Anonymous wrote:We visited Baylor and, while we are Christians and Baylor is a good university that ticks all the boxes, Waco is a crappy town.

OMG, yes! I had to visit Waco on business once. A true pit with a sleazy Texan flair.

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Anonymous wrote:And yet, some of these more remote areas help the campuses have a distinct feel (compared to urban campuses) and the lower cost-of-living helps their finances.

Yet Notre Dame likes to pretend it is on the same financial level as Georgetown or Boston College (MUCH more expensive cities) and charge equally exorbitant tuition when, yes, of course, cost of living in South Bend is MUCH, much less. Blegh. Get over yourself, ND. (And I'm from a big, multigenerational, ND family.)

Why would the cost of education at a private school be lower in a low COL area aside from housing? You still have the same costs for attracting high caliber faculty (sometimes the only way to draw faculty to live in South Bend is being paid on par or better as faculty in higher COL areas plus other perks), pay for the same services and infrastructure, pay for the same administrative costs, etc.

Oh, please, do you really think admin help or entry level workers or grounds people are paid the same as in DC? No.

I did my PhD at Northwestern and am a current parent. I have never heard of someone talking a bus to the el (unless they had some sort of physical disability).

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Anonymous wrote:Biases aside, I'm learning a lot on this thread. How about Chicago, Northwestern, Emory, Rochester? Locations a plus or minus?

Northwestern is close to Chicago but in suburban Evanston and has a very cohesive campus. The El doesn’t even go to Evanston-you must bus to the nearest stop. It is close enough to the city for internships and fun, but not of the city.

Umm, yes it does. I know this because my daughter takes it to her internship every day. It is the purple line, and the Noyes stop is an 8 minute walk from her dorm.

Ones person's 8-minute walk is another's bus ride?

If you need a bus to walk 8 minutes then I'm not sure how you'd handle college.

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Anonymous wrote:Biases aside, I'm learning a lot on this thread. How about Chicago, Northwestern, Emory, Rochester? Locations a plus or minus?

Northwestern is close to Chicago but in suburban Evanston and has a very cohesive campus. The El doesn’t even go to Evanston-you must bus to the nearest stop. It is close enough to the city for internships and fun, but not of the city.

Umm, yes it does. I know this because my daughter takes it to her internship every day. It is the purple line, and the Noyes stop is an 8 minute walk from her dorm.

Ones person's 8-minute walk is another's bus ride?

^^This is a good list. It is a good summary of all the schools I've seen. I was especially struck by what an amazing campus and location UT has.

The reference to Stevens reminded me of this funny comment I read a while back on College Confidential:

I've never been to Hoboken but had a great conversation with a policeman in the Newark train station, while on a business trip years ago.

Me: Can you please give me directions to the Hilton (knowing it was 2 blocks from the station).
Policeman: Are you running or taking a cab?

I took a cab the two blocks.

Case Western is on a beautiful campus, but I don’t think it gets the food traffic due to “Cleveland.”

Troy is terrible for RPI (and their finances are showing that)

DC helps Georgetown, but Georgetown in DC is the pits.

Stevens in Hoboken is helpful

Purdue/UofI in boonie towns don’t help.

Reed location helps

Kenyon/Wooster have terrible locations

U of T has a great location

Tulane is only good because of NOVA

GT is in an awful area in Atlanta. Emory is better

UMD would be much better out of trashy College Park.

VT would be a much better school if it was closer to an airport or near any normal civilization.

Most UC schools are in great locations

U of A and ASU are in great Arizona cities

BU is a plus in Boston, but their campus is awful.

Tufts would be nothing without Boston

UConn would be better in a more urban area

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Anonymous wrote:What a stupid thread.

Agreed, the location is part of what makes the school what it is.
To try and separate them is a pointless task.
This thread is just full of sour grapes.

Oh, come on. Have you ever been to Troy, NY? It is not adding to the RPI experience.

+1. What a depressing place (and the demeanor of the students reflects the location)!

Something tells me you're no ray of sunshine yourself.

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Anonymous wrote:What a stupid thread.

Agreed, the location is part of what makes the school what it is.
To try and separate them is a pointless task.
This thread is just full of sour grapes.

Oh, come on. Have you ever been to Troy, NY? It is not adding to the RPI experience.

+1. What a depressing place (and the demeanor of the students reflects the location)!

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Anonymous wrote:What a stupid thread.

Agreed, the location is part of what makes the school what it is.
To try and separate them is a pointless task.
This thread is just full of sour grapes.

Oh, come on. Have you ever been to Troy, NY? It is not adding to the RPI experience.

Anonymous wrote:What a stupid thread.

Agreed, the location is part of what makes the school what it is.
To try and separate them is a pointless task.
This thread is just full of sour grapes.

What a stupid thread.

Anonymous wrote:Aside from the big city / small town and north / south debates.....

USC. Seriously awesome school, in the middle of a Los Angeles ghetto. Had friends who went there and never left campus.

What a Reach USC is defined by it's LA status

Anonymous wrote:My HS senior was born and raised in DC, loves spending time in NYC.

But for college, he wanted to be in small town or even rural environment where the college is the center of activities.

Headed to a SLAC that is in a really unappealing, cold location (to me) and thrilled to be doing so. Go figure.

This was me twenty years ago. Went to Colgate and LOVED it. I knew I wanted to be in DC or NYC after college so I wanted something different for college.

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Anonymous wrote:Probably not Penn, but Philadelphia drags down Drexel and Temple due to their location. Baltimore certainly drags down Johns Hopkins.

Conversely, Boston props up Boston University and Northeastern, while New York props up NYU and Fordham, but not necessarily Columbia.

There are a lot of mid-sized schools in depressing towns in New York and Pennsylvania that would have higher profiles if they were in nicer areas either in New England or the South. Hobart/William Smith, Bucknell, and Washington & Jefferson come to mind.

Have you been to Fordham? It’s in one of the most dangerous neighborhoods of the Bronx. It’s far from the NYC glam that applicants expect. I have friends who live in other areas of the Bronx and try to avoid the area.

Do you realize Fordham also has a campus in Manhattan?

NP here, not PP. I know that because my niece looked there and I don’t think having some classes in the Bronx and others that you have to commute to in Manhattan is a bonus.