Scared for college rigor?

bernie12
Sun, 08 Jun 2014 15:11:08 +0000

@AnnieBeats‌ : Don’t entertain their opinions on the admissions chances…we know what they said is not the case, but neither is it important here. They were asking about rigor (pre-med as well), which beyond a certain level of selectivity doesn’t even seem to correspond with selectivity (I don’t even really knows what this means anymore because now places like Vanderbilt, WashU, and Chicago have almost identical SAT’s and yet the students at each are so completely different that it’s unbelievable. There is clearly great variance in attitudes toward learning among high achievers as well and it plays out in the selection process and subsequent academic environment/orientation of each campus. In terms of academic intensity of both students and level of instruction, those 3 are not equal and there is clearly a gradient among the 3. And that gradient in terms of most to least intense seems to follow a north to south pattern geographically-hint, hint) at all. I think this person just wants to know what they are getting into if they were to get into these sorts of schools. In many cases, the “rigor” primarily comes from the competition levels (as in a more uniform and qualified crowd than in HS). Places like Vanderbilt, ND and Penn have higher/equal SAT scores than Duke and Rice now, but I would have to say that I believe that 2/3 of that trio is less rigorous content wise than Duke (and maybe even Rice). I think that’s what they are worried about as in: How do content rigor and competition levels combine at such schools to affect potential success of the student (especially pre-meds)?