What determines a "good" college campus?

[Ender]

I've been out of town touring a few college campuses for the schools I'm applying at. And frankly they all kind of blur together. So what makes one tye of school have a good campus life and another not? I first figured that it would be proximity to a major city, but there are plenty of schools known for being "party schools" or just having a good time without a major metropolis around (e.g. Old Dominion) So beyond academics, what makes it a good place to go or not?

[Soontir C'boath]

Being near a city is not necessarily good. The weekends here at Stony Brook are usually devoid (pretty much becomes a ghost town) of anyone hanging around since New York City is just fifty miles away. Party Thursday night and go home Friday is what happens here.

If you're touring around campuses, you should try chatting up with the students there to get different impressions.

A high school spirit is a good indicator; SB's spirit is down the toilet.

[Knife]

You know? I have no idea. I'm going to uni right now but honestly have to say that 'campus life' means jack and shit to me.

I'd suggest breaking it down into what you think you'd like to do on your off time and investigate the possibility of doing those hobbies around or on campus.

[NomAnor15]

Well, for me the choice more or less came down to UW Madison or UW La Crosse (that's university of Wisconsin, in case that's not clear). The big criteria for me were the size of the campus, and the size of the student body. Madison's campus is...disgustingly large. As in, it's not really a reasonable distance to walk across. Whereas at La Crosse, you can get across the whole area in about 10 minutes. Also, Madison has about 50,000 students (graduates and undergrads), and La Crosse has about 10,000. Average class size is even worse, at over 100 for Madison, and about 22 for La Crosse. So those were the big factors in my decision.


EDIT: Forgot to mention that the meal program at La Crosse kicks ass. And one other thing; looks. If everything looks nice and clean and new, that's a big plus.

[aerius]

Number of hot chicks who are available, the more the merrier.

To be serious, I think my choice came down to what was available near the university. I wanted everything to be nice & convenient so that would lead to a downtown campus, while at the same time I like the outdoors so I want some nice big parks and stuff nearby.

[FA Xerrik]

For me it was definitely a very intangible quality. I toured several east coast colleges, but I just kind of knew that I wanted to come to the school I'm at. Definitely try and talk to students besides the tour leaders, that made a world of difference for me. I realize it's not as quantifiable as "look for qualities X Y and Z" but especially if you're going somewhere far away from home as I did, it's really important to see how the campus feels to you. It's weird, because all the places I visited were probably in the scheme of things pretty much the same. I just had a way better vibe from the school I ended up applying to.

PS UW-Madison kicks all the other UW's asses. La Crosse is really chill too though, do you know a guy with the last name Blatter?

[Axis Kast]

I went to Johns Hopkins University after touring a number of schools in the Mid Atlantic states and New England. That includes: Hamilton, American, George Washington, Georgetown, and Williams College, among others.

I was most impressed by Hopkins, only to discover, after spending four years there, that student life was virtually non-existent outside the classroom. The stories I had been told about sympathetic, interested professors were not the norm; many were blatantly rude, out-of-touch, and, on occasion, downright selfish.

I now attend Georgetown University for graduate school, which I like far better. I'd have to say that the level of student activity outdoors on nice days is a great indicator of how much more lively the university is. I also like the fact that there are food options other than the dining hall. I did, however, think Baltimore was more fun than D.C., but I'm in a strict minority (probably of one).

Definitely check out the libraries, where you'll spend a lot of study time.

[Finagle]

Chicks, man. Honestly, when I chose a university I chose it based on a few criteria:
1) number of students - I wanted it to be big enough that you got decent programs and professors, but small enough that you wouldn't just get lost in the crowd.
2) distance from home - I didn't want to keep living at home with my parents (not because I couldn't stand them or anything, I just thought it was time to become independant), but I didn't want to be so far away that I couldn't come home to visit for a weekend every now and then.
3) campus amenities - I wanted to live on-campus for the first couple of years, and I wanted to make sure that almost everything I would need was right on campus, with the other things being nearby. Because I planned to live on campus, I also wanted the campus to be generally a pleasant place with a lot of greenery and stuff around - not some faceless conrete suicide-inducing institution.
4) chicks. Seriously. It wasn't my #1 priority by any means, but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't part of my decision-making process. Of the 3 hottest girls in my high school grad class, 2 of them went to the same univeristy that I did. That was only partially a coincidence

[Fleet Admiral JD]

For me, who just decided on BU for my undergrad, it was simply loving where the school is; it's right in the heart of the city and that's where I wanted to be. Better yet, it has beautiful dorms and is a contiguous campus in the middle of Boston.

