If YOU had to rank these schools, how would you?

College Search & Lists
1

Hi! I finished applying to all of my colleges, now I’m wondering how other people would rank the schools I applied to. I know that at the end of the day, it’s my decision but I’m just curious to see how others see it.
You can rank the schools by however you want! Whether it be best football team (if any), best social life, best academics, best financially, best Greek life, etc! However you like! Just whatever differs the schools from each other. I am doing my own research too.
UC Santa Barbara
UC Davis
UC Santa Cruz
Cal Poly SLO
San Diego State University
San Jose State University
University of Denver
CU Boulder
University of San Francisco
Pace University
Fordham University
Northern Arizona University

2

I’m not sure about the other schools, but as a Colorado resident I can say that Denver is known as the “hardest” to get into (It’s debatable, though. Some would say Boulder, and others would say Denver) but Denver is the most expensive, by far. And for CU Boulder, Boulder is generally known as a “laid back, very liberal” town as well as VERY expensive to live in. Compared to other state schools like CSU, Boulder is known for giving out less aid.

3

UC Davis / UC Santa Barbara
Cal Poly SLO
Fordham
UC Santa Cruz
CU Boulder
Denver
Univ of SF
San Diego State
Pace
Northern Arizona
San Jose State

4
  1. UC Santa Barbara
  2. UC Davis
  3. Cal Poly SLO
  4. Fordham
  5. UC Santa Cruz
  6. CU Boulder
  7. U of Denver
  8. San Diego State
  9. U of San Fran
  10. San Jose State
  11. Pace
  12. Northern Arizona
5

Mm, I don’t know enough about all of these schools but I’ll take a stab. They’re ranked in order of where I’d like to go, if I were going back to college and had to pick from this list only.

UC-Santa Barbara
Cal Poly SLO
CU-Boulder
UC-Santa Cruz
San Diego State
San Jose State
CU-Denver
UC-Davis
University of San Francisco
University of Denver
Fordham University
Pace University
Northern Arizona University

Things that colored my rankings:

-I’ve lived in New York for a majority of my life, and have no desire to return. Fordham is an excellent school, though, and would be higher on a more objective list. In fact, I’d probably put Fordham just behind CU-Boulder.

-The flip side is that I’ve never been to California and I think the idea of living there for a few years might be fun. I’ve heard UCSB is nearby the beach and probably has the best reputation out of the UCs on the list, so I put it first. I’ve heard lots of good things about Cal Poly SLO and it’s reputation for tech and sciences so I stuck it second.

-People ahve told me that Santa Cruz and Davis are weird, so they’re further down. But UCSC has that whole crunchy social justice thing going on, and I’m into that.

-San Francisco is a really expensive city for a college student, and USF is an expensive private school, so it’s near the bottom.

-As much as CA would be fun, I also think Colorado sounds pretty awesome. I’ve always wanted the experience of going to a big traditional university so that’s why CU-Boulder is so far at the top - I’ve heard good things about Boulder as a college town and it’s not too far from Denver. CU-Denver is a branch campus, so it’s down further, but Denver sounds like an awesome city.

-SJSU and SDSU are about equal in my mind, I think? But San Diego sounds more fun. Although SJSU has those Silicon Valley connections. Anyway, they’re about equal.

-I don’t have very good associations with Pace AND it’s in New York. I think it’s way overpriced. so it’s near the bottom.

-I don’t know anything about Northern Arizona, but I’m betting it’s in a more rural location.

6

I would put Pace and Fordham at the bottom of the list. Fordham is in the Bronx, but has a nice campus, but I think of Pace as mostly a commuter school.

7
  1. UCSB/Davis
  2. CU/Fordham
  3. Cal Poly/Banana Slugs U
  4. U Denver/SDSU
  5. USF/SJSU
  6. Pace/NAU
8

They all blend together and are completely undifferentiated to me.

9

  1. CU Boulder: I lived in Denver this summer and loved going up to Boulder to hang out, hike, and sometimes use the school’s academic resources. The parties are pretty fun as well. If you can afford it, I’d go there.

  2. UC Santa Cruz: The surrounding environment is amazing. Everyone I know that has gone there is awesome, the college town is small but cute, and the school has some outstanding programs. Plus it’s definitely possible to do a day trip up to the Bay Area.

  3. UC Santa Barbara: I love visiting my friends who go here. Strong academics, great parties, fantastic weather, and solid location make it a fun place to go to college. Getting an off campus apartment however seems to suck. For whatever reason, I’ve never met a single person who was a massive Santa Barbara fan.

  4. San Diego State University: San Diego is a great city. Good outdoors, fun parties, phenomenal weather, and a solid academics. If you’re into it, they have sports derived school spirit which can be cool.

  5. University of Denver: Overpriced private school, but its easy access to downtown Denver makes it a great place to go to school. Most of the campus is pretty ugly, but again, you’re right outside of Denver.

  6. UC Davis: I hate the location of this school, but the academics are strong across the board.

  7. Cal Poly SLO: Great location for outdoors enthusiasts, but the college town aspect of it is definitely lacking. While a few programs are phenomenal, many others are rather poorly developed. I also dislike that the school discourages cross department registration, making it difficult for students to explore an area of interest outside of their declared area of study.

  8. Fordham University: Not really a fan of living in a true city for college. I’ve grown to appreciate being in an enclosed campus and then occasionally exploring the surrounding city. I also would not like to live in NYC, particularly as a cash strapped college student.

  9. San Jose State University: Good school if you live nearby, but on campus life is often pretty dead from what students at the school have told me. I’m also not a huge fan of San Jose, although it’s a great location for future internships.

  10. Northern Arizona University: Love Flagstaff, but the academics at the school, particularly for my major, are weak.

11/12) University of San Francisco/ Pace University. I don’t like going to school directly in a city, and the academics are not nearly strong enough to justify their exorbitant price tags. Students who want to live off campus are likely to find themselves screwed by outrageously high housing costs.

10

Alphabetically.

I haven’t attended, or even visited any of the schools on your list.

11

Also don’t kid yourself that people outside California can distinguish all those myriad schools.

12

I’ve never been to california. I live in rhode island. I didn’t like fordham much when i visited. The manhattan campus was stuffy, small, and too fashion/theatre oriented. That said, the dorms and location are amazing. The bronx location was kind of out of the way and too religious, but had a pretty campus.

I’ve heard great things about Cal Poly SLO

UCs are supposed to be good, though expensive, but I dont know how they compare to eachother

13

CU Boulder
Northern Arizona University
UC Santa Barbara
UC Santa Cruz
San Diego State University
San Jose State University
UC Davis
University of Denver
Pace University
Fordham University
Cal Poly SLO
University of San Francisco

14

I was going to say alphabetically, but looks like someone beat me to it. I don’t think most people could tell these apart, so I hope others’ opinion isn’t a factor in your decision

15

I would put USF above San Diego State, San Jose State, Northern Arizona, and Pace.