Post your own state's college reputations'

College Search & Lists
681

<p>I’m going to also do Florida: (I’m assuming we’re only doing schools in the State University System)</p>

<p>UF: Everyone who wants to stay in-state wants to go here. Everyone parties hard, but it’s still the best school in the state. Best programs are sciences, pre-med, and communications. I’m pretty sure they also have pretty strong business programs. Gator football rules.</p>

<p>New College of Florida: It’s the state’s LAC alternative. It’s generally considered to be really weird and full of pot-smoking hippies. Great education, though, for the right type of person.</p>

<p>FSU: Generally, people’s second choice after UF. Lots of partying, lots of STDs. Really strong programs in the arts and fashion. Also, I’m pretty sure they have really solid communications and poli sci (because of the internships in Tallahassee).</p>

<p>UCF: Generally, it’s the third choice school. It’s not really particularly good at anything. Except maybe engineering, because of internship opportunities with theme parks. It’s in Orlando, which is its main appeal. Lots of partying. UCF also doesn’t really have sports.</p>

<p>USF: Used to be considered really eh, until their football team got really good. Now it’s getting more selective and gaining more recognition. I don’t know much, though, aside from that.</p>

<p>FAU: Mostly commuters. Great for education. Their honors program is considered to be pretty good. A lot of people consider it to be eh, but it’s actually better than some of the others the same people would choose over it. </p>

<p>FIU: I actually don’t know much about this besides the fact that it’s in Miami and kind of gross.</p>

<p>FGCU: The ultimate safety school. Basically, it’s like going to community college, but for four years and away from home.</p>

<p>UNF: The same as FGCU, but with a slightly better reputation.</p>

<p>UWF: Smaller than most state schools. Other than that, I am honestly unsure.</p>

682

<p>Better check the STD rates for Alachua county again, where UF is located.
See: [Florida</a> STD Trends](<a href=“http://www.doh.state.fl.us/Disease_ctrl/std/trends/florida.html]Florida”>STD Trends and Statistics | Florida Department of Health)</p>

683

<p>Illinois: These are my opinions on each school. Each school has it’s strength and weaknesses. It’s very long.</p>

<p>University of Chicago - private: Great school, cut throat, solid all around, in Hyde Park neighborhood which is not bad like everyone says so, student body just loves to learn for the sake of learning, IMO best university in IL.</p>

<p>Northwestern - private: great for economics, journalism, strong in theatre/drama, music program is underrated - a great program, solid school, located in the suburb of Evanston which is less than a 1/2 hour away from Chicago (Evanston is a very nice town), smart student body, tiny campus - located on the lake shore, Big Ten athletics - amazing in softball and women’s lacrosse - solid in olympic sports - rising football team after few years of sucking, not a “loud” school pride but students are proud about their school and they have good reasons to be.</p>

<p>University of Illinois @ C-U - public: someone said it’s overrated and I disagree. If you want engineering or business come here - excellent, that’s all I have to say, it’s a great public university, it may be huge but it forces kids to be more independent, research university makes some professors ignore undergraduate students, solid sports - Big Ten Conf., great school pride, amazing engineering, financial aid is usually given to very smart poor kids, lack of financial aid/scholarships drives strong student elsewhere, students are strong academically (being a public uni. it accepts below average kids - gotta meet the status quo), greek oriented, THE party school for IL - puke central also, has a lot of potential to be even greater, 2 1/2 hrs away from Chicago, nice campus, decent college town.</p>

<p>University of Illinois @ Chicago - public: in the great city of Chicago, the neighborhood has improved due to the university but sometimes can be sketchy at nights, not at all a student friendly campus - a lot of red tape - heard horror stories on late course requirements added on that students aren’t notified until senior yr. (academic advisors sometimes aren’t aware of such add ons . . . S-T-U-P-I-D) , concrete campus mostly, either a hit or miss on professors who can actually teach AND speak english, medical school is amazing - if you want medicine or nursing UIC is THE place to be, commuter school but slowly retaining kids on the weekends and in the dorms, solid in men’s basketball and amazing in men’s soccer.</p>

<p>Knox College: I heard about during my brothers junior yr. of h.s., great LAS school and worth the drive, tiny campus, intelligent kids, THE underrated school for higher education in IL, solid academics.</p>

<p>Illinois State - public: seems like they just want your money (what school doesn’t) - campus is nice and compact, students are average or just plain stupid (some smart ones, but they’re in the minority), easy to get into but admission standards are rising slowly, second most popular school behind UIUC, okay in sports, small class size, town of Normal is blehhh but is okay when compared to Dekalb, Macomb, Carbondale, and Charleston, solid in business and amazing in education/teaching, solid music and theatre program.</p>

