<p>I’m a rising senior and the only college that I’ve sat in a class for was UCLA. Personally, I found it just O.K., reasonably interesting but nothing to get really excited about. I would really love to go to a college that has interesting, engaging classes that are really enjoyable to attend. If you have any suggestions, I would love to hear.</p>
<p>I’d prefer schools in California or at least the west coast, but if there is a perfect school for me out east I would apply.</p>
<p>My stats are good enough that I will apply to some of the very prestigious colleges (Ivies, Stanford, etc.) but I don’t expect to get in–I’m more banking on choices similar to UCLA and Berkeley.</p>
<p>I know “engaging classes” is a bit of a vague, subjective idea, but I’d just like some outside opinions on colleges to look into. Thanks for your help!</p>
<p>Yeah, I looked at the Claremont colleges and they looked nice, but really expensive. You don’t have any idea how good financial aid is there, do you?</p>
<p>Well they are need blind. UCLA and UCB are going to be costly due to the state of California’s economy I would think. They are known to be (the Claremont Colleges) generous with financial aid.</p>
<p>There are many colleges that can provide a great classroom education, but it’s not necessarily those with the best reputations within academia. As an aspiring undergrad, I urge you to check out the many sites that can provide “fly-on-the-wall” perspective, ie, those sites that actually ask the paying customer what he/she thinks of what they’re getting in the classroom. </p>
<p>IMO, CP is probably the best of this bunch and below are their grades for Academics. A high ACADEMICS grade generally indicates that professors are knowledgable, accessible and geniunely interested in their students’ welfare. Other determining facors include class size, how well professors communicate, and whether or not classes are engaging.</p>
<p>GRADE OF A+ </p>
<p>Caltech
Dartmouth<br>
MIT
Princeton<br>
Stanford<br>
U Chicago<br>
Bowdoin
Harvey Mudd
Williams</p>
<p>GRADE OF A </p>
<p>Brown<br>
Carnegie Mellon
Columbia<br>
Duke<br>
Emory<br>
Harvard
Northwestern<br>
Rice<br>
Tufts<br>
U Penn<br>
U Rochester
Vanderbilt<br>
Yale<br>
Amherst
Bard
Barnard
Bryn Mawr
Carleton
Claremont McKenna
Davidson
Macalester
Middlebury
New College
Oberlin
Pomona
Reed
Scripps
Smith
St.Olaf
Swarthmore
Ursinus
Vassar
W&L
Wellesley</p>
<p>GRADE OF A- </p>
<p>Brandeis<br>
Cornell
Georgetown<br>
Georgia Tech<br>
Johns Hopkins<br>
Lehigh<br>
McGill<br>
Notre Dame<br>
Tulane<br>
U Virginia<br>
UC Berkeley
UCLA<br>
USC
W&M
Wash U<br>
Bates
Belmont
Clark
Colby
Colgate
Colorado College
Connecticut College
Fashion Institute
Grinnell
Hamilton
Hanover
Hastings
Haverford
Kenyon
Lawrence
RI School of Design
Trinity
Wesleyan
Williamette</p>
<p>GRADE OF B+</p>
<p>Boston College
Case Western
George Washington
NYU
Purdue
Rensselaer
U Illinois
U Maryland
U Miami
U Michigan
U North Carolina
U Pittsburgh
U Texas
UC San Diego<br>
UC Santa Barbara<br>
Virginia Tech<br>
Wake Forest
Albion
Alverno
American
Babson
Birmingham Southern
Bucknell
Catholic
Centre
Holy Cross
Wooster
Depauw
Dickinson
Earlham
Emerson
Franklin & Marshall
Grove City
Hampshire
Howard
Illinois Wesleyan
Lafayette
Mount Holyoke
Muhlenberg
Occidental
Pitzer
Rhodes
Rochester Inst. Technology
St. Joseph’s
Sarah Lawrence
Susquehanna
U Puget Sound
U Richmond
Valparaiso
Villanova
Wheaton (IL)
Wheaton (MA)
Whitman</p>
<p>GRADE OF B </p>
<p>Boston University<br>
BYU
Fordham
Indiana U<br>
Ohio State
Penn State
Rutgers
SMU
Syracuse
U Connecticut
U Delaware
U Florida
U Georgia
U Iowa
U Minnesota
U Washington
U Wisconsin
UC Davis
UC Irvine
UC Riverside
UC Santa Cruz<br>
Alfred
Allegheny
Ball State
Beloit
Bentley
Bradley
Cal Poly State U
Centenary
College of Charleston
Creighton
Denison
Duquesne
Elon
Furman
Geneva
Gettysburg
Gonzaga
Goucher
Guilford
Gustavus Adolphus
Hollins
Idaho State
Illinois State
Ithaca
Juniata
La Roche
Lewis & Clark
Loyola (MD)
Loyola Marymount
Luther
Marlboro
Marquette
Millsaps
NC State
Northeastern
Ohio Wesleyan
Pepperdine
Providence
Rollins
Santa Clara Univ
Seattle
Seton Hall
Simmons
Skidmore
Southwestern
Spelman
Stetson
Texas Tech
Trinity (TX)
Truman State
Union
U Buffalo
U Arizona
U Cincinnati
U Denver
U Kansas
U Mass
U Nebraska
U Oklahoma
U Rhode Island
U San Diego
U South Carolina
U South Dakota
U Vermont
Virginia Commonwealth
Warren Wilson
Washington & Jefferson
US Military Academy
Xavier</p>
<p>GRADE OF B- </p>
<p>Clemson
