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Top 10 Happiest Colleges in the Country
Where does Yale University rank on the list? Find out!
By Kathryn Knight Randolph
October 14, 2011
What contributes to a student’s happiness at school? Great academic offerings, a variety of extracurricular activities or the other students? It’s hard to gauge exactly what makes college students “happy,” but one way of determining that is to look at the freshmen retention rate, meaning how many freshmen return to that particular campus the following year.
The Center for College Affordability and Productivity put together the list of the happiest college campuses for Forbes Magazine’s college rankings. Consider adding these happy places to your college search list – or tell us why your current college makes you happy.
School statistics and student opinions pulled from each university’s website (figures listed are the most recent data, mostly from the 2010 – 2011 school year) as well as The Princeton Review.
10. Dartmouth College
Location: Hanover, New Hampshire
Undergraduate students: 4,248
Annual costs: $55,365 (includes tuition, room, board and mandatory fees)
Average scholarship amount: $53,504
Retention rate: 98%
According to The Princeton Review, students on campus say that “it is always busy…after attending classes in the morning, we run from meetings to debates to the library and finally to Frat Row. It is a relentless, fast-paced cycle, but it is so unbelievably fun and rewarding.”
Learn more about Dartmouth College.
yichen
4 months ago
yea...retention rate is not a good way to measure the happiness. If I could get in a Ivy League college, I would not leave even the works are super heavy that will make me want to die!
treecake
5 months ago
I think that retention rate is a horrible way to gauge happiness, but then again, it's difficult to define measurements for something so subjective as happiness. It's really a matter of where you feel the most at home. I am currently enrolled at University of California, Santa Barbara, and I am having loads of fun! Even though yes, it is a party school, and no, I am NOT a partygoer, I still love the laid-back atmosphere of it all. However, another fellow first-year at UCSB hates it. She feels like everybody at the school needs to take life more seriously and face world issues. Another student who is shy is scared of the school because everybody is "too friendly." So just because I love the social yet mellow life right by the beach doesn't mean everybody does. Once again, how happy you are at a certain college really depends on you. Try visiting the college and ask people who go there instead of just relying on unreliable rankings.
moorehead107
6 months ago
Can I just ask why there are the same comments twice on here? Just asking?
koreanmina
6 months ago
Sour people leaving comments that students can be just as happy in other colleges and universities. Fine, nobody's denying that. This list is not saying that you or your kid is going to be happier for going to one of these places. At most, this list is simply saying that MORE students tend to be happy there, NOT that anyone is HAPPIER for it...
Those of you who left rude and obviously thoughtless comments should be ashamed of yourselves for turning your noses up. Some of you might scoff at my input, but that's EXACTLY what you're doing - acting high and mighty and self-righteous at that. And for your information, you don't have to be rich to go to any of these colleges - if any of you actually took the time to look past superficial stereotypes and actually had some common sense, you'd realize that.
koreanmina
6 months ago
Sour people leaving comments that students can be just as happy in other colleges and universities. Fine, nobody's denying that. Because everyone should already know that surveys and statistical data are always less than reliable anyway. And that this list is not saying that you or your kid is going to be happier for going to one of these places. At most, this list is simply saying that MORE students tend to be happy there, NOT that anyone is HAPPIER for it...
Those of you who left rude and obviously thoughtless comments should be ashamed of yourselves for turning your noses up. Some of you might scoff at my input, but that's EXACTLY what you're doing - acting high and mighty and self-righteous at that. And for your information, you don't have to be rich to go to any of these colleges - if any of you actually took the time to look past superficial stereotypes and actually had some common sense, you'd realize that.
1236791
6 months ago
LAME.
jaysupremo
6 months ago
"Retention rate isn't a very good measure of happiness; who would be insane enough to LEAVE once they got into an Ivy League school? A survey might be better."
That basically sums up this WHOLE list. If i got into, why wouldn't i be happy?!?!?!? These arent schools you are FORCED to get into or have as a last choice. These are schools you either work your ass off to attend OR your parents pay your way into.
jaysupremo
6 months ago
"Retention rate isn't a very good measure of happiness; who would be insane enough to LEAVE once they got into an Ivy League school? A survey might be better."
That basically sums up this WHOLE list. If i got into, why wouldn't i be happy?!?!?!? These arent schools you are FORCED to get into or have as a last choice. These are schools you either work your ass off to attend OR your parents pay your way into.
moorehead107
6 months ago
OMG! I wanna go to Dartmouth now! I never thought of it before! Thank you for bringing it to my mind!
LadyPR
6 months ago
- i wanna go to columbia <3
shellshellstation
6 months ago
I think some of the peoples comments are horrible. If you don't like it and want to say curse words and etc., please say it somewhere else. YOU may not like it (I know I don't) but that doesn't mean you should curse at the person who made this. They took time out of their day to try and help YOU. It wasn't made for themselves, so please stop leaving curse words and saying that she/he sucks. Thank you!
Kathangel1
7 months ago
I mean insidecollege.com sorry about that
Kathangel1
7 months ago
look at the website insidecolleg.com and type in happy colleges a lot more variety there and not just east coast Universities. The students tell you what colleges they are happy at.
DerrickG60
7 months ago
Everyone is complaining about these all being elite schools, but according to my social psychology class this makes perfect sense. To get into those schools you have to work extremely hard, so even if they are no better than other schools you will still rate it as better than a school you didn't have to work as hard to get into simply as a way to justify that hard work.
I do think retention rate is a bad statistic to base happiness off of, but if you surveyed every college student on how happy they are you would most likely see similar results.
LeahC132
7 months ago
This is an absurd posting, you should be ashamed for running it. My wonderfully average children (3.0, 1200 SAT) are extremely happy at the colleges they have chosen - schools they are thriving at and that they and we can afford - none of which are on your list.