Which schools are the hardest academically?

[Anonymous]

MIT

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why are you even asking this question. It seems pointless. And like someone already said - it is very major dependent. You can be an English major at MIT and it probably isn’t especially grueling compared to some other schools

Well, it would be grueling if you weren’t a good writer. Any major is hard if you’re not good at that subject.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went to Cornell, NYU and Duke, and in my experience, NYU was the most rigorous, by a wide margin. Had a great experience at each school, though.

Wow! Thanks for sharing.

[Anonymous]

Lehigh, Case Western, Wake Forest

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I really question Duke’s academics being characterized as grueling and I wonder if JHU feels that way if you’re not in a STEM field (or maybe specifically premed). Great school for an academically-inclined undergrad in humanities/social sciences, imo.

Princeton has the potential for rigor (if that’s what you’re looking for) — mandatory junior paper and senior thesis can be challenging. But Princeton, like Harvard, has lots of faculty who typically grade on a truncated scale so you have to do something pretty egregious to get a C (in a non-STEM field).

I want to Hopkins a long time ago (‘93) in social sciences and it was certainly a place it required a lot of work but I can’t imagine that much more so than other peer schools. Engineering/BME/premed kids had to work like crazy though and had to constantly deal with “the curve” which contributed to the grueling atmosphere of the place.

I taught there then, lol! Also soc sci and yeah workload was comparable to Princeton and Harvard. Wasn’t worse. But STEM looked different from the outside.

[Anonymous]

USC

[Anonymous]

Johns Hopkins, people like to work very hard there.

[Anonymous]

Davidson

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is tracked pretty well at gradeinflation.com

Not really — workload is a separate question from grading and distribution of grades may reflect distribution of ability. Same prof can teach at two different schools, assign same work, employ same grading standards, get very distribution. Or may change demands (e.g. when moving between schools where typical courseloads and/or calendar are different) or standards to keep distribution similar.

[Anonymous]

My kid graduated from Swarthmore. Pretty tough there and he was a science major.

[Anonymous]

State schools. Because there is no grade inflation. They don't give a damn.

[Anonymous]

MIT.

Swarthmore is intense (culturally).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:State schools. Because there is no grade inflation. They don't give a damn.

Nope. The classes at state schools are dumb easy, so it evens out.

[Anonymous]

Johns Hopkins
Harvey Mudd
CalTech
Rensselaer
Carnegie Mellon
MIT


These pale in comparison to some universities abroad in Asia though.

[Anonymous]

William & Mary