Post: #1

My younger cousin is getting ready to go off to college. He was talking to me about going to a small town college town school and also mentioned looking at Depaul and similar schools in Chicago. Both have pros and cons, however looking back I'm very glad I went to a small town and had the whole what I consider to be college experience. I was just curious which you guys went to and how you liked it or maybe you did both.

Big city colleges are cool, in CHicago many of the dorms are in hot areas a college aged kid would never be able to afford and you have the Chicago nightlife and everything else. On the flipside things are going to be more exepensive, how many students have the funds to hit clubs and stuff anyway, and your in a real city so law enforcement is stricter and its not quit that anything goes college atmosphere.

Small town college towns I love. I used to joke its not like real life. In my particular town college kids outnumbered townies so the atmosphere and what is acceptable was more geared towards college kids. Entire neighborhoods around the school were all kids so you could have a party shut down the streets, have speakers in the streets, walk around drinking and really nobody gave a shit where as in a real city or residential neighborhood with families stuff like that would never fly. The whole small town with very little to do but get fucked up kinda added to that atmosphere in my opinoin. It was cool we had some state parks and things where we would go have parties in the middle of nowhere or woods and stuff from time to time and actually some of my fondest memories are the road trips going home from school after a break or comming back. I did my last couple classes back at home in a big city and though it was cool there wasn't that college community atmosphere as more kids were working, had family or other friends in the area, etc.

THat's basically the advice I gave him, I really liked the college experience I had being in a small town. I was jus curious what your guys experiences and preferences were. I'll probably print and show him this thread to give him some other peoples experiences. THanks.

Post: #2

It depends on the individual. Guys like us that are looking for notches and parties should stick to schools that have at least 10,000+ students. City and locale doesn't really matter as long as the school is big.

Remember being in college makes you apart of a "tribe" of other students. I'd avoid small schools in even smaller towns. The environment is similar to high school so expect haters and cock blockers.m

Post: #3

Whichever one gives you the better education. If you can afford the best school then that should be his choice

That being said...all the best schools are in or near large cities. More opportunities for connections, useful jobs while in school, better internships, and both college aged and work force aged girls to game.

Post: #4

Fuck small schools.

Post: #5

I say medium to large sized school in a suburban, rural or small town area. Junior and senior girls get jaded about the college scene and if they're in a city they'll be raving about how 'mature' the non-college men are. You don't want to deal with that competition.

Too small a school and girls will be wary about fucking.


You have the rest of your life to experience living in a city. Go for the hardcore college only experience.

"all the best schools are in or near large cities. "

False. On the basis of that statement alone, it's safe to say you don't know what you're talking about.

Post: #6

Having done both, he should go to a big state school in a college town where the college is the only attraction - Ann Arbor, Madison, Iowa City, etc. There's nothing like the college town experience, and it traps the hottest and lowest CPN girls in the same pond. Your buddy is not going to have a real shot at gaming top-end chicks in their mid-20s in a big city, but older men in that city can easily pick off the hotter poor college girls from his pool. A smaller college town eliminates poaching.

Post: #7

Personally I'd go big where you'll find everything you need and no possibility of getting bored. Small is only an option if the school has a particular reputation which is going to help career wise after graduation. Think Oxford or Cambridge which are in smaller cities.

Post: #8

(09-27-2014 01:15 PM)Mentavious Wrote:  Whichever one gives you the better education. If you can afford the best school then that should be his choice

That being said...all the best schools are in or near large cities. More opportunities for connections, useful jobs while in school, better internships, and both college aged and work force aged girls to game.

You make some good points however many internships are done over the summer not just during school year so even though I may go to school in Southern Illinois I could very easily if I'm from Chicago or Chicagoland are land a decent internship during the summer.

I think to a point unless your really going to an elite school the school you graduate from doesn't play that big a role. For me a big consideration is a school that isn't going to put you in debt.

Post: #9

(09-27-2014 01:35 PM)Basil Ransom Wrote:  I say medium to large sized school in a suburban, rural or small town area. Junior and senior girls get jaded about the college scene and if they're in a city they'll be raving about how 'mature' the non-college men are. You don't want to deal with that competition.

Too small a school and girls will be wary about fucking.


You have the rest of your life to experience living in a city. Go for the hardcore college only experience.

"all the best schools are in or near large cities. "

False. On the basis of that statement alone, it's safe to say you don't know what you're talking about.

