Please, help me to decide!

College Search & Lists
1

<p>I’m planning to study in the US next year trough an exchange program called ISEP (<a href=“http://www.isep.org%5B/url%5D”>www.isep.org</a>). In order to apply succesfully, international students have to choose ten universities from the ISEP-list, so I did.</p>

<p>I picked these universities:</p>

<ul>
<li>University of Denver</li>
<li>University of Minnesota (at Minneapolis)</li>
<li>UNC Chapel Hill</li>
<li>University of Vermont</li>
<li>University of IOWA</li>
<li>Loyola University New Orleans</li>
<li>North Park University Chicago</li>
<li>University of South Carolina</li>
<li>Eckerd College</li>
<li>St. Edwards University (Austin, TX)</li>
</ul>

<p>Basically, I’m looking for a university that has both a decent academic level as well as a nice (social) environment to live in. Based on this criteria, which universities would you put on top of your list?</p>

<p>I’m also especially interested in Loyola University New Orleans, and wether this is a good school. Furthermore, being gay, I’m not looking for a homophobic environment, do you think any of the listed places should be considered as homophobic? (the religious universities for example)</p>

<p>Thanks very much already for those who help me decide!</p>

2

<p>I’m guessing this reply is too late to have any impact on your decision, but if you’re concerned about at atmosphere that might be homophobic - please avoid North Park. I went to college there (albeit some years back) - and it was a VERY conservative religious college - affiliated with the Evangelical Covenant Church. They were not very warm/friendly toward anyone gay. There were two girls I knew of in our dorm that were - and many of the students bashed them constantly. I was straight - but wasn’t Covenant - and I even felt some discrimination toward me due to just that!</p>