<p>It just gets tiresome after a while because most people are not that intellectual, they just think they are. </p>
<p>D1 probably could have some intellectual discussion (show off) with average person about mathematical theories or world events, but she wouldn’t want to do that because there are many other interesting topics outside of “intellectual discussion.” For her what’s fascinating is to meet a frat boy, but only find out he is an 4.0 engineering student going to Stanford grad school, and into green energy. People who meet D1 would assume she is a dizzy burnett, but only to find out she has some very strong opinion about gender issues, world economy, and training of a ballet dancer.</p>
<p>I think that’s why we talk about fit on CC. What one may think is a dream school could be someone else’s nightmare.</p>
<p>My experience at Harvard is too old, but at least when I was there, I’d have said it was not that intellectual most of the time. My high school experience and my one summer of nerd camp equivalent were much more what I imagine the OP is looking for. Harvard students are too busy involved in their ECs to have much time for verbal gymnastics most of the time, though I did have a handful of conversations that could be characterized as intellectual. (It’s always been my impression that Yale was the most intellectual of the Ivies.)</p>
<p>I imagine that St. John’s might be more intellectual in a summer campy sort of way, though my nephew and his girlfriend, the only two people I actually know who attend, don’t show off when they are home. He was a smart slacker and snowboarder in high school.</p>
<p>Did they arrive at consensus on this? Could it possibly be that in icnonography Christ is often referred to as Christ Pantocrator?</p>
<p>Note: No blasphemy intended here, I’m, actually very religious. But sometimes things pop into my mind that strike me as funny when maybe they shouldn’t.</p>
<p>Since I haven’t visited or become intimately familiar with most LACs and big-name universities that are going to get thrown around in this thread, I’m just going to toss some things out there based on actual people I’ve met oozing braininess and “deep conversations” and where they attended. And that list is:</p>
<p>-Reed
-Barnard
-St. John’s
-UCLA
-Cornell
-University of Minnesota- Morris (Parents wanted her to go to a state school for undergrad so they’d have enough money to send her to grad school; she triple-majored and I’d say made the most out of it… and is still as competitive as her friends who went to Yale and Berkeley. Sometimes being a big fish in a small pond affords you a lot of opportunities you wouldn’t get otherwise.)
-Skidmore
-UBC
-Lewis and Clark
-Mayo Medical School</p>
<p>So basically my point is that highly intellectual people attend a range of different colleges… and your son could probably find an intellectual niche wherever he ends up. Some colleges have an intellectual “atmosphere” but it may be hard to know where that ends and the adcom’s hyping of it begins.
And sometimes “intellectualism” just turns into a game of mental masturbation, which I find obnoxious.</p>
<p>Wait until he finishes the program and then ask him. It is exciting at first but can get tiresome to be around people who take themselves and their ‘intellectuallism’ too seriously. My daughter is super-excited right now to be going to Yale and doing Directed Studies (the magnet for intellectuals at Yale) but I am willing to bet that by December she will crave the company of some shallow, simple minded and silly people. I’ll be ready to provde that when she gets home for Christmas ;)</p>
<p>Yes, that’s what I meant. My dad was a big fan of that type of art-work, and we had several little iconostases throughout our house when I was growing up. We had a good time giving my often very serious father the business, making up our own pronunciations of things like “Theotokis.” I won’t go into it here, but we used to replace the “Tokis” part with a near homonym (if there is such a thing).</p>
<p>It is exciting at first but can get tiresome to be around people who take themselves and their ‘intellectuallism’ too seriously.</p>
<p>Some of that is just the excitement of youth, but I know what you mean- save me from people who are proud that they haven’t read a book that has been written since 1950 & only listen to what they call " classical" music.</p>
<p>That would be like only eating one kind of ice cream!</p>
<p>I also wanted to address " liberals @ Reed".
While I certainly agree that there are those who feel Reed is too " liberal"- I would ask them as to what that means.
