<p>You mentioned Haverford and I think that it is a great choice. As far as LAC go, its pretty prestigious; however, it is not an easy school. It is a not a competitive school in the same sense that Hopkins is competitive, but there is a sense of self competition. It is not going to be a school where you can just float through and get a good GPA. With that said, it is a place where everyone is a person and has the opportunity to have their voice heard. However, it is hard to stand out academically when everyone is so smart! A few schools like Haverford in this sense are Davidson and Carleton. At all these prestigious LAC, a high GPA is not the norm but you will receive an amazing education. </p>
<p>If you are looking for higher grades and standing out academically, then F&M is another good choice. Another college similar to F&M is Skidmore, which might be worth looking into. I must confess that I don’t know much about those schools, but I do know both will provide good academic experiences.</p>
<p>Actually, plenty of people get high GPAs at many of the LACs. In fact, many appear to be grading softer (or similar to many of the more inflated) than the top research institutions. The difference could be however, that less students at LACs are in science. However, one must concede that the workload is generally must higher in LAC classes (because grading more assignments with rigor is less difficult when classes are smaller and the focus is on teaching). Another reason for the higher grades could be that, due to the increased workload, less of the grade is based upon exams. More science courses at such places are more likely to have projects and components that contribute heavily to the grade whereas even the prestigious Research-1 universities’ courses mainly have exams/quizzes. Often exams are made difficult enough so that curving is needed, in which case the course mean can be set to something arbitrary that is usually not ideal if the course is loaded w/pre-meds, which may explain the more competitive spirit of some R-1 university science programs.</p>
<p>Apply to Oregon State Univesity, their OHSU (if you get into it) is one of the best medicine research facilities in the nation last time I heard. Note that though their admission rate is fairly high, getting into OHSU has much lower acceptance rate. Plus, there is some competition amongst those going into a field of study like yours.</p>
<p>I had to re-read your question to make sure I understood the meaning, and perhaps to make sure that I fully digested what you are truly asking. You’d like a top-flight school without the attitude, yes? The schools people are listing are excellent. However, for the school’s subculture, some of those suggested schools might be more intense. My S looked at Haverford and it is a thoughtful and generally mellower student body. Wicked smart students and extremely hard to get into. I’m assuming you’ll have a range of schools, so look at a few harder ones in addition to Haverford, then maybe find some “most likely I’ll get in” and then a few safeties. Consider Union College in NY (near Albany), Brandeis (excellent sciences), Alleghany (gives merit aid), Clark University (Worcester, MA), Hamilton (NY), Univ of Rochester, Lewis & Clark. Some of the schools suggested in other responses have 10% acceptance rates, so study up on your odds of getting in and be realistic and honest with yourself about your chances. (Do you have a 3.99 UW GPA? Do you have SATs that are 2100+?) Definitely look at Loren Pope’s Schools that Change Lives – these are excellent schools. Note that every school has its own personality – and make sure that you feel comfortable there. Some schools are more liberal, others big greek/party schools, others very alternative, etc. Try to narrow down large or medium or small; city or suburban or rural. This will help you focus. Check out the Princeton Review for what students say about their own schools. And good luck!</p>
<p>That’s a bit misleading. Brown does have high GPAs. The reason is that Brown allows students to take as many classes S/NC (Brown’s version of pass-fail) as they want. Students who just want to get the degree and don’t care about grades take lots of courses this way. Based on anecdotal evidence, there are lots of students at Yale, Brown and other schools who want to be professional actors, musicians or artists. These students, especially the actors, expend a lot of their energy on acting, primarily as an EC, sometimes cutting classes for several days during rehearsals of major productions.</p>
<p>At Yale, these students take courses for grades. They often take gut courses designed especially for non-majors in math and science. They tend to graduate with relatively low gpas outside their field of interest. At Brown, the same students take most of their courses S/NC and don’t affect the curve. The students who take any given course for grades have higher median grades because the type of students who would have lousy grades at other colleges don’t count in calculating the median grade; they just get S(atisfactory).</p>
<p>Moreover, most Brunionans take about one course a semester S/NC. Obviously, they tend to take courses they don’t expect to do well in this way. At other schools, most students take only a few courses P/F, if they take any.</p>
