Better than Burlington?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Amherst campus is walking distance to town. Smith is also walking distance to the main part of Northampton.

Umass is walking distance to town as well.

yeah but there's not much going on in Amherst. It's a town, not a city. If Burlington isn't enough, there's no way Amherst will fit.

Try Northampton instead - Smith

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi, we are a CA family trying to figure out the Midwest/East Coast. My kid is looking for colleges that have walkable towns/ethnic food plus the ability to find some anonymity. We happened to spend 4 days in Burlington last summer. I thought it might be a fit (loved the houses w/porch hammocks) but my kid felt it was too small - they saw the whole town in 2 days plus there wasn’t anywhere else you could easily escape to. (Love public transportation/definitely no car freshman year)
Not looking for info on colleges in cities (Macalaster), big college towns (U mich) or ones with easy metro access (UMCP)
Trying to get a sense of places like:
Williamsburg- William &Mary
Mass 5 college consortium
Appleton WI - Lawrence
Kalamazoo MI
Worcester MA - Holy Cross, Clark
I think they could be a fit for a small/medium school but they are used to city living and are introverted so occasionally want a break from people they know. Want to be able to take a 2 hour walk and listen to headphones or go to lunch/cafe/bookstore without running into all people they know.
Welcome suggestions or if you had a similar kid, how did they deal/where did they go? Thanks

I'm not sure most places will fit her desire to go to a cafe without seeing anyone they know unless a big city and she goes far from campus. Even in a big city, the places close to campus are going to be filled with students.

[Anonymous]

If you’re worried about your checkbook just stay in California and enjoy your good state schools. Flying back and forth to the east is expensive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi, we are a CA family trying to figure out the Midwest/East Coast. My kid is looking for colleges that have walkable towns/ethnic food plus the ability to find some anonymity. We happened to spend 4 days in Burlington last summer. I thought it might be a fit (loved the houses w/porch hammocks) but my kid felt it was too small - they saw the whole town in 2 days plus there wasn’t anywhere else you could easily escape to. (Love public transportation/definitely no car freshman year)
Not looking for info on colleges in cities (Macalaster), big college towns (U mich) or ones with easy metro access (UMCP)
Trying to get a sense of places like:
Williamsburg- William &Mary
Mass 5 college consortium
Appleton WI - Lawrence
Kalamazoo MI
Worcester MA - Holy Cross, Clark
I think they could be a fit for a small/medium school but they are used to city living and are introverted so occasionally want a break from people they know. Want to be able to take a 2 hour walk and listen to headphones or go to lunch/cafe/bookstore without running into all people they know.
Welcome suggestions or if you had a similar kid, how did they deal/where did they go? Thanks

I'm not sure most places will fit her desire to go to a cafe without seeing anyone they know unless a big city and she goes far from campus. Even in a big city, the places close to campus are going to be filled with students.

Worcester might actually work for this

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi, we are a CA family trying to figure out the Midwest/East Coast. My kid is looking for colleges that have walkable towns/ethnic food plus the ability to find some anonymity. We happened to spend 4 days in Burlington last summer. I thought it might be a fit (loved the houses w/porch hammocks) but my kid felt it was too small - they saw the whole town in 2 days plus there wasn’t anywhere else you could easily escape to. (Love public transportation/definitely no car freshman year)
Not looking for info on colleges in cities (Macalaster), big college towns (U mich) or ones with easy metro access (UMCP)
Trying to get a sense of places like:
Williamsburg- William &Mary
Mass 5 college consortium
Appleton WI - Lawrence
Kalamazoo MI
Worcester MA - Holy Cross, Clark
I think they could be a fit for a small/medium school but they are used to city living and are introverted so occasionally want a break from people they know. Want to be able to take a 2 hour walk and listen to headphones or go to lunch/cafe/bookstore without running into all people they know.
Welcome suggestions or if you had a similar kid, how did they deal/where did they go? Thanks

I'm not sure most places will fit her desire to go to a cafe without seeing anyone they know unless a big city and she goes far from campus. Even in a big city, the places close to campus are going to be filled with students.

Worcester might actually work for this

Yeah and if you go to Clark you can walk from campus…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Amherst campus is walking distance to town. Smith is also walking distance to the main part of Northampton.

Umass is walking distance to town as well.

yeah but there's not much going on in Amherst. It's a town, not a city. If Burlington isn't enough, there's no way Amherst will fit.

Try Northampton instead - Smith

Northampton is lovely, but Burlington is bigger and better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Amherst campus is walking distance to town. Smith is also walking distance to the main part of Northampton.

Umass is walking distance to town as well.

yeah but there's not much going on in Amherst. It's a town, not a city. If Burlington isn't enough, there's no way Amherst will fit.

Try Northampton instead - Smith

Northampton is lovely, but Burlington is bigger and better.

I disagree. Burlington does have the nice downtown area but it's not that large. There were some weird blocks near that without much going on at all. Northampton is a very vibrant city. So much to explore.

Neither are large cities though.

[Anonymous]

My sister went to Kalamazoo - the city has a lot more going on than most places LACs are located. You can walk downtown from campus but it’s not super vibrant if that makes sense. Lots of volunteer options though. Kids go on weekend trips camping, to Chicago, etc.

[Anonymous]

I would also look abroad, eg Dublin or the UK.

[Anonymous]

How about Georgetown? Long walks away from campus in every direction. (American, GW too altho GW might be too urban)
Indiana - Bloomington is a great town
Vanderbilt - in a city but not an urban campus
Boston schools - so many - could fit the bill with nice campuses and plenty of places to go
If William & Mary seems like a fit for all other reasons, keep looking at it - it’s a favorite on this board for many
Another one that comes up often is Pitt. In a city but tons to do

[Anonymous]

This is a pretty tough requirement. No cities or big college towns, but want a town without public transit that is big enough to be able to go walking around and not recognize anyone.

[Anonymous]

I would look carefully at Clark, as they have traditionally had a high percentage of international students, so who knows how they will be doing financially this and future years.

Side note my son went to another school in Worcester and did find some good ethnic food, but not really within quick walking distance (20-25 min maybe to downtown). He's not really a cafe person, but we went to one when we were there and I would say there was a mix of students and locals. The off campus housing is also in a mixed neighborhood of locals/students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would also look abroad, eg Dublin or the UK.

You’re ridiculous

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Madison is what you want. Burlington is like Madison, but Madison is larger so you won't be able to explore it all in 2 days. Walking around the lakes with headphones is the perfect way to escape. But it isn't a major city, just a really nice sized city. There is a reason it is consistently ranked as one of the top college towns.

Op doesn’t want a huge school in a medium-sized city. Try U of Iowa…it has a lot of the features of U of Wisconsin, but school & city are much smaller & more manageable.

[Anonymous]

Worcester has improved a lot as others pointed out 2nd largest city in New England. The city has a fantastic art museum, great restaurants and is only 1 hour to Boston. Holy Cross is the school in the city and long a top 25-30 school with famous grads a fairly endowment. The HC students go into Boston a lot. Would not recommend Clark lots of financial and enrollment problems.