I’m ranking colleges for the Questbridge National College Match program and I’m researching a lot of private liberal arts schools because I’m very interested in the academic opportunities offered. I want a challenging and rigorous education with access to relationships with highly qualified faculty, internships, undergraduate research, study abroad, competitions, clubs etc. I want to be very involved in the community.
I am NOT here for high stress culture though. I don’t want to get stuck at a college where the students are more interested in competing than collaborating.
What are some good ways to determine if the student culture is more competitive or more collaborative?
Ime, colleges that offer a challenging and rigorous education tend to attract a lot of highly motivated students.
Some of those highly motivated students thrive on competition: they do their best work when they are around other competitive students.
Some of those highly motivated students are essentially competitive with themselves- they continuously push themselves to do better.
Most colleges that are considered challenging and rigorous have some of both groups.
As for stress, as CollegeDad says ‘it’s only stressful if you aren’t having fun!’ Collegekid2 went to an LAC that is generally considered to be academically intense, found that she had to work harder than she ever had before, but loved the experience.
Most LACs are not known for competitive cultures- it tends to be larger universities, esp those that are heavily pre-professional, that have reputations as having a more competitive ethos… If you want opinions on specific colleges, c’mon back!
Best way is to talk to current students, after that read student reviews on Niche, Fiske and Princeton Review Guides, and the book Hidden Ivies.
I agree that there will be a range of students at all the QB LACs. IMO Swat and Williams (among QB partners) have the most intense academic cultures that can feel ‘grindy’, with a not insignificant proportion of students who go beyond being competitive with themselves.
You will likely not find many uber-competitive Classics or Renaissance Studies majors. You may find-- even at a pretty chill college- some grinder/competitive types in econ or bio.
What do you think you want to study? That will help. Had a relative at Middlebury- a pretty relaxed, collaborative place- but chem and bio were the exceptions (a lot of med school wannabees).
Speak with current and former community members from as many perspectives as possible. Students, professors, alum, the administration. Listen carefully to the focus of the comments. Are the responders talking about the process or results? I would suggest that a community focused on the outcomes is more competitive than one focused on experiences.
On a single day 4 years ago we visited 2 schools with similar stats. One spent most of the information session discussing graduate placement, the other talked about their curriculum and why… The differences were obvious in nearly every aspect, from the tour, to the brochure, to the admissions waiting room. They’re telling you who they are, you just need to listen.
Questbridge has 42 partner schools of which 21 are LACs and 21 are National Universities.
Questbridge LACs:
Amherst College
Bowdoin College
Carleton College
Claremont McKenna College
Colby College
Colgate University
Colorado College
Davidson College
Grinnell College
Hamilton College
Haverford College
Macalester College
Oberlin College
Pomona College
Scripps College
Swarthmore College
Vassar College
Washington & Lee University
Wellesley College
Wesleyan University
Williams College
Questbridge National Universities:
Boston College
Brown University
CalTech
Columbia University
Dartmouth College
Duke University
Emory University
MIT
Northwestern University
Princeton University
Rice University
Stanford University
Tufts University
University of Chicago
Notre Dame
University of Pennsylvania
USC
University of Virginia
Vanderbilt University
Washington University in St. Louis
Yale University
Although the article cited in the post above is a bit dated–2010–it still offers an interesting insight into the campus culture of 25 colleges & universities. See chart at bottom of page of cited article.
@Briarrose11: These impressions from a new Hamilton faculty member generally coincide with the preferred environment you describe in your original post:
Wow, I’ve met this person through academic circles, and my daughter is a freshman at Kenyon (which indeed strikes her as very collaborative). Small world.
@doschicos, if you read more carefully you will realize that @merc81 wrote “atmospherically softened,” not “academically softened.” There is a significant difference between the two.