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The people are smart, fairly liberal, open, play a fair amount of sports, work reasonably hard and know how to party.

I'm looking at the following places, and I'm gonna have to remove a few. Which would be a good fit?

Pomona
Williams
Amherst
Middlebury
Georgetown
Dartmouth
Princeton
Carleton College
Yale
Tulane
Brown
Grinnell
Tufts
Johns Hopkins

By Wjb (Wjb) on Monday, October 04, 2004 - 10:39 am: Edit

Have you considered Colgate? Excellent academics, a "work hard play hard" ethic, and D1 athletics. Also a campus of unparalled beauty and a great size -- about 2800 kids. As for liberality, my daughter, who is quite liberal, is a freshman there, and has made many like-minded friends. Not an enormously politically charged campus, however.

By Sixsixty (Sixsixty) on Monday, October 04, 2004 - 10:47 am: Edit

I love politics... that's probably gonna be my major so I don't really see the point in studying political science at a campus that's not politically active. But I'll keep it in mind anyhow, it's not somewhere I've looked at yet. Also, where I live Colgate's more commonly associated with toothpaste, so I wouldn't really enjoy explaining the school I go to. Thanks for your response anyhow

On a side note, I'd rather D3 athletics...

By Slipper2002 (Slipper2002) on Monday, October 04, 2004 - 11:49 am: Edit

I'd remove Grinell, JHU, and Carleton (not as much quality of life. The rest are great! Georgetown is sorta conservative, you might not like it.

By Slipper2002 (Slipper2002) on Monday, October 04, 2004 - 11:52 am: Edit

grinnell I mean. Carleton and Grinnell are great places, but of a slightly different breed than the rest. More PC, less shiny happy liberal playful types. JHU has a small minority of people who love to go out, but overall its a minority and the school lacks the spirit of a place like Dartmouth.

By Mini (Mini) on Monday, October 04, 2004 - 12:07 pm: Edit

Sports and JHU rarely appear in the same sentence. Williams is not particularly lively politically (consider its location), though it has a reputation for a strong poli. sci. department. Ditto Middlebury. You'll find parties at all.

Why did you pick those? I could name a couple of hundred schools that would meet your stated needs. If you like D3 athletics, why are Yale and Princeton and Dartmouth and Georgetown and Tulane on the list, when there are several dozen fine D3 schools that would meet your qualifications?

Maybe there is something more important than what you're saying?

By Sixsixty (Sixsixty) on Monday, October 04, 2004 - 12:10 pm: Edit

Grinnell and Carleton are mainly there cos they're good LACs that give good aid.

Would the rest of the LACs suffer from a lack of things to do because of they're pretty much isolated?

By Sixsixty (Sixsixty) on Monday, October 04, 2004 - 12:14 pm: Edit

I like D3 not so much because its D3, but rather because the lower levels of competition mean higher amount of participation. So it's not D3 per se, but the amount of opportunities that I'll get.

I like Williams because of their strong Political Economy department, same for Middlebury. JHU's there for academic reasons too, because their Intl Rel program is highly rated. Princeton and Yale... well they're Princeton and Yale.

By Monydad (Monydad) on Monday, October 04, 2004 - 12:56 pm: Edit

Actually I don't think Carleton is a bad fit. If I recall correctly a huge proportion of its student body plays intramural sports. Don't know about "know how to party" though, didn't come up.

Pomona also matches well from what we observed, except we didn't look into the sports thing.

By Dave72 (Dave72) on Monday, October 04, 2004 - 01:53 pm: Edit

Why not Oberlin? Very similar to Carleton and Grinnell, with a healthy interest in politics.

By Snuffles (Snuffles) on Monday, October 04, 2004 - 04:34 pm: Edit

It's difficult to say unless you specify more into what you're lookin for. Does location matter, does size of student body matter etc?

By Justice (Justice) on Monday, October 04, 2004 - 04:39 pm: Edit

"Sports and JHU rarely appear in the same sentence."

how can that be when JHU has one of the best lacrosse teams in the world? They have a pretty strong sports rep from everything I've seen, much stronger than most Ivies in fact. I'm not even applying there so I'm not biased, but that's what I thought.

By Mini (Mini) on Monday, October 04, 2004 - 05:59 pm: Edit

Yes, and Hampshire has ultimate frisbee.

By Thekev (Thekev) on Monday, October 04, 2004 - 09:07 pm: Edit

Oberlin
Johns Hopkins (great lacrosse)
Carleton
Grinell
Pomona
Some of the schools you listed have notably conservative reputations and student bodies although at almost any school you can find political diversity (especially with secular schools).

By Piglette (Piglette) on Monday, October 04, 2004 - 09:58 pm: Edit

"know how to party" ?

Does not apply to Carleton students.

By Justice (Justice) on Monday, October 04, 2004 - 11:11 pm: Edit

well, lacrosse is still a sport, whether or not you respect it. i was simply mentioning it because you singled out JHU as a non-sports school, a distinction that really makes no sense when you consider that it is a much more athletic school than every other school on the OP's list with the exception of Princeton. dont wanna get into an argument--it just seemed like you didn't know what you were talking about and you were assuming things about JHU

By Sixsixty (Sixsixty) on Monday, October 04, 2004 - 11:41 pm: Edit

Basically those in my list are those that have remained after the location, finaid and academic filters. So essentially what I'm hoping for yal to do is to distinguish between them based on the social life and diversity of thought on campus...

