Intense vibe schools

[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.

[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!

And yet here you go stereotyping. Why did you include this guy’s height? Answer: because you believe taller is best and you’re trying to convey that Dartmouth kid is firing on all fronts — intellectual, frat party and tall. As if his height had anything to do with anything besides genetics.


If intellectual party man was 5’ 9”, I guarantee you wouldn’t have mentioned it. Because stereotypes

[Anonymous]

I'm going to return to OP's framing question. Is it a "preconception" that schools are hard?

I have six Cornell alumni in my family. They all represented the academics as quite challenging. 2 of them were Greek and had a lot of fun, and still felt the academics were challenging. I have my grandma's diary from the 1930s where she was fretting about a chemistry test. From the outside, I'd say the students believe in and foster the impression that it's a challenging school.

Now for the flip side. Many smart people enjoy challenges and the Ithaca academic environment. Many people have a lot of fun at Cornell. Many people reminisce fondly about their time there. Many people are used to weather like Cornell has. It certainly was never an issue for my PA/NY originating family.

Go if you feel like being challenged and you can live with imperfect grades. It's fairly certain you will be challenged.

[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.

This

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm going to return to OP's framing question. Is it a "preconception" that schools are hard?

I have six Cornell alumni in my family. They all represented the academics as quite challenging. 2 of them were Greek and had a lot of fun, and still felt the academics were challenging. I have my grandma's diary from the 1930s where she was fretting about a chemistry test. From the outside, I'd say the students believe in and foster the impression that it's a challenging school.

Now for the flip side. Many smart people enjoy challenges and the Ithaca academic environment. Many people have a lot of fun at Cornell. Many people reminisce fondly about their time there. Many people are used to weather like Cornell has. It certainly was never an issue for my PA/NY originating family.

Go if you feel like being challenged and you can live with imperfect grades. It's fairly certain you will be challenged.

Same. I have a kid there now. It was rocky at the beginning when a freshman.
Today, can firmly say they've embraced the Cornellian ethos. It's very work hard and they play harder. Could be the Greek life aspect? Which I do think dominates the conventional social/party/drinking scene?

[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.

Reed is very intense for all subjects

[Anonymous]

My DS toured Carnegie Melon twice (once after he was accepted) and he said it seemed too intense for him. I'm not sure exactly why he thought but some factors were--- a combination of reputation, tour guides talking about hard classes and studying, folks talking about ranking and high power jobs, talking about weed out courses, that combined with not a lot of sports spirit made him think that was not the school he wanted to attend.

I'm sure that kids who do attend love it and have a a fun college experience, but he ended up at a place with D1 sports and a similarly good school for his major and had a great experience in a less intense (per his idea) experience. Of course, he didn't go to CMU so its hard to compare now.

[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!

And yet here you go stereotyping. Why did you include this guy’s height? Answer: because you believe taller is best and you’re trying to convey that Dartmouth kid is firing on all fronts — intellectual, frat party and tall. As if his height had anything to do with anything besides genetics.


If intellectual party man was 5’ 9”, I guarantee you wouldn’t have mentioned it. Because stereotypes

I shared it because it’s an objective fact that helps paint a picture - he looks like the athletes the PP was denigrating.

Other descriptions, including whether or not he’s “attractive”, are subjective, so I skipped them. Also, as a middle-aged person, it feels creepy to describe 20-something kids in those terms.

No issue here with short men. In fact, if he were short and built like an athlete, I would have described him as “solid - built like a wrestler.” Again, observable traits, not my opinions or analyses.

[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.

How...ever there are new colleges/universities coming onto the scene at high schools all the time. Never know if X Univ decides to take in six students from same high school one year.

[Anonymous]

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.

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

In 2025, Georgetown is intense.
-Parent of a current GU undergraduate

[Anonymous]

Can someone summarize a list of top 10 intense schools?