Anonymous wrote:Anyone else find it ironic that the Ivies everyone is so eager to get their kids into are nowhere to be found in this thread?

What does that say?

My kid is at an Ivy and has found it to be a very happy place. I didn't want to post because of all of the negativity surrounding those schools right now.

Don't believe everything you read about them being pressure cookers. For all of the frenzy that goes into getting in - it is probably a let down for some when they get there because it is so normal. At the Ivy my kid attends they do a good job of selecting students that are well-adjusted to start with. Very supportive environment, lost of places to turn for help if needed. Not very different from my SLAC experience.

Anonymous wrote:Anyone else find it ironic that the Ivies everyone is so eager to get their kids into are nowhere to be found in this thread?

What does that say?

I would say Harvard students are very well-adjusted as a whole. But the OP had scores/accomplishments nowhere near that mark (nor W&M, ND and other schools mentioned here--but they were at least a bit less of a stretch than Ivies).

Anonymous wrote:Michigan. Great academics, but most kids not as tightly wound as at some schools.

UM Ann Arbor for sure, but the in-state students are more grounded than their counterparts from the coasts.

Anyone else find it ironic that the Ivies everyone is so eager to get their kids into are nowhere to be found in this thread?

What does that say?

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Anonymous wrote:Notre Dame. Religious aspect of school attracts kind and non-competitive students. That combined with the excellent academics, strong reputation, supportive alumni network, and gorgeous campus makes for a very happy student body.

Yes, full of rich conservative racist bigots.

Apparently you didn't know that Fr. Hesburgh, the former president, was one of the drivers of the civil rights movement along side MLK. Educate yourself. Maybe go see the new documentary being released next month.

So what? He could be great and every faculty member there. ND is not liberal, it is not diversity loving and it most certainly is not LGBTQ friendly. It is a school for private catholic school kids to go to. And it is in Indiana. Have you been there? Even the workers at McDonalds are milky white.

Sorry, but I would say you are the bigot. And who cares that it is not liberal...the question posed was not about whether a school is liber or not. There is a place for everyone, and I can tell you that the students at this school are VERY happy and well adjusted. Try to find anything about suicides at ND...I guarantee it will be sparse. And for an elite school, that is pretty impressive. Google suicide and all the other top schools and there is all kinds of tragedy. Sad.

I am from the Northeast and have visited ND, and frankly it is a breath of fresh air to be in the midwest where people are actually polite and kind.

They are happy because they around their kind.

Interestingly, I believe that there is a lot of truth in this statement. It makes one ponder on the benefits and unintended consequences of the elite colleges focus on maximum diversity on every possible dimension....gender, race, geography, SES, international, first gen, targeted EC......and those are jus the ones we know about. It wouldn't surprise me at all to know that these colleges also target religious, sexual orientation or other dimensions of diversity through identifiable markers.

Agree too. I read an article with interviews from all the lower SES kids being accepted over the past 5 years. It has been a mess. Sure, they get full tuition and who wants to argue with that. But they have work study that most rich kids there do not. It is very apparent who the under rich are and who the uber poor are. There aren't many in-between at Ivy's. They have no means of outside money coming to them. No way to study abroad. No way to pay for extracurriculars. No way to spend a Saturday night socializing at restaurants, pubs, etc... It was eye opening. When they can't afford to travel home during breaks, there is no dining hall open for them. They go hungry. The president talked about not doing enough for them and wanting to do more. But this is a big issue.

Your statement about low SES kids at Ivies not having a way to do "extra" stuff is untrue. The Ivies pay for all of it. If you are low income and receive financial aid that covers all of your tuition and room and board you then can do study abroad for free, you receive a "spending stipend" for extras, you get money to travel back home, you get fees covered for joining a frat/sorority, etc. Even thought its not a perfect system, they do try to think of everything when they calculate the full cost of attending. My kid is at one of these schools on 50% financial aid so study abroad for example is prorated to the same amount but DC knows kids who are there on full tuition and they are not cut out of anything for money reasons and there is very little stigma around it.

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Anonymous wrote:According to the Princeton Review, W&M has the "happiest" students. The rumor that they have the highest suicide rate still exists but isn't true. My DS, who is a student at W&M, says that his classmates are really, really smart but they are also helpful and supportive and not cut throat and competitive with each other.

Did they fix their suicide issue?