IMO, intellectuals welcome discussion on most any topic( when appropriate) and are eager to argue their stance- even taking the " other side" if needed.</p>
<p>If they are not ready to be challenged on their beliefs, I can see why someone wouldn’t want to attend a school where many of the students seem to be very verbal and will point out bad logic. But conservatives aren’t unwelcome.</p>
<p>D attended Reed & some of her friends have attended other " high brow" schools like Chicago & Carleton- but those same schools are also very big on " playtime" - the UChicago scavenger hunt is well known as is Renn Fayre and the motorized couch.</p>
<p>“My reason for starting the thread is that my son is involved in a summer enrichment program with a brighter cohort of students than he has ever worked with before. I had a long talk with him last night, and he is really enjoying the non-stop intellectual stimulation. So it got me thinking about what schools were most likely to offer that experience”</p>
<p>was it CTY? DD asked around among CTYers for the best college with a CTY like atmosphere, and I think the closest to a consensus they came to was Swarthmore. To which she applied, but did not get in.</p>
<p>]quote]It is exciting at first but can get tiresome to be around people who take themselves and their ‘intellectuallism’ too seriously. My daughter is super-excited right now to be going to Yale and doing Directed Studies (the magnet for intellectuals at Yale) but I am willing to bet that by December she will crave the company of some shallow, simple minded and silly people. I’ll be ready to provde that when she gets home for Christmas
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Over the years I have noticed that some of the most interesting (and obviously brilliant) students on CC ended up in the DS program at Yale. Using the google feature to search “this site” yields dozen of those past posts. Here’s one of those memorable ones: </p>
<p>At several of the schools we have visited with DS, the tour guide (typically a rising junior), upon entering the campus library, said something to the effect: “You can come in here to get computer printouts. I’ve never been up there (waving hands in general direction of book stacks) but you can find anything you need here.” Since DS is an avid reader, and an Asimov fan, we now make it a point to check out the Asimov collection at every library. Maybe those schools were not so “intellectual”, eh? :)</p>
<p>We have a winner (on the first response, no less)!</p>
<p>The “most intellectual” college would have to be the one where every single student is learning for learning’s sake, and you can’t beat St. John’s College for that.</p>
<p>If you think DS is intellectual (and I did when I was at Yale and DS), it is nothing in terms of intellectual candle power needed for Harvard’s Math 55. It isn’t the amount of work (insane) but the level of abstract thought required. My S has to essentially create his own math textbook of all of undergraduate/early graduate level math from axioms during freshman year. The work I did in DS is child’s play in comparison.
I was offered a tutor’s post at St John’s and while I admire their use of the Great Books the College views them as icons–in amber–rather than living texts that need to be placed in context. I was horrified (and knew I wanted no part of the College) when I saw the meager nature of the College’s library and when I asked about it, I was told that as the each student had a set of Great Books he or she really didn’t need anything else. I had to suppress laughing in the woman’s face. And I am very very far way from being a post modernist but the anti-intellectualism was bizarre. (BTW, when I was told that I would probably teach French–a language I do not read, and told them so–I was told not to worry, just be 3 lessons ahead of the class and I would be fine…egad!)</p>
<p>Math 55 seems like an awesome class. So does DS. Other than they are both classes for Freshmen, I don’t see how they are similar to each other at all.</p>
<p>Tell me, is Delta Airlines better than FedEx? I mean they both fly a lot of airplanes. One must be better than the other.</p>
<p>D compared the Directed Studies program at Yale with the (similar, by internal application) Humanities Seminars at Princeton – since she had offers at both schools – and assessed P’s program as more intellectual.</p>
<p>My point being that I agree with xiggi. This exercise is all subjective, and therefore meaningless. Personally, I found the intellectuals at P more quiet about their intellectualism than students (and some of their parents) who parade around CC claiming how more-intellectual-they-are than random admittees to lists of illustrious colleges (how only true intellectuals can be found at non-Ivies, blah blah). But again, this is purely subjective. My perception, and my D’s perception, are no more or less valid than anyone else’s, about their various college comparisons.</p>