My son is a Freshman at Knox.
Rigor: 3.5/5
Workload: 4/5
Stress Culture: 3/5
My son doesn’t think his Freshman level courses are hard in terms of understanding the material, but the workload is rather heavy for him. He spends a lot of time doing homework, papers and projects. On the other hand, the culture is not pressure-cooker. The course he complained about the the most, in terms of the workload (lots of writing assignments, a final paper AND 3 projects, 2 of which were very hands-on), was a course he really enjoyed and where his professor approached him about considering an internship abroad this summer. He also thinks the grading is rather fair.
That says alot the personal and experiential nature of the education he’s getting and some of the rewards of putting your nose to the grindstone.