nonpressure cooker/well adjusted yet prestigious schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How is Boston College on these dimensions? Well-adjusted? Prestigious?

DC is a possible science + business major. But not pre-med or CS.

BC is well-adjusted because it is filled with kids who would never get into a T20, and would never go STEM or pre-med. The vibe is distinctly upper middle class, white, suburban catholic, from goody two-shoes families. I'm not sure everyone would agree it is prestigious in the way they think Ivy, Williams, and MIT are prestigious, but if majoring in business, your kid will be fine.

True. other than the Gabelli scholars, the BC kids are not gunners. It is also not prestigious.
You cannot have it both ways: prestigious well known school with top grad/professional matriculation and quant/banking/consulting feeder and yet somehow the average kid is "chill". It simply does not happen. Kids party and have fun, but they also work extremely hard especially in STEM, and they do a bunch of non-class clubs and groups too. The majority of students who attend these schools thrive in that environment and would pick the same path again and again. They think they are well adjusted and many of them do not describe these schools as a pressure cooker.

This! For the right kids, and there are an awful lot of them, the prestigious schools are the right fit and are Not filled with horrible pressure and no fun

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am looking for a more updated version of this list for good fit schools for my senior.

Looking for mid-size private selective schools that don't promote a "gunner" culture. Social/well-adjusted with active social life (at least 2-3 nights per week) plus active academic life (but not every night in the library).

Does this exist?

My kids are at different ivies and they both have this. “Social “ doesn’t mean drinking 2-3 nights a week for most, but that exists in a subset of the schools. Yet most of Dcum and CC calls them gunner schools. YMMV.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:College is a source of pressure and major or track add more to it but student themselves are part of the pressure as a lot of pressure is rooted into their ability to handle rigor, workload, friendships, parties, drinking, weed, dating, time management and responsibility.

Rice, Vanderbilt, Yale, and Brown rank as relaxed and supportive places for majority but obviously you'll find people who can manage to be miserable there as well.

Sounds like these schools are mentioned a lot here, along with certain (?) SLACs?
Here is the list from earlier in this post back in the spring - what seems to be missing?

Rice
Brown
Vanderbilt
Dartmouth
UVA
Emory
USC
UNC
Wisconsin
Wake
Santa Clara
UMiami
Tulane
Davidson
Bates
Colby
Bucknell
Carleton

I think these schools will start to see more and more applications from the "normal well-adjusted social" kids given Vanderbilt is following in the footsteps of Northwestern and Duke and has become more and more nerdy, dorky and "gunner"......

If your kid thinks Duke and Northwestern are nerdy and dorky and gunner it is the wrong fit. Please realize your kid may, and many kids do, fall in love with either school and find it to be an amazing fit and much more socially fulfilling than high school. Besides what is wrong with gunners? My entire law school was gunners but man did we have fun when it was downtime

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am looking for a more updated version of this list for good fit schools for my senior.

Looking for mid-size private selective schools that don't promote a "gunner" culture. Social/well-adjusted with active social life (at least 2-3 nights per week) plus active academic life (but not every night in the library).

Does this exist?

My kids are at different ivies and they both have this. “Social “ doesn’t mean drinking 2-3 nights a week for most, but that exists in a subset of the schools. Yet most of Dcum and CC calls them gunner schools. YMMV.

What schools? I'm curious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:College is a source of pressure and major or track add more to it but student themselves are part of the pressure as a lot of pressure is rooted into their ability to handle rigor, workload, friendships, parties, drinking, weed, dating, time management and responsibility.

Rice, Vanderbilt, Yale, and Brown rank as relaxed and supportive places for majority but obviously you'll find people who can manage to be miserable there as well.

Sounds like these schools are mentioned a lot here, along with certain (?) SLACs?
Here is the list from earlier in this post back in the spring - what seems to be missing?

Rice
Brown
Vanderbilt
Dartmouth
UVA
Emory
USC
UNC
Wisconsin
Wake
Santa Clara
UMiami
Tulane
Davidson
Bates
Colby
Bucknell
Carleton

I think these schools will start to see more and more applications from the "normal well-adjusted social" kids given Vanderbilt is following in the footsteps of Northwestern and Duke and has become more and more nerdy, dorky and "gunner"......

