Anonymous wrote:Anyone know a place that feels like Harvard/Cambridge?

Loved Cambridge because: Suburb with proximity to a large city but not IN the city; the campus/town felt integrated/compact; lots of cute bakeries, coffee shops, eateries; - oh, and that bookstore!

Also really important: We were out a little late, and there was still lots of foot traffic, people out and about, dining al fresco, fairy lights everywhere.

One of my kid's preferred schools (not Harvard) is somewhat similar but we noticed is pretty dead at around 9pm.

Any ideas?

Downtown Ann Arbor has little restaurants and some street cafes in warm weather. Bars are more likely to be frequented in the evening.

Ann Arbor is where the Borders bookstore originated. So at one point, there was a large bookstore right in the heart of town. With the rise of Amazon and the collapse of Borders, there is not anything matching the scale of the Cambridge bookstore you referenced. However, there are a couple of indie bookstores that are very pleasant for browsing.

So, I'd say it's like a mini version of the amenities you are looking for. There is a huge Barnes & Noble outside the central business district but students are unlikely to go there.

I would be curious about Madison, WI. I was recently there and there are many indie restaurants and an urban-ish streetscape. I didn't check out evening liveliness or bookstores. They have a nice plaza overlooking the lake by the student union.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Villanova - Xavier
Amherst - Clark
William & Mary - Elon
Bates - Quinnipiac

I'm totally prepared to buy this, but they feel very random. Please explain the commonalities!

Villanova - Xavier
Big East basketball, Catholic, mid-sized, suburban.

Amherst - Clark
Small, liberal arts in Western(ish) Mass.

William & Mary - Elon
Mid-sized schools with lots of red brick and a Southern accent, located in small towns. Big emphasis on study abroad.

Bates - Quinnipiac
Rural or rural-ish New England location, outdoorsy vibe, tradition of hiking the mountain associated with the school.

Anyone know a place that feels like Harvard/Cambridge?

Loved Cambridge because: Suburb with proximity to a large city but not IN the city; the campus/town felt integrated/compact; lots of cute bakeries, coffee shops, eateries; - oh, and that bookstore!

Also really important: We were out a little late, and there was still lots of foot traffic, people out and about, dining al fresco, fairy lights everywhere.

One of my kid's preferred schools (not Harvard) is somewhat similar but we noticed is pretty dead at around 9pm.

Any ideas?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MIT - Rice

Stanford - Vanderbilt

Penn - Chicago

Princeton - WashU

Duke - Wake Forest

Johns Hopkins - Emory

Notre Dame - Georgetown

Michigan - Ohio State

Harvard - Northeastern

This is really good. I would change Northeastern to a backup for Michigan and harvard's backup to BC. Lots of northeast, non-rural ivy seekers have BC as a backup, for all interests except hard core stem(physics, engineering). Northeastern seems to attract stem kids who want Michigan or Berkeley as their top choice. They usually do not apply to ivies at all, but might have MIT on there as a super reach.

So wrong. Michigan is rah rah big football games and Ann Arbor a small college place. Northeastern a city school without big campus and big sports.

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Anonymous wrote:UChicago: Johns Hopkins: Emory

No -- Johns Hopkins is a tougher admit than Chicago.

yes especially from a top private. Hopkins is a lottery school, the kids going to Chicago are typically strong/academically inclined students but not in the top20% of the class.

From DC’s top private, kids going to Chicago and JHU are all in the top 20 percent of the class.

Different poster. From my child's school 0/4 of the Chicago kids are top 20% in the class. However, they are all scholarly kids so it's a great fit.
The Hopkins kids generally have to be.

What do you mean by Chicago admits not being top 20%? Do you mean they are top 25-40% of class? I saw Chicago lists their SAT mid 50% as 1520-1600!!

They take a lot of TO from our private. Yes in bottom 50%

Middlebury : Whitman

Swarthmore : Reed

USC: Miami: Syracuse

Harvard: W&M

Anonymous wrote:UVA : Miami (Ohio) (beautiful, preppy)

UNC: Indiana U (basketball crazy & no engineering)

Michigan : Wisconsin : Iowa (great college town, wide range of good academics, bigtime sports)

Penn State : Nebraska : Oklahoma (pleasant city, football crazy, most people in state love it)

Northwestern : Boston College (mid-sized school, Div I sports, in swanky suburb, very close to big city)

Va Tech : Texas A&M

This is pretty good. I'd add KU to the UNC:IU line (even though KU has engineering).

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Anonymous wrote:UNC: Clemson

Dont see it. Clemson is an engineering, ag school.

DP. Just because a school has engineering and ag doesn't mean that's ALL they have. I see this attitude a lot when referencing certain schools and it's just silly. I have no connection to Clemson and even I know they offer a wide variety of majors, just as most state schools do.

PP didn't say it was solely an engineering school. U South Carolina or Georgia would have made more sense.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Colby: St. Lawrence.
Haverford: Bates.
Brown: Skidmore.

Wrong on Haverford / Bates. First of all they have the same admissions rate (13%.) Second of all, Bates is outdoorsy, sporty kids and Haverford is lefty/intellectual. (Have a kid at one of the 2 schools and just went on a tour of the other.)

Nothing too different between those two types of people. You can see the overlap of those identities at Bowdoin.

Anonymous wrote:I will put a few in I haven't seen:

Brown (EDI):Tufts (EDII): Lehigh (RD)

Duke (EDI): Vandy (EDII): Wake Forest (RD)

Williams/Amherst (EDI): Pomona/Wesleyan(EDII): Occidental (RD)

Absolutely not. Completely different personalities and applicants. Also you have a trash chance of getting into Pomona.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will put a few in I haven't seen:

Brown (EDI):Tufts (EDII): Lehigh (RD)

Duke (EDI): Vandy (EDII): Wake Forest (RD)

Williams/Amherst (EDI): Pomona/Wesleyan(EDII): Occidental (RD)

First of all, you shall not ED at any LACs above. It's a waste.

Second, Vandy EDII is a crapshot. Don't do it.

What do you mean by this?

UVA: VT

For those seeking an objective basis for their suggestions, this site offers Student Selectivity Ranks:

College & University Rankings in 2025 https://share.google/IXbZbZS2V1XoIvjn7

For example, Brown places 8th and Wesleyan places 46th, which would seem to make these schools a suitable pairing for this exercise.

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Anonymous wrote:UChicago: Johns Hopkins: Emory

No -- Johns Hopkins is a tougher admit than Chicago.

yes especially from a top private. Hopkins is a lottery school, the kids going to Chicago are typically strong/academically inclined students but not in the top20% of the class.

From DC’s top private, kids going to Chicago and JHU are all in the top 20 percent of the class.

Different poster. From my child's school 0/4 of the Chicago kids are top 20% in the class. However, they are all scholarly kids so it's a great fit.
The Hopkins kids generally have to be.

What do you mean by Chicago admits not being top 20%? Do you mean they are top 25-40% of class? I saw Chicago lists their SAT mid 50% as 1520-1600!!