Hey,
I have grown up in a suburban area and have attended the same private school my whole life. I want a college that is FUN, but very inclusive. I want a college where a girl can find a nice guy to date. I also want rigorous academics. I want something exciting and perhaps near a city. The campus has to be gorgeous!!! I am open to any location that meets the criteria, but I would love to go northeast. Please do not judge me. Thanks!
“A nice guy to date” oh don’t we all.
Loyala Maryland
Providence College
Boston College
Fordham University
I go to Villanova and I don’t particularly enjoy it. There are lots of parties, it’s near philly, and the “hook-up” culture isn’t that prevalent. A lot of people do it, but a lot of people are in exclusive relationships, too.
Santa Clara University sounds perfect for you! Gorgeous campus, fun but academic, and right near San Jose, Palo Alto, and many other Bay Area cities.
What are your stats? Financial situation?
We don’t know anything about your stats, so let’s go by these criteria and just list all the schools we can think of:
- No women's colleges, unless you wouldn't mind dating a guy from a nearby school... (i'll include a few)
- At least a decent party scene
- In or very close to a city
- Inclusive, as far as we can tell
- Rigorous
- In the northeast (call it New England and Mid-Atlantic)
First – some schools are known for rigor overall, but every school offers rigorous majors. Keep that in mind.
New York City area:
Columbia (party scene?)
Yale (a bit of a hike from NYC)
Vassar (also a hike)
Barnard (across the street from Columbia…)
NYU
Fordham
Rutgers
Stony Brook
CCNY
Manhattan
Hofstra
St. John’s
Boston area:
Harvard
MIT
Wellesley
Boston College
Brandeis (not sure about party scene)
Tufts
Holy Cross
Northeastern
Boston U
Philadelphia area:
UPenn (the Social Ivy)
Swarthmore (hard; not sure about party life)
Haverford
Bryn Mawr
Villanova
Temple
St. Joseph’s
Drexel
La Salle
Pittsburgh:
Carnegie Mellon (party life?)
U of Pittsburgh
Duquesne
Providence:
Brown
Providence College
Other cities:
SUNY Albany
Syracuse
SUNY at Buffalo
Hartford
Trinity College
U of Rochester
There’s a wide range of selectivity in this list and it’s hard to know how rigorous each school is. But if you want rigor, you can choose a rigorous major or do a double-major and virtually ensure that your education will be rigorous.
Not all schools have a big party rep but there are parties at every school – just find your people and have fun with them.
I am curious to know why you don’t enjoy Villanova. Could you tell me more about it?? @a20171
The list provided above is pretty good, I have to say, but I would caution against ruling out women’s schools. Many of them are parts of consortia, meaning that students can take classes at the other consortium schools. For example, Bryn Mawr is part of a consortium with coed Haverford, Swarthmore and UPenn. The campuses of BMC and Haverford are so closely linked that they might as well be one school–Haverbros come to BMC for the pool and geology; BMC women go to Haverford for the studio arts program and other classes. Buses run between the campuses every 5-10 minutes. BMC students and Haverford have a dorm that they can share. The course schedules are intentionally compatible so that the students of one can take classes easily at the other. Buses run every 1/2 hour to Swarthmore. Train line easy ride to Philly for University of Pennsylvania. All of these schools are studious but also have parties. Villanova lies just to the west of BMC if you want to go there to big games. The area supports Villanova team and I believe that cross registration is possible at Villanova if the consortium doesn’t have a particular class that you’re interested in.
Also most of the women’s colleges that I know of allow men in the dorms to stay the night.
Smith and Mt. Holyoke are part of the same consortium as Amherst, UMass Amherst and Hampshire – free buses among the colleges. Each school has a unique personality and party mentality, from quieter Mt. Holyoke to more party-centric UMass Amherst. Smith is more centrally located in the small town of Northampton, a very cute college town with plenty to offer. Not a city though!
Scripps (West Coast) is part of a consortium that includes several other co-ed schools – Pomona, Harvey Mudd, etc. the campuses are 5-min walk from each other.
Wellseley is not part of a consortium, but you can cross register at boy-heavy MIT and join clubs on that campus.
Barnard is part of the same campus system as Columbia – one of the four undergraduate colleges of Columbia U. So plenty of boys there.
Vassar is in a small city with internship opportunities and arts on its own. It also is on the commuter train line directly to NYC – 90 minute ride. It’s possible to go to NYC on a day trip for shows and museums, etc. Students at Vassar, several of them, are already engaged in work in NYC while a student there–involved in theater or film, for example.