If your kid thinks Duke and Northwestern are nerdy and dorky and gunner it is the wrong fit. Please realize your kid may, and many kids do, fall in love with either school and find it to be an amazing fit and much more socially fulfilling than high school. Besides what is wrong with gunners? My entire law school was gunners but man did we have fun when it was downtime

from what i can tell at my kid's college, gunner is code for public high school kids.
sharp elbowed, super focused and can be aggressive wrt clubs/internships.

it may be the private high school kids are turned off to this bc they can use their networks for internships and/or they've never had to be so aggressive or focused in their previous schooling experience?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:College is a source of pressure and major or track add more to it but student themselves are part of the pressure as a lot of pressure is rooted into their ability to handle rigor, workload, friendships, parties, drinking, weed, dating, time management and responsibility.

Rice, Vanderbilt, Yale, and Brown rank as relaxed and supportive places for majority but obviously you'll find people who can manage to be miserable there as well.

Sounds like these schools are mentioned a lot here, along with certain (?) SLACs?
Here is the list from earlier in this post back in the spring - what seems to be missing?

Rice
Brown
Vanderbilt
Dartmouth
UVA
Emory
USC
UNC
Wisconsin
Wake
Santa Clara
UMiami
Tulane
Davidson
Bates
Colby
Bucknell
Carleton

This is a good list. But anyone getting into Rice, Brown, Vanderbilt, and Dartmouth is going to be a smart, disciplined, accomplished, and ambitious student. They are not partying on a Tuesday night. Most likely, they are in the library. But they tend to be humane and friendly and social - particularly at Vanderbilt.

I'd add a couple of more to the list of well adjusted and prestigious schools - Chicago and Notre Dame. Both seem fairly humane and well balanced these days. WashU also seemed pretty sane when we visited. We didn't visit Bowdoin, but the kids we know there all seem like well-balanced good students who come out as better people than when they entered.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:College is a source of pressure and major or track add more to it but student themselves are part of the pressure as a lot of pressure is rooted into their ability to handle rigor, workload, friendships, parties, drinking, weed, dating, time management and responsibility.

Rice, Vanderbilt, Yale, and Brown rank as relaxed and supportive places for majority but obviously you'll find people who can manage to be miserable there as well.

Sounds like these schools are mentioned a lot here, along with certain (?) SLACs?
Here is the list from earlier in this post back in the spring - what seems to be missing?

Rice
Brown
Vanderbilt
Dartmouth
UVA
Emory
USC
UNC
Wisconsin
Wake
Santa Clara
UMiami
Tulane
Davidson
Bates
Colby
Bucknell
Carleton

I think these schools will start to see more and more applications from the "normal well-adjusted social" kids given Vanderbilt is following in the footsteps of Northwestern and Duke and has become more and more nerdy, dorky and "gunner"......

If your kid thinks Duke and Northwestern are nerdy and dorky and gunner it is the wrong fit. Please realize your kid may, and many kids do, fall in love with either school and find it to be an amazing fit and much more socially fulfilling than high school. Besides what is wrong with gunners? My entire law school was gunners but man did we have fun when it was downtime

from what i can tell at my kid's college, gunner is code for public high school kids.
sharp elbowed, super focused and can be aggressive wrt clubs/internships.

it may be the private high school kids are turned off to this bc they can use their networks for internships and/or they've never had to be so aggressive or focused in their previous schooling experience?

Is this satire? Because it actually made me laugh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:College is a source of pressure and major or track add more to it but student themselves are part of the pressure as a lot of pressure is rooted into their ability to handle rigor, workload, friendships, parties, drinking, weed, dating, time management and responsibility.

Rice, Vanderbilt, Yale, and Brown rank as relaxed and supportive places for majority but obviously you'll find people who can manage to be miserable there as well.

Sounds like these schools are mentioned a lot here, along with certain (?) SLACs?
Here is the list from earlier in this post back in the spring - what seems to be missing?