<p>Illinois Wesleyan - private: besides Knox - great LAS school, solid in theatre and music, small classes, great professors, dry and small campus or so I heard, right next to ISU (Illinois State), gives good financial aid so strong students opt. for Wesleyan, very underrated in IL, solid academics in humanities and science, smart student body.</p>

<p>Bradley - private: solid engineering - strong in sciences (mostly a science school), basketball team is solid in their conference, small student body, Peoria kinda sucks, and hour 1/2 away from Chicago, average student body, for a small private school it has decent school pride.</p>

<p>Northern Illinois - public: Campus is a dump, solid in Accounting and OMIS, great in nursing and solid in education, only Meteorology program in IL, solid music program - great in jazz also, average to below average students (like ISU, some are smart but they’re rare), student body comes from surrounding area and Chicagoland, about and hour away from Chicago, easy to get into (nursing is rather competitive I heard), ghetto student body and campus - segregated. I would never go here.</p>

<p>More to come later. I’m tired.</p>

684

<p>i haven’t seen any NV posts that even say anything useful so here it goes…you usually only stay in-state if you get the millenium scholarship or you never applied out of state because your school district never ever discussed college plans. Or you never go to school after HS because 70% of NV’s population dropped out or never graduated…</p>

<p>UNLV-it is just like High School, you only go for class and then you go straight home after class, only known for its great hospitality program, but other than that, you’re lucky if you can find a class offered every semester for your major, also where you go because no one ever told you about the college app process in high school</p>

<p>Nevada State College-too new and no one knows about it</p>

<p>UN, Reno-flagship, extremely better than UNLV, most go there because it is the best university to use Millennium on and because most people want to get out of the Las Vegas Hellhole…</p>

<p>College of Southern NV, great comm college, most go here because they don’t know what they want to do or figured that they screwed up by dropping out so they want to continue back in school or again never heard of the college app process because of our amazing school districts, many adult learners, some in 60s, feels just like HS, except you don’t know anybody, no one gives you the chance to meet another person and everyone keeps to themselves</p>

685

<p>I live in Georgia
UGA good school in a great college town. Isn’t really good in any particular field but also is not bad. Negative not a serious school a place where people party. </p>

<p>Ga Tech- a serious engineering school with a top five department. Is a place where the fun goes to die. It has a great compass.</p>

<p>Ga State- Your commuter school in Atlanta has great programs in business, pre law, and music. It has no compass and the only green spot by the compass is dominated by homeless people. </p>

<p>Mercer- A private school where not that many people go. It is in a good city in Macon, is the place for pharmacy and pre med. </p>

<p>Georgia Southern- A big party school in Statsboro like UGA but not as good in academies.</p>

686

<p>FSU: Everyone who wants to stay in-state wants to go here. Everyone parties hard, but it’s still the best school in the state. Best programs are in film, hospitality, and law. I’m pretty sure they also have pretty strong business programs. Seminole football rules.</p>

<p>UF: Generally, people’s second choice after FSU. Lots of partying, lots of STDs, lot’s of jean shorts, lot’s of mullets, lot’s of gators. Really strong programs in agriculture. Also, I’m pretty sure they have really solid programs on farming and rural studies (because of the internships in Gainesville).</p>

687

<p>“Better check the STD rates for Alachua county again, where UF is located.
See: Florida STD Trends”</p>

<p>I hear Gainesville is the STD capital of the south.</p>

688

<p>Arizona
there are no schools in arizona worth going to if you are out of state. none of them have amazing acamedics or anything near that phrase. whoever it was on here who said arizona has “beautiful weather” is out of their mind. yes, you will be hot all year around, except for a very short month or two of 80 degree weather (this is considered cold). soemtimes it can be nice to be able to throw on shorts at any time, but seriously, it is NOT FUN TO BE HOT. 110+ degrees every single day…no. you will invest in tinted windows asap so that while you are driving the sun does not burn your skin off. outside of general phoenix, there is not much to do. if you go to college here you will probably be clubbing/partying often.</p>

<p>ASU: large school. “party school” if you want it to be. you can definately go here and not be a part of ANY parties at all. my sister was one of them, but she lived off campus and was too mature for any of that anyways. you can definately party every single day at ASU if you would like. </p>

<p>U of A: cant say much about it</p>

<p>NAU: up in a (thankfully) colder region. if you live on campus you should have a fair amount of fun. i have friends that go there and they love how much they can do in their little campus bubble. </p>

<p>GCU: what the hell. NO. ugly area and ugly dorms. two of my friends went there this year. supposedly they are having fun but it is an ugly school and not challenging whatsoever.</p>

<p>none of these schools are difficult to get into. my friends and i joke how ASU basically has an “automatic acceptance button.” you only need something like an 1100 on your SATs to meet their “requirements.” on the application you basically just inform them that you are alive.</p>

