Post your own state's college reputations'

GentlemanandScholar · February 12, 2006, 7:53pm

California:

UCLA–Good school spirit, good academics, lots of rich kids (sons and daughters of hollywood types)

USC–Rich kids, good school, excellent film school

UC Davis–Cool town, big campus with a lake in the middle, good academics

Cal Tech–great math/science, full of smart, hardworking nerds, glorified trade school

Berkeley–Nothing like what people have been saying. The only hippies in Berkeley are either alums from the 60’s or beggers on Telegraph. Alot of nerdy math types, alot of psudo artist/poets, decent amount of preppies

Staford–Highly overrated, hard to get in but cakewalk once you get there, lots of hand holding, lots of drugs (F.B.I just busted a student for selling coke/weed/pills to out of his dorm room), used to have good athletics but they pretty much suck now, biggest, most prestigious taco bell on the planet

DRab · February 12, 2006, 9:13pm

Some of Stanford’s teams are still good. Oh, and Berkeley is a lot like UCLA, generally speaking.

Sam_Lee · February 12, 2006, 9:30pm

Huh? <a href=“http://nacda.collegesports.com/sports/directorscup/spec-rel/062905aaa.html[/url]”>http://nacda.collegesports.com/sports/directorscup/spec-rel/062905aaa.html</a>

They won the women cross country and placed 2nd in men’s water polo so far this year. It’s very likely the women tennis team will win another championship. Many other teams are currenly ranked. Looks like the above poster doesn’t know what he’s talking about. By the way, if Cal is so tough, I wonder how their athletes with average SAT lower than 1000 (no joke; 7th/8th lowest in Pac-10) manage to pass those “tough” classes. ;)

firewalker · February 12, 2006, 9:35pm

“men’s water polo”

…LOOOOOOOOOOOL

DRab · February 12, 2006, 9:46pm

Sam Lee, I’d ask the same of many of the stanford stars. Gentleman C’s and B’s, primarily, what else?

bobisbob · February 12, 2006, 10:04pm

Here’s Tennessee:

UTKnoxville- BIG party school, good athletics, decent but not great academics. About a fourth of my public hs goes there- mostly popular kids looking for another 4 years of good times. The campus is exceptionally ugly, but the surrounding area’s pretty nice- a little crime, but great restaurants and stuff. All UT schools have a ‘dry campus’ policy, but its obviously ignored here on a 24/7 basis. Definitely the best known of the UT schools.

UT Chattanooga- A lot smaller and relatively unknown compared to UTK. Not a lot of people from my area go there, and it seems as though most of the campus is comprised of average kids from the chattanooga area who never really considered shopping around for colleges- UTC was nearby, so they just end up going there just so they can go to college somewhere.

UT Martin- Unless you live near Martin, you prolly won’t know UTM exists. People who do know about it know that its in the middle of nowhere- in a town with, like, one traffic light. Same as Chattanooga in that it pretty much just attracts townies who don’t want to go away.

Middle Tenn. State- Has the largest undergraduate population in Tennessee. Nothing spectacular about it academically; they have nice aerospace and teacher education programs. They’re building a cool Honors Program, but the regular college is not challenging at all. Half my school ends up there. Basically 4 more years of high school. Frats are kinda big there.

Vanderbilt- Definitely the most prestigious school in the area. People are visibly impressed if you tell them you attend Vandy. It’s not respected for its athletics, but it doesn’t matter. Top 5~% of hs students prolly go there, sometimes because they didn’t get into better OOS private schools, but mainly because Vandy was their top choice in terms of academics and prestige. Kinda conservative, frat scene is huge. Popped collars. pearls, and a hint of elitism aren’t uncommon.

Rhodes- Maybe the second best academically after Vandy. The architecture is Absolutely Gorgeous. It doesn’t have the greatest location in Memphis, and rumors of the campus area being unsafe is prolly the main deterrent for people who choose not to go there.

There’s others, but those are the main ones that I’m familiar with. Lots of religious schools in the Nashville area. Anyone that wants to elaborate- feel free to

GentlemanandScholar · February 12, 2006, 10:39pm

My stanford post was not meant to be taken seriously. I was just having some fun with stereotypes. You don’t need to me to tell you stanford is great. That said, I would wager a guess that neither Cal nor Stanford’s major atheletes are asked to take the toughest classes. Sam Lee, where in my post did I say that Cal’s sports stars took tough classes? And I don’t think too many people are going to argue about the fact that stanfor athletics are going through a rough patch. Their football team was bad, and they’re basketball team wont make the NCAAs. That’s really all that matters. Do you think these rich alums are sitting up in their offices, wringing their hand about how they can improve the waterpolo team? Of course not. All anyone cares about is football and basketball. That’s where the money is and that’s where the coverage is. Have you seen fencing on sportscenter lately?