Michigan State<br>
Texas A&M<br>
Arizona State
Auburn
Baruch
Baylor
Binghampton
Cal Poly Pomona
Cal State Northridge
Clark Atlanta
Drexel
East Carolina
Florida State
Hampton
Hofstra
Hunter
IUPUI
Iowa State
James Madison
Kansas State
Kent State
LSU
Loyola (IL)
Miami U
Mid Tenn State
Montana State
Northern Arizona
Northern Illinois
Ohio
Old Dominion
Sacramento State
San Diego State
Slippery Rock
St. John’s
St. Louis
Stony Brook
Temple
Tennessee State
TCU
Towson
U Albany
U Alabama
U Central Florida
U Colorado
U Kentucky
U Maine
U Mississippi
U Missouri
UNLV
U New Hampshire
U Oregon
U San Franscisco
U South Florida
U Tennessee
U Utah
U West Virginia
Wilkes</p>
<p>My parents can afford the UC system, but it is expensive. My worry with private colleges is that they have a much higher price tag, and since my family has a decent income (I don’t think I’d qualify for need based aid at the UCs) I’m afraid that we won’t be able to afford those schools. If financial aid is good enough for a middle class family that the actual cost will be the same (or preferably less) than UCs, I can hopefully go. Less would be better of course, though.</p>
<p>I’ll definitely look into them some more. Do you have any specific one you think I’d like? I looked into Harvey Mudd already, and it looks great. I’m just worried that it’s both very hard to get into and it costs a lot.</p>
UCLA offers around 1900 courses a semester. You’re judging it based on one class? :rolleyes:</p>
<p>Any school has a mix of interesting and boring classes. I had several professors who made class fly by, and I had a couple who almost made me rethink my majors. It’s primarily a matter of carefully selecting courses and asking for advice from fellow students. The teacher, not the school, makes or breaks a class. Smaller schools often (but certainly not always!) have good instructors, but larger schools have more flexibility - they have more course offerings, and often two or more instructors will be teaching a lower-level course (e.g. you’d have several options for intro comp sci).</p>
<p>Haha, not exactly. (Although my friend who took me said this was her favorite class, which worried me a bit. But maybe we just have difference interests.) I’m still applying to UCLA, I’m just wondering if there’s a better option for me besides a huge public school. I heard that a lot of the science and math classes there are large lectures, which I’m not sure I’d like too much.</p>
<p>Please note that the ranking posted by hawkette is based on concealed methodology and potentially careless statistical analysis. I would still look at it, but don’t take small variations among schools for truth. </p>
<p>There are some schools called public LAC’s that might meet your criteria. Here is a link to their organization: [COPLAC</a> | Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges](<a href=“http://www.coplac.org/]COPLAC”>http://www.coplac.org/) They tend to have small class sizes that are very focused on discussion. Might be more what you are looking for and more affordable in some cases. St. Mary’s in Maryland has a very good reputation, but not sure what their merit scholarship policies are. What are your stats?</p>
<p>Stats:
White female
GPA: 4.0 uw, about 4.5 weighted
Taken all honors and AP when available
SATs: 2170 (will retake, especially since I’m pretty sure my math score can be much better)
700 math 720 reading 750 writing
ACTS 33 composite
34 Math 35 English 35 Reading 28 Science 9 on essay
SAT II
800 Math II 780 Chem 710 Lit
APs
5s on Language, Calc AB, US history</p>
<p>Major ECs:</p>
<p>Academic Decathlon (11,12): loads of medals (highest score at regional, 3rd in division at state), team captain next year, paid internship writing study material for the competition this summer</p>
<p>Journalism (10, 11, 12):
Writer(10-12), copy editor(10-12), page editor(11, 12), won a couple of county awards, summer internship at local newspaper</p>
<p>Speaking from experience, Washington and Lee offers very small classes that are extremely engaging.
Like many top liberal arts colleges there are no TAs teaching classes, and the professors at Washington and Lee are here because they love to teach, not just because they love to research, which is a problem you would get at other schools. W&L is also excellent giving out financial aid; the people at their aid office seem to truly want to help the students. The school is not for everyone, but if you think you might like it, you should at least apply and/or visit.</p>