Rice
Brown
Vanderbilt
Dartmouth
UVA
Emory
USC
UNC
Wisconsin
Wake
Santa Clara
UMiami
Tulane
Davidson
Bates
Colby
Bucknell
Carleton

This is a good list. But anyone getting into Rice, Brown, Vanderbilt, and Dartmouth is going to be a smart, disciplined, accomplished, and ambitious student. They are not partying on a Tuesday night. Most likely, they are in the library. But they tend to be humane and friendly and social - particularly at Vanderbilt.

I'd add a couple of more to the list of well adjusted and prestigious schools - Chicago and Notre Dame. Both seem fairly humane and well balanced these days. WashU also seemed pretty sane when we visited. We didn't visit Bowdoin, but the kids we know there all seem like well-balanced good students who come out as better people than when they entered.

Goodness! Amazing how you could possibly know what schools have “humane, well-balanced, good kids”! Your posts are so very odd in the way that you form a narrative with absolutely zero proof. There are plenty of kids at all of the schools you mention who are partiers and all of the other attributes you clearly find distasteful. But do go on!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:College is a source of pressure and major or track add more to it but student themselves are part of the pressure as a lot of pressure is rooted into their ability to handle rigor, workload, friendships, parties, drinking, weed, dating, time management and responsibility.

Rice, Vanderbilt, Yale, and Brown rank as relaxed and supportive places for majority but obviously you'll find people who can manage to be miserable there as well.

Sounds like these schools are mentioned a lot here, along with certain (?) SLACs?
Here is the list from earlier in this post back in the spring - what seems to be missing?

Rice
Brown
Vanderbilt
Dartmouth
UVA
Emory
USC
UNC
Wisconsin
Wake
Santa Clara
UMiami
Tulane
Davidson
Bates
Colby
Bucknell
Carleton

I think these schools will start to see more and more applications from the "normal well-adjusted social" kids given Vanderbilt is following in the footsteps of Northwestern and Duke and has become more and more nerdy, dorky and "gunner"......

If your kid thinks Duke and Northwestern are nerdy and dorky and gunner it is the wrong fit. Please realize your kid may, and many kids do, fall in love with either school and find it to be an amazing fit and much more socially fulfilling than high school. Besides what is wrong with gunners? My entire law school was gunners but man did we have fun when it was downtime

from what i can tell at my kid's college, gunner is code for public high school kids.
sharp elbowed, super focused and can be aggressive wrt clubs/internships.

it may be the private high school kids are turned off to this bc they can use their networks for internships and/or they've never had to be so aggressive or focused in their previous schooling experience?

Is this satire? Because it actually made me laugh.

DP, but this is pretty typical to what we see at DC's college. Kids from Hackley School or Choate never have to worry much about trying too hard, while the magnet school grads are running the clubs and overloading courses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know about that. I am old, but went to HYPS. I am Type A and was even more so then. I wouldn't describe it as "laid back," but it wasn't a pressure cooker.

Depends on major.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:College is a source of pressure and major or track add more to it but student themselves are part of the pressure as a lot of pressure is rooted into their ability to handle rigor, workload, friendships, parties, drinking, weed, dating, time management and responsibility.

Rice, Vanderbilt, Yale, and Brown rank as relaxed and supportive places for majority but obviously you'll find people who can manage to be miserable there as well.

Sounds like these schools are mentioned a lot here, along with certain (?) SLACs?
Here is the list from earlier in this post back in the spring - what seems to be missing?

Rice
Brown
Vanderbilt
Dartmouth
UVA
Emory
USC
UNC
Wisconsin
Wake
Santa Clara
UMiami
Tulane
Davidson
Bates
Colby
Bucknell
Carleton

I think these schools will start to see more and more applications from the "normal well-adjusted social" kids given Vanderbilt is following in the footsteps of Northwestern and Duke and has become more and more nerdy, dorky and "gunner"......