DRab · February 12, 2006, 10:43pm

Sportscenter should have more fencing.

Sam_Lee · February 13, 2006, 1:02am

GentlemanScholar,

Don’t guess, just look at the athletes’ profiles readily available on Stanford athletics’ homepage. Many of the Stanford athletes came with great academic record. They have one of the highest average SAT scores among all D-1 teams. Cal athletes’ is shockingly low and is like 8th lowest in the Pac10 (lower than schools like oregon or washington…etc). Speaking of lack of hand holding at Cal, you are right on that, esp when it comes to the athletes. Cal doesn’t care if their athletes can graduate; all they want is just USING them.

Actually Stanford alums have much more balanced view than you think. Basketball and football are indeed the weakest among their teams; the tradition comes more from swimming, baseball, volleyball, tennis teams, numerous Olympians or just overall excellence. By the way, Stanford alums would rather preserve the tradition of having academically qualified athletes than having a great team made up of “questionable” ones; the last thing they want is to have academic scandal like the one in Cal few years ago. ;)

GentlemanandScholar · February 13, 2006, 1:21am

Well, I guess you just explained why Stanford athletics are in the dumps. Thanks! Speaking of scandals, did any other students get busted for selling coke/pot/illegal pills this week?;)

DRab · February 13, 2006, 1:23am

Dude, Stanford is using its athletes just like any other school. Please don’t fool yourself into thinking otherwise. Also, atletes do get some special assistance that other students don’t, as they do at almost every school, as they do at Stanford.

jenxjuicy · February 13, 2006, 3:08am

why am i still awake right now? haha

anyway new york

SUNY’s

oneonta- got in here. huge stoner & party school.

binghampton- elite of the SUNY’s. most 1200+ SATS & 90+ avgs from my school get accepted.

don’t know much about buffalo

albany- big party school. big school in general. popular among so-so students.

geneseo- really strong LAC. in the middle of nowhere though.

the other ones cortland, purchase, old westbury, fredonia, brockport etc. no one really talks about here

cornell- a lot of people apply to cornell state schools just for the tuition even if they’re not really interested in the majors. all-around looked upon as a great school but very different from city-life up there.

columbia- in the city idk what else to say

NYU- overrated. their mean SAT range isn’t even that high but they receive a huge # of applicants and are very selective. they have an awesome business school.

ithaca- lesser cornell. good for communications but not really talked about much.

CUNY’s- all surprisingly decent schools. the honors program is EXTREMELY selective & if you make it you get a free laptop, free tuition and privileges galore amongst all the CUNY institutions. good job placement after graduation for honors students. any other schools feel free to ask.

dsctt726 · February 13, 2006, 9:56am

UNC is well…UNC.

boognish462 · February 13, 2006, 9:58am

If anyone is interested in schools in arkansas…haha. We actually do have some pretty nice ones, but I am going to St. John’s College in Santa Fe. Here is how our colleges are perceived by my high school class.

Univeristy of Central Arkansas: Good college, great financial aid. A lot of kids from my school go here, but Conway sucks. Luckily it is only 20-30 minutes away from Little Rock.

Hendrix: also in Conway. Not-so-good financial aid. Good private liberal arts college. The most liberal campus in the state. Very attractive campus. Most kids ignore this one. They think only rich people get in and attend. It’s a nice school though. It is affiliated with the methodist church, but the students are not mostly methodist…

University of Arkansas: Fayetteville is a great city. UofA is a large college with lots of stuff to do. Many students from my school go here also.

UofA in Little Rock: Usually a safety for kids who want to go to UofA. Quality of the school isn’t talked about as much as the city it’s in.

National Park Community College: We usually make a lot of jokes about this one, but it’s not that bad. We tried to make our class motto: “we’re all going to National Park!” but the administration didn’t buy it. Though it was the most popular choice.

Henderson State University: not really talked about. good art program. people kind of ignore it because it is close to home, but it is a decent college. kids just don’t want to stick around.

