Can you rank these schools in terms of...
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Anonymous
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being most conducive to learning/intellectual curiosity vs. pre-professional, most collaborative, with the smartest yet also happiest students, where they work hard but it's not a grind. I know I am describing almost a unicorn college. Please rank top 3 that fit this blue sky college description.
Penn Princeton Yale Cornell Rice Williams Amherst Swarthmore Pomona Harvey Mudd Middlebury JHU Northwestern Carnegie Mellon Excluding other colleges that may fit the bill like Brown and Stanford where no one ever gets in from our HS. Kids from DC's school sends at least 1-4 seniors each to above list consistently. Science major (not engineering) |
Anonymous
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What does your son/daughter want to study ?
If engineering, then it will be a grind everywhere. |
Anonymous
| Not Cornell. We were just up there for parents weekend. Everyone is grinding. |
Anonymous
Not engineering. Wants chemistry or neuroscience. Thanks! |
Anonymous
| Why just this list? It’s hard to find those qualities in the schools that people apply to because they prioritize prestige. (Think of all the people applying to Ivies solely because they’re part of that athletic conference.) |
Anonymous
| Yale and Rice. I know that is only two but some of the others are extremely pre-professional (Penn) and some of the LAC's are socially tough because of the divide between athletes and others |
Anonymous
These would be my pick too. My kid is a STEM major at Rice. It's a happy place. |
Anonymous
From this list, just Yale and Rice. Maybe Middlebury but I'm not too familiar with it. The upside to Pomona and Harvey Mudd is that you have access to the other schools in the consortium, which all have very different vibes. I'd add Vanderbilt and Duke as schools that seem to do a little better about getting the balance right. But if the student is interested in engineering or CS, that will be a very different list of schools when it comes to balance and a healthy environment. There's a huge difference between studying engineering at Cornell and CMU compared to being an English major. |
Anonymous
OP: I think Rice is the perfect school for DD, except the part where Greg Abbott thinks he owns your body. DD does not want to be in TX |
Anonymous
Cant imagine anyone knows enough about these 14 schools to provide you a "list". People will trash or praise the 1 or 2 schools with familiarity. Someone claims to know more is just bs-ing. |
Anonymous
Kids are smart with virtually identical academic profiles at any of these schools so you can take that off the table as a differentiator. Mudd and Cornell are both known for grinding. Swat is often referred to as the SLAC "where fun goes to die" but the kids that I know who are there are thriving and love it. Middlebury, Williams, and Amherst are considered to have the heaviest workloads among the NESCACs with Middlebury and Williams being a bit more pre-professional than Amherst and maybe having a bit more "work hard, play hard" cultures. I don't know as much about the others but top schools, top students means work in most cases. |
Anonymous
| What a dumb post. Who has enough intimate knowledge of all of these schools, hell even half of them, to say anything relevant. |
Anonymous
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You should look into state flagship schools—start with your in-state flagship.
Most of the schools on your list are known for grinding. |
Anonymous
| Williams and Amherst dead heat for happiest students and fostering an environment of intellectual curiosity, followed by Yale and then Rice. Would include Vandy but kids from OPs school may never get in there, thus the list.. |
Anonymous
OP: thanks for reading my OP. Yes, that's exactly it: the list contains schools top kids from our school get into year after year. DC is in that cohort next year so asking about this list. Her schools seems to have no issue getting accepts at Y, P and P year after year (mostly not legacies) but never H, M or S. Also does very well with WASP. |