Which schools have kids with happy experiences and outcomes?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:William and Mary
Midwestern SLAC’s
SEC schools

This X 1000.

[Anonymous]

CU Boulder is the happiest, most fun college experience right now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:William and Mary
Midwestern SLAC’s
SEC schools

This X 1000.

I went to a Midwestern SLAC (Macalester) and it was a really formative experience, but I wouldn't describe it as particularly "happy." Engaging and enriching, sure, but not the type of peppy happiness that seems to populate, say, Alabama or UVA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Princeton Review has lists and rankings for this:

https://www.princetonreview.com/college-rankings/?rankings=happiest-students

Interestingly, many of the well-ranked schools on this list are almost never brought up on this board.

5/25 are talked about enough.

Tulane
Rice
Denison
University of Richmond
Emory

I think the others are not talked about because they are more regional.

The one closest to me is small, highly conservative, and we don't talk about it much locally either. But I'm sure the students like their choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids play club sports, workout and don’t go to a drinking culture school. They are both health nuts. They don’t stay up all hours and have good control with SM/iPhone use.

They don’t stay in their dorm rooms- study at the library, go to the fitness center, get outside, involved.

All of that has kept them mentally and physically healthy.

It’s a far cry from my college days of binge drinking several nights a week, day parties, football tailgates, etc.

I love to hear this! What are some of the values and culture of your homelife that you think led them to these types of healthy lifestyles. When your kids were going through the college search, how did they weed out colleges with big drinking cultures?

[Anonymous]

Pitt for sure. Has a really positive reputation in this area for kids just being very happy there.

I've also heard Virginia Tech.

[Anonymous]

RICE! Can’t say enough about how wonderful it was for our DD.

[Anonymous]

Princeton Review actually surveys students on this question.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s so strange to me that people expect actual lists of schools that produce happy young people. That’s just not the way college, or anything else in life, works. It’s a lot more complex than that, but ultimately, it helps to raise your kids to value human connection, to be content with less, and not to have overblown expectations of what college is about.

I'm the OP. I'm not looking for colleges that "produce" happy young people on an assembly line; I'm looking for schools that foster a sense of collaboration and that offer exceptional mental health resources (which I should have said in my original post). Totally concur that how kids are raised matters. But some schools are pressure cookers. (I see Swarthmore and U Chicago come up often in this regard.)

My DC is at Penn (seas) and has friends from high school at Swarthmore, Princeton, and CMU, all have some variant or math or stem major. They all describe their schools as collaborative yet fun, great new friends, they love it! They also know people there who are always stressed with too much pressure. That is true of almost every school in the T20ish. Heck we know students who think WM is super intense academically yet it gets rated as having happier students than higher ranked ones. It is all in the eye of the particular student.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:JMU

Anecdotally: Sadly, I know several students that left JMU with mental health issues. They did not have them prior. It could be timing, onset of some issues are early adulthood/late adolescence. It just stood out to me that I know 5-6 kids that left for a year or completely due to this and none of the other many, many college kids I know from other schools had this issue.

same. several.

[Anonymous]

claremont mckenna

[Anonymous]

The kids we know at Duke, Davidson and Tufts are universally happy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm wondering how and if this is measurable, beyond the "vibe" one gets from visiting a school. I feel like college has become such an industry (this board alone underscores the intensity of admissions!). I want my kid to get a good education, but more than anything, I want my child to take away invaluable lessons about happiness, balance, and values during those four years instead of getting caught up in the noise of the competitive rat-race. Which schools have happy graduates? Which schools have a healthy balance between work and life? How is this measured, and can it be?

I know way too many kids who worked so hard for some kind of elite school, thinking it would solve their problems or magically open doors, and it did none of those things. I know one teenager who took his life after being denied admission to a top college. I know others who have been admitted to psychiatric hospitals due to intense academic pressure. It all feels like too much, and I'm wondering how and where to look for communities that put these four years into healthy perspectives.

Here in the UK, none of the London schools have good student satisfaction ratings. This is a variable that is measured here. Kings College, UCL, have very low student satisfaction ratings. Surprisingly, Oxford and St Andrews are always at the top. And I dont think Cambridge participates. The

[Anonymous]

Pretty much every school has. If you’re not happy, you’re not a good fit.

[Anonymous]

I feel like any of the schools mentioned every day of this sub. Most people at top colleges love their experience.