Prestigious Schools with least Grinder/All Work Culture

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you’re going for top-level prestige, probably Yale and Duke.

I’ve heard Duke engineering is quite rigorous, so really depends on major

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Second for Davidson!

Is Davidson presitigious?

Yes. 14% admit rate. Best SLAC in the South/Southeast. Meets full financial need with grants (no loans). Has a unique culture of strong academics and supportive professors, staff, and students. Excellent medical, law, and PhD admit rates. Your kid will both learn and like being there. Our Ivy-qualified kid successfully ED’d there. Wasn’t interested in the NE.

We have one of those too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bowdoin
Middlebury
Pomona
Vandy
Brown

Isn't Vandy a pressure cooker? A stressed out place??? Inquiring minds want to know!

Def not. Absolutely not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Davidson, Duke and Tufts are excellent choices for work/life/fun balance.

Ain't nothing fun about Tufts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP. Yale is literally the subject of a class action lawsuit over how miserable it is for students and how harmful to their mental health. The PPs suggesting Yale must have attended in the 1950s. It was probably nice in the 1950s, but that was a long time ago.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/06/health/yale-mental-health.html

The class action suit is about the leave policies, which were antiquated and bad. They are changing ( better, still could be improved.) This was prompted in part by the last time there was a suicide on campus during the covid year. But this isn’t what OP is asking about. The overall culture of the undergrad is highly collaborative with strong emphasis on community, vibrant arts life, grade deflation not really a thing. Kids tend to stretch themselves thin by choice with a million activities, busy social lives etc so you’re going to find some stressed out students as you would anywhere. But I went to a “grinder/no fun” school and that’s definitely not Yale.

Totally agree. I'm a mid-2000s Yale grad (so awhile ago now, but not like the 1950s) and this absolutely comports with my experience. Kids are crazy busy and stretch themselves thin by choice trying to take advantage of everything the place has to offer, but it's not really classes that do it. Pre-med can be a bit different like it is anywhere, but I was heading to law school (so cared about grades/wasn't a slacker) & ended up at YLS... and Yale was not a grind other than during reading week each semester (1 week post-classes/pre-exams to study & write papers). Kids were not super competitive at all and notes and problem sets were shared freely.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP. Yale is literally the subject of a class action lawsuit over how miserable it is for students and how harmful to their mental health. The PPs suggesting Yale must have attended in the 1950s. It was probably nice in the 1950s, but that was a long time ago.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/06/health/yale-mental-health.html

The class action suit is about the leave policies, which were antiquated and bad. They are changing ( better, still could be improved.) This was prompted in part by the last time there was a suicide on campus during the covid year. But this isn’t what OP is asking about. The overall culture of the undergrad is highly collaborative with strong emphasis on community, vibrant arts life, grade deflation not really a thing. Kids tend to stretch themselves thin by choice with a million activities, busy social lives etc so you’re going to find some stressed out students as you would anywhere. But I went to a “grinder/no fun” school and that’s definitely not Yale.

Totally agree. I'm a mid-2000s Yale grad (so awhile ago now, but not like the 1950s) and this absolutely comports with my experience. Kids are crazy busy and stretch themselves thin by choice trying to take advantage of everything the place has to offer, but it's not really classes that do it. Pre-med can be a bit different like it is anywhere, but I was heading to law school (so cared about grades/wasn't a slacker) & ended up at YLS... and Yale was not a grind other than during reading week each semester (1 week post-classes/pre-exams to study & write papers). Kids were not super competitive at all and notes and problem sets were shared freely.

Some of this also comes down to how smart & efficient a student is and, especially at Yale, how good a writer. My roommate was gone every weekend for an off campus activity, hosted a party for our friend group every Thursday and rarely ever appeared to study. She graduated summa and went off to England on a scholarship post-college and Yale was way more of grind for me to do not nearly as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Second for Davidson!

Is Davidson presitigious?

Yes. 14% admit rate. Best SLAC in the South/Southeast. Meets full financial need with grants (no loans). Has a unique culture of strong academics and supportive professors, staff, and students. Excellent medical, law, and PhD admit rates. Your kid will both learn and like being there. Our Ivy-qualified kid successfully ED’d there. Wasn’t interested in the NE.

totally agree with South/Southeast comment - but very low name recognition in NYC or Northeast. Top level academics and peer to W&M, Villanova, and Northeastern in terms of educational quality and prestige - fine choice

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are a STEM major anywhere, it is a massive grind. If you major in non-STEM it will be pretty easy.