If your kid thinks Duke and Northwestern are nerdy and dorky and gunner it is the wrong fit. Please realize your kid may, and many kids do, fall in love with either school and find it to be an amazing fit and much more socially fulfilling than high school. Besides what is wrong with gunners? My entire law school was gunners but man did we have fun when it was downtime

from what i can tell at my kid's college, gunner is code for public high school kids.
sharp elbowed, super focused and can be aggressive wrt clubs/internships.

it may be the private high school kids are turned off to this bc they can use their networks for internships and/or they've never had to be so aggressive or focused in their previous schooling experience?

Is this satire? Because it actually made me laugh.

DP, but this is pretty typical to what we see at DC's college. Kids from Hackley School or Choate never have to worry much about trying too hard, while the magnet school grads are running the clubs and overloading courses.

Riiiiiiight…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:College is a source of pressure and major or track add more to it but student themselves are part of the pressure as a lot of pressure is rooted into their ability to handle rigor, workload, friendships, parties, drinking, weed, dating, time management and responsibility.

Rice, Vanderbilt, Yale, and Brown rank as relaxed and supportive places for majority but obviously you'll find people who can manage to be miserable there as well.

Sounds like these schools are mentioned a lot here, along with certain (?) SLACs?
Here is the list from earlier in this post back in the spring - what seems to be missing?

Rice
Brown
Vanderbilt
Dartmouth
UVA
Emory
USC
UNC
Wisconsin
Wake
Santa Clara
UMiami
Tulane
Davidson
Bates
Colby
Bucknell
Carleton

I think these schools will start to see more and more applications from the "normal well-adjusted social" kids given Vanderbilt is following in the footsteps of Northwestern and Duke and has become more and more nerdy, dorky and "gunner"......

If your kid thinks Duke and Northwestern are nerdy and dorky and gunner it is the wrong fit. Please realize your kid may, and many kids do, fall in love with either school and find it to be an amazing fit and much more socially fulfilling than high school. Besides what is wrong with gunners? My entire law school was gunners but man did we have fun when it was downtime

from what i can tell at my kid's college, gunner is code for public high school kids.
sharp elbowed, super focused and can be aggressive wrt clubs/internships.

it may be the private high school kids are turned off to this bc they can use their networks for internships and/or they've never had to be so aggressive or focused in their previous schooling experience?

This is a weird take. I'm trying to think of our private - where we absolutely have gunner types. Maybe what you mean (or are seeing) is students that are hooked vs not hooked. The very few kids who get out of our private to at T20 unhooked are 100% gunner types. They work their butts off to get perfect grades and high test scores and do hard ECs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:College is a source of pressure and major or track add more to it but student themselves are part of the pressure as a lot of pressure is rooted into their ability to handle rigor, workload, friendships, parties, drinking, weed, dating, time management and responsibility.

Rice, Vanderbilt, Yale, and Brown rank as relaxed and supportive places for majority but obviously you'll find people who can manage to be miserable there as well.

Sounds like these schools are mentioned a lot here, along with certain (?) SLACs?
Here is the list from earlier in this post back in the spring - what seems to be missing?

Rice
Brown
Vanderbilt
Dartmouth
UVA
Emory
USC
UNC
Wisconsin
Wake
Santa Clara
UMiami
Tulane
Davidson
Bates
Colby
Bucknell
Carleton

I think these schools will start to see more and more applications from the "normal well-adjusted social" kids given Vanderbilt is following in the footsteps of Northwestern and Duke and has become more and more nerdy, dorky and "gunner"......

If your kid thinks Duke and Northwestern are nerdy and dorky and gunner it is the wrong fit. Please realize your kid may, and many kids do, fall in love with either school and find it to be an amazing fit and much more socially fulfilling than high school. Besides what is wrong with gunners? My entire law school was gunners but man did we have fun when it was downtime

from what i can tell at my kid's college, gunner is code for public high school kids.
sharp elbowed, super focused and can be aggressive wrt clubs/internships.

it may be the private high school kids are turned off to this bc they can use their networks for internships and/or they've never had to be so aggressive or focused in their previous schooling experience?

Is this satire? Because it actually made me laugh.

