Looking for a small private LACs in the northeast for child. Currently doing some college tours. Are there any LACs in this area that are not as stressful /rigorous in terms of workload, grading etc. looking outside top 20 but somewhere that people have heard of. Was thinking of touring Franklin and Marshall as part of our tour but keep hearing that it is crazy stressful and hard there? Is that true? Not looking at engineering or hard sciences. Thanks
Please clarify. Are you looking for an easier college?
Maybe look at Stonehill, Marist, Wheaton.
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Any school can have rigor and some top schools may not have rigor. A lot is professor, class or major based. My kid goes to a mid size unranked regional and has rigor galore. So not sure you can 100% make this correlation.
I personally don’t think F&M has name recognition. A customer of mine whose son went and struggled after said I paid almost $300k and no one knows it.
That said, last year I was in Spain, chatted up a recent grad who went to Macalester and I said, oh in Minnesota and she was floored I had heard of it.
But there’s people that don’t know Rice or Wash U too. And Amherst and Williams for that fact.
Find the right school for him. F&M is a great school he you might talk to a student ambassador or read Rate My Professors to see. Nearby Millersville is a lower ranked public that’s small. Is it less rigorous ? No clue but you might do similar with research. I know no educator is going to say, yes we let our kids coast.
Are lower ranked schools like Juniata, Susquehanna, or Muhlenberg less rigorous ? Or a school like Washington College in Maryland?
Could High Point be a fit ?
Different profs teach different ways. And people interpret workloads differently.
Best of luck in your search. But talking to student ambassadors may help.
@poelma15 the key here is…you know about Franklin and Marshall (which is a great college, by the way). If you are in that neck of the woods, visit. Your student can also do some searching on their website for more information.
Can you give us more information about what your student is looking for in a college? Size, urban/suburban/rural, geographic location, possible majors, other interests they want to continue in college, religious/secular, public/private.
Tell us more and I’ll bet we can get you some ideas!
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St. Lawrence?
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Rigor can vary substantially based on course selection, which is influenced by desired majors.
Something that may be more college (rather than major or course selection) based is the volume and nature of general education requirements. If the college has general education requirements in subjects that the student finds difficult, then that can be more rigor than desired.
A college with a completely open curriculum like Evergreen State allows the student to choose whatever rigor level is desired.
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Rigor will depend on course selection, demands of each professor, and the individual student’s abilities and attitudes.
One thing you can look at is the academic courseload. Some colleges require 5 three credit courses per semester while others require 4 four credit courses per semester.
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Have you considered Hampshire?
What is your definition of “less rigor” and how would that look for your student?
I think maybe you are not looking for “less rigorous”, but possibly a good work/life balance with happy, cooperative (rather than competitive) students.
If you go into college with the mindset of looking to avoid rigor, chances are you will really struggle the first time you come up against a course that challenges you. Those courses are often growth opportunities and will be the ones you get the most out of in the long run.
There are some interesting options like One Course at a Time (Colorado College and Cornell College), open curriculums or trimesters vs. semesters that might mesh with the student’s learning style and may be worth exploring. Would they like smaller, more experiential classes? Schools that allow for a NR (No record) or repeat and repair?
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Some kids might start off slowly too - 12 credits instead of 15 as an example. So four instead of 5 classes. In theory one could do that full time but would take you another year (without a bunch of APs to shave time off).
Btw in the first post you said no hard science or engineering. Majors considered less rigorous - sociology as an example, will have a ton of reading and writing. For some that’s more rigorous. My kid is in Poli Sci and Intl Studies and is in the library til 12,1a nightly. So that’s very kid dependent as to the stress, etc
So it really will be dependent on student skill sets, interests, in addition to the professors.
Here’s a list, 3rd party of course, of colleges with great professors. One poster regularly touts Washington College in Delaware, which I noted before, and they are on here.
Maybe a prof who connects with the student will make that class that much easier because they’ll be enthralled. That could be anywhere, of course, but here’s some fine names to look at.
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F&M is known for its pre-med programs, and thst could definitely impact the reputation for stress. My personal opinion, not based on my own kid but on several who have attended, is that it’s a pretty balanced experience.
Some others you might want to look at include Elon, Guilford, Allegheny, Gettysburg, McDaniel, St. Lawrence, St Michaels, Earlham, Whittier, and Lewis and Clark. Stress comes from different sources, and several of these have super teaching and faculty who are really invested in helping their students.
Union does only 3 classes each trimester, and many students find that less stressful.
There are places where students pride themselves on their workloads – these are not among them. That doesn’t mean students can’t get an excellent education.
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However, a student who is not pre-med and is not in a major or courses with lots of pre-meds may not find pre-med competitiveness to be anything more than hearsay from other students who are.
Fewer larger (by credit value and workload) courses per term may be helpful for a student who has difficulty multitasking. However, even where the typical schedule is five 3-credit courses per term, that is still fewer courses per term than in many high schools.
