<p>I read this quote by Jamimom in another thread: “My brother is the biggest, smartest slacker I have ever met. They will apply to HPY before they apply to Cornell, Penn, JHU and avoid U of Chicago and any school with “tech” in the name like the plague. You can slack at certain very selective schools and still get by if you are smart and already well educated but there are some places that even then you have to hustle. Those schools with a touch of slacker (not a big dose) are the among the most highly desired in the country, as they are considered high in the quality of life area and best in overall college experience.”</p>
<p>My D seems somewhat to fall into this category. She has great stats with a minimum of work, tons of ECs and an active social life. She’s looking for the “full college experience”, no career goals yet. She immediately eliminated JHU, Chicago & Swarthmore because it said “students study all the time” in the college guidebook. I was surprised Jamimom put Penn in this category, because I thought it was “The Social Ivy”. I also thought Princeton attracted super intense students rather than slackers. So what prestigious schools have the “touch of slacker” and overall college experience Jamimom was speaking of?</p>
<p>Since Princeton’s new anti-grade inflation policy, it definitely does not belong in the prestigious slacker school category, if it ever did. Not only are A-range grades being limited, but when students study hard enough that more than 35 percent of them do very well, professors are announcing that exams will be curved down in order to maintain the quota. This is really my only complaint with Princeton.</p>
<p>Princeton has always required two junior papers (on top of a full junior courseload) and a senior thesis, which students find quite arduous. So accomplished slackers ought to look elsewhere.</p>
<p>In all honesty, I think every school, even places like Chicago, can be slacker schools to some extent. If you are brilliant, you can skim the material once, learn it, and then go out and have fun. It also depends on which classes you are taking. Most schools have some classes that are notoriously easy. Take only those and you can slack at will.</p>
<p>This seems to be a strange way of selecting a college. You will only get out of your education what you put in. To me, there is a big difference between slacking, and balancing. For example, at Rice, where I am, kids surely do stuff other than study, but very few could be classified as slackers. I think this is true at numerous top schools.</p>
<p>**I was surprised Jamimom put Penn in this category, because I thought it was “The Social Ivy”. **</p>
<p>That’s exactly why Penn fits the category. Jamimom was saying that certain top schools offer a better quality of life - a more well rounded experience. Very smary kids who have active social lives and really enjoy their ECs might find a better fit at a school where the academics are slightly less intense. Keep in mind that less intense doesn’t equate to slacker. There is an entire population of kids who are very smart (Ivy League, top LAC Smart) but have a strong desire to broaden their search criteria in looking for colleges that will also support their social experiences and ECs. For these kids, the selection process is even more complicted. They have to look beyond SAT medians. </p>
<p>Don’t worry that some will call these schools “slacker” schools. That’s just a loose term used because there really isn’t another good term to use - though Penn’s rep as “The Social Ivy” sums it up well. And, because some of the academic elite can’t fathom that smart kids might like to party and socialize. </p>
<p>Your D is lucky to have so much going for her. Best of luck in finding a school that supports her range of talent. </p>
<p>From what I’ve heard, the schools with good social appeal are:</p>
<p>Stanford
Penn
Brown
Duke
Emory
Davidson</p>
<p>I’m sure there are more. These are those that I am familir with.</p>
<p>I think my son chose Columbia over U of C for this reason, yet he never saw Columbia as a slacker school. The students there work hard – typical course load is five rather than four as at Harvard, and there’s no way to avoid the reading-and-writing-heavy core curriculum! On the other hand, they also seem to play hard – no Friday classes means a three day weekend, bars around the campus are packed with students, and then there is the whole city to explore. What they don’t seem to do is sleep.</p>
<p>A lot of profs and students try to arrange their schedules so that there are no classes on fridays, except for language classes which meet everyday. The light friday schedule is why partying starts on Thursday. When we visited Yale, it seemed the whole math department shut down on Friday; in fact, the building was locked. But lots of sections are held on Fridays.</p>
<p>As for slacking: It depends on one’s definition of slacking.
It’s very possible that some students put forth their efforts into their major and their main EC and slack off in courses outside of their majors.
I don’t recall where I saw comments to the effect that one key difference between Ivies and state universities is the amount of time devoted to ECs at Ivies. In many cases, it is the EC rather than the academic major that gets parlayed into a career.</p>
<p>The amount of work is probably more related to the major than the school. Cornell engineering earns its reputation for being a “non-slacker” school. There are some weeks where getting a 3 or 4 hours of sleep at night is a luxury. However, my son’s frat brothers who are econ or humanities majors spend major time each night watching TV or socializing.</p>
<p>I can guarantee you that Leet Oliver Memorial (Yale’s Land of Math) is open on Fridays for classes. Also, interestingly, Yale’s only holiday with no classes is MLK’s birthday. Classes are even held on Labor day.</p>
<p>You know, it depends what you mean by “slacker”. Pomona’s most famous alum (or at least among the most famous) is John Cage. He dropped out after two years. His approach to his education was very carefully conceived. Go to the fewest classes possible, and do the absolute minimum necessary to get by (he carried a “C” average.) But he went to the library; in those days the books were organized alphabetically, by author. He started reading them all, backwards, starting from Z. When he got to “N’”, he figured that he’d had enough, said his goodbyes, and never looked back. He believes he was the best educated student to ever come out of Pomona.</p>
<p>We visited on a Friday last spring. S had twiced emailed a prof and received no response. We got to Yale and tried multiple times to get even a departmental secretary to answer the phone. We passed by the building at least twice, and tried the door. Finally, we were put in touch by an admission staff person with someone. When we asked whether it was possible to talk to someone in the math department, her answer was: “On a Friday? You’ve got to be kidding.”
We did see a prof in another department who talked to my S and showed him around for a whole hour, and suggested that he attend a talk–which we all did. Afterward, he emailed some further suggestions for classes my S might be interested in. My S revisited Yale–not on a Friday–and had some very useful talk with a math prof.</p>
<p>That’s what really struck me at the two Ivies we visited (Brown & Penn). The kids we met all rattled off the numerous ECs that they participated or held office in. I felt my D would fit right in with them.</p>
<p>Momsdream: the surprise was that the category that Jamimom had put Penn in according to the OP was the “nonsocial” schools, surprising because as you say, it seems like one of the more balanced ones.</p>
<p>On the issue of Fridays–most schools offer very few Friday classes; just check their schedules. There’s no bearing on what tuition should be charged, because students still take the same number of classes for the same credit hours as they ever did; it’s just that the classes are almost all 2 day classes instead of some being 2 and some 3.</p>
<p>lalady–please don’t take this the wrong way, but maybe the best help for your daughter is for her not to go straight to college. it’s a big investment (of time and money!) and if she just wants to slack, why bother? She could travel, work, volunteer, etc. for a year or two (I forget whether Americorps or City Year take “gap year” students) and then go on from there.</p>