Post your own state's college reputations'

College Search & Lists
441

<p>The Evergreen State…WASHINGTON</p>

<p>Udub: Flagship school, located in Seattle, where top students who want to stay in state go to. Good for medical fields, engineering, and a rising business program. Probably best, most well-respected university in the Pacific Northwest.</p>

<p>Wash. State: Kinda located in the middle of nowhere, good school, doesn’t get alot of attention/rep. over here in western WA. I know they have a good veterinary dept.</p>

<p>Western Wash: Good rising school. Middle of the road students. Location/campus is pretty nice.</p>

<p>Central/Eastern: No idea</p>

<p>Whitman: LAC. Really nice location. Doesn’t quite get the credit it deserves. I considered applying here, but I’m a big sports fan so I like that Academic/social+sports balance. Rivals UW academically. </p>

<p>Private:</p>

<p>Gonzaga: Known for their basketball team, located in Spokane and is actually a good school. I guess the surrounding area is really nice or so my friend who wants to go there says.</p>

<p>Seattle U: Good for lawyers? I think. Moving up to Div. I (sports) soon, so may help it’s reputation.</p>

<p>Seattle Pacific: More of a religiously orientated school. Pricy but good.</p>

<p>Pacific Lutheran University: Two of my teachers went here, and I think my friend will go there as well. good unknown school really focused on internships/real world.</p>

442

<p>Arkansas! Going to only list schools that people care/heard about.</p>

<p>Don’t go:</p>

<p>Philander Smith College: Mandatory mention; this is like community college for community college rejects. But somehow, they have a godly 30% admit rate.
Verbal: 270 - 310
Math: 200 - 410</p>

<p>Arkansas Tech University: Noone cares about “tech” (glorified name for trade school).</p>

<p>Harding University: Religious school; you come here to get married. Suppose to be pretty decent; we have a couple with lower Ivy stat go here every year.</p>

<p>John Brown University: Man, its John Brown’s university; Historically Black University</p>

<p>University of Arkansas - Pine Bluff: UAPB, you are probably black; well known for their fishery biology and paper manufacturing majors. Oh the stench of the paper mill.</p>

<p>University of Arkansas - Little Rock: Fayetteville reject come here</p>

<p>You can actually get an education, to some degree, at these schools.</p>

<p>University of Central Arkansas: For people who don’t want to go to public school; “decent” (Arkansas standard) school.</p>

<p>Hendrix: One of the two places where you can get a real education; actually a 70ish ranked LAC I think. Pretty good place for classes; campus is small but pretty awesome. Serves as safety for top students.</p>

<p>University of Arkansas - Fayetteville: One of the two places where you can get a real education. Top students come here for one reason: 16k net in pocket per year. You get a full ride + 6k/year for a 32 ACT auto fellowship; you get 10k per year from state for 32 ACT. But, it is rumored that this is actually a “normal” college.</p>

<p>People should feel bad for Arkansans; with only two/three half decent places to go to school, everyone smart basically leaks out.</p>

443

<p>New York represents.
Cornell: The upstate Ivy, hard to get into, looked down upon by the other Ivies, and with a workload that will drive you to jumping off a tall building. Prestigious and academically rewarding enough to be worth it. Nice campus but not quite as good as the other Ivies I’ve visited.
Vassar, Bard: Probably the best LACs, artsy, hipster image, wealthy students, straight males a considerable minority
Skidmore: A lower tier Vassar or Bard, nice for theater or other arts, Saratoga Springs is a pretty swanky little town. Lots of smoking and I don’t mean cigarettes.
Colgate, Hamilton, Union, : Good students (Union bringing up the rear), largely wealthy and white, more conservative, frat-oriented. The old money of New York.
Hobart & William Smith: Hobart was a men’s college William Smith was a woman’s, now they’ve combined in their mediocrity to form a (significantly) lower tier version of these schools.</p>

<p>University of Rochester: Excellent for sciences, top-notch facilities. Very nice campus and library. Not so great for most of the social sciences, middling to average social life.</p>

