<p>My information may be out of date, but at one time I could have assured you that Muhlenberg was no haven for the lazy. At that time, at least, it was lots of writing, exacting professors, and lots of kids who were serious about gaining admission to med school, dental school, law school.
By contrast, maybe one of the markers of the “buy a degree” places is that they do not have too high a percentage of kids serious about entering professional school.</p>
<p>If their kids arent ready for college there is no shame in taking a gap year or two.
Even the universities not often mentioned on CC are a huge step beyond high school in most cases.</p>
<p>I have the same experience as JHS, Harvard was full of people who skated through on academics mostly because they were actually majoring in running the Crimson or the Lampoon or Phillips Brooks House or the radio station or putting on Aristophanes at the Adams House swimming pool (that guy got a MacArthur grant later in life…) The trick is knowing the easier majors that are most compatible with your skill set. Universities without a lot of required courses is also helpful, which is why Brown keeps coming up. MIT’s policy of being able to drop a course at the last minute is helpful, but otherwise I doubt it fits the criteria, though I’ve known people who thought that made it easy. Being able to change to pass/fail at a late date is also helpful.</p>
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<p>Oh, I agree that there are definitely kids there who are quite serious about their studies. I’m very fond of the school, and took D1 to visit because I thought she might like the vibe and because she’d have been a good contender for merit money. One of her closest high school friends is there now (big merit money), and very happy. D1 has been able to compare her friend’s experience at Muhlenberg versus D1’s at Tufts, and says that there is a world of difference in the rigor between their schedules–and her friend isn’t in a gut major. Which of course isn’t to say that there aren’t slackers at Tufts. 
If a school like Muhlenberg–easier to get into, a less demanding workload if desired–is something the OP’s friends would consider, then great. If they want something where no effort is required, then that’s a different matter. </p>
<p>The various B student threads might also be useful.</p>
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<p>Many highly respectable/elite LACs and some similarly ranked universities may fall under that “marker”. </p>
<p>However, no one who really knows about those colleges will even think of them as diploma mills. Many undergrad classmates would throttle people for even thinking that about our LAC considering the struggles they’ve gone through to fulfill academic requirements and graduate…sometimes with a barely passable GPA. </p>
<p>On the other hand, I know of some pre-law/pre-MBA factories where many such students effectively partied away their 4+ years and ended up in respectable/top law/MBA programs. </p>
<p>Some of them are quite respectable universities as well…</p>
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<p>Only person I knew who considered MIT “easier than high school”/easy was the salutatorian of my STEM-centered public magnet who ended up graduating near the top of his MIT graduating class with a BSEE/MSEE in 4 years. </p>
<p>Then again, I also knew a friend who did Harvard Med and felt the latter was easy enough that he felt the need to take some additional classes at Mass College of Art to keep his med school years "interesting. All his friends thought he was nuts…but hey…he’s now a Cardiologist.</p>
<p>I’d politely tell those pm’ers that I could’t help them.<br>
And maybe point out that “doesn’t want to work hard” doesn’t often win over adcoms at “good” schools.</p>
<p>Next time they ask for a “good school where my son or daughter won’t have to work too hard,” tell them “and I want a brownie that makes me younger.”</p>
<p>That’s just as reasonable as their request.</p>
<p>P.S. And if they find one, let me know.</p>
<p>I’m going to give the parents the benefit of the doubt and assume they meant they wanted a good school where their kids wouldn’t have to study all the time vs some schools that is all kids seem to do. They want their kids to enjoy the rest of the activities the college has to offer outside of the library :D.</p>
<p>I’m with those who say to pick the “right” major at a good school. Also, two more thoughts. </p>
<p>If a HS student had a rigorous HS career, lots of schools will be fairly easy. D was more challenged in her HS AP classes than she was in most of her college freshman classes.</p>
<p>Also, play to your natural strengths. If a student is just horrible at math or lab science, don’t choose a school that requires 12 hours of each for the gen ed requirements.</p>
<p>I’ll always remember a comment a friend made. She was talking about her younger sister and said “She was lazy so she just majored in math.” I have no math talent at all, so I would have a hard time being a math major at the lowest of the low tiered schools. But this girl was a math natural and was very challenged in writing, etc. so for her, math was the “easy” major.</p>
<p>Or maybe these parents have kids who are not top of the class,NMF finalists, valedictorian types who still want to go to a nice college.
