I am an Asian Male rising senior from Wisconsin for background.
I am looking for a school with:
- small classes
- Friendly students
- Somewhat nerdy / intellectual
- Not preppy
- Not much weed, drugs, etc
- Quirky
- National university
Here’s a list of schools Im considering. Let me know ur opinion which ones fit these criteria best and any that stand out, and why
- UC Berkeley
- UCLA
- Vanderbilt
- Duke
- tufts
- Emory
- USC
- Northwestern
- Rice
- University of North Texas
- case Western Reserve
- Bowdoin
- Colgate
- university of Rochester
- Worcester Poly
- Carnegie Mellon
- brown
- Northeastern
- middlebury
- Swarthmore
- UChicago
Tufts, Brown, Rice, and UChicago sound like they fit your description. I’d also check out Carleton and William & Mary.
What do you mean by national universities? Your list includes some liberal arts colleges. From your description, I think you’d like Swarthmore. It fits the first six of your criteria.
I agree with both posts above – Swarthmore is pretty strong on your criteria and those are good added options. W&M is actually almost the ideal match for your list because it’s one of the few that straddles being a national university but still LAC-like. It’s particularly known for being kind of nerdy, not preppy, friendly, etc.
A number of the schools on your list will be preppy. My son had the same aversion but ended up settling on it as the lesser evil versus the other things he was looking for. But Bowdoin, Brown, Colgate, Middlebury and Tufts will be preppy. Possibly a couple others as well.
Drugs will be common at pretty much all the schools on your list.
Class sizes will be larger, on average, at Berkeley, UCLA, USC, etc. and some of the others, and best at the small LAC’s like Bowdoin and Middlebury.
I read your list and was about to suggest Beloit College in WI until you mentioned national univs. It’s a small liberal arts college
Check out Rensselaer/RPI. Small classes, nerdy and quirky. Better than WPI in a cooler town.
I think a selective liberal arts college would meet your criteria, although some might be considered preppy. The NESCAC liberal arts colleges come to mind: Amherst College, Bates College, Bowdoin College, Colby College, Connecticut College, Hamilton College, Middlebury College, Tufts University, Trinity College, Wesleyan University, and Williams College. Good Luck!
Carnegie Mellon. I second Swarthmore but look at nearby Haverford too. U North Texas is not “national” at least here on the west coast.
MODERATOR’S NOTE:
Closing thread; the user is no longer active here.