<p>SUNYs as a whole: Hope you don’t like sports a lot.
SUNY Albany: Soul-crushing campus, not very academically well-respected but not a poor school by any means. Political science, Criminal Justice, and Public Affairs departments are very good, especially for Grad school.
SUNY Binghamton: Held in high regards as far as SUNY, the best University Center, poor campus/city/social life
SUNY Stony Brook: On par with Binghamton, great for sciences, Long Island-y
SUNY Geneseo: LAC of the SUNYs, by far the best of the SUNY colleges and probably at the top of the SUNY system outright. Desperately trying to get the official title of SUNY “public honors college,” so becoming increasingly selective in terms of admissions and undergoing renovations, in the middle of nowhere, drinking and smoking is it for fun. Surprisingly nice campus, especially for the SUNYs, infamous for their hideous campuses.
SUNY Buffalo: Good academically, below Binghamton but above Albany, maybe better than Bing or Stony for some of the humanities, particularly for graduate school, better social life but dominated by drinking, Buffalo is blah.
SUNY Oswego: Depressing as any school I’ve ever seen. Hope you like drinking constantly with people who on the whole don’t care much for academics. Legitimate school of education gets lost in the awfulness that surrounds it.
The rest of the SUNYs: Purchase is good for theater and Potsdam’s Crane school of music is excellent, anywhere else?
Ouch.</p>

<p>I’ll leave out the NYC area schools due to relative ignorance (except Columbia which you already know), apologies to any schools I’ve neglected or slighted, these are just off-the-cuff perceptions.</p>

444

<p>any chance for a review of upstate NY schools? </p>

<p>Yes, I am indeed crazy :D</p>

445

<p>Reading some of these posts, it seems that if a school has a large population of “Asian” is a negative attribute and to be avoided. What is the real problem? If the university has a large white population, that is not diverisity either, but genernally no negative comments are made about it. These UC “Asians” are most likely 2nd or 3nd generation born in california and are probably more “White” than “Asian” and they are Americans.</p>

446

<p>“I have a different view of FSU. It’s based mostly on partying, and if you want a more academically focused school if your rejected from UF, you’d want to go to UCF. (Or UMiami if you have the cash.) If you can get into UCF’s honors college, that is also a plus. It is kinda in the middle of nowhere though. They have been expanding like bacteria growing exponentially. UCF=Under Construction Forever!”</p>

<p>Yea, you’d want to go to UCF, a 4th tier directional school.(sarcasm)
UF and FSU are by far the top two choices in Florida, but don’t let the facts get in the way of your personal bias.(more sarcasm)</p>

447

<p>What’s wrong? Posting personal bias is wrong? It seemed that this thread was all about personal bias. :)</p>

448

<p>Let’s see, as an FSU alumnus (this means I actually graduated from FSU) and with family members who graduated from UF here’s a more experienced view of Florida’s universities: </p>

<p>UF and FSU- first choices for the bulk of academically minded students. Many students know why they select one school or the other, for example FSU if you want something like meteorology or the social sciences or UF if you want engineering or something agricultural. FSU is more liberal arts oriented while UF is Florida’s agricultural school.</p>

<p>While UF currently has the most nationally ranked programs FSU comes in second, even before the University of Miami. No other schools in Florida are even close to these two schools in having ranked programs. Both FSU and UF have areas of emphasis that are the best in Florida.</p>

<p>Law: FSU currently has the LSAT lead, but UF Law is older. You’re doing well to be admitted to either school.</p>

<p>Business: UF has the best B school, while FSU comes in second - except for certain programs where FSU is clearly in the lead. No other schools are close.</p>

<p>Med: Toss-up between UF Med and U Miami Med; with USF Med in third. FSU Med is fourth, but brand new. FSU Med is focused on underserved populations and just was nationally ranked in that area. 2008 may be the first year FSU med has a full complement of med students. </p>

<p>UMiami (private) - Has some excellent programs with smaller classes than either UF or FSU. Smallish, urban college that is expensive. Located in Coral Gables.</p>

<p>FAMU- Florida’s public historically black university. Great school spirit and student unity. Academics are improving. After FSU and UF, Florida’s oldest university. Has a law school in Orlando.</p>

