Cut-Throating/Daunting Competition (Please input your opinion)

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I want to go to a prestigious, yet not overly competitive school. I have compiled a list of schools which I think would be good for me, and I am going to visit most of them (the ones I will visit have the asterisks.) Here is my list...</p>

<p><em>*-Lawrence University
*</em><em>-St. Johns College (either MD or Santa Fe, although I hear MD is more cut-throat)
*</em><em>-Pitzer
*</em><em>-Pomona
*</em><em>-Williams
*</em><em>-Claremont McKenna
-Northwestern
*</em><em>-McGill (Montreal)
*</em>-Dartmouth
-Stanford</p>

<p>I have grouped them in an order of what (I believe) is the most cooperative learning (Lawrence) to the most cut-throat competition (being Stanford.) Would you guys here at CC agree with this list? If not, what do you think I have incorrectly assessed?</p>

<p>Yes I understand that I have schools on here that are exact opposites (like St. Johns is pretty much the EXACT opposite from McGill, but ignore that, i'll find out which one is right once i've visited both.)</p>

<p>I don't want an environment where I am going to be secretly hoping that my comrades don't do well, so it will make me look better. I want to go to a cooperative school where we can all succeed with time and effort (although that doesn't mean I don't plan to study, I don't think that there is a school on this list that isn't incredibly difficult. </p>

<p>Would you guys say that Northwestern, McGill, Dartmouth, and Stanford are just too cutthroat for a person like me?</p>

<p>If you have read this far, please give your input... and I want to thank you so much for helping me out!</p>

<p>(Also, don't worry about cost of attendance and my chance of getting in, i'll be spending enough time for the both of us hoping to get into Stanford ;)...</p>

<p>Thank you!</p>

2

<p>I don’t think NU is cutthroat at all. From what I’ve heard everyone works together really well, and doesn’t sabotage one another. I don’t think that you’d have a problem, from what I’ve heard, there at all. The only real competition I’ve heard about is competition for getting into an A Capella group :-)</p>

3

<p>I think you’ll find that the cutthroat competition at a college takes place when you try to get playing time on a sports team.</p>

<p>Off the playing field, college is mostly you against you, not you competing with the other students, trying to knock someone down so you can move up. There really aren’t opportunities to do that, short of stealing someone else’s notes or sabotaging someone else’s lab project.</p>

<p>No one ever brags on campus that she just knocked Marshall Meyer down three steps and she now gets to sit in the front of the classroom instead of him. </p>

<p>More likely, students help each other. Upperclassmen freely offer advice to freshmen, and the good math students help those who are struggling with math.</p>