<p>I saw a post somewhere (I don’t think it was on CC) about someone with regrets about their school choice and some responders stated that the student should have realized they were headed to a cutthroat type school and should have sought out a more nurturing environment. I honestly don’t recall what school they were attending, but it wasn’t one I felt was an obvious high pressure school. I hope for my kiddo to find a school that is more nurturing (yet still challenging).<br>
Our primary interest would be in the Southeast or East, but I’d be interested in how you’d classify schools (nurturing vs cutthroat) and why.</p>
<p>I’d love to hear about these, and other, schools:
FSU, Emory, Davidson, Furman, Wellesley, Smith, Rollins, Eckerd, FAU Honors, Wake Forest, Vanderbilt, UNC Chapel Hill, Duke, Univ of Miami</p>
<p>Perhaps it has a lot to do with majors or courses at the school?</p>
<p>For example, if the biology and chemistry courses are graded on a curve and filled with pre-meds, that might be different from an environment where that is not the case. Similarly, if there is a popular major with competitive admission for students already in the school, that major’s prerequisite courses may have a more competitive atmosphere.</p>
<p>Depends on your definition of “cut throat.” My view of a “cut throat” school is one that is very academically intense, where the students are very competitive among each other. For example, students see each other as competition and there’s some obvious tension because of that. I went to an extremely cut throat high school, where some kids would even refuse to share what they were doing during the summer because they were afraid people would “copy” them. </p>
<p>Going by my definition of cut throat, I’d say Vandy isn’t academically cut throat at all. People are always down to help each other out in classes, and there isn’t much competitiveness among students. Duke, UNC, and Wake also seem to have social and chill student bodies – which means not very cut throat. Schools that I’d think to be very cut throat are the Ivies (minus Penn and Dartmouth because they’re the more social/Greek Ivies), UChicago, and MIT.</p>
<p>I agree with imsobored about Vandy and Wake - I have a child at each one of those schools and would NOT describe them as “cut throat”. Both schools are academically challenging, with Vandy being more so given the increased competitiveness of admissions the past few years. Wake kids all seem very bright, very social and quite willing to help each other out.</p>
<p>I think it depends a lot on what you plan to major in. Some majors are more competitive than others. </p>
<p>From what I hear Wake is pretty chill.
Univ of Miami use to be very laid back but has become much more competitive in recent years, since it’s verging on being a top 40 school.
Vandy is quite competitive in general.
Emory is a mixture there’s not on overwhelming consensus.
Duke is pretty competitive but not notoriously so.
UNC somewhat competitive.</p>
<p>Some of the most competitive top schools:
WUSTL (premed is brutal), Cornell, Uchicago, Princeton
Some of the more nurturing, inclusive top schools:
Northwestern (very collaborative), Yale, Rice</p>
<p>Thank you. I see the point about the major making a difference. My D is most interested in the sciences right now…leaning toward neuroscience, but not medicine.<br>
AltoSaxPlayer, why would you think FSU would be cutthroat?</p>
<p>I second Cornell, MIT, and Duke as competitive, especially since I’ve heard about the suicide rates at Cornell. I’d say MIT and Duke is cutthroat not in the sense that people will sabotage your work, but more in the sense that the workload will be intense and with all the overachieving students it can get very competitive. I agree that Rice is supposedly very nurturing.</p>