<p>Well, I do know that they have loud, fun, and lively strobe-light parties and gigs at Yale…</p>
<p>poisonivy, maybe CalTech (they rarely party but when they do, they go all out)</p>
<p>You can find a hardcore study scene at almost every somewhat selective school. However, most students do other things besides simply hitting the books.</p>
<p>I imagine there is less partying at guy-heavy, chick-light engineering colleges, especially ones in the middle of nowhere. Rose Hulman and the like.</p>
<p>UChicago has been known for having relatively few parties</p>
<p>Maybe some people love reading, learning, studying and don’t give a damn about peer pressures going round about having to have lots of friends, socializing, party, drink, whatever, and enjoy spending time with themselves or simply don’t like to get too attached to other people. Like Robert DeNiro’s character in Heat said, “I’m alone, not lonely.” And if that makes them happy, who are you to say otherwise?</p>
<p>As to OP’s question, every top college has an ample number of people doing lots of things other than schoolwork… and an ample number of people doing otherwise.</p>
<p>@piranna if you’re not a little narcissistic, you’re doing something wrong :P</p>
<p>“For the most part people are not curious except about themselves.” -John Steinbeck</p>
<p>Top colleges are filled with intelligent motivated people who generally want to be there.
Lesser universities are filled with people who half assed their way through life and who are worried their parents will cut them off or that their fortunes will dissipate. Aim as high as you can. After the top 25ish or so in the US ranking matters less.</p>
<p>@xelink what are you talking about? </p>
<h1>1 Ivies (and other top schools) are more likely to have wealthy students than most other schools</h1>
<h1>2 Just because a school is ranked under 25 on the very arbitrary and biased US News list, doesn’t mean its a worse school. You should know that, seeing as you go to UC Irvine</h1>
<h1>3 Many times, highly motivated students choose “lesser” schools over “top colleges” for a variety of reasons including but not limited to: money, special programs, geography, personal issues, religion, relationships, etc.</h1>
<p>I was very close to going to my state flagship, a “lesser” school according to you, because of money problems. I was lucky enough to receive generous financial aid to my top choice. Others aren’t so lucky. It doesn’t mean I’m any more motivated or they’re any less motivated. Comments like that make you look very ignorant.</p>
<p>What the heck? You sound kind of bitter…</p>
<p>I’m going to an Ivy next year, and while I know there will be plenty of snobby legacies, I don’t generalize like that. It sounds like you’re fighting judgmental attitude of these “Narcissists” with your own judgmental attitude.</p>
<p>To end speculation about MIT parties: I go to MIT. We party. You can party hard, or not party at all, depending upon what you’re into.</p>
<p>However, it IS hard work. Unless you are some kind of genius, expect to spend many, many hours studying, and studying hard. </p>
<p>tl;dr: work hard, play hard</p>
<p>@pirrana yeah i think to some extent you are right a lot of people feel like their background entitles them to the best schools and no-one else deserves their money/education/power even though they only have it because of their parents, unfortunately although i may die in misery, i think its still a better option than going to some second rate uni getting a rubbish degree and possibly ending up being more of a narcissist because i have been surrounded by people who are much less intelligent for four years…</p>
<p>I’m a rising sophomore at UPenn (Wharton), and we definitely party hard. But we also realize that at the end of the day, we want to have a high paying job and a successful future. </p>
<p>So, to reiterate nocturnalduck’s statement: </p>
<p>tl;dr: work hard, play hard</p>
<p>PS. How does your post relate to this thread (#38), pirrana?</p>
<p>@kparcell the problem is no-one lese thinks like you do, if you try and get a job after college, in this kind of economic environment, if you havent been to one of the best schools its going to be wayyy more of a struggle to get where you want to be in life…</p>
<p>Any college is great!</p>
<p>Usually, a college experience is what the student makes of it. Like most colleges, those part of the Ivy League are not short of fun. After enrolling, it is up to the matriculated student to find others with similar interests on campus.</p>
<p>I read somewhere that people at Harvard smoke a lot of weed to get rid of all that stress they have to endure so from the looks of it they do party lol</p>
<p>I went to Caltech. None of my friends partied, but I had dorky friends.</p>
<p>If you got involved in the house culture there were a lot of social events, like house trips (retreat, ski trip, dunes trip), girls’/guys’ night, and gatherings in the hot tub. So I guess that was kind of like partying.</p>
<p>Most people here are addressing partying and how much fun can be found, and I can agree that people party as hard in selective colleges…there really isn’t the “geek” stereotype you spoke of (not more than at most places), people just work harder and make up for it in their down time.</p>
<p>There are other factors to consider though. You WILL be expected to work hard or you’ll fall behind, and everyone is incredibly driven (competition for research positions, internships, etc., is tough). Some thrive on that…me, I kind of regret my choice of college now.</p>
<p>I don’t agree with the “Once you get into Harvard the work is easy” rumor. It really depends on your class selection. Yea, if you take the basic classes it might be easy (but not easy to get an A LOL) but since a lot of us are overachievers, we end up taking upper division classes and get screwed over by the workload. And just like at any other school, we have weeder classes too where the classes are designed to mess up GPAs for the pre-meds. Examples: MCB52, Chem 17/20</p>
<p>Regardless of how selective a college might be, there will always be a range of individuals attending. Everyone doesn’t have the same social interests, hobbies or extra-curriculars. Some will have to spend more time studying then others. You h.s. may have been more/less challenging then others, so you likely won’t find everyone to be the same academically. Some may also not adjust well since college is usually the first time most have lived away from home and the watchful eyes of their parents. Some adapt well to being in college while others do not. You get to determine how to set priorities and what to do in your free time. I think those things are true of any college and not just selective ones.</p>