<p>@Fatum: NO!!! I’ve found people to be very collaborative, especially on projects or assignments. You will often find people working together in the library on problem sets, or asking for friend or classmate input on papers. Just this week (finals week for us) I was working on an intense (about 20 pages) paper for a medical ethics class, and wound up pairing up with one of my classmates to trade papers and look over for edits or comments before turning it in. Living in the house system has advantages in this way as well, as you’ll often be able to ask upperclassmen for help or bounce ideas off of them.
School is hard, and a lot of people have internal pressures to do well and succeed, but this is not the kind of environment where people try and get ahead at the expense of others.</p>