are Dartmouth and Brown easier than WASP schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a sophomore at Dartmouth. It's tricky because their quarters are 10 weeks, basically 8.5 to 9 weeks once the exam week, etc. are factored in.
In one of these time blocks they will cover the same material that a semester school covers in 16 weeks so it's particularly rigorous for things like chemistry, physics etc. where a standardized amount of material needs to be taught.

If you have a yearlong course, say intro economics, organic chemistry, first year physics,
wouldn’t it just be broken up into 3 quarters, not 2 semesters? So the amount of time spent overall is the same, you just get 3 grades on your transcript, not 2. I can see how quarter system could
be more rushed for classes that are normally 1 semester though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a sophomore at Dartmouth. It's tricky because their quarters are 10 weeks, basically 8.5 to 9 weeks once the exam week, etc. are factored in.
In one of these time blocks they will cover the same material that a semester school covers in 16 weeks so it's particularly rigorous for things like chemistry, physics etc. where a standardized amount of material needs to be taught.

If you have a yearlong course, say intro economics, organic chemistry, first year physics,
wouldn’t it just be broken up into 3 quarters, not 2 semesters? So the amount of time spent overall is the same, you just get 3 grades on your transcript, not 2. I can see how quarter system could
be more rushed for classes that are normally 1 semester though.

That is exactly what happens. It’s not really more rigorous, just differently allocated. There is a few changes happening though, like o-chem becoming a 1 semester course for a lot of institutions following the ACS foundations guidelines.

[Anonymous]

My DS at Columbia has many friends grinding away trying to get into medical school and wondering why they did not choose Brown.

Maybe it’s the open curriculum or grading in general. But apparently Brown is the GOAT for med school admissions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Williams and Swarthmore are known to be the biggest grinds, followed by Amherst and Dartmouth. Brown and Pomona are fabulous schools, but are not known for grind culture in the same way.

I'm surprised people always have this perception beyond Pomona being in California. DD and I toured, and students seemed like absolute workaholics in a way that you wouldn't really see at UCLA or USC (unless engineering major or something). It's a pretty intense place, it just happens to not be in the middle of nowhere.

+1

[Anonymous]

Brown has great med school admission rates because they have the highest MCAT scores and rigorous undergrad coursework.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Brown has great med school admission rates because they have the highest MCAT scores and rigorous undergrad coursework.

Show the stat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Brown has great med school admission rates because they have the highest MCAT scores and rigorous undergrad coursework.

They can also take way more courses in pre-med fields. Devoting 1/2 your courses to the Columbia Core makes that impossible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It fully depends on what you do as a major. I don't think a Pomona Physics major is much different from a Brown Physics major, but a Brown math major will do more work than a Pomona linguistics major.

A Pomona math major will do more work than a Brown math major, I can assure you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Brown has great med school admission rates because they have the highest MCAT scores and rigorous undergrad coursework.

They can also take way more courses in pre-med fields. Devoting 1/2 your courses to the Columbia Core makes that impossible.

They also have a great amount of grade inflation on their side

[Anonymous]

Didn't realize "WASP schools" were still a thing in 2025.

[Anonymous]

For current, survey-based information on this question, as I understand it, see "Their Students Study the Most" from the Princeton Review:

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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Didn't realize "WASP schools" were still a thing in 2025.

What does that even mean? It’s an acronym.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Didn't realize "WASP schools" were still a thing in 2025.

What does that even mean? It’s an acronym.

An acronym for what please?

[Anonymous]

People don’t realize that the college admissions are a screening process, though not perfect. It’s due sure that the average student quality at D/B is at least a tier above that of WASP. This is what employ will see. how much you learn in college is another story.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Didn't realize "WASP schools" were still a thing in 2025.

What does that even mean? It’s an acronym.

An acronym for what please?

Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore and I’m not sure the P one.

Selective liberal arts colleges