<p>any parents of students at Illinois Wesleyan? Please post your opinions about that university. Thank you.</p>
<p>U of Illinois: over 90% from Illinois
terrible food</p>
<p>Illinois State University: I Screwed Up Unversity 
( I know thats a terrible thing to say, but I didn’t come up with it)</p>
<p>“Wayne: Detroit is dirty”</p>
<p>Detroit is not dirty, it misunderstood.</p>
<p>Missouri:</p>
<p>Tier 1: WashU: Where the brighest go
Tier 2: St. Louis University and Truman State. Where the top 10% go.
Tier 3: UMKC and Mizzou, where the majorty of the top 25% go.
Tier 4: Missouri State and SEMO- Where the top 50% go, or the kids that are smart, but are only attending because that’s where their friends are going.
Tier 5: Others</p>
<p>kinglin, few can afford WashU. The brightest kids in our school (the ones who are engineering majors) are going to UM-Rolla, which you left out. It’s better for engineering than WU anyway.</p>
<p>Whoever did Arizona in one of the earlier page had it all wrong.</p>
<p>There are THREE state universities in AZ, not two. Here’s how most would rank them.</p>
<h1>1. University Of Arizona (UA) - Urban location, lots of kids, where most of my graduating class is going (I live in Tucson, most Tucson grads go to either Pima CC or UA). It’s a good school, pretty campus, sort of known for partying but good academics. Easy to get into, but slightly harder than the other two.</h1>
<h1>2 Northern Arizona University (NAU) - Pretty location in northern AZ, its a lot greener and colder there; Flagstaff is much more of a “college town” than Tempe or Tucson, so the school is more close-knit and is less of a commuter school than the other two. Good dorms, kind of a party school but only because of the location, which is pretty, but boring unless you love to ski and hike. Best known for education program, but all round good school. I’m going.</h1>
<h1>3 - Arizona State University (ASU) - Largest school, party school. Also, easiest to get into. I’ve heard bad things - although the campus is pretty and Tempe is pretty nice, the school is just too overcrowded, the students aren’t particularly intellectual, blah blah. All stereotypes, but from the couple of times I’ve been they seem to be true.</h1>
<p>Public:</p>
<p>U of Washington. The so-called flagship. Urban brick campus is huge. Student body size is a bit overwhelming for some. Academically competitive and most of the state’s high school population wants to go there. Very popular. Great grad schools. Seattle is a great town but the University Distict is a bit rough in a Klondike type of way. Rowdy frat scene has upscale locals quite annoyed. Typically safe excepting the ocassional hassle/attack on females. Large Asian population, but less so than California public colleges. Comfortable race relations.</p>
<p>Washington State University–O.K. let’s be candid and admit it’s nearly in Idaho. But the academics are solid and more comparable to the UW than people realize. Rigorous writing program for all undergraduates. Pullman is a classic college-town and campus. Telecommunications school is named after alumnus Edward R. Murrow. Undergrads probably more focused than UW. Solid pre-med and Vetrinary programs. Small minority population but not an uncomfortable atmosphere. Admittedly, a second choice to the UW for many high schoolers, which is a shame.</p>
<p>Eastern Washington U-- an up and comer. Rural location east of the mountains. It’s newfound popularity is seriously afffecting the number of applications made to WSU. However, limited majors and few offerings outside of the basics. Adminisration admits that it takes 5 years to complete a lot of majors. Very little ethinc divisity.</p>
<p>Western Washington U–Not far from Seattle or the border of Canada. Smallish place with a stereotypically Berkeley, Eugene, Boulder feel to it, i.e. liberal and environmentalist vegans. I understand the academic program is sort of “alternative” in that there’s no significant core program. Undergraduate marine science is a draw. I’m guessing that not a lot of the state’s top high schoolers apply here.</p>
<p>Evergreen State College–probably the the most liberal of the public schools. Gets raves nationally for emmulating an LAC. Probably compares to the private Reed College in Oregon in the intellectualism of its student body.</p>
<p>Private</p>
<p>Seattle University–really middle of the road Catholic school known for teachers and nurses. Non-descript neighborhood. Admissions not terribly rigorous but a solid education for those who seek it out. Sometimes known as the place for kids who want to be perceived as too good for the cross-town UW. Go figure.</p>
<p>Seattle Pacific U-- very small Christian school. Not much of a reputation. Out of the way location in Seattle. </p>