OBU: baptist college…it’s not really talked about.

These are all of the colleges that are really talked about in my high school. In my opinion U of A and Hendrix are the nicest schools in the state. You can get a great education at one of these. Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton taught at U of A for a while…just some trivia.

jimbob1225 · February 13, 2006, 10:08am

Duke: really prestigious, easier to get in in-state. You love it or you hate it. Either you worship Coach K or you think he’s creepy as heck. The campus is also a love-hate. Either you love the dark gray stone castle atmosphere (see the chapel) or you dislike it.

UNC: Chapel Hill is a great school. Tons of people get in/go, as its a midsize public university. A lot of in-state people don’t consider it very highly but it’s still along the lines of UVA and Berkeley. They have a kick-a55 basketball team too! I really don’t know whether Duke is a better school than UNC-CH, even if Duke is more prestigious. The Robertson scholarship (worth 120K) is for a joint Duke-Chapel Hill education. The other UNCs I don’t know much about.

Guilford: regional liberal arts college, attracts a fair amount of out-of-state students.

Davidson: selective liberal arts school, a very good school (about 20% acceptance or less? That’s less than some Ivies.) A gorgeous campus, but not urban.

Appalachian State: don’t know much about App State but I hear they have some good weed out there. A lot of people rejected from UNC go here and then try to transfer to one of the UNC schools.

Wake Forest: good school, great campus. Don’t know much about it. Popular with out-of-staters.

NC State: good engineering school. Not as prestigious as Duke or UNC-Chapel Hill/Wake Forest.

NC has got a lot of good options.

DRab · February 13, 2006, 10:10am

jenxjuicy, you forgot Vassar.

firewalker · February 13, 2006, 4:48pm

“NYU- overrated. their mean SAT range isn’t even that high but they receive a huge # of applicants and are very selective. they have an awesome business school.”

ouch.:(

Drew00 · February 13, 2006, 7:53pm

Michigan

University of Michigan - very competitive, about 10% of the kids in my class are going there

Michigan State University - Great honors program, huge school (enrollment of upwards to 45k people) good school. Not as selective as they want you to think (if you have above a 3.00 and above a 20 on the act, you’ll get in) Where most of my graduating class is going.

Western (Wastern) Michigan University - Huge party school, good aviation department, mostly kids who couldn’t get into State

Central Michigan University - Who cares?

Ferris State University - One of the worst schools in the country, will accept anyone. Good graphic design program (i hear)

Saginaw Valley State University - Same as Ferris, but it does really have any notable programs

Eastern Michigan University - Good education program, besides that not so great.

Northern Michigan University - No one goes there

Michigan Tech University - All guys, great engineering.

Oakland University - Some commuter school no one cares about

Hope College - underrated LAC, great English program (i almost went here but ended up choosing bgsu)

Kalamazoo College - very good LAC, great music program.

Grand Valley State University - good school, good communications dept.

Hillsdale College - overrated, party school, lots of potheads.

Wayne State University - Not very selective at all, if you have a HS diploma you’re in. good med and theatre programs though

Lake Superior State University - Sub par academics, no one really goes there

Olivet College - sub par academics, easy to get into

Alma College - fair school, not much to say about it

kyle5000 · February 13, 2006, 9:54pm

West Virginia (not like anyone gives a crap)

WVU-huge party school, takes almost anyone, bunch of kids from pa, nj, md who couldnt get into psu/pitt, rutgers, and umd. most of the smarter kids (from my part of the state anyway) go to virginia tech,and a few to umd and psu. theres a downtown campus with all the historic buildings and once it got too big they had to expand a few miles outside of town so theres this monorail system that runs between them but it would suck to have to depend on that in the winter and whatnot

Marshall-really decent campus although ive only seen it once. everything is contained within 6 blocks or so so its pretty small. they dont really reject anyone either so its basically full of kids who didnt want to go to wvu because its too big or whatever, good nfl player from there though (randy moss, byron leftwich, chad pennigton, and i think troy brown (from the pats)

HeavenWood · February 13, 2006, 10:01pm

Pennsylvania:

Three good public universities–

PSU (University Park), Temple, and Pittsburgh.

PSU’s the gigantic party-hardy, football loving, well-rounded all-American school in a tiny town smack dab in the center of Pennsylvania. Temple has the urban environment in North Philadelphia. Bad neighborhood, but some very good programs. Pittsburgh–not too familiar with, although a good public school.

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