<p>Can anyone suggest me a good college that meets all (or most of, at least) the following criteria?</p>
<p>Offers double majoring
Has both English and Philosophy majors (and is strong in those, especially English)
Has an extensive study abroad program, including one in Tokyo, Japan, that I, as an English and Philosophy double-major, would qualify for
Has a literary magazine
Has a theater/drama group for non-Drama majors
Is in or very near an urban area
Is not religiously affiliated
Has more out-of-state students than in-state students
Has no political bend (as in students come from a variety of political groups, are not primarily Democratic, Republican, etc., and the school itself has no declared political affiliation)
Offers single room dorms (as in no roommate) or apartment-type housing
Has a flexible and non-traditional (more strange than standard) curriculum</p>
<p>In or near an urban area elliminates a lot of great schools—especially liberal arts colleges—so you might visit some of each and assess how important that criteria is. Most schools have extensive study abroad. Many schools discourage double majoring because by the time you fulfill the requirements for both majors you won’t have time for a broad range of other things. So you might end up with a major and minor anyway. Finally, a lot depends on your stats. Wesleyan, Brown and Amherst have very open curriculums (wrong plural?) but is your combined CR + math 1400 or over? U. Chicago is the opposite of open curriculum but seems to meet some of your other criteria (and has early action!)</p>
<p>Your are really limiting yourself. Suggest you sort these into major and minor importance buckets, or rank these (or did you?). I don’t have enough encyclopedic knowledge to be able to help you, sorry. I think if remove some of the more frivolous criteria, you would at least get some suggestions that you can start looking into. Did you find nothing so far?</p>
<p>Also it is almost impossible to find a school that isn’t left leaning (except for religious), the students, that is.</p>
<p>Some items on this list are pretty common at “top 100” colleges and universities:</p>
<p>Double majors: While some schools do make it more difficult to major, almost all will allow you to double major. And English & Philosophy are two majors that generally work well together. [Double majoring with one or both majors in engineering, music performance, fine arts, and physical science can be much more problematic due to prerequisite structures and time commitments.]</p>
<p>Extensive study abroad: Pretty common these days. And many are part of consortiums that run additional programs. It’s pretty easy to find out specific information about study abroad programs from a college’s web site. As for study abroad in Japan: Some will restrict Japanese programs to students who have taken Japanese in college. You’ll have to check with the individual program.</p>
<p>Literary magazines: Most have something like this.</p>
<p>Is not religiously affiliated: Most schools are not religiously affliated. Many had religious affiliations in the past, but now the affiliation has been severed. And at many religiously affiliated schools, the affiliation is so tenuous that it’s not really noticed.</p>
<p>Has more out-of-state students than in-state students: This will be true only at some private colleges and universities. Many privates will still have a majority of their students coming from the local area (i.e. in-state). Typically the only schools that will be dominated by OOS students are privates that are well known and pretty high in the various ratings.</p>
<p>Has a flexible and non-traditional (more strange than standard) curriculum: Depends on what you mean by “flexible” and 'non-traditional". The two don’t go hand in hand. St. John’s College in Annapolis has a very non-traditional curriculum (by 21st century American standards), but has no flexibility at all. Many schools with a traditional core have some flexibility in how to meet the core requirements----they may also have so many courses that meet each of the core requirements that it’s not difficult for a student to finish their core requirements with a very strange and non-traditional mix of courses.</p>
<p>Two of items on your list will be difficult (but not impossible) to find individually. They will eliminate lots and lots of colleges, including many in the top 50 of the USNRW rankings:</p>
<p>Is in or very near an urban area: Unless “urban” includes mid-size cities, this can be quite restrictive. Also many top LACs are in pretty small towns or rural areas.</p>
<p>Offers single room dorms (as in no roommate) or apartment-type housing: While many colleges have single rooms and apartment style housing for * upperclass students*, most do not have these options readily available for first time freshman.</p>