<p>Some of these posts (“small town America”) make Appleton sound tiny. It isn’t. It has a population of 78,000, about the size of, say, Iowa City. And the Fox Cities as a group total 360,000. Not Chicago, but not Grinnell or Williamstown, either. The town’s main drag is within walking distance of campus and has all the bars, coffee shops, pizza joints, and college funky shops you’d expect. Also within walking distance is the performing arts center, which brings in national acts on a regular basis. Bill Maher was performing the day we visited, and was enthusiastically received by a very urbane-looking crowd. You may or may not like him, but you’d have to agree that he doesn’t target small town America (or the Amish!) as his audience. Don’t know anything about the Chinese department, but I have a friend whose D (from a “real city”, NYC), studied Russian at Lawrence loved her time there, and found a job in Russia after graduation. My guess is that there are few colleges as small as Lawrence that offer majors in Russian and Chinese.</p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong, I think Lawrence is great. But I lived in the Fox Cities for fourteen years. Outside of campus, Appleton is a small, okay, city. Surrounded by smaller cities and small towns. The Fox Cities area does NOT feel like a group of connected cities. Great people. I love Wisconsin. And it’s bigger than Grinnell, and maybe (?) Northfield. But for some kids, esp those coming from true urban areas or sophisticated cities, and outside of the campus area, it really has a small-town feel. And it’s far from places where you get city advantages-- a couple hours from Milwaukee, and a few from Chicago. Appleton is definitely not Iowa City. </p>
<p>The smallest college town that I’ve lived in was quite sophisticated-- Hanover, NH. And the bigger college town I live in now doesn’t always feel like a college town (Eugene). It’s a different experience for every person, I guess. Great and not so great aspects to every kind of college town.</p>
<p>Appleton, population 78,000.
Iowa City, population 67,000
Northfield, population 20,000
Grinnell, population 9,000</p>
<p>I’ve lived in Iowa City and have a son who studies in Northfield. (I also lived in Hanover; wasn’t too sophisticated back in my day, but that was long ago). :)</p>
<p>Thanks! See, that’s what I mean. Appleton is bigger than IC but feels much less imo like a college town than IC, which is dominated by UofI. Appleton is more dominated by its industry (so many of my college friends or their dads worked at Kimberly Clark or International Paper). Northfield is tiny but feels so… college-y because of Carleton and StO.</p>
<p>@reeinaz: my son loved the yurt and barn too, and the whole idea of Hampshire “on paper.” I agree with mythmom’s suggestions (and also her observation that my son is cool 
). Bennington especially seems very similar to Hampshire but in a less brutal, more bucolic setting. Marlboro is TINY but seems to attract the kinds of kids who are drawn to Hampshire. And FWIW, my son also was accepted to Bard but was slightly turned off by the pretension as presented by this article…</p>
<p><a href=“Home - CCS Bard”>Home - CCS Bard;
<p>We also have a family friend who is a current student there. He LOVES it, but confirmed that there is a significant “angtsy hipster” component, something my son would not enjoy.</p>
<p>My late and much loved MIL lived near Storrs. I find that whole area pretty bleak.</p>
<p>DD’s BF and my kids’ second cousin both recently graduated from Bard. Both are doing exceptionally well.</p>
<p>Appleton, WI may have a university but it is not a college town. Son did a gifted summer program that used the campus- far too small and limited for him (and me). Green Bay, WI has both a college and a university but it is not a college town. Madison, home of the flagship UW, is a college town (along with state government). Vastly different vibe to UW than other colleges in the state despite the large proportion of Wisconsin residents from those same small towns as the other colleges and those from MN and IL. </p>
<p>Ah- the radicalism of the '60’s was very prevalent at UW as well as at Berkeley- I hadn’t known about Columbia. I missed the strikes and campus shutdown with the early '70’s winding down of the Vietnam war, still interesting times.</p>
<p>Architecture does matter, as does landscape. Having gone to UW, a place with a lake and hills, it is hard to imagine a boring flat quad (UW has a quadrangular lawn, but it is also a steep hill, but the fountain leading into a shopping street plus the lake are very close- several places to congregate). I find the Stanford campus uniform and boring- the buildings, not just the flat terrain. I understand disliking uniform Colonial (or other styles) architecture.</p>
<p>@ Brave U–Thanks for the stats! I am surprised that Pton 388/Vnova 356?? Sitting here slack jawed… Wow… is all I can say.</p>
<p>Princeton is 49% “white/non-hispanic” (2,535 out of 5,160 degree seeking undergraduates)</p>
