Economics-major, Introverted, picky - looking for intellectual safeties

[ucbalumnus]

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@AwfullyGood

Socially, almost all flagships seem to:

1. Have a ton of parties and a large Greek presence,
2. Rank very well in playboy’s list of party schools, yet

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<p>Large size likely has a lot to do with it in many cases. For example, Berkeley has a prominent fraternity/sorority row, but only 11% of undergraduates are in them, and they are easily ignored by those students who are not interested in them. However, the 11% in fraternities and sororities at Berkeley is still more students in fraternities and sororities than the entire student population at places like DePauw (where 70% of the students are in fraternities and sororities, which dominate the campus social life there).</p>

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@AwfullyGood

3. They have very diverse social and extracurricular scenes so more serious and introverted students should be able to find their place.
4. They also mostly seem to go by the “work hard, play hard” motto.

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<p>The large size also means that students who are somewhat outliers should be able to find their peer groups more easily. If you want to go to a small school, you need to be much more careful about the social fit of the school and students there, since outliers may end up being socially isolated. However, different large schools may have different size groups of intellectual versus party oriented students, so even at large schools, the size of your potential peer group may vary.</p>

<p>Percentage of students in fraternities and sororities may be worth considering in this respect (lower is likely better from your viewpoint). However, note that some schools with minimal or no fraternity and sorority presence may have organizations with somewhat similar functions (Harvard final clubs, Princeton eating clubs, etc.).</p>

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@tk21769

Even at some very selective schools, econ may attract many of the kinds of characters you’re trying to avoid.

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<p>True, there seem to be a lot of students studying economics as a substitute business major. Consider the sizes of the intermediate microeconomics courses at Berkeley, where the less math version is several times larger than the more math version.</p>

<p>However, at some of the most selective schools which only offer more math versions, the students may still party hard, since they may be intellectually capable of handling those courses and partying hard. Some of the most selective schools are heavily laden with pre-investment-banking rather than pre-PhD students, so the intellectual emphasis among the students may differ.</p>

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@tk21769

Also investigate substance-free dorms and honors college options. In some honors college programs, you live among the regular riff-raff. In others, they put you in a high tower surrounded by a moat and guarded by dragons.

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<p>All women dorms (or other housing or entire colleges) tend to be less rowdy than co-ed (or all men) versions, so that may be another option to consider.</p>