<p>Gonzaga U-- newfound popularity because of Div. I basketball success. Like Pullman, Spokane is minutes from the Idaho border. Some minority students have said they were uncomfortable and consequently left. Disturbing series of attacks on Asians female students in Spokane a few years back, though the perpetrators were not associated with the campus. Not a lot of students here from the western (Seattle) part of the state up until recently. Gonzaga is attracting more applicants from the excellent suburban Seattle area high schools.</p>
<p>Whitman College-- a reallyfine LAC with a national reputation. Walla Walla is very isolated but pleasant nonetheless. Intellectual, well-rounded and impressive student body</p>
<p>DontPanic1, your right, I forgot Rolla. Rolla is good, I respect the school. That’s where a lot of the top 10 students attend. Well the top 10 engineering ones.</p>
<p>wow, never new Gonzaga was in Washington…</p>
<p>he he</p>
<p>I saw a girl from Gonzaga on Jeopardy…but she lost. She was smart though, just not smart enough. just kidding</p>
<p>yea i kinda want to see college jeopardy now :p</p>
<p>Indiana:</p>
<p>Butler University: nice private college. Great theater program.Not really that selective</p>
<p>Indiana University: party college. Most kids want to go there. Nice science program and the music program there is great. Quite a few pre-meds and the fraternities and sororities are popular. Academics are bad at all.</p>
<p>Purdue University: the enginering program is absolutely great. It’s true, farm kids usually tend to go there unlike the nice old suburban students.</p>
<p>Ball State: The music program there is very nice. Not really based on music performance but more if you want to teach it or just make it a serious hobby or something. </p>
<p>Rose-Hulmans: terrific enginering students there.
Notre Dame: the one everyone’s heard of. Alot of Catholics and they are really into sports. Great academics but most students at my high schol don’t usally apply there unless they are Catholic.</p>
<p>Penn State and Pitt are the two largest public schools, there’s a lot of info already on here so I won’t say anything more. </p>
<p>Indiana University of Pennsylvania is the third largest public school. It’s a pretty decent party school. Excellent for any education field. Also has an excellent theater program, they would win all these regional competitions but they have to go up against NYU and CMU. It’s a large town setting, and their always expanding. Decent DII atletics, although the football and basketball programs are down lately. The new president said he wanted to bring IUP up to DI. Plans are being made for new football and basketball facilities. Funding would most likely be halfed by the state and wealthy (very wealthy) Indianians. </p>
<p>Penn State Erie-nobody has said much good about the PSU branch campuses, but the Behrend College in Erie is very very good. </p>
<p>Point Park-good environment in a very good part of downtown Pittsburgh, adjacent to the Business and Cultural Districts. Primarily a peforming arts university with very good programs in dance, voice, and theater. The theater department is gaining in national prestige, towards the likes of the across town campus of:</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon-good research university. Also a prestigious performance school. Smart people go here, thats why I only know one from my school who has gone. He was a decent football player at my school when they weren’t very good and started 3, maybe 4 years as CMU quarterback. </p>
<p>Saint Francis-located in the middle of nowhere. Seriously, it’s in the foothills of Applachia. Founded by a bunch of monks. It’s got decent facilities, but there’s pretty much nothing to do. Closest means of entertainment would be in Ebensburg, about 15 miles but there isn’t much there either. After that is Johnstown, probably about 25 miles away. </p>
<p>Pitt-Johnstown-very nice wooded campus. Kind of scary actually, most of the place is supposedly haunted. They would do so much in the DII tournaments, pretty much any sport, but they’ve been independent so they get ripped off most of the time. Just recently joined a West Virginia conference with another PA school, Seton Hill. Wrestling team at UPJ is near top in the nation. Bill Cosby spoke at graduation a few years ago. Overall good education, oppurtunities to transfer to main campus.</p>
<p>Georgia: (pretty good overall for in state because it is free with Hope)
GT: great for the braniacs in math and science, good for smart girls with a ratio of 1:4 versus guys, not for me though
UGA: party school but honors program is awesome ( had a Rhodes Scholar)
Georgia State: for the average student who doesnt want to party at UGA or just doesnt have good scores on SAT, I would never go there</p>
<p>Private Schools-in state gets 4000 off from Hope if have a 3.0 maintained)
Emory: it just rocks, plain and simple, it is beautiful and high ranked
Mercer: pretty good, can get a good education for free if you have 1850+ and good ECs
SCAD: beautiful campus in Savannah and great for up and coming artists to get connections and be “inspired”</p>
