<p>Kettering is definitely one of the top engineering school there is. My dad is an engineer (Michigan and UCLA grad) and he works with a lot of guys who went to Kettering.</p>
<p>Although it has already been done, I am going to do North Carolina. I live in a small rural county in the mountains of NC. These impressions are not my ideas, just things I have heard other people say.</p>
<p>Public:</p>
<p>UNC Chapel Hill: Most prestigious of the public schools. Great academics with a fun extracurricular atmosphere. Top students from my school’s classes tend to go here.</p>
<p>NC State: Second after Chapel Hill in terms of academics. A school for engineering and agriculture majors. Located in the middle of a large city so the party scene is also supposed to be active. </p>
<p>Appalachian State (ASU): The college were half of my graduating class will be attending. Since it is just down the road and not terribly difficult to get into, it tends to draw many kids from my area. </p>
<p>Eastern Carolina University: Party School!!! Good for future teachers. Also, the medical school is gaining prestige.</p>
<p>UNC Wilmington: Beach school with a laidback atmosphere. Known for parties and marine biology.</p>
<p>UNC Asheville: Gorgeous campus and hippiesh atmosphere in the mountains makes it a nice place to go to school. Asheville is a great city, as long as you don’t mind the cold.</p>
<p>UNC Greensboro/Charlotte: Schools that aren’t talked about a lot but have certain programs that are very good.</p>
<p>Private:</p>
<p>Duke: Love or hate relationship. Very popular basketball team, but the school is generally regarded as a little snobbish. Academically it has a great reputation, and a beautiful campus. A little easier to get into for NC students, so top students tend to apply here, though few from my area ever actually attend.</p>
<p>Wake: Southern/preppie atmosphere. Again, another great campus. Good medical school. We always have several kids who end up going here because, ASU aside, it is the closest school to us.</p>
<p>Sorry, if I left any off it is because I forgot, or don’t know much about them.</p>
<p>Well people already talked about OK but i’ll put in my own insights:</p>
<p>Oklahoma</p>
<p>University of Oklahoma (OU)- Quite large, and probably the most favored (and popular) school in Oklahoma (thanks to the football, basically) Beautiful campus and is in a quite a large town. Many graduates are proud of their university and roots for the football team…</p>
<p>Oklahoma State University (OSU) - Most kids usually goto either OU or here. Not as big and it is in barren place. OSU and OU are pretty much rivals in my opinion. I did like its campus and it is very pretty as well. Orange and black fills the place.</p>
<p>University of Tulsa - Probably the best (academically) but I never heard of it until I saw it in the ranking (USNEWS)) Private and is very expensive, especially when you can leave to other states. </p>
<p>University of Central Oklahoma (UCO)- Very easy to get in and the cheapest school.
