<p>We live in a very diverse school district, and my daughter is used to a rainbow of faces in her classes and extracurriculars. She is having a negative reaction to any college we see that is too homogeneous–really makes her feel uncomfortable. So far her first choice is NYU, but we plan to visit a range of other places, from MIT to Chicago, UMD College Park, possibly Rice, and Kenyon. She wants to major in math but wants strong liberal arts as well, especially theater. Are these schools diverse? And can you recommend anywhere else that might interest her? She will view a range of schools, some of which will hopefully offer money while others are a big reach.</p>
<p>Coming from PA, these two schools come to mind:</p>
<p>Temple University has one of the more diverse student bodies on the East Coast and also has a strong theater program.</p>
<p>University of Pittsburgh also has a fairly diverse student body and has a good liberal arts program.</p>
<p>Both are public schools in major cities, so they tend to attract a more diverse crowd than highly priced, selective private schools which can be filled with very privileged kids.</p>
<p>Thanks–do they both have strong math programs, do you know? </p>
<p>Other suggestions welcome…</p>
<p>I don’t know how to judge whether the math programs are “strong” although you can take a look at these links and see what each school offers.</p>
<p>[University</a> of Pittsburgh - Department of Mathematics](<a href=“http://www.mathematics.pitt.edu/]University”>http://www.mathematics.pitt.edu/)
[Department</a> of Mathematics | Temple University](<a href=“http://www.math.temple.edu/undergraduate/]Department”>http://www.math.temple.edu/undergraduate/)</p>
<p>Also what is your state of residence? I would check out your in-state public university options.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that schools can be “diverse” in different ways. When my daughter was looking at colleges, she also was turned off by schools that didn’t seem very diverse (I remember visiting Colgate with her–she immediately loved the campus but was very turned off as soon as she entered the dining hall–and not because of the food 
). She eventually decided on Johns Hopkins, which she considered to be very diverse. And it is in that Hopkins has many students who are Asian (including Asian-Americans and students from China, South Korea, Japan, etc.), many students from the Asian sub-continent (from India, Pakistan, etc as well as Americans with ancestry from those places), students from Africa, etc. But Hopkins has never had a large population of African-American students or Hispanics–which is how some people measure diversity (Hopkins actually works quite hard at trying to increase the number of African-Americans but because Baltimore was formerly a segregated city, it is an uphill battle). For example, someone on this thread mentioned Temple. Indeed, Temple is a diverse place in that it has a significant African-American student population, particularly from the Philadelphia area. But Temple will have a far smaller percentage of students of Asian heritage than a place like Johns Hopkins (or Berkeley or Stanford, for example). So are they both diverse, or not?</p>
<p>My point is that diversity is not uniform so that you really have to define more specifically what you are looking for.</p>
<p>I saw from another post your D is half hispanic and you are a NJ resident. Have you checked out TCNJ? She sounds like a fit for that school and it has the diversity you are looking for, plus you would qualify for cheap instate tuition.</p>
<p>Also you should be aware that Pitt actively recruits highly qualified out of state and minority candidates so your d might get merit money from them up to full scholarship.</p>
<p>If you visit MIT, also visit Harvard, 3 more miles up Mass Ave. Both the diversity and the theater performances are breathtaking.</p>
<p>Thanks! We have a friend who teaches at Harvard and have stayed with her several times, so we know it well. It would be a huge reach for D, as would MIT, but both are on the “maybe” list. </p>
<p>We will also look at TCNJ and Rutgers. </p>
<p>Re: type of diversity, I think it’s a general feeling to d–she is “creeped out” by campuses that are too white. Her older brother attended Juniata but left after a year because he hated the “racist environment” (his words) as well as the isolation–so she’s even more sensitive to it as a result.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure that’s not going to be a problem, engineerbill. Any company that is “too white” may have a hard time doing business by the time she’s ready to work there. Nor would they be anxious to hire her.</p>
<p>Facetiousness aside, multiculturalism is now the norm in the only parts of this country where my daughter is likely to live.</p>
<p>Emory University!!! :)</p>
<p>Emory is by far one of the most diverse colleges (socioeconomically, ethnically, religiously) diverse school within the top 20…</p>
<p>Thanks! Much appreciated.</p>
<p>^however the index is calculated I think you’ll be hard pressed to find a top 20 school more diverse than Columbia. high proportion of African Americans, high proportion of Asians, Hispanics, Jews, pell grant recipients, first generation to college and international students / students schooled outside the US. there’s also a huge diversity of majors across sciences, engineering, social sciences and humanities. I’d say Stanford compares in many ways.</p>
<p>Columbia is definitely on the list – it’s a high reach for her, but she plans to try.</p>