I would also add Sarah Lawrence to the list. It’s 20 minutes outside of NYC; a quick train ride into NYC and they offer buses from school to the front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art every Saturday for free. It’s a very different feel from many of the schools, but for the right person, it’s a great choice.
the above list also mentioned CCNY – but I would add the entire CUNY system (a university system in NYC that includes CCNY and several other colleges). They are remarkable bargains. Super cheap and very good education. Also, being in NYC they have connections to the jobs that many people aspire to–everything from finance to fashion, from theater to advertising, from publishing to Silicon Alley start-ups. You would probably graduate debt free with a good job if you chose this route.
Also: Connecticut College is in a city and also on the Amtrak line to NYC
Wesleyan’s city might be too small for you, but the school is excellent and you may find it all just right.
Best of luck to you.
“A foodie’s fondest dream”…http://www.onlyinyourstate.com/connecticut/downtown-middletown-ct/
@Dustyfeathers thanks! Could you tell me more about Sarah Lawrence?
@collegecurious49 I went to Sarah Lawrence back in the Dark Ages for my first two years before transferring to BU - two schools with VERY different philosophies.
SLC is excellent if you are going to study anything in the arts, writing and foreign languages. Whatever you study, you will come out a better writer than you went in as it is heavily focused on writing papers, no matter the subject. Other offerings might be limited. It is also a tiny school, but a beautiful campus. The proximity to NYC is terrific.
It is a very liberal, progressive school, and at least when I attended there was a pronounced drug culture, but like anywhere, you can avoid it if you want. There are a lot more women than men, so it may not offer the dating scene you are looking for.
Like I said, I went there a very long time ago and things might be different these days. Good luck in your college search.
What is your idea of “FUN”? (from your original post). I’m familiar with both SLC and Barnard but don’t get the sense that either would be a good fit for you… but then maybe I am misreading what you are looking for.
Do you still have a 28 ACT/3.5 UW GPA? That will have an affect on what schools are good fits for you. How much can your parents pay?
I think that we need more information. There are a lot of very good universities and colleges in the US. Of course if you continue further north and/or east (as one daughter did) you will find there are some good ones in Canada also.
The first things that folks would need to know is your budget, and your stats such as GPA and SAT or ACT scores. What you might want to major in also matters. Would you prefer a small school (Liberal arts college) or a large university? What is your home state?
For the 3.5/28 range, original poster might want to consider University of Maryland, but that might be a reach for an out of stater. Maryland and College Park has everything she’s looking for, but that might be more south than she wants to be. It does check all of the boxes - excellent academics, inclusive, good social scene, beautiful campus, and near DC.
Two important questions:
Does OP want to join a sorority?
How does OP feel about a Catholic college?
If OP wants join a sorority, she should go to a place with an active Greek system. On the other hand, if she does not envision herself in a sorority, she might want to look at some of the Catholic colleges listed above, which usually combine an active and fairly conventional social scene with absent or at least de-emphasized Greek life.
Also – you might consider Wagner College. It’s on Staten Island, one of NYC’s five boroughs. The college has a very solid reputation and is pretty. http://wagner.edu/
Also consider–
Manhattan College – https://manhattan.edu/
Manhattanville College – https://www.mville.edu/
Iona – https://www.iona.edu/home.aspx
Marymount Manhattan – https://www.mmm.edu/
Just want to add that I went to La Salle U my first year. It’s a big party school. I’m sure it’s not as bad as say, PSU. But, as someone who doesn’t drink, I felt excluded. People can be heard screaming in the dorms Thurs-Sun.
I think I knew two other people in exclusive relationships.
There are a few active clubs, but most are ethnic-based. Most clubs on the website no longer exist.
That’s the advantage of a big school – PSU has a reputation for partying, but it also has hundreds of clubs, including ones based around topics more likely to appeal to people who don’t party.
If you want nice guys, you might consider a tech school. They tend to have a skewed gender ratio in your favor and a lot of guys who are too shy to make the first move.
I went to Wellesley (back in the dark ages). We went to a lot of parties at MIT and Harvard, and the MIT guys were miles above the Harvard guys in quality and niceness.
Great tech schools to consider –
WPI
Union (LAC but has a lot of engineering and it’s male/female ratio is skewed)
RPI
RIT
Stephens Institute – a short ferry ride to Manhattan and looks at the NYC skyline in a cute town, Hoboken.