Anyone have fairly recent, firsthand experience with Wellesley? My D26 loved Smith and Mt. Holyoke, but I've avoided asking her to check out Wellesley bc of the historically competitive nature of the school. But the marketing stuff they send is heavy on the collaborative, supportive vibe and I've seen current students online raving about how it's extremely supportive. Any input is appreciated!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:+2. Everything I’ve read recently suggests that UChicago is no longer cut throat pressure cooker?

Chicago has changed a lot in recent years, so it's not the pressure cooker it was, and a lot of alumni are upset about it. It was part of the charm - where fun goes to die and somehow you survive.

I think these days Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, and Berkeley are the worst - mostly because they are all very good at STEM but absolutely garbage at managing human beings, particularly 18-22 year olds. Very stressful schools for those students in already difficult majors.

So, is Chicago premed more enjoyable these days?

No.

Anonymous wrote:I went to Northwestern and did a double STEM/non stem major. STEM was a ton of pressure, my other major was much less stressful.

Northwestern stem is very intense.

Any of the schools on a trimester system are going to be much more challenging than a university on a traditional semester system.

Instead of a 15 week-ish semester, those schools cram a full semester of work into three 10-week terms.

The pace is intense, and the students need to be very naturally organized and focused, especially in more demanding classes such as calculus or chemistry for example, because the classes are covering the same material in 33% less time.

If your kid is not organized, gets overwhelmed, or gets run down/sick easily, I would avoid the trimester universities, such as Stanford, U Chicago, Northwestern, etc.

What is the actual definition of a pressure cooker school?

I went to Northwestern and did a double STEM/non stem major. STEM was a ton of pressure, my other major was much less stressful.

Anonymous wrote:Is Swarthmore cutthroat or collaborative? I’ve heard it described as both. Does it depend on your major?

My DC has found it to be intense but collaborative. Not cutthroat at all, in her experience. As far as grade deflation/inflation, doesn't seem to be too much grading with a curve in STEM classes, if at all, so I do think there is grade deflation there, but it depends on professor.

Most STEM heavy schools tend to be “pressure cooker.” That’s partly a reflection of how other fields have softened, partly a reflection of the nature of STEM.

JHU is grade inflated now. Not a pressure cooker save for select premeds

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:+2. Everything I’ve read recently suggests that UChicago is no longer cut throat pressure cooker?

Chicago has changed a lot in recent years, so it's not the pressure cooker it was, and a lot of alumni are upset about it. It was part of the charm - where fun goes to die and somehow you survive.

I think these days Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, and Berkeley are the worst - mostly because they are all very good at STEM but absolutely garbage at managing human beings, particularly 18-22 year olds. Very stressful schools for those students in already difficult majors.

Chicago grads sound a bit insufferable. Surprised they can work with us meager fools with how highly they must think of themselves.

They are not insufferable but the essay prompts ensure they are a bit weird.

My kids laughed at the pretension of the essay prompts, but some who attend do so despite all that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We also wanted to avoid pressure cookers, so nudged kids away from Carnegie Mellon, Chicago, Cornell, MIT, Reed, Swarthmore. Also, to a lesser extent, Penn. If they had been drawn to those schools, we would have talked more, but there were plenty of other schools that were more appealing to them anyway.

All these schools have severe grade deflation. Are they different from other schools in essence? I doubt it Ochem at Cornell is taught differently from at Dartmouth.

Once they inflate the grade by a level up (B to A), all the pressure gone.

I have had two kids at two different schools above, one premed and one engineering ‘24 and ‘27. We have very close family friend at Penn, premed BioEng ‘27. The kids all
compare medians, profs, peer support . These schools do not have deflation and certainly not severe. The medians at all three are around a B to B+ for most intro tupe classes(physics, multivariable
Calc, gen chem, cell bio and yes Ochem. Some stem classes medians are set to a B+/A- border especially biochem and other upper levels. They work hard to get A- or higher range and sometimes they have had to accept being below the median but as that is a B it is fine. They all agree C grades are not too common and the ones who get them truly are not using their resources or coming to lecture/recitation. They all want A- and A of course especially premeds chasing top tier schools or those seeking top phD. Deans and department chairs give estimates of average gpas and they are 3.65-3.7sh overall at graduation for the stem majors. Hardly deflated.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:+2. Everything I’ve read recently suggests that UChicago is no longer cut throat pressure cooker?

Chicago has changed a lot in recent years, so it's not the pressure cooker it was, and a lot of alumni are upset about it. It was part of the charm - where fun goes to die and somehow you survive.

I think these days Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, and Berkeley are the worst - mostly because they are all very good at STEM but absolutely garbage at managing human beings, particularly 18-22 year olds. Very stressful schools for those students in already difficult majors.

Perhaps it's not the pressure cooker because it's now more collaborative than competitive? Maybe the students are just nicer now than the UChicago of before.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cornell sucks the literal life out of students. It’s too much. Nothing fun or well rounded about studying there with all the academic pressure to perform like AI and robots. It’s depressing. Otherwise it would be an ideal school.

I would have to agree, although I do know plenty of Cornell alums who got out and seem fine. But my brother went there, his roommate committed suicide in the room, and my brother also developed mental health issues there, became self destructive and ended up dying at age 47.

The one school by kids are not allowed to consider.

Cornell pre-med, architecture and engineering = pressure cooker. The other 2/3rds = not so much.
I have a recent grad in each grouping.

I have heard Dyson is a pressure cooker. Correct?

Dyson classes are easy, not at all comparable to pre-med or engineering. I don’t think business majors anywhere are

Stanford is known for grade inflation, retakes, and second third and fourth chances if needed.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:+2. Everything I’ve read recently suggests that UChicago is no longer cut throat pressure cooker?

Chicago has changed a lot in recent years, so it's not the pressure cooker it was, and a lot of alumni are upset about it. It was part of the charm - where fun goes to die and somehow you survive.

I think these days Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, and Berkeley are the worst - mostly because they are all very good at STEM but absolutely garbage at managing human beings, particularly 18-22 year olds. Very stressful schools for those students in already difficult majors.

So, is Chicago premed more enjoyable these days?

Compared to engineering or CS at CMU, Cornell, or Berkeley, pre-med at Chicago is a vacation.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:+2. Everything I’ve read recently suggests that UChicago is no longer cut throat pressure cooker?

Chicago has changed a lot in recent years, so it's not the pressure cooker it was, and a lot of alumni are upset about it. It was part of the charm - where fun goes to die and somehow you survive.

I think these days Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, and Berkeley are the worst - mostly because they are all very good at STEM but absolutely garbage at managing human beings, particularly 18-22 year olds. Very stressful schools for those students in already difficult majors.

So, is Chicago premed more enjoyable these days?