Colleges with very smart and successful students but relatively few DCUM competitive a**hole types

[Anonymous]

Let's say you've got the credentials to be a viable candidate for HYPS and other extremely selective colleges but you also want to avoid spending four years with the types of super competitive a**holes who sometimes dominate the conversations on DCUM. You have decided to cross HYPS off of your list for this reason (even though you know there are plenty of nice people who go to those places). What should your top choices be? Obviously you probably won't get into HYPS anyway, since they are highly selective and reject thousands of people with credentials just like yours, but that isn't the point. The point is that you actually think you would prefer to go to a college other than HYPS with a more pleasant social environment and nicer students. Please don't respond by saying you or your kid went to HYPS and loved it, found the students to be friendly, etc. Obviously some people love those places. I'm trying to identify other college student bodies that are more or less comparable in terms of brain power but are more mutually supportive and, well, "collegial." Helpful suggestions would be welcome. (Brown? Bowdoin? Amherst? Williams? Wesleyan? Haverford? Carleton? Grinnell? Pomona?)

[Anonymous]

Oxford
Cambridge

[Anonymous]

Oberlin, Notre Dame, Chicago

[Anonymous]

My son got into Yale and felt like it would be too much of a "frat-bro" environment and chose Stanford instead. After spending a weekend at Yale he told me "I feel like I'd accidentally be friends with guys who date rape girls but don't think of themselves as rapists."

DD got into Brown and chose Berkeley instead. Both kids felt like California kids are smart and strive to do well, but without pushing other people out of their way.

[Anonymous]

Pomona and Swarthmore for sure.

[Anonymous]

UChicago

Michigan

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son got into Yale and felt like it would be too much of a "frat-bro" environment and chose Stanford instead. After spending a weekend at Yale he told me "I feel like I'd accidentally be friends with guys who date rape girls but don't think of themselves as rapists."

DD got into Brown and chose Berkeley instead. Both kids felt like California kids are smart and strive to do well, but without pushing other people out of their way.

Silicon Valley is the complete anthesis of this...especially Stanford.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son got into Yale and felt like it would be too much of a "frat-bro" environment and chose Stanford instead. After spending a weekend at Yale he told me "I feel like I'd accidentally be friends with guys who date rape girls but don't think of themselves as rapists."

DD got into Brown and chose Berkeley instead. Both kids felt like California kids are smart and strive to do well, but without pushing other people out of their way.

That is such completely disgusting and horrible thing to write about Yale.

[Anonymous]

Johns Hopkins

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Let's say you've got the credentials to be a viable candidate for HYPS and other extremely selective colleges but you also want to avoid spending four years with the types of super competitive a**holes who sometimes dominate the conversations on DCUM. You have decided to cross HYPS off of your list for this reason (even though you know there are plenty of nice people who go to those places). What should your top choices be? Obviously you probably won't get into HYPS anyway, since they are highly selective and reject thousands of people with credentials just like yours, but that isn't the point. The point is that you actually think you would prefer to go to a college other than HYPS with a more pleasant social environment and nicer students. Please don't respond by saying you or your kid went to HYPS and loved it, found the students to be friendly, etc. Obviously some people love those places. I'm trying to identify other college student bodies that are more or less comparable in terms of brain power but are more mutually supportive and, well, "collegial." Helpful suggestions would be welcome. (Brown? Bowdoin? Amherst? Williams? Wesleyan? Haverford? Carleton? Grinnell? Pomona?)

Top LACS are better for this than top R1s

[Anonymous]

What specifically do you mean by more pleasant social environment? More or fewer parties? Lots of SJW activities? De-emphasis on sports? No social clubs/frats? You need to think about what it is that bothers you about DCUM types (which are also common in MA, NY, NJ, CT, PA for starters).

Some of the SLACs you listed come to mind - Carleton, Grinnell and Haverford may fit the bill. What about Michigan? U of Washington?

[Anonymous]

Ohio State, University of Delware, University of Florida, Penn State

[Anonymous]

Kalamazoo

[Anonymous]

Picky a nerdy school, broadly speaking. Caltech

[Anonymous]

Notre Dame