Its in a rich town (where I live) and the campus is quite small (in my opinion) however, it is still beautiful and the town has a “small town” feeling to it (especially where its located… Downtown Edmond (which really isn’t a downtown at all!)) MANY INTERNATIONAL students. You’ll see a Japanese person and hear Japanese pretty much everywhere you turn (especially in the library which is where I went frequently) because it is easy to get in and cheap many internationals prefer it. Buildings (especially the new library) are quite nice</p>
<p>Langston University - Historically black university. I do not know much about it though.</p>
<p>Oklahoma City University (OCU) - I knew some people going here and it is downtown of Oklahoma city. Not the best place to be, (not the best part of town) and the library wasn’t that great last time I was there. Decent campus (but not very pretty) and it probably cost alot (but never researched it)</p>
<p>Oklahoma Christian University (OCU again)- I didn’t know where this was located and i live in the same town… See what I mean. Anyways, I know alot of people who attends this place still and it is quite popular with the intown kids. That’s about it. Very easy to get in (or impossible to get rejected ) 100 percent admittance rate.</p>
<p>I don’t know much about the other ones… OU and OSU most popular and rest are kind of ignored (maybe not UCO but)</p>
<p>In Vermont</p>
<p>One school</p>
<p>UVM - Or as we call it “Groovy U-V”
pretty reputable but most people don’t want to go because it IS an extension of the high school you went to…and you will see your high school friends EVERYDAY</p>
<p>what’s with all the nc kids? not that it’s a problem or anything.</p>
<p>California:::::</p>
<p>UC Berkeley–weird hippie people, socially active, also very very smart kids that do stuff like science/math/engineering. </p>
<p>UCLA–lots of smart people supposedly, but for some reason when i visited i didn’t get that impression. nice.</p>
<p>SDSU–partiers, not too smart, get drunk on the weekends and high all the time…but strong music program/school.</p>
<p>hmm i’m too lazy to do the rest. they aren’t that interesting out here, i guess.</p>
<p>hey it doesnt make you a bad person </p>
<ul>
<li>Ron and Fez</li>
</ul>
<p>
</p>
<p>MCAS scholarship isn’t bad as you’d think… I scored advanced on both math/english + top 25% of my town (Andover)… full 8 semester / 4 year ride to any state university/college of choice. That’s why so many smart kids around here are opting to go to UMass instead of better schools they might’ve gotten into but are waaay more expensive!</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>CT’s best – Conn College, Yale, UConn, Wesleyan, Trinity</p>
<p>Mediocre – Fairfield, SCSU (except for education), Hart (except for music), UNH (except for forensics), Quinnipiac (except for the Polling Institute, however that’s not significantly integrated into the curriculum so the poli sci dept remains sub-par)</p>
<p>Can’t comment – WCSU, CCSU </p>
<p>Take umbrage – “Southern Connecticut State University - Where the idiots go. Not really as awful as it is made out to be though. Big party school.”</p>
<p>I party so hard, I maintain an A GPA. (In Southern’s Honors program.) In fact, last Friday was so wild I can’t even remember what I did! Actually, yes I can. I worked on some term papers, did my laundry, read the Economist, and watched Fawlty Towers. (Wait, I had a glass of wine when I did that. I’m a wild and crazy gal.)</p>
<p>I’m such an idiot, I got perfect scores on my SAT II’s when I was in high school. (Without studying.) I’m such an idiot, I was accepted to GWU and the University of Toronto when I first graduated high school. In fact, there are so many idiots at Southern, that we placed students in grad programs this year at Harvard’s KSG, Syracuse’s Maxwell School (one of USNWR’s best grad schools for public affairs), UMich, UCLA, and UVA. There are so many idiots at Southern that their professors hold Ph.D.'s from schools like Columbia, WashU, Stanford, and USC. Yale profs who haven’t made tenure teach here for the extra paycheck and the benefits, too. </p>
<p>Because of their own snobbery and ignorance, most ppl in CT will never give its state universities the credit they are due. It’s absolute foolishness. After all, you’re only demeaning your own tax dollars.</p>
<p>Lesse…</p>
<p>University of Missouri at Columbia-
Incredibly drunken, animal-house esque, stone-a-thon party school that seems to take about half of the high school students in Missouri. A slacker school with lots of sports and a very small contingent of brilliant aspiring journalists.</p>
<p>Saint Louis University- Vaguely religious, bunches of people who want to stay home, business and stuff? Not really prestigious. Has some good basketball.</p>
<p>Truman State- Almost everyone with half a brain at my high school goes here (not many go OOS, for some reason, even though my district is rated the best in MO). Pretty good academics, and if you have good grades, it is absolutely free. Even if you have mostly Bs, it’s conceivable to go here for $5000 a year. Not bad, considering it’s got good academics. This is the haven of squeaky-clean, well-rounded, class-president types who want to stay close enough to home to visit mom and dad. Other than that, claustrophobic small town with little access to any collegey attractions.</p>
<p>University of Missouri at Rolla- Every member of the robotics team but one (who is going to Cornell for physics) is going here. THE place for engineers. UMR actually competes with nationally recognized schools, and except for MIT, it can hold its own with any of them. It’s actually near the top in a lot of engineering/computery areas in the country. Sorta a hidden gem. Really generous financial aid, but it’s 80% male, so the dating scene is scanty for straight men. Women, however, get the cream of the crop, it seems, and have a reputation for coming out of there with a very devoted geek-boy husband.</p>
<p>Texas:</p>
<p>Rice- Ivy of Texas, smartest kids go there.