That was exactly my point. Sorry if that wasn’t clear.
Contributors may want to note that the OP has requested suggestions for LACs located in the Northeast.
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Thanks for the suggestions. Yes to clarify not talking about rigor as easy content versus hard, and understand every type of major has its own pluses and minuses.and there can always be a professor or required course that’s difficult. And know that all types of schools can have rigor. Was looking for schools with good work life balance that are not pressure cookers. Not a school where students talk about having crazy high workloads or how hard it is to get a higher grade or how competitive other students are. Just looking for a small school with an enclosed campus in the Northeast where professors are truly engaged with their students who can make learning interesting and hands on depending on the content. Also looking for schools where students have a lot of choices with their general education or core requirements where students can choose what really interests them within certain categories.
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It’s probably easier to suggest schools to stay away from than to try to name every LAC with a good balance between work and life. Basically, any college where the kids are finding subjects that pique their intellectual interests lessens the probability that work will feel like drudgery.
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Not quite Northeast but look at Kalamazoo and its K curriculum, which they note has minimal general Ed requirements.
I’m sure you can review many of the names above and look at their curriculums as well. But likely won’t be open.
K has large PhD placement so I’m guessing dedicated professors.
Good luck
So this is basically part of the pitch at Vassar.
As a bit of an aside, my S24 did not actually react all that great to that pitch as an admitted student. I don’t blame Vassar, but I think he sort of picked up on a contrast between a general vibe in higher education in the Northeast versus the Midwest. Vassar was more or less suggesting they were an exception to that vibe as part of why students should pick them, but I think his reaction was still you should not need to see yourself as an exception!
In contrast, Carleton, which he also visited as an admitted student, resonated more with him because while it is known as being an academically excellent school, it also has a friendly and cooperative vibe with lots of friendly faculty engagement, and this was sort of taken as just a given. Which I do think is related to the fact it is in Minnesota and Minnesota Nice is a real thing.
For the record, he ultimately chose WUSTL and not an LAC at all, but I do think it was a culture match for him in a similar way. He didn’t even end up applying to, say, Dartmouth, which he originally thought he would like but ended up having a kinda similar negative reaction to the perceived vibe.
I am raising all this because I do wonder if you are kinda running into a bit of a three-way conflict between your regional preference for the Northeast, an LAC with relative fame, and the vibe you are looking for. But if you do not want to relax either of the first two preferences, then Vassar again seems to be pitching itself as doing relatively well on the third.
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We toured F&M a few years ago. My D
Iiked it but it didn’t rise to the top of her list (maybe top 4 though?) She didn’t end up there so I can’t attest to the difficulty, but now that she’s a college senior at another solid school I’m sure she could have handled it with flying colors. (I did wonder at the time, as she was a strong student in her high school but it wasn’t a very competitive high school and I didn’t know what she’d encounter once she went to college). Only you know your child’s academic strengths and challenges, but if you give us some idea, maybe we can make more specific suggestions.
One thing I did note was that students at F&M take four classes at a time instead of five. I assume that means each course is more intensive, which doesn’t affect rigor itself. But different individuals handle different kinds of situations well…differently. Some students may find it easier to bear down hard and focus on four big things rather than juggling five or six.
It seems the college does try to help students feel comfortable. The freshman dorms have big light-filled common room additions on them, each with a seminar room. Before freshman fall, students get to make freshman seminar choices, and dorm selection follows the seminar that the student is enrolled in so fellow classmates will be in the same dorm. Not only that, the seminar is the first class of the day. Professors go to the dorm for the seminar and students simply have to roll out of bed and come downstairs! If I’m not mistaken coffee, juice and maybe some kind of basic continental breakfast food (maybe just bagels or muffins) was available right there. The intent was for students in the dorms to find it easy to engage with one another immediately as freshmen, and get a sense of home being at college. (Anyone, feel free to correct me if I’m wrong or if things have changed. It was about five years ago that we were there!) I also remember pretty impressive food choices in the attractive cafeteria . I know that’s getting WAY off-topic but it does seem that the college tries to find ways to make students feel comfortable and welcomed.
Another good LAC with a general friendly vibe in the region to consider is Dickinson College. Susquehanna is another that is know to be supportive and a have good academics without being at all cutthroat. @MaineLonghorn could tell you all about Susquehanna, if interested.
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My D had a wonderful experience at Lafayette. She created many strong friendships she maintains today, she felt excited and challenged by coursework but also had time to pursue a number of ECs and to develop strong relationships with a number of professors (including invovement in research projects and ECs with some of them). Their general ed requirements seemed fairly flexible from what I remember. I felt the Laf found the “secret sauce” in striking a great balance for students.
I’m also sure there are many wonderful LACs where students could have a similar experience.
Feel free to PM me if you want more information on Laf (from a parent’s perspective).
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