Reply to How to pick between Columbia, Cornell or Princeton?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
You're the only person talking about a suburban versus urban context and arguing that everyone else is stuck in a suburban mindset  :roll:

We are more realistic than you. It doesn't matter whether the school is urban or suburban or rural. For the nation's top colleges (consider all the top 50 universities and LACs) the vast, vast, vast majority of students will be very much focused on their own college and their campus and will develop friendships with students from their own college. This is true of Bowdoin or Dartmouth or Hamilton or Cornell or Harvard or Brown or Penn or Princeton or Hopkins or Georgetown or UVA. These are intense four year academic experiences. These students aren't going to have much opportunity or even interest in reaching out to students from other colleges. Take Penn. Philadelphia has more college students than Boston. Penn has Drexel right next door. Do Penn students hang out with Drexel students? No. They do not. Sometimes friends of friends from high school who's at Drexel might come to an off campus party, but that's about it. And Drexel students don't hang out with Temple students.

I'm sure you can find the exceptions. I can think a few. Very religious groups can have overlapping friendships through quasi-off campus religious facilities. The super rich kids all know each other and shuttle between Philadelphia and NYC for their parties but to be strictly fair the colleges aren't their purpose in life or source for networking. But for your typical college kids, his or her social life and academic experience will be very much focused on their campus. [/quote]
Do you think MIT students hang out with Harvard students? Do you think the proximity of the two colleges is an advantage to the student population of those two colleges? 
What about the Claremont Consortium, do you think the proximity of those colleges is an advantage to the student population of those colleges, over isolated rural/suburban SLACs?

Having multiple colleges in near proximity is an absolute advantage. Many students will take advantage of the opportunity, some won't. That doesn't change the fact that objectively, having multiple colleges in close proximity is better than having no colleges nearby. [/quote]

Are you really contending that kids should be turning down Princeton or Yale because they could go to Amherst and possibly take a class at U. Mass or meet someone from Smith?  About 80% of kids with a choice will pick Princeton over Amherst, and that percentage goes up to 84% for Yale.  Swap Harvey Mudd for Amherst, and the strong preference for Princeton and Yale would remain.

Note that, if they were so inclined, Princeton students could hang out with students from the College of New Jersey, and Yale students could hang out with students with the University of New Haven or Southern Connecticut.  It does not happen with any frequency, nor is the undergraduate experience at Princeton and Yale diminished as a result.  There is plenty to do at both schools and the kids have active, busy lives.

I think you're left suggesting that a consortium of SLACs that includes a school like Amherst or Harvey Mudd might be more appealing to many students than, say, Kenyon.  But even that has more to do with the perceived prestige of the SLAC than its location, as students with a choice prefer Williams - the epitome of a SLAC in a rural location - over either Amherst or Harvey Mudd. 
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