DP, but this is pretty typical to what we see at DC's college. Kids from Hackley School or Choate never have to worry much about trying too hard, while the magnet school grads are running the clubs and overloading courses.

Riiiiiiight…

Yes riiiiiight. Don't you private parents understand by now that half the benefit is the eventual alum network?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:College is a source of pressure and major or track add more to it but student themselves are part of the pressure as a lot of pressure is rooted into their ability to handle rigor, workload, friendships, parties, drinking, weed, dating, time management and responsibility.

Rice, Vanderbilt, Yale, and Brown rank as relaxed and supportive places for majority but obviously you'll find people who can manage to be miserable there as well.

Sounds like these schools are mentioned a lot here, along with certain (?) SLACs?
Here is the list from earlier in this post back in the spring - what seems to be missing?

Rice
Brown
Vanderbilt
Dartmouth
UVA
Emory
USC
UNC
Wisconsin
Wake
Santa Clara
UMiami
Tulane
Davidson
Bates
Colby
Bucknell
Carleton

I think these schools will start to see more and more applications from the "normal well-adjusted social" kids given Vanderbilt is following in the footsteps of Northwestern and Duke and has become more and more nerdy, dorky and "gunner"......

If your kid thinks Duke and Northwestern are nerdy and dorky and gunner it is the wrong fit. Please realize your kid may, and many kids do, fall in love with either school and find it to be an amazing fit and much more socially fulfilling than high school. Besides what is wrong with gunners? My entire law school was gunners but man did we have fun when it was downtime

from what i can tell at my kid's college, gunner is code for public high school kids.
sharp elbowed, super focused and can be aggressive wrt clubs/internships.

it may be the private high school kids are turned off to this bc they can use their networks for internships and/or they've never had to be so aggressive or focused in their previous schooling experience?

Is this satire? Because it actually made me laugh.

DP, but this is pretty typical to what we see at DC's college. Kids from Hackley School or Choate never have to worry much about trying too hard, while the magnet school grads are running the clubs and overloading courses.

Riiiiiiight…

Yes riiiiiight. Don't you private parents understand by now that half the benefit is the eventual alum network?

What makes you think I’m a “private” parent? The weird, false descriptions of public school kids on this thread are something else. And the fact that any parent would have a single clue about where their kid’s classmates went to high school is also amusing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:College is a source of pressure and major or track add more to it but student themselves are part of the pressure as a lot of pressure is rooted into their ability to handle rigor, workload, friendships, parties, drinking, weed, dating, time management and responsibility.

Rice, Vanderbilt, Yale, and Brown rank as relaxed and supportive places for majority but obviously you'll find people who can manage to be miserable there as well.

Sounds like these schools are mentioned a lot here, along with certain (?) SLACs?
Here is the list from earlier in this post back in the spring - what seems to be missing?

Rice
Brown
Vanderbilt
Dartmouth
UVA
Emory
USC
UNC
Wisconsin
Wake
Santa Clara
UMiami
Tulane
Davidson
Bates
Colby
Bucknell
Carleton

I think these schools will start to see more and more applications from the "normal well-adjusted social" kids given Vanderbilt is following in the footsteps of Northwestern and Duke and has become more and more nerdy, dorky and "gunner"......

If your kid thinks Duke and Northwestern are nerdy and dorky and gunner it is the wrong fit. Please realize your kid may, and many kids do, fall in love with either school and find it to be an amazing fit and much more socially fulfilling than high school. Besides what is wrong with gunners? My entire law school was gunners but man did we have fun when it was downtime

from what i can tell at my kid's college, gunner is code for public high school kids.
sharp elbowed, super focused and can be aggressive wrt clubs/internships.

it may be the private high school kids are turned off to this bc they can use their networks for internships and/or they've never had to be so aggressive or focused in their previous schooling experience?

Is this satire? Because it actually made me laugh.

DP, but this is pretty typical to what we see at DC's college. Kids from Hackley School or Choate never have to worry much about trying too hard, while the magnet school grads are running the clubs and overloading courses.

+1