<p>New College- Called Florida’s Honors College. Bright students who want a small LAC with no grades. Contracts are prepared between professors and students. Some kids who do not attend call NCF the “blue hair school” because students who attend have been known to do things like adopt wild personal characteristics.</p>

<p>USF/UCF- Large commuter schools that are trying hard to shed that image. Both have rapidly improved freshman quality, still not quite to the quality level of the top schools. Best program area at UCF is engineering at USF its Med. Both have bounced back and forth from US News Tier 4 and 3.</p>

<p>FGCU- This is the newest school in Florida. Like any new university FGCU is starting out and working at establishing an identity.</p>

<p>FAU- Smaller, striving 4-year commuter college in Boca Raton. Has a joint med program with U Miami. </p>

<p>UNF- Smaller, striving university in Jacksonville. Great scholarships.</p>

<p>UWF- Ditto UNF, except in Pensacola.</p>

449

<p>Massachusetts anyone?</p>

450

<p>NYC:</p>

<p>Columbia - Need I say anything? Great school, although I’m indifferent towards it. My school has about 10 applicants alone.
NYU - The “artsy” school. Located in an awesome neighborhood, known for Stern, high tuition, and trendsters
Cooper Union - Where all the math/science inclined people go. I don’t think it provides dorms, though.</p>

451

<p>I go to FAU and I’ve had no problems finding parties.</p>

<p>Also, less than 20% of people who live in Boca Raton are people age 65 or older (the elderly).</p>

<p>It’s also the third safest city in Florida.</p>

<p>See, there’s so much that people don’t know about FAU. I’m convinced most of the information people get about the school is hearsay from someone else.</p>

452

<p>(that was lame)</p>

<p>Major state schools
Papa Chicken: I’m a Colorado kid, and my sister actually graduated from Colorado School of Mines. For chiefly an engineering school, apparently there are a lot of parties, what with the Coors draw (that’s a little-known fact unless you have Mines connections–otherwise, its rep is mainly as an engineering school). Other than that, Golden’s pretty dead. There’s one great organic sandwich shack and “downtown” is about a block long. But Denver and Boulder are within driving for the weekends.</p>

<p>University of Colorado, Boulder - The big one, affixed with several conflicting stereotypes. This is where all the jocks go. This is where the hippies go. This is where the Asian enginerd-wannabes go (as opposed to white enginerd-wannabes, who go to Mines). I also like to tout the astronaut factor. Token controversy: Where do I begin? There’s the football recruiting scandal, Ward Churchill…</p>

<p>Colorado State University - I…make fun of CSU. Fort Collins is practically Wyoming, and it’s still a small town to me. There’s sort of a huge CU-CSU rift, and CU and CSU are the major, quintessential state schools here. It used to be an agricultural school way back in its history, which might indirectly contribute to the fact that most kids I know there are drawn to its environmental and animal-related sciences. Token controversy: “Taser this!”</p>

<p>University of Northern Colorado - Location is everything, and Greeley, like much of northern Colorado, smells like cow. That’s all you’ll see there, too. However, of the state schools UNC is best-known for its education program, and music is another good one. Token controversy: Well, in Greeley there was the Swift Meatpacking immigration raid…</p>

<p>Major private schools
I’m sick of token controversies. Welcome to the state of Colorado…
University of Denver - One of the more selective schools in Colorado, regarded particularly for its business programs. The music program also benefits from some gorgeous on-campus space.</p>

<p>Colorado College - The most selective in the state, it’s our only real small LAC. It’s reputation is based mainly around the block program (take one class for three-and-a-half-weeks, as opposed to several at a time for a semester), though it helps to have Pike’s Peak in the backyard.</p>

<p>Regis University - The Jesuit school. Little is said about it compared to other local schools. People know it’s private, Catholic, and in Denver. A big edge is the way they really accommodate adults and those already in the work force–night programs, online classes, and short master’s programs.</p>

453

<p>Connecticut</p>

<p>UCONN- everyone knows it as the school thats HUGGEE! Party school-- pretty good school but people take advantage of rep cuz we live in CT
Western Connecticut State U- The place no one goes–Western? where’s that?
Southern Connecticut State University- Everyone goes there-average students. Almost every teacher in CT graduated from there
Eastern Connecticut State U- Not that well know-their D3 sports but best ranked in baseball
Central Connecticut-has a nice campus- surprisingly D1</p>