UT-Austin- Second best school in terms of academics, all the ivy rejects go here along with the rest of the top 10%. Lots of hot girls and cheap so not a bad option.
A&M- Usually UT Austin rejects go here
Texas Tech- A&M rejects go here
SMU/TCU- average private schools with good networking in the dallas area
The rest</p>
<p>is UT-Austin hard to transfer into?</p>
<p>Florida once again</p>
<p>Uni of florida- the biggest and best university in florida, best at sports,academics, biggest campus and student population. Everyone seems to hate there dorms but the parties and school spirit make up for it.</p>
<p>Florida State Uni- small campus but nicely designed, known for being the second choice, the one you go to if you not accepted into UF.nice campus full of brick, good amount of school spirit, hot chicks and crazy parties.academically lacking but very athletically driven.</p>
<p>University of miami- private and kinda expensive, but has to be one of the best colleges at giving money. they throw it at you if you get accepted, living in miami everyone seems to want to go to UM, Although its highly overrated. School spirit isn’t to high, lots of preestablished cliques, partying isn’t usually on campus, its mostly on miami beach. Pretty girls and a great school for athletics and medicine. also its almost impossible for a student to live off campus unless you want to live a good distance away, the area around campus is among miami’s most expensive areas.</p>
<p>University of Central florida- The third best public school in state, known for being in the middle of nowhere, and quite boring, since orlando is not the partying city. Lack of majors and growing way to fast have impeded the school from reaching its full academic potential. considered a commuter school.</p>
<p>University of South florida- I still don’t get how Tampa is south florida but whatever, has a bad rap, not much known about it, considered to be a commuter school for tampa hs students.</p>
<p>Florida Atlantic University- another commuter school, growing rapidly, will probably become the next Uni of central florida. Social life is really lacking because its located in a really rich old people town, most people drive about 45minutes to miami to party.</p>
<p>Florida International University- Stay away… ITS LITTLE CUBA , to go here you must master spanish and spanglish first, 60% of the students are hispanic, and come from the horrible miami school system. The ultimate commuter school, school spirit is nill- for a school with over 40k ppl no one goes to the football or basketball games. Academics are a joke, athletics suck, social life sucks, campus sucks. Only pro is that your living in miami. </p>
<p>University of tampa-private…just foundout about this place,lol</p>
<p>Nova- barely known, very academically driven good business school, not well organized.</p>
<p>Barry university- usually for those trying to restart they’re college education.</p>
<p>^^ No New College of Florida?!?!</p>
<p>about wisconsin schools, i’d probably rank them as follows
UW-Madison
Lawrence University
Beloit College
UW-Lacrosse
Marquette University
UW-Eau Claire
MSOE
Milwaukee
Whitewater
Ripon
FVTC</p>
<p>oh sorry for forgetting New college</p>
<p>New College of florida- Liberal arts college, known for pot and tree huggers. very small and generally unknown at the moment but for some reason alot of people have heard about it.nice campus </p>
<p>pensacola christian college- another one of those schools that you should never go to, its considered a dictatorship, the schools makes up some many rules that its impossible to not break any while you’re there. ex. of a rule is no junk food on campus unless eaten in dorm. the use a demerit system and if you’re turned in for breaking a rule you can get expelled. also theres a curfew, around 11pm.</p>
<p>University of Maryland- Definitely a well known public school. Has a pretty good party scene, and academic standings and selectivity are going up</p>
<p>UMBC- I think it’s reputation is starting to move up to where it should be. I don’t really know too much about it though…its becoming more selective as well.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>yeah…</p>
