Anonymous wrote:From my freshman's HS friends (in this order) - some are T25/30 but all private:

Vanderbilt
Notre Dame
USC
Northwestern
UChicago (surprising to me)
MIT
Georgetown
Cornell (another surprise)
Dartmouth
Penn
Duke (it's fallen a bit - used to be much more "fun")

Anonymous wrote:Define fun. Dor a type B student, Emory, WashU, Rice are fun.

Anonymous wrote:I know freshman boys struggling a little with the frat stuff at Duke, UChicago, Vandy and Georgetown. either going through the process and just being bogged down by pledge bullshit and academics suffering. or deciding to skip it and feeling out of the loop.

I know freshman at Yale and ND who are super happy.

also happy kids at Williams, Dartmouth, and Bowdoin. I think those are real "fit" schools, you have to know who you are before signing up of those. ND too.

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Anonymous wrote:And expanding the list to T30 because my California kid had the time of his life at UVA. Now living his best NYC life with a great social circle.

I'd assume the point of the private in the title was for size of school.

Fair point. I think the student’s frame of reference matters. UVA is much smaller than Cal/UCLA, and felt more accessible I terms of resources and social opportunites.

If we are rolling g strictly private here, why is Brown not getting more airtime? It’s where son’s bf went and that kid loved the social life. But he was a recruited athlete.

Interesting. I’ve heard somewhat negative things about Brown’s social climate in the last two years. It’s become nerdier and quirky (in a non-social way).

Also, 40% identify as LBTQ+ which gives the social climate an entirely different vibe.

How so? I have a straight male junior there, I’d like to hear your thoughts.

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Anonymous wrote:And expanding the list to T30 because my California kid had the time of his life at UVA. Now living his best NYC life with a great social circle.

I'd assume the point of the private in the title was for size of school.

Fair point. I think the student’s frame of reference matters. UVA is much smaller than Cal/UCLA, and felt more accessible I terms of resources and social opportunites.

If we are rolling g strictly private here, why is Brown not getting more airtime? It’s where son’s bf went and that kid loved the social life. But he was a recruited athlete.

Interesting. I’ve heard somewhat negative things about Brown’s social climate in the last two years. It’s become nerdier and quirky (in a non-social way).

I think all of the top schools have become nerdier. To get in, you have to be laser focused and pretty serious. Add to that the large number of Asian kids at these schools, and there are smaller and smaller numbers of kids who really party.

This is the answer. Admissions officers are picking the kids with perfect stats, passion projects, research, measurable community impact, etc.They are the intense, brilliant, and nerdy kids. Do you expect them to go to college and start partying 3 nights a week and going to basketball games? Please.

Some schools are looking for the kids who are social and outgoing....captains of teams and presidents of student govt.....Vanderbilt comes to mind. Same with UMichigan......and now Northwestern/Notre Dame.

I think this is true, as a Vandy parent. My own kid is high stats, authentically pointy, AND an extroverted partier. Most of his social circles are somewhat similar. That said, when I am on campus I cannot help but notice a large contingent of females who strike me as much more studious. They’ll be walking down Greek row at 8 on a Friday in groups of 2-3 coming from class/library/dining wearing giant backpacks

Vandy parent also - above is true but also large contingent of douchey mean girls from Ca and Miami enclaves - bit of a protection racket as they control the two mean girl sororities. By senior year they are old news and used up from several years of manipulative nastiness. But freshman year this cadre seems disproportionately large in the social circles. Starting soph year and on the nice girls start really finding their peeps and having fun

KKG and Theta right?

Yes. Several celebrity kids are in KKG if that tells you anything…

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Anonymous wrote:And expanding the list to T30 because my California kid had the time of his life at UVA. Now living his best NYC life with a great social circle.

I'd assume the point of the private in the title was for size of school.

Fair point. I think the student’s frame of reference matters. UVA is much smaller than Cal/UCLA, and felt more accessible I terms of resources and social opportunites.

If we are rolling g strictly private here, why is Brown not getting more airtime? It’s where son’s bf went and that kid loved the social life. But he was a recruited athlete.

Interesting. I’ve heard somewhat negative things about Brown’s social climate in the last two years. It’s become nerdier and quirky (in a non-social way).

I think all of the top schools have become nerdier. To get in, you have to be laser focused and pretty serious. Add to that the large number of Asian kids at these schools, and there are smaller and smaller numbers of kids who really party.

This is the answer. Admissions officers are picking the kids with perfect stats, passion projects, research, measurable community impact, etc.They are the intense, brilliant, and nerdy kids. Do you expect them to go to college and start partying 3 nights a week and going to basketball games? Please.

Some schools are looking for the kids who are social and outgoing....captains of teams and presidents of student govt.....Vanderbilt comes to mind. Same with UMichigan......and now Northwestern/Notre Dame.

I think this is true, as a Vandy parent. My own kid is high stats, authentically pointy, AND an extroverted partier. Most of his social circles are somewhat similar. That said, when I am on campus I cannot help but notice a large contingent of females who strike me as much more studious. They’ll be walking down Greek row at 8 on a Friday in groups of 2-3 coming from class/library/dining wearing giant backpacks

Vandy parent also - above is true but also large contingent of douchey mean girls from Ca and Miami enclaves - bit of a protection racket as they control the two mean girl sororities. By senior year they are old news and used up from several years of manipulative nastiness. But freshman year this cadre seems disproportionately large in the social circles. Starting soph year and on the nice girls start really finding their peeps and having fun

KKG and Theta right?

Anonymous wrote:I have two kids at private universities on the top 20 list. Anecdotally, the schools that are still considered fun are Vanderbilt, Chicago, Notre Dame, and Brown. Also Rice, though not in a Greek partying way. More like nerd fun. Also hear that students are having a good time at McGill, Michigan, and UCLA. I think fun at Columbia and USC is very much correlated to money, so not fun for everyone.