Yale Daily News Staff - The Insiders Guide to the Colleges, 2015: Students on Campus Tell You What You Really Want to Know, 4

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Contents

The Colleges Listed by State

Preface

Welcome to the 2015 edition of The Insiders Guide to the Colleges! Choosing the right school and navigating through the application process may seem overwhelming, but you are beginning your search on the right foot simply by picking up this book. In the 41st edition of the Insiders Guide, we provide you with an accurate picture of day-to-day college life. For each school profile, we rely on hours of personal interviews with actual students to give you a true sense of the college and its student body.

We tell you what we wanted to know when we were in your shoes. College is going to be one of the most exciting and rewarding experiences of your life. It is about opening yourself up to new experiences, haphazardly putting together something edible in the dining hall when the lines are long and the food is bad, and making the kinds of friends who will skip class to give you a hand when you need it. It is about pulling all-nighters on papers due the next morning or talking to your roommates until the sun comes up. It is about driving halfway across the country to see your football team win, getting blasted for an opinion piece you wrote for the college newspaper, or volunteering at the local elementary school when you still have to do 300 pages of reading. College is gallons of coffee, stress, and laughter.

But first, you need to choose a school. Among the thousands of colleges that span the continent, you can apply to no more than a handful. Maybe you have a vague idea of what you want, but how do you begin to narrow your choices?

That is where the Insiders Guide comes in. For this 41st edition, we have revamped our entire book to ensure that it provides an accurate portrayal of college experience at each of the more than 300 institutions we feature. We give you the inside scoop directly from the students who attend these schools. We research each college by interviewing friends, friends of friends, and a selection of student leaders. These unique perspectives offer insights that you wont find on the glossy pages of admissions brochures or by browsing schools Web sites. It also means that we are only as accurate as the opinions of our sources. After all, the college experience is unique for every individual. Indeed, one students closet-sized dorm room may be another students palace.

In addition to college profiles, the Insiders Guide includes a number of special features to help you in your search. The College Finder gives you a rundown on various schools according to key attributes, such as student body size and graduation rate. Getting In takes you step-by-step through the intricacies of the admissions process. In The College Spectrum, we discuss some of the most important factors to consider when choosing between schools, as well as giving you a look at current trends in college life. Introduction for International Students provides tips on applying to American schools for those living outside of the United States, while Students with Disabilities informs those with learning or physical disabilities about issues they should consider when applying. Study Abroad gives you a peek at the overseas adventures that students undertake during their college years. We have revised our Insiders Packing List and our Insiders Quiz. Our editors have also added new items to the ever-popular Editors Choice feature, a ranking of colleges in categories spanning from ugliest school colors to biggest rivalries. These lists are based on student interviews as well as our own research and assessment. We hope that this feature will offer you a new perspective or introduce you to a school you may not have otherwise considered.

We know how stressful the college selection process is for you. After all the hard work of preparing and applying, acceptances often appear to be offered randomly, with little regard to merit. You may not be able to attend your top college choice. Nevertheless, you should try not to worry, however difficult it may sound. Ultimately, the majority of students love their college experiences. In part, this is because they applied to schools that were right for them. But most importantly, every single college will provide you with new people to meet, new paths to explore, and new experiences to enjoy. Wherever you end up, just remember one thing: those four years fly by, so make the most of them!

Editors-in-chief

Connor Moseley

Matthew Tran

Managing Editor

Chris Dee

Executive Editor

Anh Ha

Staff Writers

Lillian Childress

Isabelle Taft

Phoebe Kimmelman

Dana Schneider

Adrian Rodrigues

Caroline Wray

Josh Mandell

Jennifer Gersten

Sarah Bruley

Abigail Bessler

Andrew Koenig

Della Fok

Stephanie Rogers

Larry Milstein

Amanda Buckingham

Alexandra Bicks

Zunaira Arshad

Eleanor Runde

Greg Cameron

Hailey Winston

Acknowledgments

We would like to particular give thanks to Matt Martz, our editor at St. Martins Press. His leadership and understanding have been essential, and without his organizational and creative vision, the 2015 Guide could never have been published. To Emad Haerizadeh and Jeff Marsh at the Yale Daily News , we give considerable thanks for their time and patience. We would also like to thank all the interviewees who were gracious enough to give us a peek into their lives and their colleges: Without you, this book would not have been possible. Finally, we are especially thankful to those Yalies who, over 40 years ago, decided to devote their time and energy toward creating a helpful guide for high schoolers about to go to college. We hope you enjoy the book!

How to Use This Book

How We Select the Colleges

One of the most difficult questions we wrestle with here at The Insiders Guide is which schools to include in the upcoming edition. From more than 2,000 four-year institutions nationwide, we only cover slightly over 300 colleges. We examine a number of criteria in deciding which colleges to select, but our first priority is always the quality of academics offered by the institution. Another key factor in our decision is the desire to offer a diversity of options in The Insiders Guide. Thus, we have included schools from all 50 states as well as several top institutions in Canada. In our school choices, we have also taken into account the range of extracurricular options available to students, including publications, teams, and ethnic organizations. Each year we review our list of schools, research potential additions, and try to include new colleges that have not been featured in the past. Our goal is to provide you with the latest and the most comprehensive insider information.

We have made a point to review the largest state-affiliated institutions because of the significant number of students who apply to and matriculate at their states schools. These universities tend to offer a particularly wide range of opportunities. We have also made every effort to include a broad cross section of smaller colleges because of the unique education they offer. Many of these schools are liberal arts colleges, generally clustered in the Northeast, offering a broad but personalized education. To add to the diversity of schools reviewed by The Insiders Guide, we have also included selections from the most prominent technical schools and creative and performing arts schools. These institutions provide specialized education, combining general knowledge with a concentration in a particular field. The sampling of schools in this category is by no means comprehensive, and we encourage students interested in specialized institutions to explore their options more deeply through additional research.