For me it’s more about the experience than the college for me. The first time around I had to commute from home and work full time at the the same time. I wasn’t able to join any clubs or experience college life. It was just go to class and then go home.
And two national championships this year.
Well I may get hazed for this but I think I’d choose Notre Dame. It’s just got a great vibe, particularly in the fall. I’d take easy but interesting classes and do the work but never study for tests. And I’d never take a class that made you write long papers. Then I’d study abroad every spring in a different country. Then I’d become a Rhodes Scholar and hang at Oxford.
This is all based on me doing this now, not me when I was 18. I was a fool at 18.
Why would you be hazed?
It would be on millions of people’s lists in the real world.
Football games and lively debates. Cold winters and beautiful falls. Awesome campus.
I would go to the University of Hawaii, which is where I wanted to go in the first place, but my parents wouldn’t let me apply.
I still haven’t made it to Hawaii, but DH promised me a trip if his team ever wins a Superbowl.
@Groundwork2022 move to New England to help improve those odds. It’s a nice place too. Happy to have you! ?
@privatebanker New England is where I grew up! Love it there too.
The trick would be getting DH to switch team loyalties. 
Switching football loyalties is harder to pull off than a junior year transfer to Harvard.
Rice, beer-bike, raucous theme parties, strong academics, beautiful campus.
Not that I would have been able to stay enrolled…
Then maybe Wisconsin or Minnesota, if I get to chase the sun on spring break and attend the summer session.
If I had to go back, I’d choose Eckerd or Flagler or University of Miami! More for the weather then anything else. Out of all those, Eckerd would be my number 1. Everything I hear about that school sounds great and the location looks amazing!
Williams. For all the reasons @jon234 said. But while we are dreaming, I’d change myself too. More live in the moment and soak up every experience possible, and less focused on grades.
Yale for sure. Those residential colleges are amazing.
Colorado College. Love the Block Plan! One can spend part of the block studying at a different location with the class - all that travel, that one-at-a-time course focus, the nearby mountains, the beautiful location…definitely Colorado College.
I loved my experience so much at Auburn University, I woudn’t change anything. Went to pharmacy school there, met my husband there, we’ve had a good life so far. So yes, it would be Auburn again for me (my D is at UF, hence my profile pic)
@tif1972 ?
I would pick Stanford for undergraduate and then UCLA Law School for entertainment law. Good weather for Stanford and strong across the board departments and entertainment law was the area I wanted to go into. I did get into UCLA Law School with my 2.9 GPA in college but another law school near my parent’s home gave me a free tuition economic scholarship, so I ended up going there. I have no regrets but that law school was not my dream law school, although it was in top 25 and I basically went to law school for free by staying at my parent’s house and commuting to law school. I realized that cold weather affected me negatively in this manner: when the weather was very cold in Ithaca, it made me not want to get out of my bed and attend classes, so I skipped around 30% of classes, so I definitely need to go to a college in warm area. Also, it was very important for me that I attend a college which has strong departments across the board because I am the type of person who will want to take a variety of classes to find out what I don’t like and what I like. I tried all kinds of classes in college and found out that I would make a terrible engineer despite my 790 SAT math, and that I was good at writing creative essays lying in bed and not studying hard.
I am still thinking of finishing, so this isn’t fantasy. People in their 50’s, 60’s and 70’s or even older can still go to college. In fact, some retirement and assisted living communities intentionally locate near colleges.
I got into Penn and Brown in 1969 and didn’t go. I sometimes don’t understand why- until I read or watch something about the late '60’s. It’s complicated. I went to Appalachia to work instead.
If I could go back, I would be less idealistic, more conventional, and would have gone to Brown, where one of my kids actually did go. I love the ability to choose courses, the campus, the city- and the vibe.
I also like Bennington. In my old age (!) I have discovered movement (despite arthritis), even a talent for it. I love to sing (madrigals). And at 63 started painting which is a major focus for work and fun. I would have loved to have found these “passions” earlier and been able to do a little of all of them in some interconnected way.
But I can do these things now, one way or the other. We don’t have to go back, we can go forward!
Oops meant Pembroke in 1969- Brown was for guys!
Oxford for undergrad, and LSE for grad school. They seem to combine the best of the US and UK systems, and I like the focus required.
I’d go to my alma mater but major in something much easier. Just have a ton of fun. It could be a party school if you actually had time to party. I’m going to assume my choices don’t matter the second time around. As an alumni I party much more.
Love to try out an IVY type class just to see what the hype is. Fun thread.