<p>University of Michigan - Everyone that goes here is regarded as the smart kid in high school. Probably only about 5-10% of my graduating class, and closer to 5%, although suprisingly not too difficult to get into. I think it’s more highly regarded out of state. Ann Arbor is an awesome town, really diverse student body, and best athletics anywhere. You can’t beat the Big House.</p>
<p>Michigan State - Where the kids who know they can’t get into U of M go. Some people take it seriously, others just party. Good athletics (hockey this year). The Honors College is a good program. The campus and student body are huge. The campus is still kind of farmy, so they have great ag, veterinary programs.</p>
<p>Western Michigan - Good for business (I’m pretty sure) plus aviation. Actually pretty respectable.</p>
<p>Eastern Michigan - I’m pretty sure they accept everyone that applies. A good teaching program, though. Ypsi is also not the place to be.</p>
<p>Central Michigan - Party school, not much else.</p>
<p>Ferris State - Nothing, but they have a professional golf management program, so a few kids go there for that.</p>
<p>Grand Valley - Weird. A lot of people are going there this year, but just for things like teaching. Not much going on there.</p>
<p>Kettering University - Really good for engineering. Quite a few kids go here for the good co-op program.</p>
<p>And a slew of weird small, religious, private schools. Albion, Hope, Adrian, Alma, Spring Arbor, Olivet, all of which no one has ever heard of.</p>
<p>georgia -</p>
<p>emory. cool med school. very good. </p>
<p>ga tech - cool. good school.</p>
<p>uga - big sports school.</p>
<p>um…idk what else.</p>
<p>what geniuis gen said ^^^^^^</p>
<p>from a MICHIGAN perspective</p>
<p>the publics:</p>
<p>UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN - The flagship and main prestige institution of the state. Lots of bright, upper middle class kids go there. Admissions for in-state is competitive, but not impossible (much harder out of state). Campus is stark, hard, urban and institutional-looking with some nice buildings (the Law Quad is a spectacular Gothic enclave), but many more that are bland, boxy and on street corners (old next to new, theres little architectural harmony). Campus is broken up over 3 campuses – two of which require a bus ride. It melds with downtown Ann Arbor which is an awesome college town – one of the best. Intellectual and cultural atmosphere is very high. Many love the school while some, attracted by the reputation, are let down by the cold atmosphere, lack of supports and strong grad school orientation. A lot of students (and many more alumni) have an unrealistically inflated view of the school’s reputation (as it being overall, comparable to top LACs and the Ivies as an undergrad school), despite the fact it is one of the nation’s best public universities.</p>
<p>MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY – Seen by many as U-M’s safety/backup, while others view MSU as comparable, if not, on all levels, academically, but for the total “college experience.” There are a lot of partiers, and it is a party school (although, these days, it’s not always easy to what is or isn’t), and a number of ugly sports-related riots in a particular East Lansing student ghetto have dented, though not destroyed, MSU’s rep. But it is also the school of a lot of bright kids, too, involved in many and diverse programmatic and extracurricular activities. MSU, because it overall does not enjoy U-M’s rep, recruits bright kids much harder. Campus is gigantic, but gorgeous – mainly the older, Collegiate Gothic more compact North (of the Red Cedar River) Campus which is dedicated to liberal arts and social sciences. While many bright kids use MSU as a U-M safety, there are equally as many who choose MSU over U-M. Despite its great size, many view it as more undergrad-friendly than UM (and most state schools), because of the abundance of residential college (like Lyman Briggs and James Madison) and living-learning, in addition to the renowned Honors College, which all lend small LAC atmospheres within the research school setting. MSUs pioneer land grant status, attracts a lot of kids from farm towns (even outside Michigan), but most view the school/East Lansing as culturally sophisticated and diverse maybe not to Ann Arbors level, but considerably better than similar public schools.</p>
<p>WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY – One of the nation’s better public commuter campuses, and one that’s becoming more residential with new dorms, trees and student-friendly amenities like cyber cafes and a student union. Waynes rep is rising rapidly, and a number of bright Detroit-area kids are opting against the UM-MSU axis and staying closer to home feeling they are losing little (if any) in academics or the college experience. Many famous alums are getting pub these days, like Lilly Tomlin, Helen Thomas and Casey Kasem. The neighborhood, situated in Detroits thriving museum district, with a lot of old brown apt buildings and new funky restaurants. Wayne has long have had quality medical and law schools which the U is using ways to bolster undergrad learning. Wayne, along w/ MSU and UM, is designated as one of the states research universities and, therefore, is semi-autonomous (which is what made MSU and UM great) constitutionally protected meaning its board of trustees is elected in popular elections rather than being appointed by the governor.</p>