454

<p>SUNY - Crap. Seriously, people at my school laugh at you if you say you are going to any one of these crapbuckets, not counting SUNY Buffalo or Binghampton. Going to SUNY Geneso? You must be ■■■■■■■■, have fun shining my shoes in 30 years. </p>

<p>Well, thats how people at my school see it. I frankly agree its harder to jump onto a high paying job coming out w/ a BA in English from somewhere like SUNY Potsdam rather than some school in the top 100 rankings.</p>

455

<p>I’ll do Virginia…yes it has been already done like 5 times.</p>

<p>UVA - If you are study all of high school and have like a 4.0, this is the school for you. Kids who get rejected from some ivies go here. Sports are pretty good here.
W&M - More liberal artsy than UVA, usually a second choice to UVA but not by much. Sports are lame, Williamsburg is crappy, suicide is kinda high. The campus is OLD looking.
Va Tech - If you cannot get into UVA or W&M you would go here. Great architecture and engineering programs. Sports are big (football). Pretty good social scene. In the middle of nowhere.
JMU - In a mediocre town. A decent school for kids with like 3.5-3.75 gpa’s. Pretty big with parties. Heavily girl populated.
GMU - Attracting more kids since its final four men’s basketball appearance. Decent school, pretty nice campus. Absolutely no social life. Lot’s of house parties with high school kids going to them. Plenty of diversity.
VCU - Dangerous part of Richmond but plenty to do. For art kids mostly. Anybody can get in. Pretty big, actually I think it has the most students in Virginia.
Christopher Newport - If you want to go to a really small school with decent academics and division III sports, this is the school for you. I think about 30 minutes from the beach.
Mary Washington - Small, crappy town, no sports, not sure about the social life, pretty good academics
U of Richmond - Pretty good school for the rich white kids, no diversity.
Radford - If you were popular in high school, slacked off, and like to party and do drugs, Radford is calling you…
Old Dominion - pretty crappy academics, near the beach, ehh… nothin much more.
Longwood - Have you heard of it? Probably not…Nothing to do in the town, decent academics, nothing else.</p>

456

<p>Ah, Connecticut. I see one a few posts up about CT, but Ill toss in my own thoughts as well.</p>

<p>UConn: A TON of kids from my school go here. It’s a mixed bag: some of them are overachievers without much money, some are just looking for the infamous party scene. (Some fall into both categories, of course.) It’s gone up a lot in prestige recently.
Central: Everyone who would’ve gotten into UConn 15 or 20 years ago, but can’t now, goes here instead.
Southern: It’s filled with kids who don’t want to travel too far from home, since it’s about 30 minutes from my hometown.
Eastern: Anyone who wants to go to an LAC but can’t afford it picks this one. It seems to attract a lot of art majors.
Western: …People go to Western? I think we sent all of one kid there last year, and I know several who went to each other state university. Weird.</p>

457

<p>New York:</p>

<p>Public:</p>

<p>SUNYs - All aren’t considered that good (not even binghampton)</p>

<p>CUNYs - only cuny that is revered is Sophie Davis school of biomedical engineering</p>

<p>Private:</p>

<p>Columbia: Hey, it’s columbia ;)</p>

<p>Cornell: Hey, it’s cornell ;)</p>

<p>Colgate: pretty good liberal arts college located in Hamilton</p>

<p>Cooper Union: Amazing for math/science and fine arts/architecture oriented students. Free tuition, though you have to find your own living space after freshmen year</p>

<p>NYU: it’s not really considered amazing for students who grew up in NY, but apparently it has some appeal</p>

<p>Barnard: Amazing all-girl’s school located in Columbia University’s campus</p>

458

<p>From NY:</p>

<p>First of all, before you all start trashing the SUNY schools, learn to spell. It is Binghamton, not Binghampton. It’s a (well regarded) university, not a resort town on eastern Long Island. (I’m talking to you mayiplzgovertigo and Infinite_Truth)</p>

