Intense vibe schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Johns Hopkins, Swarthmore, Emory, Chicago, Case, Cornell, Columbia, Stanford, Berkeley, Penn. This list may be outdated. I hear that Northwestern, Duke and maybe Vanderbilt have joined their ranks in terms of intensity.

Northwestern is more intense than Duke. Also more intense than Vanderbilt. But, much depends upon one's major. Georgia Tech engineering is intense, but other majors less intense (industrial mgmt. is an example of a less intense major).

I have heard differently about UC-Berkeley & Stanford. Just like Cornell, the level of intensity depends upon one's major.

My kid is a freshman at NU - they go out only 3 nights a week.
It’s a mix of kids from NYC, CT, LA, NJ, MA, DC, Chicago. Lots of private school kids.
Very normal set of kids.
Lots of Econ majors. A few premed. Those kids seem more stressed.
All the humanities kids seem more chill. Sunbathing at beach, Pilates classes at SPAC, and 3 hrs in library.
Let’s see how it is in 4 months

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think when people call a school “intense,” it’s usually referring to engineering, which is a grind everywhere. But there are some schools that have notoriously stressful engineering departments. Cornell and Carnegie Mellon come to mind. But I’m sure students in other majors have a more typical college experience.

But “intense” is usually thrown at the strong STEM schools - Cornell, CMU, MIT, Georgia Tech etc But it’s major specific. The anthropology majors at these schools are not nearly as stressed as the engineering majors.

Swarthmore is kind of unique. And Chicago was too until recently. These two schools were the places where the humanities and social science students could totally nerd out. I think that’s lightened up in recent years. And neither are as “intense” as their reputation.

Both are very intense. Chicago has perceptually changed, because they welcome a different type of pre professional student now into Business economics.

Swat, Reed, Chicago for difficult humanities and social sciences. STEM isn’t the only thing in the world.

[Anonymous]

My DD is a senior at Swat. She would tell you that it's intense---not in a competitive and cutthroat way, but students there are really into academics, driven, and looking toward grad school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Johns Hopkins, Swarthmore, Emory, Chicago, Case, Cornell, Columbia, Stanford, Berkeley, Penn. This list may be outdated. I hear that Northwestern, Duke and maybe Vanderbilt have joined their ranks in terms of intensity.

Northwestern is more intense than Duke. Also more intense than Vanderbilt. But, much depends upon one's major. Georgia Tech engineering is intense, but other majors less intense (industrial mgmt. is an example of a less intense major).

I have heard differently about UC-Berkeley & Stanford. Just like Cornell, the level of intensity depends upon one's major.

My kid is a freshman at NU - they go out only 3 nights a week.
It’s a mix of kids from NYC, CT, LA, NJ, MA, DC, Chicago. Lots of private school kids.
Very normal set of kids.
Lots of Econ majors. A few premed. Those kids seem more stressed.
All the humanities kids seem more chill. Sunbathing at beach, Pilates classes at SPAC, and 3 hrs in library.
Let’s see how it is in 4 months

This tracks with my STEM freshman at Columbia. But DC is still able to go out a few times a week and is involved in EC's. Seems to me to be two key reasons: 1) the STEM classes all grade on a strict curve, they are trying to weed people out before they declare majors 2) the STEM majors need to complete foundational year long courses in freshman year to get through prerequisites for classes as upperclassmen, the humanities majors don't have similar prerequisites so those freshmen are less likely to be in truly hard classes yet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Johns Hopkins, Swarthmore, Emory, Chicago, Case, Cornell, Columbia, Stanford, Berkeley, Penn. This list may be outdated. I hear that Northwestern, Duke and maybe Vanderbilt have joined their ranks in terms of intensity.

Northwestern is more intense than Duke. Also more intense than Vanderbilt. But, much depends upon one's major. Georgia Tech engineering is intense, but other majors less intense (industrial mgmt. is an example of a less intense major).

I have heard differently about UC-Berkeley & Stanford. Just like Cornell, the level of intensity depends upon one's major.

My kid is a freshman at NU - they go out only 3 nights a week.
It’s a mix of kids from NYC, CT, LA, NJ, MA, DC, Chicago. Lots of private school kids.
Very normal set of kids.
Lots of Econ majors. A few premed. Those kids seem more stressed.
All the humanities kids seem more chill. Sunbathing at beach, Pilates classes at SPAC, and 3 hrs in library.
Let’s see how it is in 4 months

Thanks for sharing your kid’s current experience at NU! Please do come back to share more in a few months.

DC is interested in NU (social sciences) and eager to hear more about life outside the classroom/library - including whether the quarter system dials up the pressure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Johns Hopkins, Swarthmore, Emory, Chicago, Case, Cornell, Columbia, Stanford, Berkeley, Penn. This list may be outdated. I hear that Northwestern, Duke and maybe Vanderbilt have joined their ranks in terms of intensity.

