Hi friends,
I’ve been exploring the depths of this technological nation known as College Confidential, looking for information- names, specifically- of some schools that have a “work hard, play hard” mentality. I’m only in eighth grade, yes, but I have goals. I’ve already gotten the fifteen minute lectures about how much time I have to worry about that stuff and all that, so I don’t need another, haha. Other threads were kinda old and I didn’t want to revive them, so yeah… Thanks 
Oh btw, I’m thinking of these schools so far:
Yale
Duke
Stanford
Brown
Penn
Pomona
Rice
USC
Any thoughts? Thanks again.
I would replace Brown with you UChicago
@Camusish Why is that? I’ve looked at UChi, but it doesn’t really appeal to me- too cutthroat. I really like Brown because of the open curriculum, which would allow me to explore more of my academic interests. Plus, Emma Watson (<3) went there. XD
You said you wanted a work hard play hard school- UChicago is the quintessential school for that. Cut-throat? Where did you get that from? I have a student that goes there. The curriculum is too challenging for that nonsense
UCB, UCLA. Students there don’t play around and work hard.
Other schools with a work hard play hard mentality are Harvey Mudd and Columbia
@Camusish Don’t UChicago and Harvey Mudd have mad grade deflation? Also, Columbia has the infamous core curriculum, which can kill prospective premeds, I’ve heard.
@sprights I’ve heard that those schools are great, but I don’t live in California, and I’m not really willing to pay 40-50k a year for a public school, as great as those may be.
Ah I see. They do have Regents & Alumni Scholarships (I’m not sure if they are for both in and out of state students) which are merit awards. What state are you in? U Michigan, UVA, UMadison- Wisconsin are all good state schools for premeds, as I’ve heard.
Yes all those schools have non- grade inflation (deflation), but everyone knows that - med schools, law schools, graduate schools
@sprights Wow, I just looked into them, and they sound pretty great! Thanks! I’d prefer not to disclose that, but I can assure you that my state school isn’t great for pre-meds. It’s by no means like a no-name school, but it’s not exactly known for pre-meds. They have like a 20% pre-med acceptance rate.
@Camusish Yes, but isn’t a 3.85 from Stanford more than a 3.3 from UChi or Harvey?
Worth more? I don’t understand the question. Harvey Mudd and UChicago graduates have stellar opportunities for jobs, professional schools, and graduate schools, and very few have 3.85 gpas, so what does a Stanford 3.85 matter to them?
What I mean is a higher GPA from an equal or more renowned university would be superior to a noticeably lower GPA from one of those schools; am I wrong in that thinking?
When you say equal what do you mean? Ranking? You have to realize that the students that go to these schools know all about the grading, and they still go there. And guess what? … so do all the after graduate programs and employers. You’re comparing apples and oranges. There’s a T-shirt they sell at uChicago, that says “if I wanted an A I would’ve gone to Harvard”.
I wouldn’t get too much into this, because, as people you’ve stated in your 1st post said, you’re in eighth grade, your interests and what you’ll want in a college will probably change.
While you should be interested/researching/focusing on what’s needed to get into college[since this is CC a selective college], you shouldn’t be focusing on * one set of colleges at this point in time*.
@Camusish That could be true, yes, but where’s the proof to that? GPA is, one of, if not THE most important factor in medical school admissions, aside from MCAT scores and all that. There’s no quantative measure as to the exact amount of deflation that goes on at those schools- how do they compare them to grads of other schools with non-grade deflation?