First, this took me forever, so enjoy it :)
Second, here are the best college websites
http://www.mychances.net/
www.collegedata.com
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/
http://www.collegeboard.com/
Third, if you have any questions just comment here, txt me, or msg me on facebook.
Now to begin,
STOP 1, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
Yes, Yes, most of you have never heard of this U, but it is a very nice institution.
We stayed at the most amazing hotel (The Hermitage).
Vanderbilt was very nice. It has classical architecture with a southern feel, and is the best option for a college close(ish) to St. Louis outside of Chicago. It has excellent programs and the dorms are THE BEST out of any college we visited. They are brand new and come fully equipped with anything you could ever need (within the dorm building). The Academics sound very nice (specifically for pre-med, of course almost every school has a great pre-med...). The Tennessee twang is much less obnoxious than it's deep south counterparts. Vanderbilt feels Southern, but if you don't like the South you'll still love it. Many of it's students are from the Northeast/Mid Atlantic States. Vanderbilt has a large campus that is situated ~1-2 miles from the heart of Nashville. Vanderbilt is surrounded by good/cheap restaurants and since it is in a major urban area, there are tons of things to do. Eventhough the campus is surrounded by the city, it maintains a wonderful serenity and green-ness that make it a lovely sight to behold. I would highly recommend Vanderbilt to anyone reading this blog.
STOP #2 Duke University, Durham, NC
Oh Duke. Duke is spellbinding, captivating, and downright gorgeous. The campus is what you picture the perfect college to look like. Rolling fields of green surrounded by ancient Oaks which sheild the gray brick facade of long halls and rising spires. Duke also has it's own botanical garden with a lake. Pretty much, the campus couldn't get better.
Academics wise, Duke only has 2 schools (THANK. GOD.) a liberal arts school (Trinity) and an engineering school (Pratt), so it's pretty straitforward which one you should apply to based on your interests. Obviously Duke Academics pale in comparison only to Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and Princeton (Duke was ranked #8 in the nation last year, it's practically tied with MIT, CalTech, and UPenn, so I only consider those 4 to actually be above it). The dining halls were awesome, and the dorms were nice (though we only saw a old frat room, not a normal room, so it's hard to really know). The food was definitely better than Vandy (though Vandy's Commons, the awesome dorm complex I briefly alluded to is still the most amazing freshmen housing I've ever seen and the food there is probably equal to Duke's).
Honestly, I really can't see any reason to not like Duke. The weather is awesome (it's the same temp as STL during the summer, but stays in the 50s during the winter and 60s during the fall/spring). Also, being in NC means that you are right in the middle of the east coast and can easily go down to GA/FL for vacation or NY/DC for business/interships/etc. The campus feels Southern, but more than that, it feels like a bastion of learning and fun, a haven from the mundane.
UNC, Chapel-Hill, NC (10mins away)
I'll be brief and blunt. I didn't like UNC. UNC is an awesome school, but it really can't compare to Duke. 82% of the students are from instate, so obviously most students are only above-average. Carolina is not a school brimming with intelligence because the smartest N. Carolinians leave the state/go to Duke, and since state law mandates that over 80% of the student body must be from NC, they are forced to dip deeper into the bucket. They get what remains of the cream of the crop, and the nasty curds below. The campus was pretty, but not breathtaking, and it just felt like a better Mizzou (and I do like Mizzou). It's just one of those things. When you have so many great options, this is not the place to go. The Out of State (OOS) kids are much more qualified though due to the little 18% reserved for them, hence it is much harder to get in as an OOSer (as we all are).
STOP #3 University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
I didn't expect to like UVA, but I loved it. Nestled high up in Appalachian Mountains, UVa dominates the landscape and proves the rule that the South has the best campuses. The dorms seemed average and from what the tour guide said, so is the food. Living in the shadow of Thomas Jefferson (who designed the entire campus) is awesome and Monticello is a must-see if you're in town. The Academics are great, though it does have a lot of schools within the college, which is a little frustrating (due to the difficulty in transfering if you want to switch majors). However UVa seems to handle it better than Cornell, UPenn, and some others, so don't let this fact distract you from UVa's awesomeness. UVa is entirely student run (outside of admissions, administration, academics, and varsity atheletics). The Student Council has a 3 million dollar! budget every year to appropriate for student activities. Which means, that it is very easy to found a club and do awesome things (since you actually have $$$ to use). Also the honor code/system means that UVa is completely safe and there are NO thefts! Someone once left their laptop on the quad and it was there the next day when they returned, almost 14 hours later! The Quad is the most beautiful I've ever seen. The Rotunda is an awesome building and Jefferson's original dorms still stand! (and oh are they beautiful). As a senior (they call it a 4-year since TJ said that you can never be a senior in education, that implies you already know it, which you don't nor ever will ;) you can actually live in these dorms! Though you have to enter a rather intense application process.
So anyway, UVa rocks!
STOP #4 Georgetown, Washington DC
Once again, I'm going to be blunt for the sake of brevity. I disliked Georgetown. It had 8 different architectural styles on a 100 acre campus (small). Airplanes fly overhead constantly as they land at Ronald Reagan Itl. Due to the small size of the campus, all of the buildings are 5+ stories, which leads to a very intimidating campus. The dorms kind of suck and the food is merely tolerable. It is very difficult to change schools within the college, and it is impossible to major in two different schools (ie Int Relations Major at the School of Foreign Service + an econ major in the college of arts&sciences is impossible, which is lame). I disliked the campus (especially since it has multiple brutalistic buildings, just google that treasure from architecture's past). I know that I should like Georgetown, but I can't see ever actually attending, and I'm on the brink of not applying lol. That's how much I dislike (I'm not applying to UNC, but that's because it was just OK, on the other hand I actually think Georgetown is bad). After writing this post, I've convinced myself that I'm actually not applying here anymore.
lol :)
Stop #5 University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Philadelphia was my favorite city, hands down. I hope that I live here someday. The food in Philly was THE BEST ANYWHERE (overall). I think I'm going to make a list of all of the things to do/places to eat after I finish this monster post.
