The OP instead of posting on here and getting us into non-sensical prestige wars needs to go visit these schools, ask legitimate questions (not about getting a GPA or anything), and feel them out.
@RayManta : Oh boy, I don’t want to go into that debate on happiness vs. performance lol. Indeed very chicken and egg. One can think about current debates on student evaluation of instructors and how the evaluations may need to be improved to address this issue and how it may interact with grade inflation, content deflation/lower standards, etc. I get a little queasy when those at the most elite schools claim they are almost happy all the time. I think: “Are you doing this right? Are you letting the school challenge you the way it is supposed to?”. Hard to tell sometimes.