Colleges with happy kids

[Anonymous]

My son is living his best life at William and Mary. Very happy and involved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When we visited Penn State, nearly every kid we saw was wearing Penn State gear and were plastered with smiles. They also claim to have happy cows that make the best ice cream.

If only it weren't in the middle of nowhere

Second Happy Valley!

Even though it’s in the middle of nowhere, it’s an easy 3 hour ride from DMV which has been a saving grace for our family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a mom of a hs senior, I am also probing this question and trying to sift through contradictory info. We see emory listed as a school ranked high on having happy kids, but when we ask people with kids there now, they say there's a lot of high-pressure pre professional angst and that social life is dead and kids to go georgia tech for parties. What is the truth???

Emory is Niche, like Rice Tufts etc. Emory is enjoyable because it's in a Top 5 city for young people. There's 5 other colleges 30 min from each other at most so about 70k other undergrad students to interact with. If your child is willing to venture off campus and explore the city they will enjoy themselves and find their people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a mom of a hs senior, I am also probing this question and trying to sift through contradictory info. We see emory listed as a school ranked high on having happy kids, but when we ask people with kids there now, they say there's a lot of high-pressure pre professional angst and that social life is dead and kids to go georgia tech for parties. What is the truth???

Emory is Niche, like Rice Tufts etc. Emory is enjoyable because it's in a Top 5 city for young people. There's 5 other colleges 30 min from each other at most so about 70k other undergrad students to interact with. If your child is willing to venture off campus and explore the city they will enjoy themselves and find their people.

+1 and Emory is also close enough to both UGA and GA Tech so if your kid want to enjoy a college football game…Emory is also very diverse, with many international students and students from all over the country. The main draw back I’ve seen is its reputation as an Ivy backup or 2nd choice, which isn’t always true. Not everyone at Emory was an Ivy/Duke/Vanderbilt/Ivy+ aspirant. However, that’s on the student to ignore that and appreciate and enjoy Emory for what it is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a mom of a hs senior, I am also probing this question and trying to sift through contradictory info. We see emory listed as a school ranked high on having happy kids, but when we ask people with kids there now, they say there's a lot of high-pressure pre professional angst and that social life is dead and kids to go georgia tech for parties. What is the truth???

Emory is Niche, like Rice Tufts etc. Emory is enjoyable because it's in a Top 5 city for young people. There's 5 other colleges 30 min from each other at most so about 70k other undergrad students to interact with. If your child is willing to venture off campus and explore the city they will enjoy themselves and find their people.

+1 and Emory is also close enough to both UGA and GA Tech so if your kid want to enjoy a college football game…Emory is also very diverse, with many international students and students from all over the country. The main draw back I’ve seen is its reputation as an Ivy backup or 2nd choice, which isn’t always true. Not everyone at Emory was an Ivy/Duke/Vanderbilt/Ivy+ aspirant. However, that’s on the student to ignore that and appreciate and enjoy Emory for what it is.

I think the issue is no on campus social life; limited social options and lack of school spirit/student body bonding. Every Emory student leaves at graduation and doesn’t look back.

The fact that folks here are encouraging people to get out and “interact” w/ other college students from other schools or go to Georgia Tech for socialization confirms that

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:William & Mary

Uh, no.

Np - yes.

They just had another suicide three weeks ago. No.
They need to raise salaries and increase numbers of counseling staff! Most expensive public undergrad in the entire country and they can’t even get a handle on student mental health.

Yes, there was a suicide at W&M three weeks ago. I know years ago (decades ago), W&M had a reputation of being #1 in number of suicides. But in the last decade, they were NOT top for suicides.

As recently as six years ago, W&M was ranked #1 in the country for happiest students by Princeton Review. That ranking has gone down every year and they are no longer on their top 25 list. My oldest was at W&M from 2018-2022. The school was very strict during Covid. My opinion, the students during that time frame did not have the best experience, which probably caused them to drop out of the rankings. That cohort is graduating this year or next year. So you have an entirely new cohort that is experiencing what W&M was like before Covid. I think W&M will rise in the happiest student rankings. The school has a much better dining provider. They are getting ready to open brand new dorms in the fall.

No wonder they keep raising tuition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:These posts about misery and depression at CMU, Chicago, Cornell (all on my kids list btw) have me thinking...where are kids HAPPY? Besides Brown? (Ideally, a little easier to get into than Brown!)

What is your defintion of happy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a mom of a hs senior, I am also probing this question and trying to sift through contradictory info. We see emory listed as a school ranked high on having happy kids, but when we ask people with kids there now, they say there's a lot of high-pressure pre professional angst and that social life is dead and kids to go georgia tech for parties. What is the truth???

Emory is Niche, like Rice Tufts etc. Emory is enjoyable because it's in a Top 5 city for young people. There's 5 other colleges 30 min from each other at most so about 70k other undergrad students to interact with. If your child is willing to venture off campus and explore the city they will enjoy themselves and find their people.