<p>UC Berkeley: At my school, its known as “UC Monta Vista”. Good academic reputation, but a LOT of our graduates go there.</p>
<p>UCLA: 
Self-explanatory.</p>
<p>UC Davis: Farming school.</p>
<p>UC San Diego: also.</p>
<p>UC Irvine: Nice…ish.</p>
<p>UC Riverside: Nice. One of the lower tier UCs</p>
<p>UC Merced: Little, new…</p>
<p>UCSB: PARTY SCHOOL</p>
<p>UCSC: I dont know…</p>
<p>The article “Who Needs Harvard” requested a little while back in the thread:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.brookings.edu/views/articles/20040902easterbrook.htm[/url]”>http://www.brookings.edu/views/articles/20040902easterbrook.htm</a></p>
<p>I won’t really comment too much on the UCs as many people have already. I somewhat disagree with the leftist comment about UC Berkeley–I’d say there’s two polarized side (yes, a right as well) and then everyone else.</p>
<p>My perceptions going into the college application process: UCLA was a safety school, UC Berkeley was somewhat acceptable but mostly safety school. Stanford has ugly architecture and didn’t really like it the summers I spent there (too stifling, and couldn’t begin to like the buildings even though I tried), but is prestigious.</p>
<p>Perceptions after: Elite private schools cost a heck of a lot and most don’t give enough more than Berkeley and similar state schools (sometimes quite a bit less) to justify attending them if you didn’t get a good financial aid pitch ($600 out of $45,000 does not qualify as a good offer in my eyes).</p>
<p>Just wanted to insert that comment in the midst of college reputations here as something to keep in mind when looking at these colleges.</p>
<p>i don’t know if anyone’s covered alabama</p>
<p>ua: where 1/3 my school ends up going, a party school with good football
auburn: where 1/3 my school ends up going, also a bit of a party with some good sports
the other state schools are pretty much for the kids who couldn’t get into UA or auburn (and those schools’ avg. ACT is like 24 as it is)
in addition UA at Birmingham is not so bad if you get into the early med school program
and if you like rocketry and space, you can’t go wrong living in huntsville with UAH</p>
<p>I live in North Texas…</p>
<p>UT- Best public school in Texas, hot girls, good sports teams and good academics. This is where all the top 10% and ivy rejects go, great college town as well. Known especially for the McCombs school of business and their engineering program</p>
<p>A&M- Very conservative compared to UT. Great Vet school, good science programs. Good place to go if your the country type. The people that go there with the General patton quote on their shirt annoying the ***** out of me. </p>
<p>Rice- Ivy of the south, bunch of engineering nerds, best school in Texas</p>
<p>SMU- Rich kids with CEO parents. The campus is very beautiful, and they are known for Business and law programs. Good place to go if you want to live in Dallas, you have to have the right attitude though because so many people here are spoiled. </p>
<p>Baylor- Baylor bubble makes it seperated from the rest of Waco. Everyone in our school is going there. Conservative but fun is what I’m hearing, but still I could never go to a school that religious</p>
<p>UNT- Good enviromental science program, where all the stoners go</p>
<p>Texas Tech- Party Central for Texas schools, actually it competes with Texas State</p>
<p>UT Dallas- Good for engineering, underrated business program. No school spirit. Basically if MIT was in Richardson, and a thousand times worse academically you would get UTD. The quality of students here is good because UTD is selective. Most choose UTD over better schools because of scholarships. The valecdetorian of our school is going to UTD on a taxable scholarship, she couldve gotten a full ride to SMU or gone to UT. Ps The campus is UGLY </p>
<p>UTSA- 99% acceptance rate, need I say more? </p>
<p>UTA- *** happened, people here say it used to be a good school but not it has fallen off the face of the earth .</p>