S/O DCUM vs. reality: which colleges are very different IRL vs. what you read here?

[Anonymous]

I was inspired by a responder on that DCUM vs reality in acceptance thread who said Dartmouth was not all frat boys in real life.

What are other colleges with strong stereotypes that are very different from you saw on tour or better yet, with an enrolled DC?

Does Duke deserve the douchey fratty reputation? Does Brown really over-index on blue-haired celebrity offsprings + LGBTQ? Does Penn have more than their fair share of sharp-elbowed future wall-street bro?

And which ones do seem to lean closer to their reputation?

[Anonymous]

A lot of parents are stuck in their 90s/early 2000s sensibilities.

Much has changed since then.

Among the top 20 or so colleges, the students are all kind of the same. There is not a huge differentiation between a Harvard student and a Duke student these days.

[Anonymous]

There are a lot of kids who apply to the top 15 schools and go to whichever admits them. It dilutes any particular flavor.

[Anonymous]

All of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are a lot of kids who apply to the top 15 schools and go to whichever admits them. It dilutes any particular flavor.

This. And the kids getting into top 20 schools are pretty academic and pointy. This makes these schools feel really nerdy. Shocking when we toured these schools.

[Anonymous]

Having toured many and attends admit days for a few, my opinion is you could pick up the student body at and T15 and drop it on another campus and you’d be none the wiser. All the stereotypes at top are outdated at this point. My hunch is disgruntled parents enjoy repeating them to disparage schools from bruised egos perhaps. I don’t know, it’s just odd to me that so many speak with conviction when so terribly wrong. Having said all that, I think there are loads of excellent institutions of all rankings and tend to find the positives in most.

[Anonymous]

When parents are picturing the kinds of kids at a top school (“blue hair”, sporty, whatever), I think they are picturing white kids with these characteristics. But that’s not how it is now.

[Anonymous]

UVA is not this amazing place where people float on rainbows. It’s a normal place with pros and cons and nice people and mean people. It is not the key to happiness, as it sometimes sounds like to people in FCPS or on this board. I know, I went there.

Similarly, JMU, Radford, CNU, VCU are all good schools in their own right and people should be less snobby about them.

[Anonymous]

Vanderbilt for sure. A lot of DCUM confuses the TN state legislature with the student body of Vandy. This would be wrong

[Anonymous]

Literally every school has its misconceptions on here. Remember, a the majority of DCUM is UMC women who went to college in the 90s. Many think nothing has changed, and they couldn’t be more wrong.

Duke and Dartmouth are not these fratty upper crust places anymore.
UChicago is hardly where fun goes to die.
Northwestern isn’t really a big work-hard play-harder place unless you’re a wealthy white person.
MIT has the most popular frat parties in Boston.
Vanderbilt isn’t brimming with MAGA.
Brown isn’t where quirky blue haired LGBTQ liberals who smoke pot 24/7 attend.

I could go on. I’m sure people with argue with what I say above using their DC’s n=1 anecdotes. Just know that over the last 10+ years, the student demographics and archetypes of T20 schools have become more similar than different.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Having toured many and attends admit days for a few, my opinion is you could pick up the student body at and T15 and drop it on another campus and you’d be none the wiser. All the stereotypes at top are outdated at this point.

My hunch is disgruntled parents enjoy repeating them to disparage schools from bruised egos perhaps. I don’t know, it’s just odd to me that so many speak with conviction when so terribly wrong.

Having said all that, I think there are loads of excellent institutions of all rankings and tend to find the positives in most.

+1 The constant snipping on DCUM, especially for the Ivy+ schools, seems to be motivated by sting of rejection. Guess it helps some to assume the students who got in are miserable etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Having toured many and attends admit days for a few, my opinion is you could pick up the student body at and T15 and drop it on another campus and you’d be none the wiser. All the stereotypes at top are outdated at this point. My hunch is disgruntled parents enjoy repeating them to disparage schools from bruised egos perhaps. I don’t know, it’s just odd to me that so many speak with conviction when so terribly wrong. Having said all that, I think there are loads of excellent institutions of all rankings and tend to find the positives in most.

This. We toured them all and have close friends and family at 9 of the T15(Eight Ivies + MIT stanford duke chicago northwestern jhu caltech). There are some minor differences only. All are more similar than different. UVA is significantly different than all of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Having toured many and attends admit days for a few, my opinion is you could pick up the student body at and T15 and drop it on another campus and you’d be none the wiser. All the stereotypes at top are outdated at this point.

My hunch is disgruntled parents enjoy repeating them to disparage schools from bruised egos perhaps. I don’t know, it’s just odd to me that so many speak with conviction when so terribly wrong.

Having said all that, I think there are loads of excellent institutions of all rankings and tend to find the positives in most.

+1 The constant snipping on DCUM, especially for the Ivy+ schools, seems to be motivated by sting of rejection. Guess it helps some to assume the students who got in are miserable etc.

Definitely this. There are happy and unhappy kids at every school, and geeky and social kids at every school. The ratios vary but most kids find their people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:UVA is not this amazing place where people float on rainbows. It’s a normal place with pros and cons and nice people and mean people. It is not the key to happiness, as it sometimes sounds like to people in FCPS or on this board. I know, I went there.

Similarly, JMU, Radford, CNU, VCU are all good schools in their own right and people should be less snobby about them.

+100

[Anonymous]

They don't play all that much DnD at William and Mary.