Anonymous
Post 10/04/2025 21:43     Subject: Intense vibe schools
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Johns Hopkins, Swarthmore, Emory, Chicago, Case, Cornell, Columbia, Stanford, Berkeley, Penn. This list may be outdated. I hear that Northwestern, Duke and maybe Vanderbilt have joined their ranks in terms of intensity.


Northwestern is more intense than Duke. Also more intense than Vanderbilt. But, much depends upon one's major. Georgia Tech engineering is intense, but other majors less intense (industrial mgmt. is an example of a less intense major).

I have heard differently about UC-Berkeley & Stanford. Just like Cornell, the level of intensity depends upon one's major.


My kid is a freshman at NU - they go out only 3 nights a week.
It’s a mix of kids from NYC, CT, LA, NJ, MA, DC, Chicago. Lots of private school kids.
Very normal set of kids.
Lots of Econ majors. A few premed. Those kids seem more stressed.
All the humanities kids seem more chill. Sunbathing at beach, Pilates classes at SPAC, and 3 hrs in library.
Let’s see how it is in 4 months



Thanks for sharing your kid’s current experience at NU! Please do come back to share more in a few months.

DC is interested in NU (social sciences) and eager to hear more about life outside the classroom/library - including whether the quarter system dials up the pressure. [/


They spent the day watching big10 football (on the lake) and at the beach (on the lake). Think it was hot today! They have a social event for a frat in downtown Chicago tonight.
So far so good!
Will come back in January!
Anonymous
Post 10/04/2025 18:38     Subject: Intense vibe schools
Anonymous wrote:Whether a college is intense depends a lot on the HS you came from. Some colleges love specific high schools bc the kids from there tend to thrive and transition well to their campus culture.

If you check Naviance and see kids from your HS applying to a college every year but none ever gets in, that tells you 1) they likely wont accept your kid either and 2) even if your kid gets in, they may not be a great fit. These admissions officers have been doing this for decades and have seen 100k+ files, they know more than we do. Take their lead.


Truth, and depends on the kid. Two kids from the same high school who took different rigor could end up with one finding William and Mary easy and one finding it overwhelmingly intense. Same is true of more notorious "intense" schools such as ivy/MIT/JHU. This is where it can help to have been a parent who attended the same or a similar school, and one who understands their own kid's level of academic potential relative to the peer group at the schools they are considering. We have one thriving at Penn, finds it academically intense in an invigorating collaborative way, not at all "cutthroat". We will be more than gently DIScouraging the younger one from applying to Penn or any T10. Even if he got in, which he could with his stats, it would not be a fit for him. He needs to be somewhere he stands out a bit from the pack.
Anonymous
Post 10/04/2025 16:39     Subject: Intense vibe schools
Whether a college is intense depends a lot on the HS you came from. Some colleges love specific high schools bc the kids from there tend to thrive and transition well to their campus culture.

If you check Naviance and see kids from your HS applying to a college every year but none ever gets in, that tells you 1) they likely wont accept your kid either and 2) even if your kid gets in, they may not be a great fit. These admissions officers have been doing this for decades and have seen 100k+ files, they know more than we do. Take their lead.
Anonymous
Post 10/04/2025 16:11     Subject: Intense vibe schools
JHU humanities very chill. Anything other than BME is not intense at all.
Anonymous
Post 10/04/2025 15:42     Subject: Intense vibe schools
Anonymous wrote:Johns Hopkins, Swarthmore, Emory, Chicago, Case, Cornell, Columbia, Stanford, Berkeley, Penn. This list may be outdated. I hear that Northwestern, Duke and maybe Vanderbilt have joined their ranks in terms of intensity.


Emory not intense at all
Anonymous
Post 10/04/2025 15:27     Subject: Intense vibe schools
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Johns Hopkins, Swarthmore, Emory, Chicago, Case, Cornell, Columbia, Stanford, Berkeley, Penn. This list may be outdated. I hear that Northwestern, Duke and maybe Vanderbilt have joined their ranks in terms of intensity.