+1 and Emory is also close enough to both UGA and GA Tech so if your kid want to enjoy a college football game…Emory is also very diverse, with many international students and students from all over the country. The main draw back I’ve seen is its reputation as an Ivy backup or 2nd choice, which isn’t always true. Not everyone at Emory was an Ivy/Duke/Vanderbilt/Ivy+ aspirant. However, that’s on the student to ignore that and appreciate and enjoy Emory for what it is.

All schools except Harvard and Stanford are second choice schools this isn't an insult. Many students have Emory as their first choice and Emory wins cross admits with many top schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These posts about misery and depression at CMU, Chicago, Cornell (all on my kids list btw) have me thinking...where are kids HAPPY? Besides Brown? (Ideally, a little easier to get into than Brown!)

What is your defintion of happy

https://www.princetonreview.com/college-rankings/?rankings=best-quality-life
https://www.princetonreview.com/college-rankings/?rankings=happiest-students

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:VT, JMU

Expected to see these on the first page of responses, honestly. Surprised it took so long.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If by “happy” you mean party scene, beware: most of the college students who end up at our midatlantic region’s alcohol/drug rehab center come from schools known as happy lower stress party schools:

Uof SC, UTk, Bama (multiple), VCU, Hampden-Sydney, CNU. It is much less common at William and Mary, UVA, and on up the list.

Good point. Are people equating happy with party vibes ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These posts about misery and depression at CMU, Chicago, Cornell (all on my kids list btw) have me thinking...where are kids HAPPY? Besides Brown? (Ideally, a little easier to get into than Brown!)

What is your defintion of happy

https://www.princetonreview.com/college-rankings/?rankings=best-quality-life
https://www.princetonreview.com/college-rankings/?rankings=happiest-students

The happiest students ranking is taken from surveys.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a mom of a hs senior, I am also probing this question and trying to sift through contradictory info. We see emory listed as a school ranked high on having happy kids, but when we ask people with kids there now, they say there's a lot of high-pressure pre professional angst and that social life is dead and kids to go georgia tech for parties. What is the truth???

The truth is your kids happiness depends on their being a good match with their personality, goals and academic ability, as well as them finding a good friend group, ECs that they enjoy, having good professors. And the ability to interact with those professors and resolve any issues that arise. Among many other things. Fit is an individual thing.

Now, one of my kids did go through TJ. And the kids there were definitely used to a very stressful and competitive academic environment. Many went on to T25 schools they found to be much, much easier than high school. However, consensus seemed to be that the following schools were stressful and miserable even by TJ standards: MIT, Hopkins, CMU, and Chicago. (And realize most kids reporting back were on an engineering or hardcore STEM track). Or so went the conventional wisdom among students.

Kids who went to UVA, WM, VT (STEM), Michigan and Pitt (which was actively recruiting at TJ for a while) really seemed to enjoy college while succeeding academically. Many other colleges didn’t have enough kids attending to get a strong reputation on way or the other.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:William & Mary

Uh, no.

Np - yes.

They just had another suicide three weeks ago. No.
They need to raise salaries and increase numbers of counseling staff! Most expensive public undergrad in the entire country and they can’t even get a handle on student mental health.

Yes, there was a suicide at W&M three weeks ago. I know years ago (decades ago), W&M had a reputation of being #1 in number of suicides. But in the last decade, they were NOT top for suicides.

As recently as six years ago, W&M was ranked #1 in the country for happiest students by Princeton Review. That ranking has gone down every year and they are no longer on their top 25 list. My oldest was at W&M from 2018-2022. The school was very strict during Covid. My opinion, the students during that time frame did not have the best experience, which probably caused them to drop out of the rankings. That cohort is graduating this year or next year. So you have an entirely new cohort that is experiencing what W&M was like before Covid. I think W&M will rise in the happiest student rankings. The school has a much better dining provider. They are getting ready to open brand new dorms in the fall.

I have a junior at WM (who loves it there) and would add that I believe this was the first suicide since she has been there. (The school reports student deaths to the community, but the reason is always opaque. I believe there have been two other deaths— a kid who died from an underlying medical condition and an alcohol related death). And I’ll refrain from gossip and passing second/third hand info, but my kid did know the student, and this particular kid’s situation was apparently very complicated, and they had serious issues that had nothing to do with the College. This was not a kid stressed to the breaking point with academics or unhappy with campus life. There were serious issues that would have been there at any college— or of the kid had attended no college. It was just a sad situation.

I’ve never paid any attention to the list of happiest students, because different things make different students happy. You need to do the work on this one yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is student fit more than school dependent . Princeton has had a lot of suicides in the past 3 yrs. William and Mary has had an uptick the last 18mos. Many top25 schools have had one or more in the past 2 yrs. We are in a mental health crisis

I get the parent notices for any student death and am only aware of one suicide, three weeks ago. Maybe I’m forgetting one? But,I don’t think so, and one is not an uptick. I posted above. This particular suicide was apparently complicated and likely due to factors outside the school.