Pressure cooker schools

[Anonymous]

Apparently Cornell students spend 50% of their waking hours studying & the other 50% whining about how much they have to study. Suck it up snowflakes. You asked for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Apparently Cornell students spend 50% of their waking hours studying & the other 50% whining about how much they have to study. Suck it up snowflakes. You asked for it.

All that studying to go to a school people make fun of

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Any of the schools on a trimester system are going to be much more challenging than a university on a traditional semester system.

Instead of a 15 week-ish semester, those schools cram a full semester of work into three 10-week terms.

The pace is intense, and the students need to be very naturally organized and focused, especially in more demanding classes such as calculus or chemistry for example, because the classes are covering the same material in 33% less time.

If your kid is not organized, gets overwhelmed, or gets run down/sick easily, I would avoid the trimester universities, such as Stanford, U Chicago, Northwestern, etc.

On the bright side, they're taking fewer classes at a time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Virginia Tech, Occidental

Virginia Tech a pressure cooker school?!? 😂

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bucknell, Virginia Tech, Davidson

My son just graduated from VT, and it definitely wasn't a pressure cooker. Challenging, sure, but he and his friends seemed to be pretty relaxed about it and had a lot of fun too (STEM major, not engineering, and not in a frat if that matters).

VT is not even known as a work hard play hard school. It is a good school, but definitely not a pressure cooker. They don’t even have weed out classes in engineering like many other schools have.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyone have fairly recent, firsthand experience with Wellesley? My D26 loved Smith and Mt. Holyoke, but I've avoided asking her to check out Wellesley bc of the historically competitive nature of the school. But the marketing stuff they send is heavy on the collaborative, supportive vibe and I've seen current students online raving about how it's extremely supportive. Any input is appreciated!

Not firsthand but Wellesley is having issues.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/students/academics/2025/04/01/wellesley-non-tenure-track-strike-may-impact-class-credits

Smith's culture is delightful.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:+2. Everything I’ve read recently suggests that UChicago is no longer cut throat pressure cooker?

Chicago has changed a lot in recent years, so it's not the pressure cooker it was, and a lot of alumni are upset about it. It was part of the charm - where fun goes to die and somehow you survive.

I think these days Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, and Berkeley are the worst - mostly because they are all very good at STEM but absolutely garbage at managing human beings, particularly 18-22 year olds. Very stressful schools for those students in already difficult majors.

So, is Chicago premed more enjoyable these days?

No.

Is premed "enjoyable" anywhere? You just don't go to med school to party.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bucknell, Virginia Tech, Davidson

All of the colleges listed here surprise me.

Because it's not true at all. well, maybe in engineering but that would be true anywhere - and not overall.

[Anonymous]

Difficult to imagine that an ABET accredited engineering program would not be a pressure cooker.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bucknell, Virginia Tech, Davidson

My son just graduated from VT, and it definitely wasn't a pressure cooker. Challenging, sure, but he and his friends seemed to be pretty relaxed about it and had a lot of fun too (STEM major, not engineering, and not in a frat if that matters).

VT is not even known as a work hard play hard school. It is a good school, but definitely not a pressure cooker. They don’t even have weed out classes in engineering like many other schools have.

DP. What are you talking about? Of course they have weed out classes. There have been several threads about just that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bucknell, Virginia Tech, Davidson

All of the colleges listed here surprise me.

Because it's not true at all. well, maybe in engineering but that would be true anywhere - and not overall.

This. Engineering and premed can be pressure cookers at many schools in the top 30ish but not other areas. At the very top there is more relative inflation of grades, even in Stem, and at least for the top privates there is a lot more faculty support and potential to have significant research/resume building. That often feels less pressured than schools which have large undergrad departments causing a huge competition for relatively few research spots. Clubs are more challenging at large publics than small to medium privates.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Cornell sucks the literal life out of students. It’s too much. Nothing fun or well rounded about studying there with all the academic pressure to perform like AI and robots. It’s depressing. Otherwise it would be an ideal school.

I would have to agree, although I do know plenty of Cornell alums who got out and seem fine. But my brother went there, his roommate committed suicide in the room, and my brother also developed mental health issues there, became self destructive and ended up dying at age 47.

The one school by kids are not allowed to consider.

Cornell pre-med, architecture and engineering = pressure cooker. The other 2/3rds = not so much.
I have a recent grad in each grouping.

I have heard Dyson is a pressure cooker. Correct?

Dyson classes are easy, not at all comparable to pre-med or engineering. I don’t think business majors anywhere are

Stanford is known for grade inflation, retakes, and second third and fourth chances if needed.

Dyson is a guaranteed 3.8-4.0

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Apparently Cornell students spend 50% of their waking hours studying & the other 50% whining about how much they have to study. Suck it up snowflakes. You asked for it.

All that studying to go to a school people make fun of

The more you make fun of it, the more the kids will work to overcompensate, which makes it even more of a good time to make fun of it — a vicious feedback loop.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is Swarthmore cutthroat or collaborative? I’ve heard it described as both. Does it depend on your major?

I think it's described as both because while Swat has a collaborative culture, Swatties also push themselves hard. So there is still pressure, of the self-deiven kind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Berkeley, no question.

Regardless what school, it depends on major. Some majors in UCB can't be more relaxed.