Colleges with happy kids

[Anonymous]

Penn!

[Anonymous]

UC Santa Barbara.

[Anonymous]

Southern flagships

[Anonymous]

Georgia Southern University

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Small liberal arts colleges like Middlebury, Wesleyan, Haverford, Amherst.

This is very subjective. Some kids are just thrilled to be anywhere away. And some kids will be complainers no matter where they go.

I went to one of those schools and feel like it was the biggest mistake of my life. Overrated academics, too many wealthy brats, too small, boring, too pricey

which one? some of these are on my kid's list

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Look for schools that foster community… are the kids eating alone? Is it hard to get into clubs? Are there events open to everyone, games, dances, etc. that people attend? Is it hard to get profs you want? Mine is at Amherst and so much is done to create community… it seems the kids are having a great college experience. I believe Davidson has eating houses as does Yale. These things give the college a sense of community. Anyone can throw out names but I would recommend looking for characteristics of the school that make the kids happy and looking at schools that have these characteristics.

No, Yale does not have eating houses. Yale has residential colleges.

Why do people post on here when they don't even know what they are talking about?

[Anonymous]

BU

[Anonymous]

UVA!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:VT, JMU

+100

JMU seemed like another NOVA high school on the tour. Grade 13 my DD says it’s called. I really am glad she didn’t end up there. Not sure about the happiness factor, but if your DC liked high school looks like a good continuation.

What HS has 720 acres and 20,000 students? If a kid goes to JMU and it feels like grade 13, that’s on them. It’s not a feature of the school.

+1
The PP is the usual malcontent who has some kind of weird hangup about JMU. It's a great school full of smart and nice students. I guess that annoys some people.

Absolutely no disrespect to you or JMU, but for students of NOVA hs, JMU does have the reputation of being high school 2.0. It’s a great school with great students, but many of the kids trend to be the same “type” that maybe go to college and hang out with the same group at JMU. You see it in the parents pics from tailgates etc. There is nothing wrong with this, but for kids that want to sorta start fresh or not see the same groups/ JMU as seen as a school to avoid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:VT, JMU

+100

JMU seemed like another NOVA high school on the tour. Grade 13 my DD says it’s called. I really am glad she didn’t end up there. Not sure about the happiness factor, but if your DC liked high school looks like a good continuation.

What HS has 720 acres and 20,000 students? If a kid goes to JMU and it feels like grade 13, that’s on them. It’s not a feature of the school.

+1
The PP is the usual malcontent who has some kind of weird hangup about JMU. It's a great school full of smart and nice students. I guess that annoys some people.

Absolutely no disrespect to you or JMU, but for students of NOVA hs, JMU does have the reputation of being high school 2.0. It’s a great school with great students, but many of the kids trend to be the same “type” that maybe go to college and hang out with the same group at JMU. You see it in the parents pics from tailgates etc. There is nothing wrong with this, but for kids that want to sorta start fresh or not see the same groups/ JMU as seen as a school to avoid.

Hmm. I've had two kids attend JMU and both said they *never* saw anyone from high school, unless they sought them out (which they didn't).
DP

[Anonymous]

Vanderbilt, Wake Forest, Alabama, Clemson, UGA, U South Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio State, Indiana, Auburn, Ole Miss

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Virginia Tech

There's little evidence to support that claim. My friends who were in engineering there were pretty miserable.

Engineering is pretty miserable everywhere. Though they have all doors open to them when they come out, so they win in the end. Socializing as an undergrad and having a lot of happy time is not the experience of Engineers. Same with premeds but to a lesser extent

Would disagree with that. I have two engineers who are very happy - UW and Wisconsin. Out of my kids extended friend groups - kids that seem the happiest are at the bigger state schools. And I have yet to meet anyone at Colorado who isn't very happy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:These posts about misery and depression at CMU, Chicago, Cornell (all on my kids list btw) have me thinking...where are kids HAPPY? Besides Brown? (Ideally, a little easier to get into than Brown!)

Boston College, Syracuse

[Anonymous]

The schools that rushed the field yesterday after big home football wins: ASU, Oklahoma, Auburn. Didn't see too many unhappy kids in those crowds.

[Anonymous]

According to my kid, friends are having a good experience at Vanderbilt, Notre Dame, Rice, Michigan, and McGill.

They are having a terrible experience at Harvard and Cornell.