<p>Villanova is 76% “white/non-hispanic” (5,232 out of 6,898 degree seeking undergraduates)</p>
<p>Yes, looking at the facts in the Common Data Sets, would lead one to say that Princeton is more diverse than Villanova.</p>
<p>For comparison:</p>
<p>Harvard - 46%
Yale - 47%
Penn - 46%
Stanford - 35%</p>
<p><a href=“http://registrar.princeton.edu/university_enrollment_sta/common_cds2011.pdf[/url]”>http://registrar.princeton.edu/university_enrollment_sta/common_cds2011.pdf</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://www.villanova.edu/enroll/assets/documents/CDS_2011-2012.pdf[/url]”>http://www.villanova.edu/enroll/assets/documents/CDS_2011-2012.pdf</a></p>
<p>No dispute about non whites , but that disparity is due to Asian and international enrollment.</p>
<p>Villanova Asian 6% , non resident alien 3%
Princeton Asian 19% , non resident alien 11%</p>
<p>If Asians or internationals are concerned about diversity , they would on point.</p>
<p>NewHavenCTmom post was regarding Black students , and Villanova / Princeton are not disparate in that regard…Black students Princeton 388/Villanova 350</p>
<p><a href=“BigFuture College Search”>BigFuture College Search;
<p><a href=“BigFuture College Search”>BigFuture College Search;
<p>DD is definitely looking for a good mix…She felt that Pton was also too country club/Ralph Laurenish… She is not really interested in any HBCU’s… she will apply to Spelman just for the hell of it…her feeling is that life is not all black…so why go to a school that is all black? She has always had a very diverse group of friends! </p>
<p>HBCU’s typically don’t have lots of $ to give and she needs LOTS of $$$…</p>
<p>NHMom: If your daughter is looking at Spellman, she might want to look at Emory too (>10% “Black or African-American”) - <a href=“http://www.oirpe.emory.edu/institutional_research/Common%20Data%20Set%202011%202012[/url]”>http://www.oirpe.emory.edu/institutional_research/Common%20Data%20Set%202011%202012</a></p>
<p>Also, Penn if Villanova is of interest. It is less country clubish than Princeton and >7% African-American - 717 of 9,779:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.upenn.edu/ir/Common%20Data%20Set/UPenn%20Common%20Data%20Set%202011-12.pdf[/url]”>http://www.upenn.edu/ir/Common%20Data%20Set/UPenn%20Common%20Data%20Set%202011-12.pdf</a></p>
<p>Wis75-- Seeing Bascom Hill strewn with students in the summer sun combined with the Union on Lake Mendota (does any other school have a better Union used by more students in every kind of social crowd??) sealed the deal for me. I loved Madison from that moment.</p>
<p>I worked in a building that had holes in one of the walkways from the bomb blast in the physics building in 1970 set by war protesters.</p>
<p>I never wanted to go to UW- from a Madison suburb and wanted to leave town, but so glad I ended up there. A world apart and fantastic. Badger alumni are world wide, not just all over the country, and proud of the school. Sorry folks if we’re hijacking this thread. btw- son shocked me by also going there and enjoying it despite it being mom’s school. He’s the one thousands of posts ago I may have said wouldn’t visit Harvard when visiting MIT. Nor did he and H visit Yale on the way to Princeton when on the spring break visit to east coast schools. Don’t know why to this day.</p>
<p>UVa: I first visited UVa 25 years ago and thought it was amazing. Prior to this recent trip, the word on UVa from acquaintances, USNWR and this site, was how great it is. Perhaps our expectations were unrealistic. Regardless, we found it … okay, I guess. It felt a bit unattended to, under construction, uncohesive, it didn’t strike a chord of any kind. I don’t know how else to describe it.</p>
<p>Bay - I have to say I agree. Step-D and I visited last summer and the construction was really disappointing. Probably nothing UVA can do about that (I assume they need the renovations or new buildings - of course! but it does take away from really experiencing (visually) “Jefferson’s vision.”</p>
<p>Bay/Laurendog,</p>
<p>Thank you for your posts. I fully agree based on my recent visit there.</p>
<p>Bay - We found the same issues at UVA when we visited with S-11 two years ago. We all felt the campus was beautiful in parts but disjointed overall and the information session was absolutely the worst session of any we have attended. (Speaker and content - or lack thereof and she was one of the senior admissions officers.)</p>
<p>D-14 spent 4 days at the local HOBY program at Ohio Northern University (Ada - west central smalltown Ohio just east of Lima and I-75) and has crossed all schools in small towns off her list. There was a local cafe and a Subway in town. Didn’t do much for her. :eek: This summer she now wants to look only at schools in small to medium cities, suburbs, or urban environments.</p>
<p>Daughter was shocked at poor condition of Baylor University freshman dorm. Creeped her out, when she was previously excited about school.</p>