It really depends on the kind of person you are--if you like the city, be in the city. If you like being isolated, go somewhere in the middle of no where.

[Fire Fly]

My general rule of thumb is the larger the campus, the better it will probably be. The larger universities have more money for student activities and will thus be able to attract more distinguished speakers, have more extracurricular activities, have nice research facilities (for undergraduate research or for lab work), and will have more student services overall.

If you have two schools with similar features, then look at what the city can provide in terms of leisure. Is the school well off but in the middle of nowhere (Penn State)? Or is the school right in the middle of a vibrant city (NYU)? If city life doesn't appeal to you, then you should consider how your wallet will be affected; most universities and colleges will offer you the same course material with the only difference being the "prestige" factor and how much that prestige factor costs.

I was fortunate to find a school (UW Madison) with all of the above and that was relatively cheap for me, since I'm a state resident.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

The campus should not be in the midst of a ghetto. A ghetto translates to high crime, and a whole host of other nonsense.

[Fleet Admiral JD]

The campus should not be in the midst of a ghetto. A ghetto translates to high crime, and a whole host of other nonsense.

Because Yale is a shitty school.

[Coyote]

Lots of hot, happy, willing girlies.

[muse]

Because Yale is a shitty school.

Since I attended a rival school, it's my duty to say yes, yes, it is.

I'd have to say that the level of student activity outdoors on nice days is a great indicator of how much more lively the university is. I also like the fact that there are food options other than the dining hall.

I did a big tour of all the Ivy Leagues and this is how I ended up deciding things. Princeton was the place where I ended up playing frisbee with a bunch of students I'd never met, I wandered off my tour and before I knew it, there I was. The best four years of my life, no question, no regrets.

[Civil War Man]

I first figured that it would be proximity to a major city, but there are plenty of schools known for being "party schools" or just having a good time without a major metropolis around (e.g. Old Dominion)

This is called the "We are out in the middle of nowhere, so there's nothing to do but get shitfaced" effect.

In my opinion, a good college campus, among other things, will be as tightly knit as the school size would allow. Which means for many schools, everything a student would reasonably need is within walking distance. Hell, my alma mater within the past year opened a pub-style restaurant that is actually in the same building as one of the residence halls. And by pub style, I do mean they serve alcohol (anyone can eat there, but alcohol only to 21+ students, obviously), though I am quite positive that students cannot buy drinks with the meal plans, even if they are legal age.

[Pelranius]

Bowdoin College is a pretty nice place. Small campus, nice small town, close sense of community (hell, most of the football players are smarter than me, at least on things like biochemistry and geology. I'm not making that up). Of course, it's sort of like the international school I went to in Singapore and they have a darn good government department, so I'm probably pretty biased there. I am also a current student as well.

[Wicked Pilot]

Ender, are you planning on living in the dorm or will you be a commuter?

[Ender]

Ender, are you planning on living in the dorm or will you be a commuter?

Well, the IVGA pays for all my tuition, so I'm thinking of living in Dorm with a job as RA to get the room and board taken care of. That would let me save my GI bill for getting my masters instead of using it to pay for rent. But otherwise I may get a job on the side and use room mates to pay rent.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

The campus should not be in the midst of a ghetto. A ghetto translates to high crime, and a whole host of other nonsense.

Because Yale is a shitty school.

Plenty of good schools are in shitty neighbourhoods, but if you want to wager your life it's fine.

Just a few months ago, I heard some Physics graduate student at UChicago who just defended his thesis got shot and killed. He was awarded the degree posthumously. But yeah, those are the chances you take. Bearing in mind also that the costs of living also go up as well.