I agree, granted University of Illinois Chicago, NYU, etc but there vast majority of colleges in terms of state schools and even private schools are often in rural areas or "college towns". In my opinion this is what the true college experience is really about.

I went to a medium size school probably somewhere between 10k to 15k students. Small enough that campus was small and easy to get around, there was sort of a community feel and you knew people but at the same time big enough not everyone knows everyone and you won't run out of girls. I went to EIU for those of you in the midwest may know but we had Champaign or U Of I about 30 minutes down the highway so if I wanted to go for that experience I had plenty of friends there and it was only a short drive away.

Post: #10

I had a choice of going to NYU but I ultimately didn't, and now I'm attending a school that's in a college town(it's good although not as prestige as NYU).

As frenchie said, it depends on the individual. I ended up choosing the school that I'm attending now because it has a large student population and is considered a top party school even among other party schools like ASU and FSU.

I didn't want to go to NYU because I lived in Brooklyn and I would've had to commute to school, which I didn't like. I wanted the full on-campus college experience.

If he is like what I was at that time—only concerned about the school's female to male ratio, how far the school is away from home, if it's a party school or not—I'd choose the small college town. Otherwise, go to a school that's in the city.

Post: #11

I went to a liberal arts college in a small town that was a pretty short drive from the big city. There was a very strong drinking culture and the entire bar scene was located two or three blocks from the school.

While it was lame that you saw similar crowds of people every time you went out to the local bars on the upside since you were a familiar person you could hang out until closing time, follow the drunk and not driving crowd of students, and get tacitly invited to all the local house and apartment parties (bring your own booze of course).

I must have crashed a party at least once or twice a month on average for four years. House parties can have very promising game prospects which is why I wouldn't immediately discount small liberal arts schools. Opportunities exist there that would be completely out of the question almost anywhere else.

Post: #12

(09-27-2014 01:35 PM)Basil Ransom Wrote:  I say medium to large sized school in a suburban, rural or small town area. Junior and senior girls get jaded about the college scene and if they're in a city they'll be raving about how 'mature' the non-college men are. You don't want to deal with that competition.

Too small a school and girls will be wary about fucking.


You have the rest of your life to experience living in a city. Go for the hardcore college only experience.

"all the best schools are in or near large cities. "

False. On the basis of that statement alone, it's safe to say you don't know what you're talking about.

Don't say someone is wrong if you can't provide proof. You are correct in that 'all' is incorrect. I should of used the word most in this instance.

Cambridge, Mass-3 miles from Boston
Georgia Tech-Atlanta
Univ of chicago-chicago
Stanford university-less than 30 miles from San Fran
California institute of Technology-Pasadena
John Hopkins-Baltimore
Northwestern Univ-20 min drive from Chicago
Washington univ in St. Louis-st Louis
Vanderbilt univ
Rice-Houston
UC Berkeley
Emory
Georgetown
Univ of Michigan
Carnegie Mellon
USC
Wake Forest
NY university-NYC

Post: #13

(09-27-2014 02:17 PM)jamaicabound Wrote:  

(09-27-2014 01:15 PM)Mentavious Wrote:  Whichever one gives you the better education. If you can afford the best school then that should be his choice

That being said...all the best schools are in or near large cities. More opportunities for connections, useful jobs while in school, better internships, and both college aged and work force aged girls to game.

You make some good points however many internships are done over the summer not just during school year so even though I may go to school in Southern Illinois I could very easily if I'm from Chicago or Chicagoland are land a decent internship during the summer.

I think to a point unless your really going to an elite school the school you graduate from doesn't play that big a role. For me a big consideration is a school that isn't going to put you in debt.

Yeh you gotta kinda weigh the cost vs education you will receive.

Post: #14

(09-27-2014 03:56 PM)Mentavious Wrote:  

(09-27-2014 02:17 PM)jamaicabound Wrote:  

(09-27-2014 01:15 PM)Mentavious Wrote:  Whichever one gives you the better education. If you can afford the best school then that should be his choice

That being said...all the best schools are in or near large cities. More opportunities for connections, useful jobs while in school, better internships, and both college aged and work force aged girls to game.

You make some good points however many internships are done over the summer not just during school year so even though I may go to school in Southern Illinois I could very easily if I'm from Chicago or Chicagoland are land a decent internship during the summer.

I think to a point unless your really going to an elite school the school you graduate from doesn't play that big a role. For me a big consideration is a school that isn't going to put you in debt.

