<p>What schools are known for being "pressure cookers"? Do any of you have any experiences with your sons or daughters or their friends who attend(ed) a very stressful school? Could you share? Thanks a lot, I just think that the parents can answer this question more objectively and accurately.</p>
<p>You might get a better understanding if you break it down into a catagory or a type of school or even by location. What's a "pressure cooker" school for engineering might not be for theater, and vice versa</p>
<p>I'm at a school that's usually seen as pretty intense, and I took a schedule deemed "suicidal" (the word "masochist" has also been used), and I think it's fine. It really depends on your attitude. I'm easy going by nature, and I don't really get stressed out easily. I don't find the school all that stressful on the whole, actually, though the fast paced quarter system always keeps me on my toes. </p>
<p>Many engineering and arts programs are intense, as are specific majors and programs (such as pre-med) at other schools.</p>
<p>United States Naval Academy. 20+ hours per semester, plus military obligations, training underclass or being trained by upperclass. Summer training, leadership experiences. Everyone graduates in 8 semesters. Takes a special person.</p>
<p>What exactly is it that you would like to know?</p>
<p>My D attends Carnegie Mellon, which demands a lot of hard work and hours from it's students (5 to 7 classes a semester). It is a good fit for students who can thrive in a very competitive and quirky atmosphere. The support from teachers and peers is strong, but you definitely need to have drive and an independent streak to succeed there. The payoff is the great learning opportunities and alumni support when you graduate-but it's not for the weak of heart. The most complaints I hear are about the weather and lack of sleep.</p>
<p>My son was at MIT (graduated in June 07). Certainly it was a very intense time for him; my daughter graduated May 07 from Reed, which has a senior year thesis and an intense academic focus as well. Both of my kids were acutely aware that their friends at less demanding schools were having an easier time of it--but both were also aware they were learning more than their friends, as well.</p>
<p>Do you have specific questions? Are you worried about emotional issues? Academic issues? Results? Grades?</p>
<p>"pressure cookers"</p>
<p>Isn't it amazing how our choice of emotional loaded words can alter our thinking? The questions and responses would be a lot different if instead of pressure cookers, we discussed academically rigorous or challenging schools.</p>
<p>Maybe, but I'd define Caltech and MIT most engineering schools as pressure cookers, while Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Stanford while still academically rigorous and challenging considerably less pressure. You can make the latter pressured, (go pre-med, take more than the minimum course load, avoid guts), but you can also put together schedules that allow for quite a bit of free time.</p>
<p>Have to agree about engineering-most schools with eng programs are very rigid with regard to courseload/semester hours. Son is in eng program now (soph) taking 17+ hours since freshman year with 8:30 AM classes/labs/tutorials -while some of his liberal arts buddies are at 14 or so per semester and their first class may not be until 10:30 or 11 AM!</p>
<p>It also depends on how much the student is doing during a semester (academics and extracurriculars). Also, how much does the the student push him or herself? What does the student want to get out of the college education?</p>
<p>Here is Princeton Review's "Students Never Stop Studying" top 20 list for 2008:</p>
<p>My kids go to the University of Chicago, like corranged. People there tend to care about their courses and to work on them, there's no question about that. So, intense, yes. Also, the quarter schedule means three sets of midterms and three sets of finals/final papers per academic year, which definitely adds to the intensity.</p>
<p>But "pressure cooker"? That doesn't sound right at all. That implies artificial pressure, or maybe a lot of competition among students, and neither is a big feature of their lives as far as I have heard.</p>
<p>My H, D, brother and I ALL went to Oberlin. Then and now we always heard that "Swarthmore is just as intellectually rigorous as Oberlin but Swarthmore's more of a pressure cooker." I've never actually set foot on the Swarthmore campus, so I sure don't know what's true.</p>
<p>As a prospective studeent, my D responded immediately to Oberlin because she found students around a dinner table were witty and had a great sense of play..until she asked them, "what are you studying?" or "are you working on a project?" At that point, she said, their faces went quickly serious into "passion mode" and they began to describe their work to her with great excitement, hand gesturing into the air, eyes twinkling...for an hour or more, just for her, a mere prospective student. Others within earshot chimed in as related ideas touched on their projects. It was a sharing, though, not a competition.</p>
<p>So I think that describes "intellectual passion" rather than "pressure cooker." Thanks to poor planning, some kids do back-to-back allnighters during finals week. There are no fraternities or sororities; however there are cooperative houses to cook and serve community meals , language theme houses, all serving as social bonding centers so frats aren't missed.
There are parties but if you don't go, it's not important that you don't go, because you either do other interesting things on campus that same time or choose to study or sleep then, no problem.</p>
<p>Oberlin didn't talk about "work hard, play hard" (my S at Amherst did); rather they seem to always be on default work mode at Oberlin as described. She had heard that the difference (still) with Swarthmore was that at Swat there's less "throw back your head and laugh" playful/silly humor at the dinner tables, but equally great intellectual passion for their current studies and projects at both schools, she has heard (and others who've visited both places as undergraduates continue to observe). </p>
<p>It's very normal (at Amherst and Oberlin) for students to pursue double majors, and I'm sure in MANY colleges today. At Amherst some were taking triple majors but the profs were trying to talk students out of them. Then and now, you'll always see Oberlin students walking around with a book in hand to grab some minutes under a tree or while working their campus job behind a desk. I am not saying that's exclusive to Oberlin...it's true of many places obviously. They also still read outside of courses, and they still embrace reading, not just media input, although they do both.</p>
<p>But the following attributes might cause a school to be pegged (rightfully or wrongfully) "pressure cooker" -- no fraternities/sororities; students seen studying in libraries on Saturday nights; impassioned six-way conversations at dinner over the history of the labor movement in Poland or any other arcane topic; students reading books under trees or while standing in a cafeteria line; disinterest in current TV sit-coms or professional sports teams around the country.</p>
<p>My D double-majored in Religion and Art and frequently stayed up all night on an art studio project; her favorite EC was OCircus where she learned to stilt-walk and an uber-organized senior generated a 7-city summer tour for the performers. Everything is done "to the maximum" in other words. That might be called "pressure cooker" by some, "passionate and wondrous" by others.</p>