Top 20 most academically rigorous colleges /universities in the United States

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MIT, Caltech, Berkeley, U Penn, CMU, Johns Hopkins, Rice, Cornell, Georgia Tech are academically most rigorous.

Agree with you except for Cornell.

Which one would you suggest to replace Cornell?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:William and Mary above Hopkins? Please.🙄

Exactly. In which world?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:William and Mary above Hopkins? Please.🙄

+1
I laughed. What is the "source" for this list anyway? Some instagram account?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:William and Mary above Hopkins? Please.🙄

+1
I laughed. What is the "source" for this list anyway? Some instagram account?

OP's instagram post

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:William and Mary above Hopkins? Please.🙄

+1
I laughed. What is the "source" for this list anyway? Some instagram account?

William and Mary is rigorous. Certainly not laugh-worthy!
https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-academic-pressure-and-workload-at-The-College-of-William-and-Mary-like

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:William and Mary above Hopkins? Please.🙄

+1
I laughed. What is the "source" for this list anyway? Some instagram account?

William and Mary is rigorous. Certainly not laugh-worthy!
https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-academic-pressure-and-workload-at-The-College-of-William-and-Mary-like

OMG.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a kid at a school pretty high on the list. Seems fairly rigorous to me. That said - seems like a dumb list. How on earth could this be measured in any meaningful way?

Maybe, say, if you have real resources, you could create a decent list by using data on the:

1. The percentage of all students who go to grad school.

2. The percentage of English majors, math majors, biology majors, chemistry majors and physics majors who take the GREs in their fields, and somehow relate that to the percentage who score over 770.

3. The percentage of students who start in doctoral programs at, say, three big universities and end up getting their doctorates.

4. Maybe, say, do a survey of first-year faculty members and ask them how rigorous the new school seems when compared with their own undergrad schools. There’d be some bias in there, but maybe you could use the results to create a pretty good relative ranking of which schools seem more or less rigorous to the new instructors.

If the list maker is getting $50 and has to use easy-to-get data, maybe just relate the percentage of students taking the GREs, MCATs, LSATs and GMATs to the average GRE and MCAT scores. And, say, to any other achievement test scores or certification test pass rates that might be available.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:William and Mary above Hopkins? Please.🙄

Exactly. In which world?

At W& M it’s going to be major dependent. Top majors are STEM and on the humanities side, IR, Econ, and Business. Don’t know about STEM, but my IR kid is 4 semesters into the 5 of Econ she needs for the IR degree. Just to get the degree mind you. Not to specialize in a business, Econ, world bank area. Plus 4 semesters of a foreign language are required (5 days a week for 2 years). 7 of those classes are pre-recs for requirements and don’t actually count towards the IR major. So speaking for IR, it’s a really intense. And many/most kid also do Global studies (which is a foreign language and culture, Econ, or some other specialty. Business and Econ? Also very intense. Government? Not some much and mostly for kids who couldn’t hack IR.

So year— certain majors are definitely very demanding. But, you can also find an easy path to some humanities degree, like government or sociology.

Then again, MIT has humanities majors. I agree it’s a most rigorous school in many areas of STEM. But, it's history majors? JHU is sociology? Even top schools have some paths that are less rigorous.

Any college you send you kid to, you need to look hard at their specific department. And also, what the rest of the school looks like if Plan A doesn’t pan out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:William and Mary above Hopkins? Please.🙄

Of course it is, Hopkins has had to adjust rigor because of its new student population.

[Anonymous]

DCUM: WM (which has an average GPA .02 lower than UVA) is full of introverted grinds who do nothing but study, study and study some more. UVA kids are the fun and social ones.

(WM kids: yep! TWAMPs and proud of it)

Also DCUM: WM has a rigorous workload and the kids have to study, study and study some more?? Inconceivable.

Make up your mind DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:William and Mary above Hopkins? Please.🙄

Exactly. In which world?

At W& M it’s going to be major dependent. Top majors are STEM and on the humanities side, IR, Econ, and Business. Don’t know about STEM, but my IR kid is 4 semesters into the 5 of Econ she needs for the IR degree. Just to get the degree mind you. Not to specialize in a business, Econ, world bank area. Plus 4 semesters of a foreign language are required (5 days a week for 2 years). 7 of those classes are pre-recs for requirements and don’t actually count towards the IR major. So speaking for IR, it’s a really intense. And many/most kid also do Global studies (which is a foreign language and culture, Econ, or some other specialty. Business and Econ? Also very intense. Government? Not some much and mostly for kids who couldn’t hack IR.

