Northwestern HPME vs. Princeton vs. Vanderbilt

hawkette
Sat, 05 Apr 2008 15:55:16 +0000

It’s not that students can’t have a good social life at each of these colleges, but part of the answer lies in how the students enjoy themselves and what are the students themselves like and how this matches up with what you enjoy.

I think it is fair to say that you will have a strong group of peers no matter which school you attend (and none have a particularly cutthroat academic rep for areas like pre-med), but which group of students would you prefer to hang out with, go to parties with, go to sporting events with, etc? What types of activities go on on each campus and how prominent are they in the overall life of these colleges? What activities have you enjoyed in high school and, if you plan to do something similar or not in college, what’s interesting on those campuses that you could get involved with? What are the respective cities like and how dependent on students on those cities to find a good time?

Furthermore, each of these colleges has changed a lot in the last decade and the historical stereotypes may not be good guides to what each campus is like today. Hopefully, you have friends who have preceded you at each campus and who can give you more insight.