Emory not intense at all

[Anonymous]

JHU humanities very chill. Anything other than BME is not intense at all.

[Anonymous]

Whether a college is intense depends a lot on the HS you came from. Some colleges love specific high schools bc the kids from there tend to thrive and transition well to their campus culture.

If you check Naviance and see kids from your HS applying to a college every year but none ever gets in, that tells you 1) they likely wont accept your kid either and 2) even if your kid gets in, they may not be a great fit. These admissions officers have been doing this for decades and have seen 100k+ files, they know more than we do. Take their lead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Whether a college is intense depends a lot on the HS you came from. Some colleges love specific high schools bc the kids from there tend to thrive and transition well to their campus culture.

If you check Naviance and see kids from your HS applying to a college every year but none ever gets in, that tells you 1) they likely wont accept your kid either and 2) even if your kid gets in, they may not be a great fit. These admissions officers have been doing this for decades and have seen 100k+ files, they know more than we do. Take their lead.

Truth, and depends on the kid. Two kids from the same high school who took different rigor could end up with one finding William and Mary easy and one finding it overwhelmingly intense. Same is true of more notorious "intense" schools such as ivy/MIT/JHU. This is where it can help to have been a parent who attended the same or a similar school, and one who understands their own kid's level of academic potential relative to the peer group at the schools they are considering. We have one thriving at Penn, finds it academically intense in an invigorating collaborative way, not at all "cutthroat". We will be more than gently DIScouraging the younger one from applying to Penn or any T10. Even if he got in, which he could with his stats, it would not be a fit for him. He needs to be somewhere he stands out a bit from the pack.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Johns Hopkins, Swarthmore, Emory, Chicago, Case, Cornell, Columbia, Stanford, Berkeley, Penn. This list may be outdated. I hear that Northwestern, Duke and maybe Vanderbilt have joined their ranks in terms of intensity.

Northwestern is more intense than Duke. Also more intense than Vanderbilt. But, much depends upon one's major. Georgia Tech engineering is intense, but other majors less intense (industrial mgmt. is an example of a less intense major).

I have heard differently about UC-Berkeley & Stanford. Just like Cornell, the level of intensity depends upon one's major.

My kid is a freshman at NU - they go out only 3 nights a week.
It’s a mix of kids from NYC, CT, LA, NJ, MA, DC, Chicago. Lots of private school kids.
Very normal set of kids.
Lots of Econ majors. A few premed. Those kids seem more stressed.
All the humanities kids seem more chill. Sunbathing at beach, Pilates classes at SPAC, and 3 hrs in library.
Let’s see how it is in 4 months

Thanks for sharing your kid’s current experience at NU! Please do come back to share more in a few months.

DC is interested in NU (social sciences) and eager to hear more about life outside the classroom/library - including whether the quarter system dials up the pressure. [/


They spent the day watching big10 football (on the lake) and at the beach (on the lake). Think it was hot today! They have a social event for a frat in downtown Chicago tonight.
So far so good!
Will come back in January!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think there is some truth to the rumors of intensity. For example, can you imagine MIT/Caltech as being laid back when it comes to academics? But some students thrive under these conditions because they were under-challenged before and are finally at a place where they can thrive. The problem is when a kid who would not thrive when the work is this hard selects such a school anyway for prestige or whatever reason.

We’ve heard there’s a decedent segment of this at Cornell. The Ivy-or-die crowd who didn’t get in to the others and need to grind constantly to keep up (or because that’s who they are naturally.)

I wish Cornell chose to promote the more fun and social side of the school. The marketing and socials all feel so dreary - even the highlighted kids ECs seem heavy and academic in nature.

Our DC assumes that all these T50 schools are excellent academically, with all the opportunities for those who seek them out. What they’re trying to figure out instead is what life actually feels like on campus day-to-day for four years.

DD is an engineering major at Cornell. She loves it there. Like most kids there, she studies like crazy, but she eats just about every meal with friends and hangs out a lot on weekends. She told her brother that she has met a lot of guys who remind her of him: super smart and love sports.

There are lots of pics on Instagram right now from Homecoming weekend. You can tell that there’s a lot of school spirit and students get involved in a lot of different ways.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS graduated from Swarthmore. Sure, he worked hard, but I never heard/felt major stress from him. To those parents who think they see this INTENSITY when they tour, what are you seeing?

I asked about this on a Swarthmore thread. I visited with my DS this summer and maybe because we had a very outgoing and funny tour guide, my kid came away very enthusiastic. But everything I read here claims it is an "intense" school - how do we know that? what does that mean? How are we supposed to know if a school is too "intense" for any particular kid?

You can never know for sure.

