**Students who value learning.
** I want to be surrounded by peers that are enthusiastic and fascinated by academics and the intellectual life. I desire peers with strong work-ethics. The lesser parties, the better.
**A robust liberal arts curriculum.
** Note: In addition to liberal arts, I would prefer a college which allows me to pursue courses related to business.
3)**Extremely strong academics.
**This includes best-possible professors and preferrably, student-faculty interaction.
4)A large number of courses per semester.
This means a credit overload, in some colleges. I passionately want to take more than the traditional 18 credits per semester. Possibly 5 4-credit courses a semester, if not more.</p>
<p>Supposing I could go to any college in the world, which colleges would you recommend to me? The colleges you recommend do not have to satisfy all my preferences, of course.</p>
<p>Yale, except for the business part. 36 courses are required to graduate, meaning that at least one semester per year you’ll be taking 5 courses.</p>
<p>University of Rochester. Except for the first semester freshman year, when you’re limited to four 4-credit courses and one 2 or 3 credit courses, you can take five 4-credit courses.</p>
<p><em>snicker</em> Yes, because intellectuals and hard workers don’t ever party, and all parties are the same and obviously anti-intellectual. Yay for simplistic, naive stereotypes!</p>
<p>You may not want to go into any of the types of schools you are looking at assuming that you are going to want to be frequently overloading on classes. I know that as you look ahead to college from high school, you assume only 3-4 classes couldn’t possibly fill up your time, but depending on the school attend, you may be in for a surprise. Consider that the average students at most of these schools were among the top 5-10 in their high school in terms of intellecual interest and motivation, and the VAST majority of them are satisfied (or overwhelmed) by their courseload at these rigorous colleges. Get there and see what it’s like first.</p>
<p>Thank you for the suggestions, everybody! I am looking into them.</p>
<p>Jessiehl said, “<em>snicker</em> Yes, because intellectuals and hard workers don’t ever party, and all parties are the same and obviously anti-intellectual. Yay for simplistic, naive stereotypes!”
Jessiehl, could you explain how parties contribute to intellectual growth?</p>
<p>LACalum, you present a valid point. I’ll keep that in mind.</p>
<p>Thank you Jazzymom; I didn’t know the difference between lesser and fewer.
*Corrected version:
*
I want to go to a college, which has:
Students who value learning.
I want to be surrounded by peers with strong work-ethics, who are enthusiastic about and fascinated by academics and the intellectual life. The fewer parties, the better.</p>
<p>You’re welcome… I wouldn’t want you to write the former version in a future “Why ThisU” essay.</p>
<p>BTW, Princeton Review has a category, “Their Students Never Stop Studying.”<br>
Reed is No. 1, followed by Chicago. Then, not counting the tech/engineering colleges the list is: Bennington, Swarthmore, Middlebury, Marlboro, Grinnell, College of Holy Cross, Haverford, Davidson, Harvard, Carleton, Bryn Mawr and Whitman. Not vouching for the total accuracy of a list generated through surveys, though.</p>
<p>Umm…what happened to work hard play hard? Don’t dismiss parties…it’s where you network and make connections with upperclassmen and make new friends.</p>
<p>If you don’t like parties, just don’t go. But college is intense…and I really felt like partying and going to clubs (this is coming from a person who never partied once in high school)</p>
<p>If you don’t want the party scene, avoid the suggestion of Claremont McKenna. No, you won’t be forced to party, but the scene is pretty difficult to truly avoid. It’s a very good school, although it really doesn’t seem like what you’re looking for, “business” emphasis aside. Pomona (also a Claremont college) might be a far better fit. Even then, Pomona might be a bit too…well-rounded. Hard to say.</p>
<p>Holy Cross would ce a good match as it offers a degree in accounting/ business in addition to economics. HC also has very strong alumni network on Wall Street and several CEO’s of large companies. Williams and Davidson produce many business leaders also.</p>