<p>Initally my daughter wanted to go for the student reputation of being intellectually oriented as she thought that would be the best fit. That and being undergraduate oriented. Also the ‘away’ experience as is was on the other coast.</p>
<p>What is really great is the access for undergraduates to do real and meaningful funded research. This is very beneficial if you aspire to grad schools or to build a resume. (My daughter went on to a PhD program.)</p>
<p>Also the grading system in general encourages exploration. My daughter took Mandarin and Russian for credit/nocredit. and you usually have to think twice as a science major. I do know that people avoid that at other schools, to protect the gpa. You are allowed to fail and continue on to success by the entire grading system. It works.</p>
<p>The school itself has a collaborative culture that starts at the top and works through the departments and informs the student body. My daughter never found such great atmosphere when looking for grad schools.</p>
<p>If there were flaws, I’d say it can be in freshman advising. You may or may not get matched with a sympatico prof and peer advisor (mine didn’t, really.) By the sophmore year, you may have the same issue but you should be talking to your other profs and more people. By upper division, you are working with department advisors, if it was different major.</p>