Best non-stressful selective schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is such a frustrating question, OP. Your child is stressed out. Why are you still focusing on “selective” colleges? Look for good fits and step away from the prestige focus.

I sort of agree. I feel like in this admissions environment asking for a chill selective school, when the whole nature of what makes it selective is that the kids have to "beat out" the competition by being extrodinary in order to get a seat - seems convoluted. You've raised a race horse who wants to stroll but wants to stay on the track instead of moving to the pasture.

[Anonymous]

Trinity College.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t rule out schools because they operate on the quarter system. Yes it’s fast paced but as someone who was a stress case in high school, I loved it because I didn’t have a whole semester worth of material to study and also remember for exams. And if I didn’t like a class, it was over fairly quick. I especially appreciated only having to take three classes at a time. I wasn’t spread as thin. I always had time for extracurriculars and a job, and I even played a sport. I wasn’t stressed at all about grades either because my classmates were more relaxed than my intense high school classmates. And this was an incredibly selective school.

Is this Dartmouth?

[Anonymous]

Notre Dame. More collaborative student body. Less competitive in a cutthroat way. Real sense of community.

[Anonymous]

Hi OP,

What do they want to study? What part of the country?

Price range?

How rejective do you want the school to be?

[Anonymous]

Look at SLACs in the midwest. These schools tend to have a friendly, supportive culture both academically and socially. Faculty are generally quite strong and with a genuine interest in teaching and helping students learn. Kids tend to be into co-existence, not competition. Hope this helps; good luck to your DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Probably better to increase your IQ, stamina, and work ethic to match the college. It’s not stressful if learning and hard work comes easy to you.

This is BS. Some exceptionally intelligent people get highly stressed, and recognize that they don’t have to feel this way, when they are in highly competitive atmospheres even if they are just as capable as those around them. I agree with SLAC in Midwest or CA.

[Anonymous]

OP here. She's super smart but stresses. Grandparents ivies, I went to a highly selective women's college, siblings at highly selective liberal arts colleges. Why should she go to a low tiered school? But after 4, no really 6, years of high-octave, high-stress academic and activities, can she not look for a school that's not cut throat?
University of Chicago years ago had the tag line, "where fun goes to die." People knew it was a grind. I'm looking for the schools that aren't. I'd send her to my alma mater, but women's colleges are not for everyone.
,
"

[Anonymous]

I'd look at:
Carleton
Dickinson
Franklin & Marshall
Grinnell
Kalamazoo
Kenyon
Lawrence
Macalester
Oberlin
Rice
St. Olaf
Vassar

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Claremont Colleges.

+1

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the additional information. Connecticut College is full of students with this kind of profile. You can get a very good education there among very nice people but it's not cutthroat or a grind. It was founded as an alternative to Wesleyan after all the women were suddenly kicked out of Wes early in the 20th century. Informally known as the "8th sister" it has been co-ed since the 1960s.

[Anonymous]

I’d second the advice to look outside of the east coast and avoid schools with quarter system. Also, sounds like a lot of SLACs in your family but I’d look at honors college of a university. Just a bigger school with more variety. Also may help to know her learning style. We looked at more collaborative focused schools for our social DC and that worked well. It takes effort to find the right fit.

[Anonymous]

Brown

[Anonymous]

I had a kid graduate from TJ recently. And the students there definitely know a thing or 2 about stress. The 4 schools with a reputation for making even TJ grads miserable were CMU, JHU, MIT and Chicago. At some point, the students take a weird sort of pride in the masochism. Good Fo them, I guess.

[Anonymous]

Consider a gap year --