<p>Do Haverford students experience stress? Stress from academic pressure? stress from the honor code?</p>
<p>life lesson on being successful in competitive environments: if you’re never stressed out, then you’re probably not working hard enough/ are too apathetic.</p>
<p>on that note, i’m much less stressed out than in high school at haverford due to the emphasis on learning over grades. on another note, i’m doing a lot better academically my sophomore year than my freshman year because i’ve discovered which types of courses i excel in and which i don’t.</p>
<h2>Somebody’s classes are over I see :)</h2>
<p>Stress is your response to challenges. Does HC challenge kids? As you rightly pointed out, it depends on what you ask.</p>
<p>Stress HC does not provide:
HC is not located, like some of its peers, in the land of “Deliverance” where students are challenged mentally when there is nothing to do and nowhere to go… especially when it snows. Just look at the “Shining”… didn’t do Jack Nicholson’s character any good. Many times, kids under such stress resort to heavy drinking to address this challenge. If ever bored, HC kids can take a bus to BMC, walk to several very good restaurants in proximity, or take the Septa train to Philly and go to Chinatown, Italian Market, West Philly with Penn, catch a game, see a concert or show… or stay in and drink. Having that choice though is good for one’s sanity.</p>
<p>Stress HC shares with peers:
Academics: Like Redbull wrote, if you don’t feel challenged then the experience is not worth having. There are reasons why kids clamor to get into these schools and often choose them over bigger name places and the academic preparation you get is one of those reasons. Personally, I felt a lot of stress @ HC but, because of this, I felt exceptionally well prepared for medical school, which I did not consider as difficult.</p>
<p>Social: On some level, there will be stress with any LAC experience. You are bringing together a very small yet diverse group of students and confining them to a very small social environment. There will be the very wealthy and kids on full financial aid, kids who grew up in white suburbs and kids who do not have that perspective, screaming liberals living on the same floor with the politically or socially conservative, vegans eating lunch with someone who loves to BBQ, and I hate to say this cause it’s overdone, but “quirky” with the “not quirky”. For many kids, this will be the 1st time that they have to adjust to difference. At LACs, and especially at HC where “community” is heavily stressed, this is bound to create some stress. Is there a benefit to this social conglomeration and what it can teach you regarding your capacity to adjust? Is there a benefit with not being able to pick and choose your friends like if you were at a larger institution?</p>
<p>Stress only HC provides:
Honor code and Quaker process: I’ve written about this ad nauseam. To summarize, the HC community is not perfect but lives in a framework that encourages kids to recognize their limits (and their peers’ limits) and challenges them to reach unobtainable goals. Is there stress with “idealism”? Definitely. Is there educational value in this process as well? Absolutely.</p>
<p>Culture: HC has a very unique culture of modesty, which can be very challenging at times. Among other things, not only is it bad to talk about grades @ HC (which is also seen elsewhere), but kids usually play down their work load and do not whine, complain or play “misery poker”… which at times can be self-congratulatory fun. So, when you look at colleges, not only should you ask about stress and workloads but ask yourself if the students at the college are the type who would boast about it. :)</p>
<p>You’ll get stressed in just about any college academic environment at some point in your life. Sophomore year was probably the worst for myself. Too many Saturday nights up til 3 AM studying for organic exams. Although, we used always break out capture the flag games in the INSC at midnight. What’s nice about it is the pressure is usually internally driven. Haverford isn’t competitive so you never feel like your studying for an exam to get a better grade than the schmo sitting next to you in lecture. Although, maybe leaving me tagged and “frozen” in the basement of the INSC for an hour was a subconscious ploy to stop me from studying. Hmm, oh well.</p>
<p>ReDbUll298, HC Alum, blacksquirrel06,</p>
<p>THANKS!</p>