My daughter is an excellent student with great grades, very challenging curriculum, excellent SAT scores and strong extracurriculars. She is considering applying to some Ivy League schools as well as some strong liberal arts schools in the Northeast.
My daughter prefers a friendly and collaborative atmosphere. She is competitive in that she likes to push herself to achieve and learn and stretch herself, but she is not driven by competing against others; she instead enjoys pulling others with her. Sure, there’s going to be some collaboration and some competition everywhere. However, are there colleges in the Northeast that are known to have and strive for a more collaborative atmosphere that would better suit her? Conversely, are there some top colleges known to have a more competitive, even “cut throat” atmosphere, where she would be less likely to thrive?
I know I am stepping outside your geographic zone, but Carleton and Ovetlin in the Midwest are more collaborative than many NE schools. Maybe Bowdoin, Haverford, or Mount Holyoke in the NE.
Bates, Middlebury, Hamilton and Lafayette come to mind that have a good reputation for collaboration and a student body that gets along well. These schools are very social without overdoing the partying. They are known for balance.
I really have never heard of any schools that are cutthroat, rather less social, yes.
Wesleyan is known for its student culture; just about everything outside the classroom, from parties to the weekly film series, a music recording studio, the radio station, an organic farm, a sustainable landscaping project - you name it - is the result of students collaborating with each other.
@ intparent, I respect your desire to avoid a controversial posting. Would you consider PM’ing me with your thoughts regarding more cutthroat colleges?
Wouldn’t cutthroat be more associated with one’s major and course selection than which school one attends? E.g. pre-med courses “graded on a curve” with a low median may create more cutthroat incentives. Also, courses leading to majors that require a competitive secondary admission process.
MIT has a very collaborative climate. Students are encouraged to work together-a valuable skill for all, many of whom will be working on interdisciplinary international teams in the future. I think admissions screens on that dimension. Cut throat conduct would not be supported.
The term “cutthroat” is probably too harsh in most circumstances. I’ve heard of situations where students will intentionally keep a book from the library longer than they need it, so that others doing a similar research project will not have access. Or I’m imagining an environment where students are not entirely comfortable sharing notes or outlines or even just their best insights, not because they’re shy or independent learners, but because they don’t want to help to help other students due to the thinking that it’s a 0 sum game or the worry that a peer’s success will detract from one’s own success.
I’m sure no schools will be at either extreme, but I also suspect that the cultures at different schools might tend to support one approach versus the other. If you think of it as a scale, I’m wondering which schools tend toward one end and which schools tend toward another.
I really don’t mean to judge. Some students might thrive in a super-competitive environment and it might bring out their very best, and I think that’s fantastic for them. I just know that’s not my daughter.
I think all the NESCAC schools have what your daughter wants, some more than others but none have a bad reputation insofar as collaboration is concerned. They all have a very high proportion of athletes so team work is very cultural at those schools.
The Catholic schools should be similar as well.
I really have never heard anything concrete about cutthroat schools to be honest.
My daughter is similar to your daughter @SoccerMomGenie . She chose not to apply to Ivies (and other schools in the area) because she didn’t want that type of high pressure environment or that type of high pressure admission process even though her scores and grades were high. She looked for a school that would be a great fit for her instead.
I second @intparent 's recommendation of Mount Holyoke. It’s where my daughter is going in the fall and the collaborative environment was one of the things that sold her on Mt. Holyoke above other schools she visited in the area. The women seem to really support one another and help one another succeed.
We visited Colgate in the summer, but I got the distinct feeling it was a very friendly and collaborative school. Kids from my older D’s school have loved it, as well as Bowdoin. If you meet any families with kids at Bowdoin, and you ask them if their child likes Bowdoin, they will talk your ear off in praise of the school. That’s been my experience anyway.
Schools without designated academic divisions and at which most courses are open to all students on a roughly equal basis seem generally be among the most collaborative.
BTW, if you are willing to go a bit further afield, Notre Dame probably takes the cake on friendly and collaborative. My D is there, and she was looking for the that kind of atmosphere as well.
My DS has found Yale to be collaborative. It has a reputation for being less cut-throat than some of its peers and that was one of its many draws. He found this to be true. He participates in study groups for various classes and kids will share notes if they have to miss a lecture.
@SoccerMomGenie - There is a book called “No Contest: The Case Against Competition” that you and/or your daughter might find interesting. It was based on a course taught at Tufts during the '80’s.
The notion of competition is so intertwined with american culture, that it becomes hard to define.
In the book, competition is defined as “mutually exclusive goal attainment”. Since competition is based on the principle of exclusion, one could reason that a school with a more inclusive culture would be a school with a less competitive culture.
Among the NESCAC schools, the two most inclusive cultures are Bates and Tufts.
Wesleyan, Connecticut College (former sister school to Wesleyan), Hamilton and Colby would be the next group.
Rather than list names, in general, you probably want to avoid cultures that define themselves based on the principle of exclusion.
My daughter was a youth soccer player in a very competitive public school in the suburbs of Boston. She attended Tufts and could not believe how much more friendly and inclusive the culture was. Her classmates attended other NESCAC and Ivy schools and experienced cultures that were at least as competitive as high school.
@Mastadon – Thank you! I took a look at that book and it seems very interesting and relevant. I ordered a copy.
I personally never understood why a business office (as I experienced it, at least) had to be so driven by competition. When I had an opportunity to run a department, I instituted collaborative norms and we achieved extraordinary success.
I’m curious about your list of NESCAC schools. I’m surprised you didn’t mention Bowdoin, which is a school mentioned by a number of responders as being particularly collaborative. Have you had a different experience with Bowdoin, or is it left off your list because you don’t have first hand knowledge of it?