Northwestern is more intense than Duke. Also more intense than Vanderbilt. But, much depends upon one's major. Georgia Tech engineering is intense, but other majors less intense (industrial mgmt. is an example of a less intense major).

I have heard differently about UC-Berkeley & Stanford. Just like Cornell, the level of intensity depends upon one's major.


My kid is a freshman at NU - they go out only 3 nights a week.
It’s a mix of kids from NYC, CT, LA, NJ, MA, DC, Chicago. Lots of private school kids.
Very normal set of kids.
Lots of Econ majors. A few premed. Those kids seem more stressed.
All the humanities kids seem more chill. Sunbathing at beach, Pilates classes at SPAC, and 3 hrs in library.
Let’s see how it is in 4 months



Thanks for sharing your kid’s current experience at NU! Please do come back to share more in a few months.

DC is interested in NU (social sciences) and eager to hear more about life outside the classroom/library - including whether the quarter system dials up the pressure.
Anonymous
Post 10/04/2025 15:20     Subject: Intense vibe schools
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Johns Hopkins, Swarthmore, Emory, Chicago, Case, Cornell, Columbia, Stanford, Berkeley, Penn. This list may be outdated. I hear that Northwestern, Duke and maybe Vanderbilt have joined their ranks in terms of intensity.


Northwestern is more intense than Duke. Also more intense than Vanderbilt. But, much depends upon one's major. Georgia Tech engineering is intense, but other majors less intense (industrial mgmt. is an example of a less intense major).

I have heard differently about UC-Berkeley & Stanford. Just like Cornell, the level of intensity depends upon one's major.


My kid is a freshman at NU - they go out only 3 nights a week.
It’s a mix of kids from NYC, CT, LA, NJ, MA, DC, Chicago. Lots of private school kids.
Very normal set of kids.
Lots of Econ majors. A few premed. Those kids seem more stressed.
All the humanities kids seem more chill. Sunbathing at beach, Pilates classes at SPAC, and 3 hrs in library.
Let’s see how it is in 4 months



This tracks with my STEM freshman at Columbia. But DC is still able to go out a few times a week and is involved in EC's. Seems to me to be two key reasons: 1) the STEM classes all grade on a strict curve, they are trying to weed people out before they declare majors 2) the STEM majors need to complete foundational year long courses in freshman year to get through prerequisites for classes as upperclassmen, the humanities majors don't have similar prerequisites so those freshmen are less likely to be in truly hard classes yet.
Anonymous
Post 10/04/2025 13:07     Subject: Intense vibe schools
My DD is a senior at Swat. She would tell you that it's intense---not in a competitive and cutthroat way, but students there are really into academics, driven, and looking toward grad school.
Anonymous
Post 10/04/2025 12:41     Subject: Intense vibe schools
Anonymous wrote:I think when people call a school “intense,” it’s usually referring to engineering, which is a grind everywhere. But there are some schools that have notoriously stressful engineering departments. Cornell and Carnegie Mellon come to mind. But I’m sure students in other majors have a more typical college experience.

But “intense” is usually thrown at the strong STEM schools - Cornell, CMU, MIT, Georgia Tech etc But it’s major specific. The anthropology majors at these schools are not nearly as stressed as the engineering majors.

Swarthmore is kind of unique. And Chicago was too until recently. These two schools were the places where the humanities and social science students could totally nerd out. I think that’s lightened up in recent years. And neither are as “intense” as their reputation.

Both are very intense. Chicago has perceptually changed, because they welcome a different type of pre professional student now into Business economics.

Swat, Reed, Chicago for difficult humanities and social sciences. STEM isn’t the only thing in the world.
Anonymous
Post 10/04/2025 11:28     Subject: Intense vibe schools
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Johns Hopkins, Swarthmore, Emory, Chicago, Case, Cornell, Columbia, Stanford, Berkeley, Penn. This list may be outdated. I hear that Northwestern, Duke and maybe Vanderbilt have joined their ranks in terms of intensity.


