Harvard/Northwestern ED

Yale/Swarthmore ED or Wesleyan

Colgate/Bucknell

Notre Dame/Villanova

Georgetown/GWU

NYU/GWU

U Virginia/Miami U. of Ohio

U Michigan/Penn State

Brown: Oberlin or Wesleyan

Wake Forest & Davidson ?

Duke: WFU, BC, UNC

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok, can anyone take on general vibes/feel at....

UVA

Pitt

Delaware

Pitt reminds me of Wisconsin-Madison, but more contained

I recently visited Wisconsin for the first time. Very impressed with the campus. There are some visible similarities. But the larger sprawling scale of Wisconsin makes a difference. I think Wisconsin might be a lot bigger enrollment for some majors - I would review that. And Wisconsin is reportedly more difficult to get into out of state.

Pitt is definitely East Coast compared to Ohio and west. I would expect the vibe to be a bit culturally different in subtle ways.

Anonymous wrote:Ok, can anyone take on general vibes/feel at....

UVA

Pitt

Delaware

Pitt - I just toured Drexel with my rising junior and was favorably impressed. Drexel more co-op/experiential, less Ivory Tower, so more for the pre-professional vibe types. Similar urban feel. Nice buildings. Good cafeteria. Has Greek life. No football though. Similar for some majors and some types of kids. Lots of students from other schools in the area (including Penn) so similar to Oakland with CMU and major cultural amenities reachable by public transport and walking.

Also for Pitt...I would put up with a year at University of Pittsburgh Johnstown to transfer to main campus for sophomore year. It's probably easy. Pitt only has a few branch campuses (unlike PSU) so it cares more about them. If the available curriculum is relevant (intro 101s for everything), it might be pretty painless.

Delaware itself is an occasional substitute for PSU and Pitt Engineering.

University of Michigan Dearborn branch campus for Engineering or Finance. If your student is willing to live at a commuter campus. There are apartments but not dorms. A car would be needed. I recently met a Michigan-Dearborn Master's grad student in Mech Eng who did undergrad at UMBC. He was looking to get into the automotive industry. The campus and facilities are small but modern and nice. With excellent performance, there would be a chance for an Engineering major to transfer to Ann Arbor campus (too few spots for business). Pitt and Michigan have similar institutional values. Dearborn is like Pitt was in my day - kids are focused on doing well and getting jobs in the metro area so they can stay local. But Detroit is a much bigger job market than Pittsburgh.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok, can anyone take on general vibes/feel at....

UVA

Pitt

Delaware

Pitt reminds me of Wisconsin-Madison, but more contained

I've never been to UVA, but I give Pitt and Delaware high marks. (And they have some commonalities.)

I would recommend either of these schools to any kid. Pitt blew up in popularity thanks in part to its rolling admissions. A lot of DCUMers use it as a safety school.

In my opinion, it's got everything -- nice campus in a city on the rebound. A little bit of an urban feel, but not nearly as much as Temple, PA's other urban state-supported school. FABULOUS medical community, with abundant opportunities for clinical placements, shadowing, etc. Fun vibes with a solid academic core. No negatives. (Well, the weather, but I don't care about weather.)

Delaware is somewhat similar. It attracts a LOT of smart kids who want something less rah-rah than Penn State, but maybe aren't getting into Maryland or UVA. Very pretty campus, a cute Main Street of restaurants, strong and growing scientific reputation. Good diversity of majors.

Both have Greek life, but don't feel dominated by it.

I really like both of these schools and would be proud to send a kid there!

I agree! Pitt is absolutely a hidden gem.

SHH, you guys! I want DS to apply there in a few years as i think it'd be great for him. Stop talking it up!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok, can anyone take on general vibes/feel at....

UVA

Pitt

Delaware

Pitt reminds me of Wisconsin-Madison, but more contained

I've never been to UVA, but I give Pitt and Delaware high marks. (And they have some commonalities.)

I would recommend either of these schools to any kid. Pitt blew up in popularity thanks in part to its rolling admissions. A lot of DCUMers use it as a safety school.

In my opinion, it's got everything -- nice campus in a city on the rebound. A little bit of an urban feel, but not nearly as much as Temple, PA's other urban state-supported school. FABULOUS medical community, with abundant opportunities for clinical placements, shadowing, etc. Fun vibes with a solid academic core. No negatives. (Well, the weather, but I don't care about weather.)

Delaware is somewhat similar. It attracts a LOT of smart kids who want something less rah-rah than Penn State, but maybe aren't getting into Maryland or UVA. Very pretty campus, a cute Main Street of restaurants, strong and growing scientific reputation. Good diversity of majors.

Both have Greek life, but don't feel dominated by it.

I really like both of these schools and would be proud to send a kid there!

I agree! Pitt is absolutely a hidden gem.

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.)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok, can anyone take on general vibes/feel at....

UVA

Pitt

Delaware

Pitt reminds me of Wisconsin-Madison, but more contained

I've never been to UVA, but I give Pitt and Delaware high marks. (And they have some commonalities.)

I would recommend either of these schools to any kid. Pitt blew up in popularity thanks in part to its rolling admissions. A lot of DCUMers use it as a safety school.

In my opinion, it's got everything -- nice campus in a city on the rebound. A little bit of an urban feel, but not nearly as much as Temple, PA's other urban state-supported school. FABULOUS medical community, with abundant opportunities for clinical placements, shadowing, etc. Fun vibes with a solid academic core. No negatives. (Well, the weather, but I don't care about weather.)

Delaware is somewhat similar. It attracts a LOT of smart kids who want something less rah-rah than Penn State, but maybe aren't getting into Maryland or UVA. Very pretty campus, a cute Main Street of restaurants, strong and growing scientific reputation. Good diversity of majors.

Both have Greek life, but don't feel dominated by it.

I really like both of these schools and would be proud to send a kid there!

Anonymous wrote:Notre Dame : Vanderbilt : St Andrews

Notre Dame: University of Dayton
Back when I went to UD, alot of my friends had been rejected from ND and ended up at UD. Catholic, similar size, unique residential life, mid-west

Here is one for the average folks.

Miami of Ohio - Coastal Carolina.

Also,
South Carolina - Kentucky
Penn State - Indiana

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

Spot on. Back in the day I looked at both Colby and St. Lawrence. Both were in the middle of nowhere. The only thing that I remember about them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone have a sub for Harvey Mudd? Specifically one that is not nosebleed pricy (in terms of actual COA for non-need families).

Colorado school of mines

Rose Hulman?

No, they wanted a cheaper, more affordable sub for Harvey Mudd.

About 13K cheaper and a much higher admissions rate (at least per Google).

MIT Engineering: Cornell Eng: Hopkins Eng: UMD Eng: UMBC Eng

northeast/mid-Atlantic Preference (GT, Purdue, UIUC intentionally omitted)

Anonymous wrote:Ok, can anyone take on general vibes/feel at....

UVA

Pitt

Delaware

Pitt reminds me of Wisconsin-Madison, but more contained

Ok, can anyone take on general vibes/feel at....

UVA

Pitt

Delaware

Anonymous wrote:Alabama:U of Phoenix:Uber Driver

Somewhere not too far below 63% of students at Alabama submit test scores, and their 25/75 split for the SAT is 1170 - 1400. Huge numbers of National Merit Finalists, b/c Alabama's scholarships for them are close to the best in the country. University of Mississippi is a better comparison: big state school, easier to get into, kids who go are probably not that different than Alabama (test score range significantly lower, but Alabama requires a lot more to submit scores, also has extraordinarily generous merit aid that attracts a large core of National Merit Finalists.)