Hey, everyone. Does anyone know of colleges that are similar to Brown and/or Tufts in overall student body vibe, academic opportunities, open curriculum, or anything else but are easier to get into? I love both of them, but their acceptance rates are a little disheartening.
Wesleyan?
In terms of open curricula only: Smith, Hamilton, Grinnell, Amherst. Vibe is a tougher call.
What exactly do you like about them? I don’t see them as super similar in terms of vibe, so it would be helpful if you could pinpoint exactly what it is you like them an about their vibes.
Agree with Brown as being similar to Wesleyan. Connecticut College is another school to consider.
Thanks to everyone so far! Wesleyan is really high on my list, too.
Vibe wise- I really liked how everyone seemed really intelligent without being overly competitive or stressed out. I liked the balance of academics with people who are very artsy/nerdy/politically active. Everybody seemed really passionate and excited about what they were doing for the sake of learning, rather than stressing out about the prestige of it all or the grades.
University of Rochester. From US News & World Report: “The school’s unique “Take Five Scholars” program provides students an additional tuition-free semester or year studying topics of interest outside of their major.” And from the school’s website: “You study only what you’re passionate about, choosing a major in one of the three divisions of learning and taking thematic three-course clusters in the other two areas. Without the need to take what other schools sometimes call “general education requirements,” most Rochester students find they have room to double and even triple-major.”
Thanks for clarifying. I think a lot of LACs have what you’re looking for. Check out Vassar, Macalester, Brandeis, Oberlin, Haverford, Bard, Grinnell, and Kenyon. Vassar, Bard, Grinnell and Oberlin all have open curricula as well.
Reed, Carleton, Vassar, William and Mary have similar vibes to what you are looking for.
@lalalemma: Vassar has distribution requirements and a foreign language proficiency requirement. These are not bad things, but as college curricula go, Vassar’s would not be considered open. Oberlin and Bard have distribution requirements as well.
@merc81 tufts also has distribution requirements, so I didn’t think OP was necessarily looking for a fully open curriculum.
^ Your suggestions were excellent in general, but it seems you singled-out four colleges as having open-curricula in #7.
@merc81 I singled out those four because they were on other lists of schools with open curricula. I hadn’t checked the individual graduation requirements of each school. Those lists may have been mistaken, but it’s also worth noting that “open curriculum” means different things to different people. I’m sorry if anything I said was misleading to OP.
Hamilton and Pomona, although smaller, have similar student body vibe.
@lalalemma: OK, I see where you got your information. The list you referred to is a bit of a wild card though. Note, for example, how they have Amherst listed twice: once as having an open curriculum; the second time as having a … not-so-open curriculum.
@merc81 actually the bottom list says “Schools with Different Levels of Curricular Freedom,” and every school in the first list is also on that list. I assume the word “different” refers to the list containing schools with multiple levels of curricular freedom, so that doesn’t seem like a mistake to me. That also wasn’t the only list I looked at, I cross-referenced it with a few others. But anyway I think we’ve said enough about this. Let’s not distract from the main point of the thread.
Brandeis, Vassar, William and Mary come to mind.
Tufts is my #1 and Brown is my unreachable dream school. Other schools I’m looking at/interested in: Brandeis, Rochester, Carleton, Macalester, Vassar, Wesleyan, and Oberlin. Chicago has a similar vibe imo but a vastly different, very unique core versus Brown’s completely open curriculum & Tufts’ standard curriculum.
Rhodes, Grinnell, Juniata, Lehigh, Occidental, Pomona, Wake Forest, University of Puget Sound, Ursinus