The other thing I wanted to add about what constitutes a nurturing environment is how competitive students are. I’m not sure I’d care for cut-throat competitiveness as it doesn’t necessarily lead to real learning and growth. Stress and competitiveness is good, but chronic stress and constantly have to look over your shoulder isn’t a pleasant situation to be in. That’s why – perhaps mistakenly – even though some of the better known colleges could be within reach for some of these students, none of the students applied to them (I’m referring to the Ivies, UCB, Stanford, etc.).