The suicide rate in the U.S. is now about 14 per 100,000 people per year. If you apply to a school with about 6,500 undergraduates like W&M, you would expect about 1 suicide per year. There was an article in the Washington Post that said there have been something like 13 in 45 years. That would be only 30% or so of the average. It wouldn't surprise me if almost all colleges are actually well below the national average over time. The suicide rate among veterans is about 30 per 100,000 per year, which is higher than average, but it is actually much, much worse than that among younger veterans compared to the same age non-veterans. Beyond that, the issues related with the recent increase in the rate tend to be related to substance abuse, health, jobs, etc. Those are more typically post-college or post-high school issues.

I think it would be more telling to get the number of students that have attempted suicide. That to me is a better measure but probably an impossible number to get from a college.

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Anonymous wrote:Notre Dame. Religious aspect of school attracts kind and non-competitive students. That combined with the excellent academics, strong reputation, supportive alumni network, and gorgeous campus makes for a very happy student body.

Yes, full of rich conservative racist bigots.

Apparently you didn't know that Fr. Hesburgh, the former president, was one of the drivers of the civil rights movement along side MLK. Educate yourself. Maybe go see the new documentary being released next month.

So what? He could be great and every faculty member there. ND is not liberal, it is not diversity loving and it most certainly is not LGBTQ friendly. It is a school for private catholic school kids to go to. And it is in Indiana. Have you been there? Even the workers at McDonalds are milky white.

Sorry, but I would say you are the bigot. And who cares that it is not liberal...the question posed was not about whether a school is liber or not. There is a place for everyone, and I can tell you that the students at this school are VERY happy and well adjusted. Try to find anything about suicides at ND...I guarantee it will be sparse. And for an elite school, that is pretty impressive. Google suicide and all the other top schools and there is all kinds of tragedy. Sad.

I am from the Northeast and have visited ND, and frankly it is a breath of fresh air to be in the midwest where people are actually polite and kind.

They are happy because they around their kind.

Interestingly, I believe that there is a lot of truth in this statement. It makes one ponder on the benefits and unintended consequences of the elite colleges focus on maximum diversity on every possible dimension....gender, race, geography, SES, international, first gen, targeted EC......and those are jus the ones we know about. It wouldn't surprise me at all to know that these colleges also target religious, sexual orientation or other dimensions of diversity through identifiable markers.

Agree too. I read an article with interviews from all the lower SES kids being accepted over the past 5 years. It has been a mess. Sure, they get full tuition and who wants to argue with that. But they have work study that most rich kids there do not. It is very apparent who the under rich are and who the uber poor are. There aren't many in-between at Ivy's. They have no means of outside money coming to them. No way to study abroad. No way to pay for extracurriculars. No way to spend a Saturday night socializing at restaurants, pubs, etc... It was eye opening. When they can't afford to travel home during breaks, there is no dining hall open for them. They go hungry. The president talked about not doing enough for them and wanting to do more. But this is a big issue.

NP: I am very familiar with ND (I'm from the midwest and multiple relatives attended) and think it's a fine school with a supportive community, but agree that it's overstated and comes at the price of some homogeneity.

1. Don't know the suicide rates at ND but would imagine a Catholic school which is a religion which considers suicide a mortal sin would have lower rates since students may believe that suicide sentences them to eternal damnation. Doesn't mean there isn't depression and other negative outcomes just on average less likely to result in suicides. Also, while media publicizes stories on colleges and suicides because it plays on parents fears and links suicides with an identifiable institution which is newsworthy, there is no college that has a suicide rate higher than the national average suicide rate and college is actually a protective factor against suicide (as is religiosity). Poster who mentioned W&M having a high suicide rate is responding to a time when there were news stories on a suicide cluster at W&M, but overall they have a very low suicide rate compared to average.

2. As posters noted, ND is relatively homogenous which can lessen tensions on campus and give the supportive community feel. But you're just pushing away the inevitable engagement with real diversity and a fuller range of worldviews. Of course people feel happier while they are there because their core beliefs aren't being challenged. It's important to look at how they fare later (compared to equally prepared and privileged students at less homogenous institutions) in situations when they encounter real diversity and conflict.

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Anonymous wrote:Notre Dame. Religious aspect of school attracts kind and non-competitive students. That combined with the excellent academics, strong reputation, supportive alumni network, and gorgeous campus makes for a very happy student body.

