as well...

Alexandre · 03-24-2009, 05:31 AM

Cornell University (cold, college town with fewer than 100,000 and average ACT is 30)
Indiana University-Bloomington (Cold, college town with fewer than 100,000)
University of California-Berkeley (90%+ are California residents)
University of California-Los Angeles (not much of a college town feel, 90%+ are California residents)
University of Florida
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor (cold)
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (ACT average for OOS students may be over 30)
University of Texas-Austin (not that much of a college town campus, 90%+ are Texas residents)
University of Virginia (not that liberal, but not conservative either)
University of Washington
University of Wisconsin-Madison (Cold)

ilovebagels · 03-24-2009, 02:15 PM

UVA and Cornell are also a bit smaller than 15,000 undergrads. Others might be too, but those are the only ones I know offhand.

ElizaB · 03-24-2009, 03:50 PM

Sounds like USC minus the "college town" part. Wisco, Cornell, Indiana, UMich also come to mind.

abc0 · 03-24-2009, 06:21 PM

eh this definitely doesnt fit all of your criterias but many: clemson univ

good weather, great spirit and close student body and big size, great science program, not as competitive as mich., UCB, UCLA
but the town around is dull

tays · 03-24-2009, 09:23 PM

SMU!

about 6000 undergrads and ~1300 incoming freshmen each year
it's located in dallas, tx so it definitely has the "college feel" with a great big campus
smu students are really respected in dallas
and of course, since its in tx..the weathers nice

but hten i dont know about its strength in the sciences...

TPL09 · 03-24-2009, 10:45 PM

Pitt!
- An undergraduate student body size of 15,000 or more. Check
- The student body to be diverse (about 75% or less is white). Check
- The campus to have aesthetic beauty. Its good for a city campus. Cathedral of Learning is beautiful.
- The campus to be located in a city where the population is over 100,000 or so. I'm open to cities the size of Madison, WI to the size of Chicago, IL. Check, Pittsburgh.
- Entering freshmen have an average ACT score of 25-30. Check
- The campus to have a "college town" feel. I definitely don't wanna go to a "suitcase" college where everybody leaves on the weekend. Check
- The student body to be friendly. Check
- The weather to be nice. I live in Ohio right now, so I'm used to hot summers and cold winters. All around nice temperatures would be nice, though. Weather's not that great, rains a lot. But its ok.
- As I said before, I live in Ohio, but I'd like to go out-of-state. Check, PA.
- A large majority of the students live on campus and do not commute back and forth to school. Check.
- At least 10-15% of the undergrads are out-of-state, even though 20-30% would be better. Check.
- The student body to be more liberal than conservative. Check.
- The college to have a strong science department. I'm unsure about my major right now, but I'm leaning towards biological sciences. One of the best. Its pre-med, nursing, biology, and chemistry departments are very good.

applicannot · 03-24-2009, 10:54 PM

American, but minus the strong science department part.

MidwestMom2Kids_ · 03-25-2009, 03:41 AM

DePaul in Chicago.
I think it fits all of your criteria.
Try to visit! The feel, energy, vibrancy on campus is terrific. The students are happy. The campus is in a fun, hip neighborhood.
(If stats make it look like they don't have as many students on campus as you'd like, see the campus; they really do - there are privately owned apartments mixed in with college buildings around the edge of the campus - the upperclassmen in those apartments are on campus, really.)

laurenlolol · 03-25-2009, 07:17 AM

maybe university of colorado denver or boulder.

Moxymom · 03-25-2009, 09:01 PM

My daughter's looking at similar colleges...including Pitt, UM & DePaul (also Loyola in Chicago). My question about DePaul...are the sciences (bio, etc) very strong there compared to the other 3 schools? Otherwise...wow, they are all great schools and she hasn't been able to make up her mind yet.

lamoore09 · 03-25-2009, 11:24 PM

Thanks everybody. My top three schools as of now are U of Wash, U of Wisc, and U of Pitt.

Moxymom, I don't really know much about Depaul, but I think it'd be safe to say that Pitt and UM both have stronger science departments.