<p>My opinions:</p>

<p>SUNY:
Albany- don’t know much, hear it’s a party school</p>

<p>Buffalo- kind of the “average” suny school, not mentioned much at my high school</p>

<p>Binghamton- the most well known and highly regarded of the SUNY schools</p>

<p>Stonybrook- very good school, but I live on Long Island so very few kids at my school are interested.</p>

<p>Geneseo- excellent school, not as well known as Binghamton but its arguably a better school. (You spelled this one wrong too, Infinite_Truth. Maybe you’ll be shining their shoes someday.)</p>

<p>Purchase- Good for performing arts, ugly campus.</p>

<p>New Paltz- nice school, cute little town, don’t know much else.</p>

<p>Nassau County Community College and Suffolk County Community College are both considered among the best CCs in the nation</p>

<p>A few of the Privates-</p>

<p>Cornell- excellent school (not personally a fan though) If you can pay in-state tuition it’s one of the best deals out there.</p>

<p>Columbia- my preferred NY Ivy, great school, great campus, great city
Barnard- great, highly selective school w/ classes at Columbia, not as well known as it should be (Martha Stewarts an alumn, LOL)</p>

<p>Vassar- great LAC, liberal, still thought of as a girls school</p>

<p>Marist- same town as Vassar, good school, nice campus right on the hudson</p>

<p>Syracuse- some think very highly of it, others don’t</p>

<p>NYU- great school, but possibly overrated</p>

<p>Cooper Union- hardcore engineering, no fun to be had</p>

<p>These are just my opinions and the perception of people I know, so don’t take them as facts.</p>

459

<p>PENNSYLVANIA
Penn- Ivy
Penn St.- Pretty good school, crazy partying, in the middle of nowhere
Pitt- Campus is interesting (integrated into the city, but still kind of centralized), decent parties, not quite as good of a school as Penn St., good medical school
Carnegie Mellon- School for really smart nerds, great computer science, engineering, and acting, nice enough campus
Swarthmore- the Cadillac of PA schools, amazing academics, nice campus
Haverford- pretty much the same as Swarthmore, just with less people
Bryn Mawr- all girls, be prepared to spend a lot of time at Haverford, good school though
Temple- in the ghetto
Drexel- kind of blah
Allegheny- decent LAC, in the absolute middle of nowhere
Lehigh- middle of nowhere, good engineering
Lafayette- middle of nowhere, good academics
Bucknell- pretty good partying, maybe 4th in state in academics
Grove City- near an outlet mall, Christian
Duquesne- in Pittsburgh but not near anything useful, kind of in the ghetto, great nursing program
Villanova- good school, don’t really know much about it
Point Park- only worth going to if you like performing arts/televison, no campus at all</p>

460

<p>O-HI-O
Ohio State: huge. everyone goes there. traditionally not hard to get into, but i guess it’s getting tougher. top notch athletics, football, marching band. anti-michigan.
Ohio University: party central. expect to not study. expect lots of beer, liquor, and pot.
Miami University: Everyone is white. very homogeneous. cliquey.
Ohio Wesleyan: Fairly selective (~50%), good school. pretty liberal, slightly preppy.
Kenyon: Small, rural, but a bit of a rep as the “ivy rejects’ college.” kind of pricey, small. amazingly beautiful.
Oberlin: Awesome conservatory of music. not so great dorms. hippies, political activists, some potheads, and all around nice people.
UCincinatti: in the ghetto
Kent State University: famous for the shootings in '69. totally lame party school. most people that I know who go there say one thing: “Don’t go to KSU.”
Case Western Reserve U: good engineering. not so good social life. apparently theres a huge theater that houses basically every video game known to man, free for case students. step off of campus and you’re in the slums.
Otterbein: they’re building a $4 million horse stable?
UToledo: good engineering.
Cleveland State U: pretty lame.
U of Akron: slightly less lame than CSU
CIA: they run around shooting people and being spies. ok, I kid. it’s the cleveland institute of art. people who go there seem to like it. it’s very close to CWRU.
Denison: preppy, except for the “counter-culture” film and art students.</p>