All of the T30 schools are grinders.

Anonymous wrote:Wake Forest is this to a T.

"Work Forrest"? WTF are you talking about?

Anonymous wrote:Does it exist? A school not full of grinders, though they are smart, and can be nerdy, that are social and well-adjusted??

I keep hearing the following names:
Vanderbilt
Dartmouth
Northwestern
Duke
USC
Rice
UCLA
Michigan

Do you agree? Disagree? What’s missing? What should come off?

USC is not a T25 school.

Wake Forest is this to a T.

Understand the desire for a non-grind vibe
I've got one at Vandy and one starting at another school that is not T25 (she's actually a better student and chose a target school over a T25)
Non-grind I get, T25 not so much
Hope they find their place...

Ugh with the pejorative "grinders" label. If you're so above it all, why do you need a T25 school?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean, if your kid wants to get good grades in college, they will have to do some work. Does that make them a grinder? Depends on the major and ability to handle the load.

NP: I think of grinders as students that treat college like a job (e.g., prestige, ambition, money) and present as pre-professionals. I think that is different than someone who is smart, nerdy, or a geek that earns good grades but loves the topic or loves to learn. Nothing wrong with both, but I see the populations as different.

"grind" means work really hard. All the time. At the expense of competing activities, whether those activities would have been playing cyberpunk or frat life. Grind by definition means you're joyless most of the time.

Whether you're a dork or whether you couldn't make a friend no matter how how hard you tried or you're gunning for Yale Law and only Yale Law.

NU should come off. Add HYP, Stanford, and Brown.

Anonymous wrote:I mean, if your kid wants to get good grades in college, they will have to do some work. Does that make them a grinder? Depends on the major and ability to handle the load.

NP: I think of grinders as students that treat college like a job (e.g., prestige, ambition, money) and present as pre-professionals. I think that is different than someone who is smart, nerdy, or a geek that earns good grades but loves the topic or loves to learn. Nothing wrong with both, but I see the populations as different.

I mean, if your kid wants to get good grades in college, they will have to do some work. Does that make them a grinder? Depends on the major and ability to handle the load.

My well-adjusted, smart kid only applied to two schools in the top 25 - Northwestern & Michigan. Rejected from both. Went to a diverse high school similar to Wilson in another big city and was an athlete/some activities/good student but didn't "play the game". He's going to UCSB OOS. If your kid is that non-competitive, they're not going to care about a specific rank.

Why pick an arbitrary number? Ignore the numbers and pick a school the kid likes.

Rice

Uva

Does it exist? A school not full of grinders, though they are smart, and can be nerdy, that are social and well-adjusted??

I keep hearing the following names:
Vanderbilt
Dartmouth
Northwestern
Duke
USC
Rice
UCLA
Michigan

Do you agree? Disagree? What’s missing? What should come off?