One person’s experience at a NESCAC school versus someone else is likely to be different. We have a family friend who’s son went to Tufts about a decade ago and he always complained how competitive everyone was. Overall it depends much more on the major and the people you associate with. Engineers tend to me more academically competitive, Classical civilization majors do not for example… But again, this is a generalization too.
I did not notice that engineering majors were especially competitive when I went to college (but engineering majors there were and still are largely admitted directly to their majors, so there was no need to compete for A grades to get into one’s major). Now, I can see there being more competition if students were not admitted directly to their majors and had to attain high GPAs to enter their majors (this was the reputation that pre-business students had at the time, and probably still do now, due to the high GPA and competitive admission process to get into the business major). Pre-meds who needed to maintain high GPAs to have a chance at medical school also had a competitive reputation.
My daughter is a freshman at RPI (engineering) and she says it’s pretty friendly, collaborative environment there. Academics are rigorous (and highly regarded), but not a competitive spirit. If your daughter wants to do engineering/CS, and likes “nerdy”, then with high grades she’s likely to get a lot of merit aid (they want to attract more girls).
Wait. What sorts of courses require study groups to keep up with the work at Yale?
A disproportionate amount of time, effort and media attention is spent on reconfirming the belief that the Ivies are cutthroat but for the average student, they are usually wonderful, collaborative, friendly and inclusive universities. At Penn, I was constantly surrounded by supportive peers who were invested in their own success but never at the expense of the community we fostered. Even pre-med students (notorious nation-wide for being more intense than their peers) had study groups, shared notes, and partied together after exams. At Wharton and the Engineering school, which both have tough grading curves, the same holds true. Students across Penn’s four schools took the time to make friends, go to each other’s performing arts shows, concerts, speaker events, dumpling nights, backyard BBQs, house parties, dinners downtown and more. All of Penn’s libraries and study spaces also have Group Study Rooms or “GSRs” which students can book for a few hours at a time and they are known as the MOST coveted spaces on campus because of the opportunity it provides for students to study with their friends in aesthetically pleasing yet private spaces. Penn’s main library, Van Pelt, is known as Van Party because of how social it is even in the quietest parts of the building. Even in actual competitions (Like the Penn Wharton Public Policy Initiative or MGMT 100 classes) the competition is usually built around groups and teams of students working together to solve larger problems faced within the Penn/Philly community and around the world, fostering collaboration through the lens of competition. If you are the type of student who is open to collaboration, then you will attract those same types of people no matter where you go. In sum, don’t believe the rumor mill about competition at the Ivies-- they’re some of the most incredibly collaborative spaces you can imagine.
^^I went to Penn Law and “study groups” were certainly around back then. Essentially, they allowed the reading list to be divided among the members of a small group of people enrolled in the same large lecture (which most of my classes were.) It was a big plot device in the movie, “Paper Chase”. I did not, however, realize they were prevalent at the undergraduate level.
@circuitrider, Undergrad study groups tend to be less formal than law school or business school study groups; usually just a group of students who get together to go over homework problems or discuss readings, particularly in advance of midterms or finals. I’m surprised you didn’t see any at Wesleyan.
@circuitrider Was your Yale comment supposed to be as snarky as it sounded?? Sounds like you think the classes are too easy and there is no need for study groups.
We called it, “discussing the readings and going over the home work”.
So you got together with a regular group of students from your class to study and discuss the work in that class and didn’t understand that it could be called a study group?
No, that sounds more like something they do at Yale. We discussed whatever we were studying with anyone who was interested in listening to us. And, just to be clear, outside of the sciences and the College of Social Studies, where the daily pace could be rather onerous, we seldom referred to our reading as “homework.”
@circuitrider I’m confused now, did you attend Yale?
Regardless, the OP asked about top schools that are collaborative and I’m saying that Yale is one of them. Yes, students get together to review assignments and prepare for exams. They are willing to help each other. And the students and parents we have met have all been friendly and down to earth.
I haven’t heard a lot about cutthroat schools either, just majors. DS is attending the College of Engineering at Cornell, which I was afraid might be too cutthroat because the classes are mostly curved. I thought it might seem like a zero sum game to the students. However, he seems to enjoy a collaborative atmosphere even there.
But both DS and DD (studying linguistics at Cornell’s College of Arts and Sciences) agree that the premeds are very intense, and they take care to not take classes that are mostly filled with premed students. Having multiple versions of all the science classes helps with this 
.
I wouldn’t say Cornell goes huge lengths to foster collaboration; just that rumors of cutthroat academics are probably overstated, keeping in mind that there will be aberrations everywhere.
@SoccerMomGenie Wow, your D sounds an awful lot like mine - thank you for making this thread. I’m definitely taking notes.
On a related note, what would be some more “match” type schools that might fit these collaborative supportive atmosphere criteria? One thing I’ve puzzled over in trying to help my D create a list of possible schools is that the ones that come up as “match” for her stats are just about all highly selective reach-for-everyone type schools.
@themom, as many posts on this thread will attest, there are plenty of supportive, collaborative schools in the reach-for-everyone category. There are a number of terrific liberal arts colleges that attract high-stats kids that nonetheless have a reputation for having a friendly, laid-back vibe. Carleton’s already been mentioned. Grinnell, Whitman, Bates,… there are many.
No, I’m just trying to clear up some confusion of my own. With certain exceptions, (like I said, mostly in the sciences) the final grades in my courses at Wesleyan were seldom based on a sit-down test. I’m sure we had mid-terms, but I would say, that in the overwhelming majority of circumstances the final grade was based on a paper, not a quiz or a “blue book” exam. So, formalized study groups comprised of people from the same humanities class, or poli sci class, would have been pretty rare (btw, this is not to be confused with language conversation groups or sections which were sometimes led by students.)
This did not preclude discussions outside of class. Those took place randomly, throughout the school year and not confined to Finals Week or necessarily with people taking the same courses. I believe this is consistent with what I have heard of other LACs like, Carleton, Grinnell, Whitman, Williams, Bates and Oberlin.
My D is at Amherst. She has found it to be entirely collaborative. Study groups, everyone willing to help each other, etc. Maybe all of the good LACs have that quality?
I didn’t get the sense from my son that student on student competition was an issue at Williams. Academically intense schools attract high achievers who are driven to continue to achieve both in college and in life. They take their studies seriously, but their academic success isn’t at the expense of other students. There is a reasonable degree of collaboration – study groups, constructive critiques, tips from older students – and many class projects are designed to be collaborative.
But class work is really an individual pursuit. Each student has to do the work – write the papers, perform on the exams, participate in the classroom discussions – and collaboration can only have so much practical impact…
At different college, however, academic intensity and interpersonal culture varies widely. My son found a high level of academic support and nurturing from his professors and a high level of emotional support and understanding from his friends.
We parents can’t compare our own college experiences, in our own unstated majors, with our own unstated personality types, to what might be present today.
But I agree that I can’t name a NE college I consider having a cutthroat “culture.” They’re interested in their grad rates and the success of alums. The problematic majors include pre-med, where many are weeded out- but that’s different than suggesting fellow students are out to trip each other up.
Btw, don’t assume about some schools having less of a raging party scene. That would be a different topic.
^^Would I be safe in assuming that what different parents (and one recent grad) are referring to as, “study groups” are mostly associated with classes that are being taught lecture style?