By Snuffles (Snuffles) on Tuesday, October 05, 2004 - 02:22 pm: Edit

Pomona
Williams
Amherst
Middlebury
Grinnell
Carleton College

The group above are the liberal arts colleges, which are more focused on the undergraduate education. However, the downsides are that everyone knows each other and that you often see the same faces over and over again. However, the upside is that everyone knows each other and you often see the same faces over and over again. It depends on whether or you like this tightly knit community. The liberal arts colleges tend to be rather liberal in thought, and have a great focus on partying since there is often less to do when separated from civilization.

Georgetown
Dartmouth
Tufts
Yale
Tulane
Brown
Princeton
Johns Hopkins

The ones above are larger universities, but not state school in size. Each of them has their own specific charm and specialties. Tulane has the southern feel since it's in New Orleans. The rest of the schools though are relatively similar in terms of student body except for possibly georgetown, which is a notably more conservative catholic school. This does not mean that alcohol does not exist. Alcohol exists on every campus you have mentioned. There is no lack of it anywhere in the united states except for perhaps BYU and Bob Jones University.

Tufts and Georgetown are not needblind colleges, but if Tufts accepts you, they will make sure that they will give as much money as they can to support you. I find it ironic that my school in which it claims cannot be need blind often hands out very generous packages. Tufts is also relatively close to Boston, which provides a good balance between insane academics and a nightlife in the city. Georgetown is also in the heart of DC, which is also fun. Johns Hopkins is also in Baltimore as well, but it's just my bias that Boston is better

Tufts specializes in the premed sciences as well as international relations. We have the best undergraduate (and graduate) IR program in america, followed by Johns Hopkins and georgetown as close in 2nd and 3rd. Our study abroad is amongst the best in the nation, resulting in 40% of our junior class to go abroad (and thus liberate housing for the rest of the university). It's a nice symbiotic cycle.

Princeton has the best financial aid supposedly of the list, and has a wonderful campus. However, the location in Jersey isn't the most appealing for social life.

I don't know enough about brown and yale to give you a better idea about what the students are like other than that they're extremely liberal (brown especially).

Hope this has been helpful.

By Sixsixty (Sixsixty) on Wednesday, October 06, 2004 - 08:21 am: Edit

It sure has been

Right now the only one I'm fairly certain I can remove without too many misgivings would be JHU. The rest all seem pretty special in their own ways. Bummer.

By the way, how would you describe the southern feel? Just wondering...

By Cangel (Cangel) on Wednesday, October 06, 2004 - 10:25 am: Edit

Sixsixty, Tulane is a school with a long glorious past reputation, recently in decline (last 10 years), and more recently (last 5 years)acting to rebound from that decline. Renovations of facilities are ongoing, and money is being lavished around to attract students of high qualifications - some good stuff is happening.

That said, N'Awlins is aworld unto itself, Southern, some ways quintessentially Southern, but also different - European, Caribbean, different. Partying at Tulane is taken to a whole new level, because you can go to Bourbon Street. A young person on their own could get into some serious acadenia trouble justing touring the city. Having said that living in New Orleans could be the experience of a lifetime (ever see a Tenneessee Williams play?). Student body is now an odd combo of legacies, rich Southern socialite types, engineers, and merit scholar students, many of whom are not Southern.
It's hot, and muggy and slow, and people just sit around drinking, fanning and waiting for Lake Pontchartrain or the river to change course and inundate the city. At least it might seem that way to an outsider, the city measures time in hundreds of years.
Best food in America, no doubt.

By Slipper2002 (Slipper2002) on Wednesday, October 06, 2004 - 04:20 pm: Edit

Of your schools I'd say Dartmouth, Brown fit the most. You might want to add Duke in there as well, although its more conservative than these two.

By Sixsixty (Sixsixty) on Thursday, October 07, 2004 - 09:53 am: Edit

I'd really prefer a LAC though, since I know that I can ultimately attend a university for postgrad...

By Sauronone (Sauronone) on Thursday, October 07, 2004 - 03:57 pm: Edit

If you desire to be a polisci major, I recommend a more politically balanced campus. Why surround yourself with like-minded people, people who won't argue with you?

With that in mind, I recommend Duke and Georgetown for some political balance.

By Anxiousmom (Anxiousmom) on Thursday, October 07, 2004 - 07:31 pm: Edit

How about Rice? It's the size of a LAC.

By Slipper2002 (Slipper2002) on Thursday, October 07, 2004 - 07:33 pm: Edit

Okay then Duke might not be your thing. Brown, Dartmouth are very undergrad focused campuses, to the point where the presence of the grad schools is almost non-existent.

By A2a2 (A2a2) on Thursday, October 07, 2004 - 11:05 pm: Edit

Snap judgement...these would seem to meet your criteria.

Middlebury
Carleton College
Yale
Brown
Grinnell
Tufts

Of the rest, I either don't know enough to comment or they have a reputation for being on the conservative/preppy side of the spectrum(Princeton, Dartmouth, Georgetown, Tulane).

Party is a relative term - Newsweek recognized Carleton for "students who have fun" or something along those lines - but the fun probably wasn't limited to getting wasted if that's what you want.

By Slipper2002 (Slipper2002) on Friday, October 08, 2004 - 02:52 am: Edit

Trust me...Princeton/ Dartmouth while once perhaps conservative are no more....if I remember correctly in THEDartmouth 2000 election poll it was something like 68% Gore, 11% nader and 18% Bush...

By Sixsixty (Sixsixty) on Sunday, October 10, 2004 - 01:02 am: Edit

Hey thanks! Now everywhere seems so right that I just don't know which to remove besides JHU.

Just a quick question- Do the Wall Street Investment Banking type firms hire at Tulane? Btw I'm mainly interested in Political Economy/International Relations... not Poli Sci.