I am looking to be a serious student in college… But I also want the opportunity to have fun & party a little. I don’t want a party school, but I would like a serious school that has fun parties… Any suggestions??
Wake Forest. You’ve basically described it. Smart kids who take academics seriously, work hard, but like to have a lot of fun. Smart and social. Not everyone parties but they are available for those who want that lifestyle. Tons of school spirit.
Wesleyan.
The vast majority of the top 150 schools fit that description. Imho.
Noted for not being known for that dynamic is easier for me to answer
Uchicago. Berkeley Harvey Mudd the us service academies citadel vmi merchant marine academy liberty Olin smith Wellesley cornell Columbia Wharton ex the rest of penn. Georgetown
Penn, Duke, Stanford (?)
Well we’d have to identify the “party schools” first and remove them.
Then we’d have to remove the “too hard, no or little time for fun” schools and remove them.
Among the remaining schools, we’d have to figure out which are more intellectual/hard/rigorous – say, the most academically serious quarter of those - and that would be your list. And it would comprise at least 100 schools.
With few exceptions (relying at least as much on your major(s) as the school itself…), you’ll have time for fun, and can have fun, on and around just about every campus.
The hard/rigorous/intellectual angle is a bit more nuanced and difficult to winnow.
Oh heck. These are among the schools that are known for being rigorous and/or intellectual in focus, without humongous party scenes (IE, exempt from the “party school” tag):
- UChicago
- Reed
- Swarthmore
- Columbia
- Carleton
- Johns Hopkins
- Northwestern
- Cornell
- Princeton
- Yale
- Caltech
- MIT
- Emory
- Georgetown
- U of Rochester
- Cal
- Tufts
- William & Mary
- Smith
- Haverford
- Tons of other LACs
That’s just a start. But really, you can find both fun and rigor at most schools.
Hamilton
Duke is a big work hard / play hard school
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