<p>What combination of schools do you think would best serve all purposes? That could educate any type of student. The party/frat guy/girl, the academic, the sports jock, the recluse…</p>
<p>Only two schools. Relatively close proximity(Same region – hopefully Same State). Social atmosphere, Academics, Athletics …</p>
<p>Remember: The first/second has to give the first/second things that they would lack otherwise. Major contributions. No stacking =/= No Cal + Stanford simply because they’d double and own the world. Find other reasons.</p>
<p>I would go with Northwestern and the University of Chicago.</p>
<p>I don’t think either NU nor Chicago would do well at educating the “average” student (and by that, I mean a true “B” student – not “average” by CC standards). Both are much too selective, choosing only the very top students. Neither school has enough easy majors or “fluff” courses.</p>
<p>Another is DEFINITELY Harvard/MIT. Harvard lacks a strong engineering school. MIT has strengths that overlapp though. MIT lacks a medical school…</p>
<p>UCSF (medical) + UC Davis (agricultural and veterinary) + UC Berkeley (everything else) = strong combination. In fact, they were all part of the original “University of California” before it started up that southern branch…</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon and University of Pittsburgh would do well to cover pretty much all the bases out there. CMU can take all the high-end engineering/science kids, people that want a small school, and one that’s not too urban. Pitt is a large public with strong fraternities, very urban, and all of the professional schools.</p>
<p>Michigan/Michigan State. Broadest range, everything from ag and packaging (a real major at MSU) to classical archeology and engineering physics.</p>
<p>Another one would be the combination of UF and the New College of Florida. UF would appeal to your jock/frat/average student while New College would take the most unique and intellectual students.</p>
<p>I also like the combination of UT-Austin and Rice.</p>
<p>UCLA and Caltech are like polar opposites. One with a mega huge student population, another with a tiny one, UCLA with a huge sports tradition, Caltech, may not so. Caltech’s immense strength in pure sciences and engineering could help out and vice versa for the qualities and strenght of UCLA. Party culture at UCLA could lighten things up for Caltech students a swell.</p>