It’s cute how STEM majors think they’re the only ones who work hard in college.

I think humanities fields are generally less grimly competitive than STEM is said to be. There was definitely a feeling of camaraderie and collaboration in my department, and we were mostly all there because we loved the subject. But we all put in many, many long hours of reading, research, writing, and translating dead languages in college.

There’s no shortcut for research and writing if you want to do a truly good job. You have to put in the hours and do the work.

It's cute how humanities majors think their subject was "just as hard" as STEM, lmao.

You had to read a lot of books? Wow, go you. This is important because all books are equally difficult to understand.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are a STEM major anywhere, it is a massive grind. If you major in non-STEM it will be pretty easy.

It’s cute how STEM majors think they’re the only ones who work hard in college.

I think humanities fields are generally less grimly competitive than STEM is said to be. There was definitely a feeling of camaraderie and collaboration in my department, and we were mostly all there because we loved the subject. But we all put in many, many long hours of reading, research, writing, and translating dead languages in college.

There’s no shortcut for research and writing if you want to do a truly good job. You have to put in the hours and do the work.

It's cute how humanities majors think their subject was "just as hard" as STEM, lmao.

You had to read a lot of books? Wow, go you. This is important because all books are equally difficult to understand.

I'm not the PP, but who exactly are you quoting?

[Anonymous]

The one kid who was accepted to Yale in the PBS documentary "Dream School:A Journey to Higher Ed," described the culture as competitive, and reported studying 5-7 hours each night and more during the weekends.

That kid was premed, which is tough everywhere. He was already doing neuroscience research, so he was probably aiming for a MD/PhD track, which is an even tougher load.

Also, when you usually don't have more than 3 hours of class a cay--if that--5 to 7 isn't that much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are a STEM major anywhere, it is a massive grind. If you major in non-STEM it will be pretty easy.

It’s cute how STEM majors think they’re the only ones who work hard in college.

I think humanities fields are generally less grimly competitive than STEM is said to be. There was definitely a feeling of camaraderie and collaboration in my department, and we were mostly all there because we loved the subject. But we all put in many, many long hours of reading, research, writing, and translating dead languages in college.

There’s no shortcut for research and writing if you want to do a truly good job. You have to put in the hours and do the work.

It's cute how humanities majors think their subject was "just as hard" as STEM, lmao.

You had to read a lot of books? Wow, go you. This is important because all books are equally difficult to understand.

I don't know - I was a top STEM student and I would have hated to be writing papers all the time.... My GPA would have been much lower. Give me some math any day over reading boatloads of text and writing analysis... or functioning at a high level in a foreign language.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Second for Davidson!

Is Davidson presitigious?

Yes. 14% admit rate. Best SLAC in the South/Southeast. Meets full financial need with grants (no loans). Has a unique culture of strong academics and supportive professors, staff, and students. Excellent medical, law, and PhD admit rates. Your kid will both learn and like being there. Our Ivy-qualified kid successfully ED’d there. Wasn’t interested in the NE.

totally agree with South/Southeast comment - but very low name recognition in NYC or Northeast. Top level academics and peer to W&M, Villanova, and Northeastern in terms of educational quality and prestige - fine choice

Don’t know anyone who went to Davidson.
Chicago finance prof here

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bowdoin
Middlebury
Pomona
Vandy
Brown

Isn't Vandy a pressure cooker? A stressed out place??? Inquiring minds want to know!

No, it is not a pressure cooker type environment.

Some fear schools on the quarter system because there is no down time. You get your money's worth at quarter system schools.

Yes, it actually is. Except the Peabody kids

[Anonymous]

I really do think the perception of difficulty is very major dependent wherever you are.

Lots of pre-meds, pre-law and accounting students at my alma mater - they were stressed out. I was NOT one of those and didn’t find classes or workload particularly difficult.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Second for Davidson!

Is Davidson presitigious?

Yes. 14% admit rate. Best SLAC in the South/Southeast. Meets full financial need with grants (no loans). Has a unique culture of strong academics and supportive professors, staff, and students. Excellent medical, law, and PhD admit rates. Your kid will both learn and like being there. Our Ivy-qualified kid successfully ED’d there. Wasn’t interested in the NE.

totally agree with South/Southeast comment - but very low name recognition in NYC or Northeast. Top level academics and peer to W&M, Villanova, and Northeastern in terms of educational quality and prestige - fine choice

Don’t know anyone who went to Davidson.
Chicago finance prof here

NBA's Steph Curry