College for academic student
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Anonymous
Not sure what a SCAC is but my college is apparently top 10 for PhDs. There's more to grad school than a PhD though. My college sends relatively fewer to business school and law school. It also doesn't offer much in engineering or tech, except through a 3-2 with other schools. So OP needs a better sense of what it is her kid wants to do long term. My DC goes to a top state flagship school and goes class and studies hard. There are also parties and drinking there. Based on what we've seen the kids are in fact invested in their studies. |
Anonymous
| SLAC=selective liberal arts college, or sometimes small liberal arts college |
Anonymous
I know what a SLAC is. I thought a SCAC might be some new term that addressed OPs request. |
Anonymous
|
IME, there tends to be less of a "party" atmosphere at schools that don't have fraternities/sororities.
Note that I said "tends to be" and "less," not "is" and "none." |
Anonymous
| My DS is very academics-focused, loves his classes and works very hard. He is on a merit scholarship at a "second tier" SLAC (one of the Colleges that Change Lives"). There are kids like him at every college/university in America. |
Anonymous
| I went a women's college because I wanted a more academic atmosphere. No drunken guys, no frats. |
Anonymous
Most are interested in getting a degree. At some schools, many are concerned about maintaining a good GPA. Kids who are actually interested in learning per se are rare. It's shocking, for example, how little of the reading gets done. My Freshman Year (in which an anthro prof goes undercover to do fieldwork on undergrad culture) is an interesting read on this topic. And while some might be tempted to write off her state school as unrepresentative, having taught for years at two top 20 private Universities, I can tell you that elite schools aren't that different wrt the whole love of learning thing. |
Anonymous
This is definitely true. And there are faculty at every college/university in America who are delighted to find these kids and will help/encourage them when they recognize them. Because lots of faculty were "that kid" (as s/he may be known to peers). What differs from school to school is how easy it is for these kids to find each other. And what differs among these kids is how much they need/want a like-minded cohort. |
Anonymous
Yes, but I want a school where most of the kids are like this. And especially experiences joy in learning. The learning is not something you do to get a degree, the learning itself is the goal. |
Anonymous
| Mine loved Princeton. If they didn't study, they flunked out. |
Anonymous
Oh. Ok. I'll just send my kids there, then. Thanks! 
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Anonymous
I taught there -- not true. |
Anonymous
| Davidson |
Anonymous
| William and Mary. |
Anonymous
Um ... that's true everywhere, and yet kids party everywhere (even at Princeton). |