Northwestern is more intense than Duke. Also more intense than Vanderbilt. But, much depends upon one's major. Georgia Tech engineering is intense, but other majors less intense (industrial mgmt. is an example of a less intense major).

I have heard differently about UC-Berkeley & Stanford. Just like Cornell, the level of intensity depends upon one's major.


My kid is a freshman at NU - they go out only 3 nights a week.
It’s a mix of kids from NYC, CT, LA, NJ, MA, DC, Chicago. Lots of private school kids.
Very normal set of kids.
Lots of Econ majors. A few premed. Those kids seem more stressed.
All the humanities kids seem more chill. Sunbathing at beach, Pilates classes at SPAC, and 3 hrs in library.
Let’s see how it is in 4 months

Anonymous
Post 10/04/2025 11:13     Subject: Intense vibe schools
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I always hear Cornell described this way. But I don’t get it. Cornell is huge. How can it have a single vibe?

Curious to hear about people’s kids’ first-hand experiences there. DC is a work hard/play hard type. Is efficient and focused to learn and get the work done but doesn’t dwell on it and is remarkably unstressed. Instead, has a big life outside of school - sports, social, ECs, and downtime. Just a normal, very smart kid with a lot of energy and a huge capacity for both academics and people.

Cornell must have tons of similar kids, right? Would love to hear about that.


Cornell is huge you were right. For the kids that are engineering or computer science majors or even hard sciences their life is a grind.

However, unlike other schools, there is a thriving social scene if you are Greek. Tons of Greek Parties, date Parties once you were in a house, social events abound. And then the bars in College town. They have more than 30 or 40 fraternities and more than 20+ sororities.

They just don’t have D1 sports. It’s a pretty tight group though.

For any school, don’t go by what the tour guides show you. They’re typically horrible. The only Tour guide we loved was Wake Forest.

You need to meet with people who attend the college from your high school or that you otherwise know. If possible, spend an overnight and go out with them. See what a day in the life is really like.

Formal tours basically take you to the library, the dining halls and the dorms. There is more to college life than those three spots.



Yes they do.


Sorry, meant power conference sports. You know - ACC, B10, B12, SEC).....I do think it's part of the reason Stanford, Duke, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Michigan, and now Vanderbilt continue to have a different kind of cache.


Um, cachet.
Anonymous
Post 10/04/2025 09:20     Subject: Intense vibe schools
My kid is a freshman engineering major at Georgia Tech. It's obviously very challenging and difficult but the school has been phenomenal in it's support system for their students for them to succeed. They make sure they provide enough social functions for the students combined with tremendous academic support. Can't say enough good things about Tech. Kid is loving his time there.
Anonymous
Post 10/04/2025 09:13     Subject: Intense vibe schools
Anonymous wrote:Johns Hopkins, Swarthmore, Emory, Chicago, Case, Cornell, Columbia, Stanford, Berkeley, Penn. This list may be outdated. I hear that Northwestern, Duke and maybe Vanderbilt have joined their ranks in terms of intensity.

Really? These are not the intense ones. Princeton, MIT, CIT beat every school on this list.
Anonymous
Post 10/04/2025 09:10     Subject: Intense vibe schools
Anonymous wrote:Johns Hopkins, Swarthmore, Emory, Chicago, Case, Cornell, Columbia, Stanford, Berkeley, Penn. This list may be outdated. I hear that Northwestern, Duke and maybe Vanderbilt have joined their ranks in terms of intensity.


Northwestern is more intense than Duke. Also more intense than Vanderbilt. But, much depends upon one's major. Georgia Tech engineering is intense, but other majors less intense (industrial mgmt. is an example of a less intense major).

I have heard differently about UC-Berkeley & Stanford. Just like Cornell, the level of intensity depends upon one's major.
Anonymous
Post 10/04/2025 08:53     Subject: Intense vibe schools
Johns Hopkins, Swarthmore, Emory, Chicago, Case, Cornell, Columbia, Stanford, Berkeley, Penn. This list may be outdated. I hear that Northwestern, Duke and maybe Vanderbilt have joined their ranks in terms of intensity.