Yeh you gotta kinda weigh the cost vs education you will receive.

I probably should have specified I was more asking this question in terms of social life and having the "college experience" and not so much on quality of education though obviously that's the most important factor.

That said however I went to a state school for majority of college, this is a few years back but I think I was paying about $1700 per semester so $3400 per year. I finished my last couple classes at a well respected private school back in Chicagoland area and was paying something like $7k per timester so 21k per year. A price diffence on a 4 year educatoin being about 70k give or take. Is that extra expense and debt going to affect my earnign power that much? Also pretty much after a year or two work experience college basically beocmes irrelevent so I'm especially not going to make that up in those first few years where people may actually care about where you went to college.

Unless your going for some very specific program one particular school is known for or unless yoru going to some really elite or ivy league school nobody really cares where you went to school. Especially once you have a year or two of work experience your college, grades, etc become pretty much irrelevent, it's all about your skillset, your work experience, accomplishments and how you present yourself.

Personally I didn't really notice that big of a difference in terms of quality of education between the state school or the "good" school although the more expensive school did force me to take a bunch of meaningless diversity classes and multicultural classes and nonsense like that.

I went to school for communications which to be honest is kind of a vague blowoff liberal arts degree. Unless your going for something in architecture, accounting, medicine, law, etc I really see no use in shelling out a bunch of money for a top tier school. Heck even most states have a state school well known for something ie Southern Illinois has great programs for agriculture, landscaping, etc. Northern Illinois is supposed to have a great business program. Eastern and ISU are both kind of known for teaching so you can get off much cheaper and go to a school which is pretty respected for a number of particular fields.

Laslty, unless your school is a welll known school if you relocate nobody will even know what reputation it has. My school was pretty well respected all be it small that I finished at. I've had a few people I interviewed with locally be like oh yah nice school but many people have no clue where the school is let alone the schools reputation.

I should have been more specific though, I was advising my cousin more from a fun, and lifestyle perspective as opposed to quality of educaiton. he doens't really know what he's going for, has expressed some interst in teaching and if thats the case a state school would be perfectly fine.

As far as expenses going to a school in a college town I think I rented a 1 bedroom apt at one point for $175 and lived alone. I also had a house with a buddy I think my share of rent was under $200. Going otu to party most bars had a nickel or even penny draft night i could literally scrape some change from the couch, leave the house with $2.23 cents and go get hammered. In Chicago I knew guys paying $800+ and still sharing an apartment with 2-3 other guys. Going out to party, yeah there's specials and cheaper bars but heck your gonna pay $4+ for a bar, if you actually want to take advantage of the nice river north clubs $20 to $40 cover and $9 a beer. Hard to do on a college budget.

For all these reasons I was pushing him to go to a state school in a small town.

Post: #15

(09-27-2014 05:55 PM)jamaicabound Wrote:  

(09-27-2014 03:56 PM)Mentavious Wrote:  

(09-27-2014 02:17 PM)jamaicabound Wrote:  

(09-27-2014 01:15 PM)Mentavious Wrote:  Whichever one gives you the better education. If you can afford the best school then that should be his choice

That being said...all the best schools are in or near large cities. More opportunities for connections, useful jobs while in school, better internships, and both college aged and work force aged girls to game.

You make some good points however many internships are done over the summer not just during school year so even though I may go to school in Southern Illinois I could very easily if I'm from Chicago or Chicagoland are land a decent internship during the summer.

I think to a point unless your really going to an elite school the school you graduate from doesn't play that big a role. For me a big consideration is a school that isn't going to put you in debt.

Yeh you gotta kinda weigh the cost vs education you will receive.

I probably should have specified I was more asking this question in terms of social life and having the "college experience" and not so much on quality of education though obviously that's the most important factor.

That said however I went to a state school for majority of college, this is a few years back but I think I was paying about $1700 per semester so $3400 per year. I finished my last couple classes at a well respected private school back in Chicagoland area and was paying something like $7k per timester so 21k per year. A price diffence on a 4 year educatoin being about 70k give or take. Is that extra expense and debt going to affect my earnign power that much? Also pretty much after a year or two work experience college basically beocmes irrelevent so I'm especially not going to make that up in those first few years where people may actually care about where you went to college.

Unless your going for some very specific program one particular school is known for or unless yoru going to some really elite or ivy league school nobody really cares where you went to school. Especially once you have a year or two of work experience your college, grades, etc become pretty much irrelevent, it's all about your skillset, your work experience, accomplishments and how you present yourself.