People come away from tours with certain impressions, accurate or not. When visiting Dartmouth, we met several students, including our very accomplished tour guide, who politely said that academics were intense. They actually came out and said it. While it was never described quite as plainly elsewhere, we got the same vibe at Williams and Georgetown. We visited other colleges like Middlebury where we got the distinct impression that our tour guide was an airhead and lots of other students we met were there to have fun and not study - and the admissions person we heard did nothing to dispel that view.

Interesting. We had the opposite impression. At Dartmouth we saw a lot of frat boys and athletes who didn’t seem particularly interested in academics or intellectualism—more into having fun. My friend’s daughter who goes to Middlebury is intensely focused on academics. Guess you’ll find both at every college.

Just curious - how you are so sure those “frat boys and athletes” you saw are not ALSO interested in academics or intellectualism?

Do you genuinely think that kids who have a lot of fun in college aren’t ALSO super committed to the substantive part?

For example, the kid we know at Dartmouth is brilliant, deep, and intellectual. If you were to talk with him for two minutes about his classes, internships, or ideas, it would be clear how substantive and thoughtful he is.

Though he was more introverted and maybe a little awkward in early high school, he’s now 6’3” and looks like a frat boy. Which he is. At Dartmouth.

The either-or stereotyping on this board amazes me sometimes. About both boys and girls, alike.

Kids can be good-looking and social and ALSO intellectual and committed to their academics.

Both things can co-exist. Our kid is looking for schools where they often do!

A lot of them are at top state universities- UVA, UMD, Michigan, Florida, UNC Chapel Hill.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS graduated from Swarthmore. Sure, he worked hard, but I never heard/felt major stress from him. To those parents who think they see this INTENSITY when they tour, what are you seeing?

I asked about this on a Swarthmore thread. I visited with my DS this summer and maybe because we had a very outgoing and funny tour guide, my kid came away very enthusiastic. But everything I read here claims it is an "intense" school - how do we know that? what does that mean? How are we supposed to know if a school is too "intense" for any particular kid?

You can never know for sure.

People come away from tours with certain impressions, accurate or not. When visiting Dartmouth, we met several students, including our very accomplished tour guide, who politely said that academics were intense. They actually came out and said it. While it was never described quite as plainly elsewhere, we got the same vibe at Williams and Georgetown. We visited other colleges like Middlebury where we got the distinct impression that our tour guide was an airhead and lots of other students we met were there to have fun and not study - and the admissions person we heard did nothing to dispel that view.

Interesting. We had the opposite impression. At Dartmouth we saw a lot of frat boys and athletes who didn’t seem particularly interested in academics or intellectualism—more into having fun. My friend’s daughter who goes to Middlebury is intensely focused on academics. Guess you’ll find both at every college.

Just curious - how you are so sure those “frat boys and athletes” you saw are not ALSO interested in academics or intellectualism?

Do you genuinely think that kids who have a lot of fun in college aren’t ALSO super committed to the substantive part?

For example, the kid we know at Dartmouth is brilliant, deep, and intellectual. If you were to talk with him for two minutes about his classes, internships, or ideas, it would be clear how substantive and thoughtful he is.

Though he was more introverted and maybe a little awkward in early high school, he’s now 6’3” and looks like a frat boy. Which he is. At Dartmouth.

The either-or stereotyping on this board amazes me sometimes. About both boys and girls, alike.

Kids can be good-looking and social and ALSO intellectual and committed to their academics.

Both things can co-exist. Our kid is looking for schools where they often do!

A lot of them are at top state universities- UVA, UMD, Michigan, Florida, UNC Chapel Hill.

Cornell has one of the largest Greek communities in the nation for a private school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS graduated from Swarthmore. Sure, he worked hard, but I never heard/felt major stress from him. To those parents who think they see this INTENSITY when they tour, what are you seeing?

I asked about this on a Swarthmore thread. I visited with my DS this summer and maybe because we had a very outgoing and funny tour guide, my kid came away very enthusiastic. But everything I read here claims it is an "intense" school - how do we know that? what does that mean? How are we supposed to know if a school is too "intense" for any particular kid?

You can never know for sure.

People come away from tours with certain impressions, accurate or not. When visiting Dartmouth, we met several students, including our very accomplished tour guide, who politely said that academics were intense. They actually came out and said it. While it was never described quite as plainly elsewhere, we got the same vibe at Williams and Georgetown. We visited other colleges like Middlebury where we got the distinct impression that our tour guide was an airhead and lots of other students we met were there to have fun and not study - and the admissions person we heard did nothing to dispel that view.

Ha, ha, ha. Would never describe Georgetown as intense. - An alumna

[Anonymous]

Any school with a strong engineering school that makes up at least 30% of the student body will have an intense vibe. The study hours, class averages in the 20s: all this permeates the general culture. Examples: Cornell, Lehigh, Lafayette, etc.