Most intellectual colleges?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hopkins.

Difficult school with grade deflation.

I've taught at both Hopkins and Chicago. Hopkins students tend to be very smart, well prepared, and hard-working, but too pre-professionally focused to be intellectual. I once had a prospective student and parent observe one of my U of C classes and the parent was clearly horrified that they did not perceive me to be teaching. With light facilitation from me, the students spent 30 minutes debating the concept of freedom in various texts they had read. They were such a good class. At Hopkins there was much more "what's the grading rubric," "what do I need to do to get an A in this class?". I have respect for students at both schools, but the U of C students were so much more fun.

U of C students are mainly private school kids who have been thought to think and actually learn.

Hopkins is full of Asians/white from public school systems who have never been taught the joy of learning, debating, questioning, etc... The grade is all that matters.

Private school mom checking in, needing to justify expense. With a dash of racism. Lovely.

My public school kid and math major is reading Nabokov and Joyce for the joy of it. He’s also a quarter Asian so I’m not sure how that figures in your race calculations.

[Anonymous]

University of Chicago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I looked up Wesleyan which was mentioned a few times on this thread. It seems overwhelmingly filled private high school students based on my admittedly limited review of a few team rosters and clubs. But I can’t find an actual stat on this on the website. To those with first hand knowledge, is this a correct perception?

I graduated 20 years ago, so take this with a grain (or teaspoon) of salt.

There was a contingent from boarding schools (Andover, Exeter, Choate, NMH) - quite a few of those kids played sports. In fact, a lot of sports and activities at Wes seemed geared towards the boarding school set since squash, water polo, crew, a cappella singing, etc. weren’t really done in public schools back in the 90s. This could be the reason for their over representation on rosters.

I, personally, didn’t know many kids from private day schools.

Most of us were from excellent public schools i.e. Newton North & South, Stuyvesant, Hunter College High School, or public schools located in well-to-do areas or university towns.

One kid in my hall came from a standard public school - really smart & ultimately went to a great grad school, but had a rough time of it in class first year since he basically had to play catch-up.

I didn’t love my time at Wes for a variety of reasons, but it was a very intellectually stimulating environment.

My partner taught at Johns Hopkins for several semesters a few years ago. It’s safe to say that the kids at JHU were far, far more concerned with grades than they were at Wes. On the other hand, it was difficult to contact profs before cell phones & when email was relatively new - we would have had to go to office hours & beg to get that A- changed to an A in front of our peers. Additionally, the economic landscape for new grads is different now (ie more competitive/stressful). So both of these factors could contribute to what I interpreted as a relatively grade-focused approach to learning at JHU in recent years.

[Anonymous]

I graduated from the College of the University of Chicago, back in the days when the common core curriculum was fully intact, and the life of the mind was more than a mere slogan.

Today it is almost impossible to find a school that offers a traditional liberal arts curriculum. Most colleges, including those that claim "elite" status, simply allow students to devise their own curricula. And, as a result, there's not much coherent learning is going on. Sadly, college has become little more than a credentialing exercise.

But the faculty love it that way. They get to teach courses based upon their narrow research interests, and don't have to be bothered teaching foundational survey courses (e.g., Western civilization, U.S. history).

If I were doing it all over again today, and I wanted to attend a school where the objective of the academic mission is the search for truth, and where I could pursue a traditional liberal arts curriculum, then my choice would be Hillsdale College.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I looked up Wesleyan which was mentioned a few times on this thread. It seems overwhelmingly filled private high school students based on my admittedly limited review of a few team rosters and clubs. But I can’t find an actual stat on this on the website. To those with first hand knowledge, is this a correct perception?

I graduated 20 years ago, so take this with a grain (or teaspoon) of salt.

There was a contingent from boarding schools (Andover, Exeter, Choate, NMH) - quite a few of those kids played sports. In fact, a lot of sports and activities at Wes seemed geared towards the boarding school set since squash, water polo, crew, a cappella singing, etc. weren’t really done in public schools back in the 90s. This could be the reason for their over representation on rosters.

I, personally, didn’t know many kids from private day schools.

Most of us were from excellent public schools i.e. Newton North & South, Stuyvesant, Hunter College High School, or public schools located in well-to-do areas or university towns.

One kid in my hall came from a standard public school - really smart & ultimately went to a great grad school, but had a rough time of it in class first year since he basically had to play catch-up.

I didn’t love my time at Wes for a variety of reasons, but it was a very intellectually stimulating environment.

My partner taught at Johns Hopkins for several semesters a few years ago. It’s safe to say that the kids at JHU were far, far more concerned with grades than they were at Wes. On the other hand, it was difficult to contact profs before cell phones & when email was relatively new - we would have had to go to office hours & beg to get that A- changed to an A in front of our peers. Additionally, the economic landscape for new grads is different now (ie more competitive/stressful). So both of these factors could contribute to what I interpreted as a relatively grade-focused approach to learning at JHU in recent years.

Do you mind sharing a bit about why you didn't love your time there? I know someone else who went (and who you'd think on paper would be a great fit for Wes) and she didn't care for it either. This was a few years ago.

[Anonymous]

University of Chicago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I looked up Wesleyan which was mentioned a few times on this thread. It seems overwhelmingly filled private high school students based on my admittedly limited review of a few team rosters and clubs. But I can’t find an actual stat on this on the website. To those with first hand knowledge, is this a correct perception?

I graduated 20 years ago, so take this with a grain (or teaspoon) of salt.

There was a contingent from boarding schools (Andover, Exeter, Choate, NMH) - quite a few of those kids played sports. In fact, a lot of sports and activities at Wes seemed geared towards the boarding school set since squash, water polo, crew, a cappella singing, etc. weren’t really done in public schools back in the 90s. This could be the reason for their over representation on rosters.

I, personally, didn’t know many kids from private day schools.

Most of us were from excellent public schools i.e. Newton North & South, Stuyvesant, Hunter College High School, or public schools located in well-to-do areas or university towns.

One kid in my hall came from a standard public school - really smart & ultimately went to a great grad school, but had a rough time of it in class first year since he basically had to play catch-up.

I didn’t love my time at Wes for a variety of reasons, but it was a very intellectually stimulating environment.

My partner taught at Johns Hopkins for several semesters a few years ago. It’s safe to say that the kids at JHU were far, far more concerned with grades than they were at Wes. On the other hand, it was difficult to contact profs before cell phones & when email was relatively new - we would have had to go to office hours & beg to get that A- changed to an A in front of our peers. Additionally, the economic landscape for new grads is different now (ie more competitive/stressful). So both of these factors could contribute to what I interpreted as a relatively grade-focused approach to learning at JHU in recent years.

Do you mind sharing a bit about why you didn't love your time there? I know someone else who went (and who you'd think on paper would be a great fit for Wes) and she didn't care for it either. This was a few years ago.

DC is graduating from Wes this spring and has had an outstanding experience. Most of DC’s friends, many of whom have stayed with us over various breaks, are public school kids with the exception of the international students.