So year— certain majors are definitely very demanding. But, you can also find an easy path to some humanities degree, like government or sociology.

Then again, MIT has humanities majors. I agree it’s a most rigorous school in many areas of STEM. But, it's history majors? JHU is sociology? Even top schools have some paths that are less rigorous.

Any college you send you kid to, you need to look hard at their specific department. And also, what the rest of the school looks like if Plan A doesn’t pan out.

Exactly. Rigor!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:William and Mary above Hopkins? Please.🙄

Exactly. In which world?

At W& M it’s going to be major dependent. Top majors are STEM and on the humanities side, IR, Econ, and Business. Don’t know about STEM, but my IR kid is 4 semesters into the 5 of Econ she needs for the IR degree. Just to get the degree mind you. Not to specialize in a business, Econ, world bank area. Plus 4 semesters of a foreign language are required (5 days a week for 2 years). 7 of those classes are pre-recs for requirements and don’t actually count towards the IR major. So speaking for IR, it’s a really intense. And many/most kid also do Global studies (which is a foreign language and culture, Econ, or some other specialty. Business and Econ? Also very intense. Government? Not some much and mostly for kids who couldn’t hack IR.

So year— certain majors are definitely very demanding. But, you can also find an easy path to some humanities degree, like government or sociology.

Then again, MIT has humanities majors. I agree it’s a most rigorous school in many areas of STEM. But, it's history majors? JHU is sociology? Even top schools have some paths that are less rigorous.

Any college you send you kid to, you need to look hard at their specific department. And also, what the rest of the school looks like if Plan A doesn’t pan out.

Exactly. Rigor!!!

The question in this particular thread isn’t whether a particular school is rigorous. It’s that the list posted here is trashy even by bad clickbait standards.

[Anonymous]

MIT graduation requirements for all majors, not just STEM -it's very rigorous for any major.

General Institute Requirements (GIRs)
The General Institute Requirements include a Communication Requirement that is integrated into both the HASS Requirement and the requirements of each major; see details below.

Summary of Subject Requirements Subjects
Science Requirement
Chemistry (3.091, 5.111, or 5.112)
Physics (8.01, 8.011, 8.012, or 8.01L; and 8.02, 8.021, or 8.022)
Mathematics (18.01 or 18.01A; and 18.02, 18.02A, or 18.022)
Biology (7.012, 7.013, 7.014, 7.015, or 7.016) 6
Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (HASS) Requirement; at least two of these subjects must be designated as communication-intensive (CI-H) to fulfill the Communication Requirement. 8
Restricted Electives in Science and Technology (REST) Requirement 2
Laboratory Requirement (12 units) 1
Total GIR Subjects Required for SB Degree

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:William and Mary above Hopkins? Please.🙄

Exactly. In which world?

At W& M it’s going to be major dependent. Top majors are STEM and on the humanities side, IR, Econ, and Business. Don’t know about STEM, but my IR kid is 4 semesters into the 5 of Econ she needs for the IR degree. Just to get the degree mind you. Not to specialize in a business, Econ, world bank area. Plus 4 semesters of a foreign language are required (5 days a week for 2 years). 7 of those classes are pre-recs for requirements and don’t actually count towards the IR major. So speaking for IR, it’s a really intense. And many/most kid also do Global studies (which is a foreign language and culture, Econ, or some other specialty. Business and Econ? Also very intense. Government? Not some much and mostly for kids who couldn’t hack IR.

So year— certain majors are definitely very demanding. But, you can also find an easy path to some humanities degree, like government or sociology.

Then again, MIT has humanities majors. I agree it’s a most rigorous school in many areas of STEM. But, it's history majors? JHU is sociology? Even top schools have some paths that are less rigorous.

Any college you send you kid to, you need to look hard at their specific department. And also, what the rest of the school looks like if Plan A doesn’t pan out.

Exactly. Rigor!!!

The question in this particular thread isn’t whether a particular school is rigorous. It’s that the list posted here is trashy even by bad clickbait standards.

+1
And it's clear we now have W&M boosters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:William and Mary above Hopkins? Please.🙄

Of course it is, Hopkins has had to adjust rigor because of its new student population.

I was about to say that. Lots of my relatives, including my husband and nieces/nephews (22 to 30 years old), etc. attended Hopkins and it is nothing like as crazy as it was back on the day—cutthroat, nobody left the library, etc. It has turned much softer.

I also have always heard WM was very rigorous. That’s well known.