As for UPenn, I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. The campus was very nice and the architecture was very unique. The schools within the University were a little rigid, but I'd make it work. Wharton (the business school) was amazing, and so was the libraries. OH! I've forgotten to talk about all the college's libraries XD Oh well, next post ;)
Really UPenn is very nice, but I don't know what exactly to say. It has THE BEST Campus store/bookstore ANYWHERE. It is better than Harvard, Stanford, Duke, and all the rest. I wish I could help you more with my thought process, but it escapes me at the moment. Just rest assured, that UPenn is worth your time. UPenn was also the first Ivy that I've seen :) (I will also post a list of those since no one seems to know exactly which 8 schools make up the Ivy League; I'll rectify that :)
STOP #6 Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Well we've finally arrived at Harvard. My first impressions of Harvard were "well, this is Harvard." It defined the classic college look and has a very picturesque campus. The U has an infinite number of possibilites hidden within it, and I can't imagine that anyone would dislike harvard. However, I really couldn't get a handle on it. I couldn't find it's true identity (which slightly bothers me). First, there were way too many tourists. Apparently the statue of John Harvard (the benefactor, not the founder of Harvard, though the name does come from him) is the third most photographed statue in the nation behind the Statue of Liberty and the Lincoln Memorial. Come on people jeez. Harvard is not for everyone and the touristy ness was kind of annoying. However, during the school year the tourists fade away. The Library is supposedly the best in the nation, however they won't let you inside...Lame. Cambridge and Boston are fascinating cities and I will definitely attend Harvard (though I'm thinking for Business school, not undergrad atm). I highly recommend Harvard to anyone interested, it is what you expect, which is near perfection. Personally I would choose Yale over Harvard for undergrad, but since I can't apply to Yale ;) {Sidenote: Do be warned though that the traffic around Yale is constant and horrendous we had to drive through CT (and New Haven, where Yale is) to get to Harvard, oh the irony XD).
Last Stop, #7, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.
The drive from Boston to Ithaca was one of the most beautiful in my life, second only to my drive from Evreux to Les Andelys in Normandie. I never imagined that upstate NY was so gorges XD (no I didn't misspell that). Ithaca was nice and quantish, but I never did get a great vibe from it. Cornell however, was awesome. It overlooks a lake and sits atop a giant hill (the only one of these 9 that does). It has amazing access to trails, rivers, lakes, gorges (lush canyons with rivers/waterfalls in them), and nature in general. It has a sprawling campus that is magestic and grand. The schools within the U here were some of the most confusing/rigid that I've encountered, but besides that there are really no big negatives (other than the temperature in the winter :).
Fun facts that I remember from our tour:
1) Bill Nye the Science Guy TEACHES AT CORNELL ONCE A YEAR!! AND HE HUGS EVERY CORNELLIAN THAT WANTS ONE (hugging him is on a list of 179 things to do before I leave Cornell that everyone gets freshmen year). I don't even like science and I think this is awesome =D
2) It has a hotel/restaurant school on campus, so you have some really cool opportunities there (they have a wine class that is the only place in the entire state of NY where you can legally drink under 21, they actually ammended the NY constitution to say "No one under 21 may drink in the state of NY, unless they are enrolled in Cornell's Wine Tasting Course" =D That course is also it's most failed course (about 50% get an F because the final is drinking 7 glasses of wine, describing them, and then saying from what region of the world (specifically) they are from (ie north-western italy, southern Brazil, etc.).
I loved Cornell and I would highly recommend it to both the ivy-bound and nature lovers. :)
NOW STANFORD =D
Stop #2 on CA trip (if anyone is interested in my appraisal of USC, just tell me)
Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA
Stanford remains my #1 even after seeing the above 9. Stanford is situated 45 minutes from the third and fourth biggest cities in CA (San Jose to the south, San Francisco to the north), however it is also bordered by a national forest and the ocean is 30 minutes away. So you are flanked by two urban centers and an awesome nature preserve/ocean. And Stanford's town (Palo Alto) is the capital of the Silicon Valley, and therefore is one of the richest cities in America (7th I believe). So, while it is expensive, Palo Alto is one of the best cities I've ever seen. Stanford students receive free bus/rail tickets, free sporting events (which many schools don't do, which is lame, like for Georgetown's basketball games, you have to pay $100 for a season pass, F that). Stanford's academics are unrivalled and easily tie with the Ivies. Eventhough I could never be an engineer, Stanford is #2 in the nation behind only MIT in engineering. Stanford also gives more money for undergrad research than any other University. It is easy (and common) to receive 5-10k to study a project in a foreign country over the summer (2-5k if staying domestic). Our tour guide (who was easily the best of the 12 that we've had) has a friend that got 8k to spend the summer in Beijing studying the effect of Hip Hop on China. Which meant that she went to the best clubs in Beijing for 2 months and then wrote a paper about it. =D
Stanford has the world's largest contiguous campus and really can't be beaten.
I hope this helps!
