<p>I don’t think Duke is that hard academically. My friend goes and basically says it’s about the same as here, plus, like us, they have a nice grade inflation. WashU is probably a little more intense, but not enough to see the difference if one attended. They have a nice grade inflation too. I do expect Northwestern to be tough (especially, if you are a science) despite any inflation, due to the quarter system. Emory and Tufts probably have the most unique campuses. The others have very stereotypical architecture (Vandy lots of Georgian, Duke, WashU, and Rice gothic). Just go visit these schools. I’d imagine all of them are good. All can use improvement, but they are by and large excellent. I would roll with the atmosphere factor. Also, no offense, but how does one get a feel of the collaborative environment of a campus when one visits? This is difficult to detect unless one stays a day or completely tours academic facilities where group work may be facilitated. Also, the accusations of self-segregation at Emory are overblown I think. This probably occurs at every other college, but is more noticeable here because we are more diverse than most, if not all of our peers. As for competition against others being used to challenge oneself, I disagree. One should compete against one’s own perceived abilities. Only harsh curves facilitate such competition, and there aren’t too many of those in college. You either get a good score or you don’t. Don’t worry about how high your score is compared to everyone else’s (especially if it isn’t that good), this can lead to one settling for mediocrity versus pre-set standards simply b/c “it’s better than most”.</p>