Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What a great troll thread. The people I know at Ivy’s love it there. Very driven though.

So..are they also competitive a**hole types?

Speaking as a competitive a**hole type, I have to admit that it is entirely possible to go through much or all of your life without even realizing that you are one.

Many Ivy grads are driven AND competitive a**hole types but think they are only driven or aren't even that. But don't get me wrong. Lots of nice people go to Ivies.

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

What kind of title is that? There are no a-hole type kids in this area. Don't you realize they all start their own charities, go on trips to the amazon to save monkeys' balls?! How dare you ask such a question!!

Anonymous wrote:What a great troll thread. The people I know at Ivy’s love it there. Very driven though.

So..are they also competitive a**hole types?

Anonymous wrote:What a great troll thread. The people I know at Ivy’s love it there. Very driven though.

I do find the pre-professionalism vs. intellectualism at these types of schools jarring though. THere ARE still people who want to read literature and write poetry and study philosophy and who want to get lost in the library for hours, and who maybe, just maybe, aren't going to be extroverts and leaders, who are maybe a little insecure. In previous generations, we recognized the contributions that eccentric people made, even those who maybe weren't completely presentable in mainstream society. (MIT used to be full of these people.) Every year there seem to be fewer and fewer of these types of people at top schools and more and more vapid careerists. Something is definitely being lost. I wonder what kinds of letters of recommendation someone like Marie Curie or Albert Einstein might have had written about himself at the age of 17. I can just picture the admissions committee shredding someone like that and instead deciding to take another person who wants to be an investment banker. I worry about the lack of critical thought that many of these extroverts display. The comment above is a case in point.

I think upper tier state schools would probably be best. SLACs probably have too many rich kids.

Seriously, it would be “Ivies,” correct?

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Your son is too dumb for Yale.

+1. or the other PP @ Brown, although the Yale statement is 100X more ignorant and offensive.

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.

Your son is too dumb for Yale.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What a great troll thread. The people I know at Ivy’s love it there. Very driven though.

If only you could spell...

If only you knew the difference between spelling and punctuation.

Anonymous wrote:What a great troll thread. The people I know at Ivy’s love it there. Very driven though.

If only you could spell...

What a great troll thread. The people I know at Ivy’s love it there. Very driven though.

Specific recommendation: Rice

General advice: Get off the East Coast

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Colleges That Change Lives all do, but you may feel that they are not selective enough for your child. He or she would likely get a free ride there.

How many schools do you think give free rides, even to the best students? There aren’t that many, maybe one or two per class for schools that small.

A good number of State schools give them to more than a few students. I know of one ctcl that gives 10-12 students full tuition each year. Lafayette is not a ctcl but I’m pretty sure it gives 5+ students full merit rides each year (correct me if I’m wrong). W&L gives the Johnson Scholarship.

In terms of collegiality/lack of Uber-competitive types, I would place the top NESCAC schools closer to the midwestern SLACS than HYP. When I was at Amherst, there was very little overt competition for grades or jobs/internships. Everyone pursued whatever they were interested in and others were happy for them when things planned out. My sense from talking to friends who went to HYP is that there was a lot more overt competitiveness for jobs/internships. Most of the students at Amherst were friendly and not obsessed with prestige etc. The one problem area was a small minority became hostile/destructive when drinking (which I suppose you’ll find anywhere but maybe slightly less at Midwestern SLACS).

Anonymous wrote:The Colleges That Change Lives all do, but you may feel that they are not selective enough for your child. He or she would likely get a free ride there.

How many schools do you think give free rides, even to the best students? There aren’t that many, maybe one or two per class for schools that small.