<p>MICHIGAN TECH one of the nations original and best (late 19th century founded) mining engineering schools. Overall, its engineering rep is pretty good. Not known for liberal arts at all and, while most recognize Techs quality, its isolated location way north in the Upper Peninsula holds down its population of urban area kids from the much more populace Lower Peninsula. </p>
<p>OAKLAND UNIVERSITY - a young school (founded 1957) as a branch of Michigan State that has been making moves to raise its profile as a UM-MSU alternative (smaller, more undergrad oriented). The recent success of Oakland basketball has certainly helped.</p>
<p>Eastern, Western, Central (the Directional) universities. (these also include Ferris and Grand Valley State Univ). Generally medium-sized, ex-teacher training schools. Generally solid academically, but all stand in the long UM-MSU shadow and are clearly 2nd choices behind those 2. Of them, Western tends to stand slightly above the others, academically.</p>
<p>The privates:</p>
<p>KALAMAZOO COLLEGE Small LAC; clearly the most prestigious private school in the state and the equal to the Oberlin, Kenyon, Grinnell crowd. Lots of bright kids, mainly from Michigan, but from other Midwest areas as well. </p>
<p>ALBION COLLEGE seen as a good school, but considerably less (fairly or unfairly) than K-Coll.</p>
<p>UNIVERSITY OF DETROIT-MERCY Solid Jesuit school for Detroit that also has one of the States 4 law schools. Academically, its seen as comparable to Wayne, although Wayne has a higher profile due to its size and location. That both Wayne and UD are seen as Detroits best, highlight that Detroits odd among most big cities in not having a big-name, high-profile prestige university within its borders.</p>
<p>KETTERING UNIVERSITY was until a decade or so ago, the old GMI (General Motors Institute), a college founded at the end of World War I as a vocational school to train GMs engineers and executives. KU has a considerable national reputation among engineering schools and draws a number of kids from back East. Most view it as a notch below the MIT-CALTECH (and even CMU) engineering spheres, but comparable to such quality tech schools as: Stevens, GaTech, Purdue, Case, etc </p>
<p>HILSDALE COLLEGE run-of-the-mill LAC that gets a lot of (largely undeserved) praise as a quality school from conservative types who send their kids there because the school doggedly refuses federal funds and, hence (as the thinking goes) is free of liberal politically correct influences.</p>
<p>HOPE COLLEGE church-oriented LAC not well known outside of Michigan, but attacks some bright state kids. About all I know of it is that (per its website) it has very pretty campus.</p>
<p>KALAMAZOO COLLEGE Small LAC; clearly the most prestigious private school in the state and the equal to the Oberlin, Kenyon, Grinnell crowd. Lots of bright kids, mainly from Michigan, but from other Midwest areas as well. </p>
<p>what are the origins of the word “KALAMAZOO”?</p>
<p>My sister goes to Kettering. She says she loves the co-op system; one of the reasons she rejected McGill in Canada and UMelb in Australia. It’s heavy on the sorority and fraternity life, though, which I gather is trying to bring the “student population” together, so if one isn’t into Greek life or drinking, it’s sometimes a little hard to feel comfortable there. And also, as a main engineering school, the female/male ratio is skewed. </p>
<p>With their system of A and B, (one block A stay on campus and study and B co-ops and after three months, they switch, and after 3 months, switch again, and switch for the third time), it’s also hard having to constantly move your stuff in and out of the dorms every three months. My sister ended up getting an apartment mid way through her freshman year, I think. Work load is tough, too. Essentially, if you do 4 blocks a year without a proper summer or new year’s holiday, you learn your academic stuff in 2 years or so so the credits/semester is harder. My sister’s trying to do 24 credits this block to graduate in 4 and a half years.</p>
<p>She also says Flint is a lot isolated so despite my parents’ slight cautionary remarks, got a driver’s license and bought a car. It’s hard to find a taxi there and they charge exorbitantly (spelling?) high fees.</p>
<p>I also heard Kettering students have a Facebook group called “I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for the co-op!” </p>
<p>Then again, it is well known in the engineering field and if one wants to go straight to graduate school, it’s definitely a great option, since you’ve already got the work experience and contacts. :D</p>