nonpressure cooker/well adjusted yet prestigious schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Every top 25 school is going to have some pressure. But there's a difference between what is internally driven and what is externally driven. Most of those kids expect a lot of themselves and that has its own dynamic.

But some schools really seem to ramp the stress up. I'm thinking Carnegie Mellon. I'm thinking Cornell engineering.

Some schools are difficult and stressful for everyone. MIT. CalTech.

Some schools are an easy glide. Harvard. Brown.

Some schools are walking on egg shells all the time kind of schools. Stanford. Berkeley.

And some schools are difficult and challenging but work on creating a healthy environment. Rice, Yale, and Notre Dame come to mind with their residential colleges.

The most balanced schools seem to be the three above - Rice, Yale, Notre Dame - and Princeton, Duke, Northwestern, and Vanderbilt.

The pressure is there. No avoiding that.

There's no slacker school. But there's a difference with how each school manages things.

Thank you!
Can you clarify? Are you saying this is an ideal environment?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your kid is laid back, they will be laid back anywhere. If your kid is high stress, they will be high stress anywhere. It's not the college, it's the kid

This 100%

This is true to a certain extent. And, my kid self-reports and appears to be more relaxed in relaxed environments. NOT party environments. So maybe not Uva, although thank you for the poster who had that list!!

How do you find out what the laid back schools are outside DCUM?

I believe Niche has a dashboard that shows the top 3-4 self descriptors that students provide via poll. For my DC’s college, it is accurate!

[Anonymous]

If your kid jumps through all the high school hoops required to get into a Top 25 university, college is almost certainly going to be a much lower intensity environment than high school, regardless of where they go

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:yes, I am concerned about prestige, but we also want a school that is nice, friendly.
Do they exist? When I Google I find things about the best special services but that clearly doesn't mean it's a healthy environment

I? We?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your kid jumps through all the high school hoops required to get into a Top 25 university, college is almost certainly going to be a much lower intensity environment than high school, regardless of where they go

Good point!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Every top 25 school is going to have some pressure. But there's a difference between what is internally driven and what is externally driven. Most of those kids expect a lot of themselves and that has its own dynamic.

But some schools really seem to ramp the stress up. I'm thinking Carnegie Mellon. I'm thinking Cornell engineering.

Some schools are difficult and stressful for everyone. MIT. CalTech.

Some schools are an easy glide. Harvard. Brown.

Some schools are walking on egg shells all the time kind of schools. Stanford. Berkeley.

And some schools are difficult and challenging but work on creating a healthy environment. Rice, Yale, and Notre Dame come to mind with their residential colleges.

The most balanced schools seem to be the three above - Rice, Yale, Notre Dame - and Princeton, Duke, Northwestern, and Vanderbilt.

The pressure is there. No avoiding that.

There's no slacker school. But there's a difference with how each school manages things.

You know nothing, Jon Snow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:yes, I am concerned about prestige, but we also want a school that is nice, friendly.
Do they exist? When I Google I find things about the best special services but that clearly doesn't mean it's a healthy environment

Brown, Amherst and Rice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:yes, I am concerned about prestige, but we also want a school that is nice, friendly.
Do they exist? When I Google I find things about the best special services but that clearly doesn't mean it's a healthy environment

Brown, Amherst and Rice.

Amherst is too polarized between their 35% athletes and special interest fiefdoms to be friendly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Every top 25 school is going to have some pressure. But there's a difference between what is internally driven and what is externally driven. Most of those kids expect a lot of themselves and that has its own dynamic.

But some schools really seem to ramp the stress up. I'm thinking Carnegie Mellon. I'm thinking Cornell engineering.

Some schools are difficult and stressful for everyone. MIT. CalTech.

Some schools are an easy glide. Harvard. Brown.

Some schools are walking on egg shells all the time kind of schools. Stanford. Berkeley.

And some schools are difficult and challenging but work on creating a healthy environment. Rice, Yale, and Notre Dame come to mind with their residential colleges.

The most balanced schools seem to be the three above - Rice, Yale, Notre Dame - and Princeton, Duke, Northwestern, and Vanderbilt.

The pressure is there. No avoiding that.

There's no slacker school. But there's a difference with how each school manages things.

My kid is junior at Yale now and I think would agree with your assessment. This is not to say kids are never stressed out (mine for sure has her moments!) but a lot of that is because they all want to do so much - everyone seems to double major, do tons of ECs etc. There is a strong collaborative culture at the school and that makes a huge difference. Also pretty vibrant social and cultural life. School spirit is really strong there, kids seem to love it. I went to more of a “pressure cooker” school with pretty low school spirit and am so glad dd in a much happier environment.

[Anonymous]

Lots of SLACs fit the bill—unless not enough prestigious for you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every top 25 school is going to have some pressure. But there's a difference between what is internally driven and what is externally driven. Most of those kids expect a lot of themselves and that has its own dynamic.

But some schools really seem to ramp the stress up. I'm thinking Carnegie Mellon. I'm thinking Cornell engineering.

Some schools are difficult and stressful for everyone. MIT. CalTech.

Some schools are an easy glide. Harvard. Brown.

Some schools are walking on egg shells all the time kind of schools. Stanford. Berkeley.

And some schools are difficult and challenging but work on creating a healthy environment. Rice, Yale, and Notre Dame come to mind with their residential colleges.

The most balanced schools seem to be the three above - Rice, Yale, Notre Dame - and Princeton, Duke, Northwestern, and Vanderbilt.

The pressure is there. No avoiding that.

There's no slacker school. But there's a difference with how each school manages things.

Thank you!
Can you clarify? Are you saying this is an ideal environment?

They can't. they are just blowing smoke - harvard grad

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:yes, I am concerned about prestige, but we also want a school that is nice, friendly.
Do they exist? When I Google I find things about the best special services but that clearly doesn't mean it's a healthy environment

Considering their acceptance rates, does it really matter where you apply? Pick a couple.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your kid is laid back, they will be laid back anywhere. If your kid is high stress, they will be high stress anywhere. It's not the college, it's the kid

This 100%

This is true to a certain extent. And, my kid self-reports and appears to be more relaxed in relaxed environments. NOT party environments. So maybe not Uva, although thank you for the poster who had that list!!

How do you find out what the laid back schools are outside DCUM?

I believe Niche has a dashboard that shows the top 3-4 self descriptors that students provide via poll. For my DC’s college, it is accurate!

Can you help me find this?

[Anonymous]

My child graduated from Swarthmore and he told me no one ever talked about grades. Pressure cooker is self imposed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your kid jumps through all the high school hoops required to get into a Top 25 university, college is almost certainly going to be a much lower intensity environment than high school, regardless of where they go

It certainly wasn’t true for my kid, who glided through a mediocre suburban public high school & then worked butt off at a top 10 university.