689

<p>Views of Wisconsin Schools from a small public school:</p>

<p>University of Wisconsin-Madison: State Flagship, top students that don’t go out of state either go here, or everyone else wishes they could go here. Known for work hard play hard style. (Plus everyone here is a badger fan).</p>

<p>UW-La Crosse: Known to be where you go if you can’t get into Madison. Decent academics and a pretty athletic student body.</p>

<p>UW-Eau Claire: Similar to La Crosse but weaker in academics.</p>

<p>UW-Milwaukee: Seems to be where the average college bound student in my senior class is going this year. Known as being pretty ghetto (most likely because it is Milwaukee).</p>

<p>UW-Green Bay: Another hot destination for the a.c.b. student. Nice campus. Nice buildings. Not so great academics.</p>

<p>UW-Stevens Point: Not known for much but forestry. Kind of a “crap” school.</p>

<p>UW-Platteville: See Stevens Point but replace forestry with engineering and a ton of farm kids. And add even more drinking.</p>

<p>UW-River Falls: Seriously who goes there?</p>

<p>UW-Superior: See River Falls.</p>

<p>UW-Oshkosh: AKA Sloshkosh. Drink Drink and Drink. Kids that can barely get into college go here.</p>

<p>UW-Parkside: No one EVER talks about it.</p>

<p>Some Privates:
Marquette: Good School with a good rep at my school, but no UW-Madison that’s for sure. But probably the top private in the state.</p>

<p>Ripon: Boring little school with nothing to do at all (no one normally goes there).</p>

<p>Lawrence: Alright school in an alright town. Nothing to get excited about.</p>

<p>Well of course there are more schools in Wisconsin, but this is pretty much all of my senior class are talking about this year (but we only have 80 or so kids in the class lol).</p>

690

<p>The husband of a friend of mine went to University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh, or as he calls it UW-Zero.</p>

<p>His brother went to St. Norbert’s near Green Bay. He said it is a very good Catholic liberal arts college, but most of the students ended up there because they couldn’t get into Notre Dame</p>

691

<p>Massachusetts has over 50 colleges and universities with the highest concentration of college students in Boston metro area:</p>

<p>Harvard - Country’s most sought after university.
MIT - Country’s most sought after engineering school
Williams - Often ranked #1 LAC nationally very old and rich and very rural
Tufts - Excellent school just a notch below Ivys which irritates them
Boston College - Solid academics and only division 1 football in Massachusetts, second oldest Catholic college in New England, Jesuit
Holy Cross - Highest ranked Catholic LAC in the country per US News & World Reports, oldest Catholic college in New England, Jesuit
Stonehill - Small Catholic college run by the same order than runs Notre Dame
Worcester Polytechnic Institute - Second best engineering school in state, comparable to RPI,Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech
Clark University - Well respected school for social sciences especially psychology
Wellesley - Wealthy LAC prestigious and all female
Brandeis - Jewish and well respected academics, strong for premed and science
Boston Univ - Solid academics, large very city campus ala GWU and NYU
Northeastern - traditionally commuter school with strong coop program
Smith and Mt. Holyoke Highly rated all female LACs</p>

692

<p>^ 1980collegegrad,
I’d have thought you might have mentioned Amherst, currently ranked #1 LAC by US News (tied with Williams).</p>

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<p>Quite a few Minneapolis-St. Paul area kids go to UW-River Falls which is only about 25 or 30 miles east of St. Paul, at the distant fringe of the Twin Cities metro area—just far enough to be “away” at school and out from under the parents’ watchful eye, but close enough to come home on weekends to do laundry and hang with your HS buddies. Under the Minnesota-Wisconsin tuition reciprocity agreement, Minnesota kids can attend any UW campus at in-state tuition rates. Thanks, cheeseheads, for providing such a convenient campus for us Minnesotans.</p>

693

<p>Yes I could really rephrase that, it should say who from my area goes there (southern Wisconsin). No one here even considers it an option really.</p>

694

<p>^^bclintonk</p>

<p>FYI: Amherst College is NOT in the Boston Metro area, it’s a good 2 hours from Boston in the middle of nowhere</p>

695

<p>TEXAS</p>

<p>UT Austin- top 10-15 public school, yet people in TX believe it is up there with the top publics. Inflated perception in Texas. Excellent networking due to large alumni base in the state. Has brilliant students and incredibly dumb students due to the top 10% rule. Business Honors and Engineering are good, excellent graduate programs all around, little attention for undergrads. One of the best college towns in the country and the sports scene/ school spirit is great. Party school with good academics, Greek scene pretty big. Great buy for in-staters, why would you come here if you’re out of state?</p>

<p>Texas A&M- University’s sole existence is to spite UT. Good engineering and business, always second best to UT. College Station is getting better, but its still country. Some racial tensions. Better school spirit than any school in the state, it is completely a cult-like indoctrination. </p>

