nonpressure cooker/well adjusted yet prestigious schools

[Anonymous]

[twitter]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I asked my kid these questions. Don’t you?

[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

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!

Your annoying condescending tone.

[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.

I just want to add some input on Bowdoin. One of my kids graduated from there. The admissions is competitive and they tend to take very well-rounded kids who are, like kids at most top schools, well disciplined. The academics are hard but they don’t go out of their way to turn up the heat. As a matter of fact, the faculty looks out for kids who may be struggling and the other students are generally cooperative and supportive of each other - but they’re really bright kids. There are always kids who struggle in specific majors and it can be stressful.

[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

Other than University of Chicago and Notre Dame, are there any other schools to add to this list? What is Colgate like?

I’m sending this list to kids email so kid can review & update common app as needed.

The more I read on here the more convinced I am that my kid needs a social, friendly, well-adjusted collaborative environment without sharp elbows.

Coming from a very collaborative private high school.

[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.

huh? gunner is used by my private school kids at their private high school. It has nothing to do with public vs private and they both have leadership and challenge themselves with courses at their T10s. Not sure where your slacker-acting Hackley or Choate friends attend, but the aura of effortless perfection can be worn by public school kids too. That is just an aura, for students at challenging colleges. Other students do not mask their effort levels or act like everything comes easy. Some have to work harder than others sure but this private v public nonsense is just that.

Like the PP I thought it was satire too

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:[twitter]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I asked my kid these questions. Don’t you?

You asked your kid to find out which classmates had attended public high schools and which had attended private and then report back to you? No. I did not do that.

[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

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!

Your annoying condescending tone.

That is not a complete sentence, but ok…

[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.

huh? gunner is used by my private school kids at their private high school. It has nothing to do with public vs private and they both have leadership and challenge themselves with courses at their T10s. Not sure where your slacker-acting Hackley or Choate friends attend, but the aura of effortless perfection can be worn by public school kids too. That is just an aura, for students at challenging colleges. Other students do not mask their effort levels or act like everything comes easy. Some have to work harder than others sure but this private v public nonsense is just that.

Like the PP I thought it was satire too

+100
There is a poster here who is mighty full of herself. Or else a really great troll.

[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

Other than University of Chicago and Notre Dame, are there any other schools to add to this list? What is Colgate like?

I’m sending this list to kids email so kid can review & update common app as needed.

The more I read on here the more convinced I am that my kid needs a social, friendly, well-adjusted collaborative environment without sharp elbows.

Coming from a very collaborative private high school.

Be very cautious taking this list as rule. Close friends and family at Brown and Chicago and Wake Forest ("work forest") describe them as more intense than my Penn and my own Wake kid find their schools to be: their experience has been "social, well adjusted and collaborative" more than the others. The Hopkins '24 grad we know describes it as fun and not too stressful compared with the reputation he had heard. Here is the rub: often the students who describe "pointy elbows" and competition are premeds who are like that everywhere, OR, they are students who by truth or impression feel they are in the bottom tier at their college. It makes them assess the school as overly competitive not realizing they would have likely felt the same way at many other schools. That personality needs to be at a college where they are solidly in the top quarter.
The Brown /Chicago/Wake friend kids seemed to barely squeak in based on relative stats. Their perception is colored by that. Mine either easily beat the means at their colleges or they are in non-mean-based classes, so they do not find them overly competitive and they thrive on intensity anyway

[Anonymous]

Are you people for real?

[Anonymous]

Did none of you go to college? Or just did not go to good schools? With the exception of a couple of majors at a couple of schools (mit, caltrch, chicago, cornell), undergrad is quite easy.

[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

Other than University of Chicago and Notre Dame, are there any other schools to add to this list? What is Colgate like?

I’m sending this list to kids email so kid can review & update common app as needed.

The more I read on here the more convinced I am that my kid needs a social, friendly, well-adjusted collaborative environment without sharp elbows.

Coming from a very collaborative private high school.

Be very cautious taking this list as rule. Close friends and family at Brown and Chicago and Wake Forest ("work forest") describe them as more intense than my Penn and my own Wake kid find their schools to be: their experience has been "social, well adjusted and collaborative" more than the others. The Hopkins '24 grad we know describes it as fun and not too stressful compared with the reputation he had heard. Here is the rub: often the students who describe "pointy elbows" and competition are premeds who are like that everywhere, OR, they are students who by truth or impression feel they are in the bottom tier at their college. It makes them assess the school as overly competitive not realizing they would have likely felt the same way at many other schools. That personality needs to be at a college where they are solidly in the top quarter.
The Brown /Chicago/Wake friend kids seemed to barely squeak in based on relative stats. Their perception is colored by that. Mine either easily beat the means at their colleges or they are in non-mean-based classes, so they do not find them overly competitive and they thrive on intensity anyway

pre med people are the worst. followed closely by CS and engineering.

[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

Other than University of Chicago and Notre Dame, are there any other schools to add to this list? What is Colgate like?

I’m sending this list to kids email so kid can review & update common app as needed.

The more I read on here the more convinced I am that my kid needs a social, friendly, well-adjusted collaborative environment without sharp elbows.

Coming from a very collaborative private high school.

Be very cautious taking this list as rule. Close friends and family at Brown and Chicago and Wake Forest ("work forest") describe them as more intense than my Penn and my own Wake kid find their schools to be: their experience has been "social, well adjusted and collaborative" more than the others. The Hopkins '24 grad we know describes it as fun and not too stressful compared with the reputation he had heard. Here is the rub: often the students who describe "pointy elbows" and competition are premeds who are like that everywhere, OR, they are students who by truth or impression feel they are in the bottom tier at their college. It makes them assess the school as overly competitive not realizing they would have likely felt the same way at many other schools. That personality needs to be at a college where they are solidly in the top quarter.
The Brown /Chicago/Wake friend kids seemed to barely squeak in based on relative stats. Their perception is colored by that. Mine either easily beat the means at their colleges or they are in non-mean-based classes, so they do not find them overly competitive and they thrive on intensity anyway

whaa wut?

[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

Other than University of Chicago and Notre Dame, are there any other schools to add to this list? What is Colgate like?

I’m sending this list to kids email so kid can review & update common app as needed.

The more I read on here the more convinced I am that my kid needs a social, friendly, well-adjusted collaborative environment without sharp elbows.

Coming from a very collaborative private high school.

Be very cautious taking this list as rule. Close friends and family at Brown and Chicago and Wake Forest ("work forest") describe them as more intense than my Penn and my own Wake kid find their schools to be: their experience has been "social, well adjusted and collaborative" more than the others. The Hopkins '24 grad we know describes it as fun and not too stressful compared with the reputation he had heard. Here is the rub: often the students who describe "pointy elbows" and competition are premeds who are like that everywhere, OR, they are students who by truth or impression feel they are in the bottom tier at their college. It makes them assess the school as overly competitive not realizing they would have likely felt the same way at many other schools. That personality needs to be at a college where they are solidly in the top quarter.
The Brown /Chicago/Wake friend kids seemed to barely squeak in based on relative stats. Their perception is colored by that. Mine either easily beat the means at their colleges or they are in non-mean-based classes, so they do not find them overly competitive and they thrive on intensity anyway

weird brag. cool.
the worst kind of person right here.

you know wake accepts the very bottom of our private school class in their rolling ED (yes, lots of $$$)!!!!
it's not some bastion of intellectual curiosity.

[Anonymous]

bump for those looking. this was a helpful thread i think.