Personally I didn't really notice that big of a difference in terms of quality of education between the state school or the "good" school although the more expensive school did force me to take a bunch of meaningless diversity classes and multicultural classes and nonsense like that.

I went to school for communications which to be honest is kind of a vague blowoff liberal arts degree. Unless your going for something in architecture, accounting, medicine, law, etc I really see no use in shelling out a bunch of money for a top tier school. Heck even most states have a state school well known for something ie Southern Illinois has great programs for agriculture, landscaping, etc. Northern Illinois is supposed to have a great business program. Eastern and ISU are both kind of known for teaching so you can get off much cheaper and go to a school which is pretty respected for a number of particular fields.

Laslty, unless your school is a welll known school if you relocate nobody will even know what reputation it has. My school was pretty well respected all be it small that I finished at. I've had a few people I interviewed with locally be like oh yah nice school but many people have no clue where the school is let alone the schools reputation.

I should have been more specific though, I was advising my cousin more from a fun, and lifestyle perspective as opposed to quality of educaiton. he doens't really know what he's going for, has expressed some interst in teaching and if thats the case a state school would be perfectly fine.

As far as expenses going to a school in a college town I think I rented a 1 bedroom apt at one point for $175 and lived alone. I also had a house with a buddy I think my share of rent was under $200. Going otu to party most bars had a nickel or even penny draft night i could literally scrape some change from the couch, leave the house with $2.23 cents and go get hammered. In Chicago I knew guys paying $800+ and still sharing an apartment with 2-3 other guys. Going out to party, yeah there's specials and cheaper bars but heck your gonna pay $4+ for a bar, if you actually want to take advantage of the nice river north clubs $20 to $40 cover and $9 a beer. Hard to do on a college budget.

For all these reasons I was pushing him to go to a state school in a small town.

Post: #16

What's he gonna be taking? I personally think that geography is key depending on what major you want to pursue.

Business: If he is taking a major like accounting or finance then no fucking doubt you need to be near the bigger hubs. Need to be around the recruiters for key internships. Cobra's sick sheet on Accounting sort of swayed me- I had no idea prestige of school played such a big role in landing these types of jobs.

Science: But what if he is taking something like mining engineering? Software? Comp Sci? Petroleum? Best bet is to go to school in locations where the technical work is close. Whether that means going to Stanford for computer-related degrees for subsequent work in the Silicon Valley or Louisiana Tech for petroleum engineering to land a job in the Gulf of Mexico producing oil., for example.

Law: Since you usually take a cakewalk undergrad ie poli sci to get high law school admission grades, go where the parties are at!

Med: Will have no life as the 4.0 GPA in biology undergrad is required, go to BYU where distractions like drinking, sex etc won't come into play. Pour 1000 hours into MCAT studies... lol

Arts degrees: Knock him unconscious with baseball bat blow to the head, from there all you can do is hope that you warped his brain good enough so that he will suddenly want to pursue a hard science or trade after the fact.

Post: #17

Interesting question and discussion here. Really makes me want to take a trip to the US and rent out an apartment in small college party towns for a month or so during teaching periods.

Post: #18

(08-05-2015 09:26 AM)Adrenaline Wrote:  Interesting question and discussion here. Really makes me want to take a trip to the US and rent out an apartment in small college party towns for a month or so during teaching periods.

This would be a viable strategy, especially if you have an accent. You can just say you are an exchange student, don't know anyone etc.

Post: #19

Quality of school should trump location in most cases.

HOWEVER....there's positives and negatives. If you're going to a small program in a small town expect your class to be pretty tight knit. If your school has a large enough alumni network then there can be significant network advantages. Good examples are the military colleges(both service academies and places like VMI and Citadel) and IU-Kelley. On the other hand being in a large center can offer a significant network advantage because of your ability to easily get face time with hiring companies.

My advice? Go for the best school you can get into that's located near where you want to start your career after you graduate. Exact location isn't so important anyway. You should be worried about CAREER first, chicks second.

If you're worried about chicks then stop it. If you have the necessary swagger and resourcefulness to get laid regularly then it won't particularly matter where you go to school unless you go to somewhere like Citadel or Hampton Sydney. Even if the school is overwhelmingly male dorks (Georgia Tech and MIT) there's no shortage of colleges nearby which do have plenty of women.