<p>UT Dallas- Good pre-med and computer science. Chess team is good. No social life as it is pretty much a computer school. Good school, definitely the 2nd best school in UT system.</p>

<p>UT Arlington- In the ghetto. In Arlington. Don’t go here.</p>

<p>UTSA- aka CAP University. If you don’t get into UT, and don’t want to go to A&M, most people pick UTSA to go to for freshman year, then transfer to UT. Next to Six Flags. Not a good option if you want to do anything but liberal arts or natural sciences at UT, because you won’t be able to transfer to any other college at UT.</p>

<p>Texas State- PARTY PARTY PARTY. This isn’t a college. San Marcos is bad, but Austin and San Antonio are close by so students just go party there.</p>

<p>Texas Christian University- If you are rich, and want to convince your parents you are going to a “Christian” school come here. Not that great of academics, many rich blond girls. Part of the Preppy Three (Baylor, SMU, TCU). Ft. Worth is a cool city.</p>

<p>Baylor University- It’s in Waco. See TCU. Not that great of a school.
Mary-Hardin Baylor- Hickalicious. Couldn’t get into Baylor or TCU or wanted to do nursing. Don’t go here.</p>

<p>Rice- The Ivy of the Southwest/Lone Star State. Very selective, undergraduate focused, engineering, music, architecture, sciences are top notch. 93% medical school acceptance rate. Not a lot of graduate programs, but the ones it does have are good. Humanities and social sciences aren’t too bad either. Little school spirit, football team not bad, baseball good. Residential college system seems good. Only school in TX with any geographic diversity. Social life is definitely not as good as UT’s. Students in TX will usually only turn down Rice for HYPSM.</p>

<p>Austin College/Southwestern- Good schools, bad locations. Want to think they are top private schools, but they aren’t.</p>

<p>Blinn- A&M’s version of UTSA</p>

<p>University of North Texas- Music School is OK. Not good otherwise. In Denton, which is near Oklahoma, which is bad.</p>

<p>Texas Tech- Almost lost its accreditation recently. Only go here if you can’t get into A&M, UT, and if you want to study petroleum engineering (which is worse than UT’s and A&M’s petroleum engineering programs.)</p>

<p>SMU- Spoiled children. Highland Park 13th grade. Fake blonde sorority girls abound. Inflated perception in Dallas area because it is a private school, and rich people think it is a good school.</p>

696

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<p>Yes, of course Amherst isn’t in the Boston metro area. I know exactly where Amherst is. But 1980collegegrad (post #692) was listing colleges in Massachusetts, not just in the Boston metro area. Williams, Smith, and Mt. Holyoke aren’t in the Boston metro area, either, but 1980collegegrad lists them. As for “in the middle of nowhere,” both Williams and Mt. Holyoke are more “in the middle of nowhere” than Amherst which shares a town of 34,000 with two other colleges, Hampshire and UMass-Amherst. I have no personal stake in this, but it just seems to me that any listing of top colleges in Massachusetts that omits Amherst is egregiously incomplete.</p>

697

<p>I admit I made a terrible oversight by not listing Amherst. It is clearly one of the top LACs in the country along with Williams. Mea culpa.</p>

698

<p>Michigan State University
University of Michigan- Ann Arbor</p>

699

<p>WASHINGTON</p>

<p>University of Washington (UW): By far the best university in Washington. One of the top 5 medical schools in the nation, as well as the number 1 nursing school. Computer science and bioscience departments also highly ranked. It used to be a huge safety for the honors kids at my school, but its recent increased selectivity has got everyone freaking out. Also, it’s HUGE, with 5,500 students in every freshman class, which is larger than the entire student body of most smaller universities.</p>

<p>Washington State University (WSU): Nationally it’s known for good academics (especially veterinary medicine), but locally it’s known as a huuuuuuuuge party school. Very low admissions standards and a lot of beer. Also, it’s in the middle of nowhere, completely across the state from Seattle.</p>

<p>Western Washington University (WWU/“Western”): Quality regional university, a lot of hippies go here, great music and education programs, though.</p>

<p>Central Washington U/Eastern Washington U: The Westerns of central and eastern Washington, understandably, although many less hippies. Looked down upon by honors students, especially in western Washington.</p>

<p>Whitman College: Great small liberal arts college, ranked happiest students in the nation for quite a few years, on the second tier of national recognition but still really selective and a great school.</p>

<p>Seattle University: Jesuit school, known for its graduate schools of education and law, but also has a great nursing school in the middle of the medical district of Seattle.</p>

<p>Seattle Pacific University: Christian school, very small, also a good nursing school. Less nationally known than Seattle U, however there is a good mix of students from the northwest.</p>

700

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<p>Really? I always heard good things about NT Music School here in the midwest.</p>