Yes, full of rich conservative racist bigots.

Apparently you didn't know that Fr. Hesburgh, the former president, was one of the drivers of the civil rights movement along side MLK. Educate yourself. Maybe go see the new documentary being released next month.

So what? He could be great and every faculty member there. ND is not liberal, it is not diversity loving and it most certainly is not LGBTQ friendly. It is a school for private catholic school kids to go to. And it is in Indiana. Have you been there? Even the workers at McDonalds are milky white.

Sorry, but I would say you are the bigot. And who cares that it is not liberal...the question posed was not about whether a school is liber or not. There is a place for everyone, and I can tell you that the students at this school are VERY happy and well adjusted. Try to find anything about suicides at ND...I guarantee it will be sparse. And for an elite school, that is pretty impressive. Google suicide and all the other top schools and there is all kinds of tragedy. Sad.

I am from the Northeast and have visited ND, and frankly it is a breath of fresh air to be in the midwest where people are actually polite and kind.

They are happy because they around their kind.

Interestingly, I believe that there is a lot of truth in this statement. It makes one ponder on the benefits and unintended consequences of the elite colleges focus on maximum diversity on every possible dimension....gender, race, geography, SES, international, first gen, targeted EC......and those are jus the ones we know about. It wouldn't surprise me at all to know that these colleges also target religious, sexual orientation or other dimensions of diversity through identifiable markers.

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Anonymous wrote:How us Rice on there? Tons of miserable stressed kids. My DD’s friend’s roommate attempted suicide and she found her. Only 7 weeks into 1st semester. Roommate left, She finished the year and never went back.

The 2 kids I know who go there love it and are very happy.

It is a great school from what I've seen. Comment is based on experience of one person. Most colleges don't actually track suicide rates, but the ones that do almost always have rates below the national rates. Veterans tend to be among highest categories.

Well if PTSD from Vets can beat out 18yr olds at colle, we must be doing something right.

No, I think PP is saying veterans attending college, are disproportionately contributing to suicide rates. https://www.livescience.com/15428-military-veterans-college-students-suicide-risk.html

Anonymous wrote:I think colleges with relatively high alumni giving rates and high graduation rates generally have pretty satisfied students.

Another one for W&M - they are the number 1 nationally ranked public university in the US for undergraduate alumni giving.

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Anonymous wrote:How us Rice on there? Tons of miserable stressed kids. My DD’s friend’s roommate attempted suicide and she found her. Only 7 weeks into 1st semester. Roommate left, She finished the year and never went back.

The 2 kids I know who go there love it and are very happy.

It is a great school from what I've seen. Comment is based on experience of one person. Most colleges don't actually track suicide rates, but the ones that do almost always have rates below the national rates. Veterans tend to be among highest categories.

Well if PTSD from Vets can beat out 18yr olds at colle, we must be doing something right.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Notre Dame. Religious aspect of school attracts kind and non-competitive students. That combined with the excellent academics, strong reputation, supportive alumni network, and gorgeous campus makes for a very happy student body.

Yes, full of rich conservative racist bigots.

Apparently you didn't know that Fr. Hesburgh, the former president, was one of the drivers of the civil rights movement along side MLK. Educate yourself. Maybe go see the new documentary being released next month.

So what? He could be great and every faculty member there. ND is not liberal, it is not diversity loving and it most certainly is not LGBTQ friendly. It is a school for private catholic school kids to go to. And it is in Indiana. Have you been there? Even the workers at McDonalds are milky white.

Sorry, but I would say you are the bigot. And who cares that it is not liberal...the question posed was not about whether a school is liber or not. There is a place for everyone, and I can tell you that the students at this school are VERY happy and well adjusted. Try to find anything about suicides at ND...I guarantee it will be sparse. And for an elite school, that is pretty impressive. Google suicide and all the other top schools and there is all kinds of tragedy. Sad.

I am from the Northeast and have visited ND, and frankly it is a breath of fresh air to be in the midwest where people are actually polite and kind.

They are happy because they around their kind.

Pepperdine! I live near there. Nice kids; gorgeous surroundings; great weather, and surfing. The dorm rooms are amazing with killer ocean views.

hmm on that note, UC Santa Barbara or UCSD or that private one U of San Diego

+1 for JMU