<p>Hey everyone,
I’ve been doing research on colleges for a few months now (I’m a junior), and I’m having trouble figuring out the right school for me. Basically, I really like Northwestern’s academic and social atmosphere, but it is less than an hour from my house and my high school sends way too many kids there every year. So if you guys could give me some suggestions for east-coast schools, considering my academic and social preferences, that would be great.
First and foremost, I’m pretty sure that I want to major in economics, possibly with an international emphasis, so I want to go to a school with a renowned economics program and a good IR program.<br>
Also, I’d like for my peers to be hardworking but not cutthroat. In terms of prestige, I’m interested in schools in the USNWR top 35 besides HYPSM.<br>
Socially, I would like an environment with a variety of options, not just a frat party every night.<br>
Diversity in the student body is also very important for me, and I would prefer to go to a school where students are very liberal and down-to-earth.<br>
Location-wise, any setting besides a very urban or a very rural environment (if the school has a small student body like Dartmouth) would be fine.<br>
I also really value school spirit. I don’t want to be surrounded by jocks for four years but still would like a school with decent D1 sports.<br>
So far, I’ve been very interested in Cornell, but I’m just worried that it has too much emphasis on the sciences.
Thank you so much for your time</p>
<p>Well, Northwestern is my ideal school, too. I can tell you that east coast schools I like (other than Yale and Princeton) are U Virginia, Cornell, and Georgetown. G’town is a kinda different school than the other three…very politics-heavy…UVa is probably closest…beautiful campus, D1 sports, similar size, strong academic reputation.</p>
<p>Penn (10 char)</p>
<p>Yeah, Northwestern’s up there for me, but mostly because of the great combination of music and academics.
Haven’t found anything yet =/, but if I do I’ll post (again).</p>
<p>boston college, wake forest, tufts, unc chapel hill, duke</p>
<p>boston college, wake forest, and unc? not really comparable in terms of academics/prestige…i think Cornell is the most similar school to Northwestern, and it happens to be on the east coast, so there ya go.</p>
<p>Penn and Cornell</p>
<p>I would just like to reaffirm Penn and Cornell. I feel that Penn is Northwestern with a city-fell and Cornell is Northwestern with a more rural-feel. However, if I had to pick one, I would pick Penn (but only slightly)</p>
<p>Because you do not want a school that is too urban, that might rule out Penn. Rural is not a concern to you if the studentbody is above 4,000 or so if I understand your reference to Dartmouth College. And you already are considering Cornell University. Some others to consider are Duke, Tufts, the Univ. of Virginia. It is , however, difficult to recommend schools without more info. regarding SAT/ACT scores, GPA & ECs. Based on your initial post in this thread, Boston College may not be a match if you want a liberal, non-jock environment. Don’t worry too much about cut-throat academic atmosphere as that tends to vary by major rather than by school.</p>
<p>But I would like to say that yes, Penn is urban, but it is not downtown and is almost on the edge of the city. Unless you have visited it, don’t rule it out based on its size. Also, Cornell’s campus is huge even though it is rural</p>
<p>Duke, Dartmouth, Brown, Penn, Georgetown seem to have similarities to NU is on way or another.</p>
<p>Tufts and UPenn.</p>
<p>Northeastern U, perhaps?</p>
<p>Although it is too urban for you, Columbia University is similiar to the Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences at Northwestern, and both schools offer engineering & theatre/drama. The 25th percentile of matriculated students is also close: 1350/1600 for Northwestern & 1360/1600 for Columbia for the class of 2011.</p>
<p>Socially very different though. Columbia has much more in common with Chicago than NU.</p>
<p>RM…good luck with your search. I agree with comments above about Cornell. You should also check out Duke – isn’t NC on the East Coast? Looking beyond the “East Coast,” you might want to consider the following: Rice, Bucknell and Lehigh. Best…</p>
<p>UVa and Georgetown sounds like good candidates; Charlottesville is the perfect small city, and Georgetown (the neighborhood) is so beautiful that I don’t think it seems urban in the stereotypical way of no open spaces/no greenery.</p>
<p>Thank you all for your suggestions–they’ve been extremely helpful. So far, it seems like i should look more into Georgetown, UPenn, UVA, UNC, BC, and Bucknell, etc. Any more input would be highly appreciated though.</p>
<p>I am not sure that BC & Bucknell are similiar to Northwestern in most respects.</p>
<p>i don’t think northeastern is similar at all to northwestern besides their names being close to the same.</p>