<p>The upshot of this is that the median gpa at Brown is high. However, IMO, it is just as hard for a pre-med to get high grades in math and science courses at Brown as it is at most other schools. There have been threads from science students at Brown on the Brown forum complaining about how hard it is to get As in these classes. So, I would caution any pre-med who thinks (s)he can go to Brown and rack up easy As in math and science to think twice. I think Brown is a great place to be a pre-med though because instead of taking a series of guts in other subject areas to protect their precious GPAs for med school admissions purposes, Brunonians can take more interesting and difficult courses S/NC. </p>
<p>As for whether or not Hopkins is competitive, IIRC, in the original version of Howard Green’s book about top colleges, he surveyed students as to whether they thought their classmates were cutthroat. IIRC, 40% of Hopkins students said yes–which was the highest percentage of all colleges surveyed. Again, IIRC, the lowest was Wesleyan U, where nobody said yes. So, that’s another school the OP might want to investigate.</p>
<p>That actually reassures me about Brown. I happen to know someone there who’s on the 8-year med track who’s an incredible student. And the competition for those 8-year spots is intense, so I’m happy to hear she’ll be getting a good education.</p>
<p>The top women’s colleges (Mount Holyoke, Smith, Wellesley etc) are very competitive academically and have their cutthroat elements. A less competitive kind of women’s college, such as Wells or Sweet Briar, might be a better fit.</p>
<p>I don’t think you could use the phrase cutthroat to describe Mount Holyoke. Doesn’t belong in the same category of academic rigor and pressure as Wellesley, for sure (not saying the term applies there necessarily either, but I do think there is a different tone to Mount Holyoke).</p>
<p>I would definitely describe MHC as a very warm and nurturing environment, but when I was a student there, students were extremely serious about academics. The competition re: jobs/grad school during senior year was also very strong. But perhaps you are correct, maybe not “cutthroat,” because people were mostly competing, I think, with themselves. This was also many years ago, so the culture certainly could be different now.</p>
<p>Interesting that some of the women’s college like Bryn Mawr, MHC and Wellesley have been suggested. My D considered these schools, but had read/ heard that they could be just as (if not more) cutthroat and work-heavy as other top colleges.</p>
<p>She also loved Haverford, assuming that its honor code ethos would mean a less-cutthroat atmosphere and supportive student body. In the end, she steered away from Haverford because of its small size and is now at Tufts, which is not cutthroat by any means, but is certainly challenging. Her peers seem supportive, as well.</p>
<p>Anyone who thinks a women’s college is going to be warm and fuzzy just because it’s only women has never been around driven women in business. MrsMom has been abused by both men and women in the business world, and often the women are far, far worse, because they do it behind your back. They are also less supportive of their up and coming fellow women than the guys are. Queen Bee Syndrome.</p>
<p>By far one of the most famous women’s college graduates is Hillary Clinton (Wellesley). Love her or hate her, Hillary is not exactly warm and fuzzy, though she tries. Imagine being in a school with a bunch of Hillary’s. Though I’m sure each women’s college has it’s own feel, much like each co-ed college does.</p>
<p>I know it’s early days for you career-wise, and your question was about colleges, but since you mentioned radiology this article may be of interest:</p>
<p>I disagree that the women’s schools are so very cutthroat. In fact, many of them explicitly are designed to be otherwise. Barnard, Bryn Mawr, Vassar (former women’s) are not cutthroat among the students. Mt. Holyoke has recently beefed up its sciences for women, too.</p>
<p>I notice no one is really defending Wellesley as not cutthroat. They do have a reputation as attracting a lot of “Type A” women and being quite competitive. Lovely campus, though. I think it is fine for some students, but not what the OP is asking for. </p>
<p>Not sure about Smith, it certainly has a reputation as being edgy socially, but I actually have not really thought of them as cutthroat, either. Although several of the girls I have known attending there are very smart and I could see how they might actually thrive on a bit of academic competition.</p>
<p>I don’t think Bryn Mawr or Mt. Holyoke makes the grade as “cutthroat”. Just like mixed gender schools, different women’s colleges have different personalities!</p>
<p>Try Loren Pope’s books, Colleges that Change Lives and Looking Beyond the Ivy League (Not sure about the title of the latter). There is also a Colleges that Change Lives website.</p>
<p>p.s. Mr. Mom 62: Harvard and Brown are both very challenging, with heavy workloads. Harvard does stick with its students when problems arise, which I think is a good thing. The issue of grade inflation at these schools is somewhat dated, I believe.</p>