[Alferd Packer]

A good campus, I'd say, is one within, but completely separate from, an urban downtown. What the shit does that mean? Well first, it should be patently obvious where the campus ends and the town proper begins, either by changing architectural styles or other obvious sign.

An urban downtown, then, would be one that is walkable and/or bikeable, containing many small shops/bars/restaurants. In addition, it should provide relatively painless access to local and regional mass transit. Its urban location should discourage students from bringing a car, as this reduces the number of students who go home on weekends.

An example of this would be UC Davis, which butts right up against downtown Davis (one of the most bike-friendly towns in the county). In addition, it offers an extensive bus network, as well as an Amtrak station for regional transit. Another example would be Rutgers New Brunswick's College Ave. campus. It's attached to an urban downtown that you can walk across in about twenty five minutes, and it has a bus network, as well as access to NJ Transit and Amtrak.

Speaking of Rutgers, its other campuses are polar opposites. Its Busch and Livingston campuses are completely isolated from the towns they inhabit, everything is separated by huge, bare fields, and you need a car to get anywhere. All this reinforces the desire to be someplace else on the weekend, which results in the campus looking almost entirely deserted on a Saturday afternoon. After all, almost everyone has a car, so vamoosing is simple and readily conducted.

[Karrick]

A lot of the things already mentioned apply to RIT, and had I been using them as criteria when I toured I might not have come here. Everybody here says we're the middle of nowhere (not really true, Rochester is 15 minutes away). Most people tend to get shitfaced quite frequently (seems like the "parties" start on Sundays and don’t end so much as taper off by Thursday) and say it's because of the distance, despite having cars. The ratio of men to women here is around 3:1. School spirit is just about nonexistent. I’ve been here three years now and not once been to a hockey game, and I'm not the only one. If anything, the school spirit consists of bashing the school.

Despite all that, I wouldn’t leave for the world. I don’t know what it is, but as soon as I set foot on campus I knew it was right for me. It’s not a feeling I can really qualify. Perhaps I just have a perverse fascination with bricks (everything here is red brick. Everything).

[J]

Because Yale is a shitty school.

Well, they did allow George W. Bush to graduate so how good could it be?

[The Wench]

I'm sorry, that is all friggin' rediculous. Undergrad, in the end, hasn't crap to do with chicks or food or cities nearby. Really? All that should matter is whether your potential major you're going to pursue has an accelerated department at that college. Why would you go to a school - any school- where the department you want to be a part of isn't strongly represented? If you want to pursue English, why go to a college with a crappy English department? Cause the neighboring city is good? It's not in a ghetto? What you need to consider is what you're interested in as a student. Who do you want to sit in class with for four (maybe even five or six) years and discuss this crap with? Cause by the end, when all of this shit is dragging out and you start to realize why people are college drop outs (which has nothing to do with the level of the class, more like college and academic institutions in general) you'll realize you're sitting in a class with adults who helped you excell in your education, and you learned from them, instead of them sucking your brain power and will to live. Hate to burst everyone's bubble, but what you want to pursue that will make you happiest in life is what really matters. So who can give you the best in that department and has a great reputation and teachers that can give you a worthwhile education for your money? Go there.

[Jaepheth]

A good campus should be visually appealing and conducive to academic pursuits.

Also, I'd say the layout is important. Are the buildings close together? Are you going to have to walk a mile to get to class from the dorms? Is there available cover for when it's really sunny, or raining? Is there plenty of bicycle parking, and are you going to be in any real danger of getting run over by said bicycles? How are the bus routes? Will they get you to grocery stores, malls, etc.?

I think those are the important points to consider when judging a college campus.

[Phantasee]

The Wench

I think it's taken for granted that Ender will find a college with a strong program. It seems he's asking how to pick between two equally strong programs, so he's asking what else he ought to look for.

I mean, he could go to a school with nice bike trials, but we know he's just going to find the one with the hottest student body(ies).


BTW Ender, McGill in Montreal and U of A in Edmonton are two of the hottest campuses in Canada. Just in case you think of it.