Maybe they mean, they have good kids who happen to be B or even B/C students but still want a four year degree that doesn’t include starting out at CC. </p>
<p>Maybe “not work too hard” is their way of saying (without really saying it)" my kid wants to go to college and get a degree but is not a top notch student so needs a nice school where his/her chances of success/being able to make it through are good."</p>
<p>The parents of these students (I have one of those myself so I can relate) definition of “good college” is probably different than the CC definition of “good college”.</p>
<p>Aren’t some schools known for being hard to get into but “easy” to graduate from?</p>
<p>I am surprised at the inclusion of Brown, Amherst, Bennington, Sarah Lawrence and other schools w/out distribution requirements, in posts here. These schools are quite difficult and actually require more, not less, of the students.</p>
<p>Harvard’s inclusion is mystifying. The focus on CC is on getting in, but once there, the academic expectations are very high in terms of work load and quality of work.</p>
<p>If community colleges are mentioned, or any other school reputed to be “easier” is mentioned, I would say that you can work really hard and learn a lot there, too.</p>
<p>I think that <em>some</em> schools can be easy for <em>some</em> students.</p>
<p>Here’s the story of a kid I know. At our HS, he chose to challenge himself by taking AP and honors classes, but didn’t get the best grades. Because our HS does not weight grades at all, this put him barely into the top 50% of his class. The school does not officially rank, but his parents found out that the GC revealed his class rank in her recommendation. I don’t know what his SATs were, but I assume probably upper 500s, perhaps low 600s. He was rejected from every school he applied to, including several that on paper should have welcomed him. He was a varsity athlete in several sports, and an all-around great kid. </p>
<p>Naturally, he was devastated. However, he pulled himself together and applied to Eckerd, which still had spots open. He was accepted, and went there. His father told me that he was “a year ahead” in his introductory classes from the start, thanks to his HS prep, and actually got a merit scholarship his sophomore year. Eckerd was “easy” for him. IIRC, his majors were microbiology and business, or something along those lines. </p>
<p>I’m sure that if I said that Eckerd was “easy” an Eckerd parent would show up immediately saying that it was NOT easy and their kid worked like a dog, etc. And for their kid, it would be true.</p>
<p>I would suggest that a good bet as a general rule would be state universities that attract a lot of OOS students who are well-heeled and attracted by the recreational opportunities: skiing, the beach, etc.</p>
<p>“I am surprised at the inclusion of Brown, Amherst, Bennington, Sarah Lawrence and other schools w/out distribution requirements, in posts here. These schools are quite difficult and actually require more, not less, of the students.”</p>
<p>I’ve known many kids who have gone to Brown. They self admit that their work load is light. </p>
<p>One of my friend’s kid did semester abroad in New Zealand. She went To Bryn Mawr and used to an extremely heavy workload, it was a piece of cake for her. According to her, the kids from Brown who where there were overwhelmed by the same amount of work.</p>
<p>There are many great schools outside the top 20 or top 50. What bothered me was “good reputations” and the idea of “cachet” with “wont have to work too hard.” Doesn’t that imply “can get by on minimums?”</p>
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<p>Quantity does not equal academic rigor. I remember when touring one school with my son, he was told to definitely enroll in the Honors College because the freshman classes were “easier.” He explained that in the writing classes, the students in the “regular” classes had to write a short paper every week, but the students in the honors classes just had to write two longer papers.</p>
<p>I was a special ed major back in the days before personal computers. clip art, digital photography, etc. We had to put together these “articulation tests” with colored, hand drawn pictures, representing all of the sounds in English. Intellectually, a 3rd grader could have done it. But do to it well was an absolute killer… a huge quantity of work that pretty much consumed every waking hour for weeks. A person with a 200 IQ couldn’t have really done it better or faster than a person with half the IQ points.</p>
<p>Also, a heavy reading load can be a deal killer for some students…I bet my son reads 10 times faster than my D (perhaps more…both are on the rather extreme scales of fast and slow). What would be an impossible load of reading for her would be inconsequential for him.</p>
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<p>A bit OT, but first, that was Yale, not Harvard.</p>
<p>Second, that “guy” is Burt Shevelove, and he wrote The Frogs with a little-known composer/lyricist named Stephen Sondheim. They, along with Larry Gelbart (of TV’s M<em>A</em>S<em>H</em>) went on to write together a small show called A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. And The Frogs has been revived a number of times, albeit on dry land, the latest with Nathan Lane.</p>
<p>Just because something may sound silly doesn’t mean that it is.</p>
<p>'Quantity does not equal academic rigor. I remember when touring one school with my son, he was told to definitely enroll in the Honors College because the freshman classes were “easier.” He explained that in the writing classes, the students in the “regular” classes had to write a short paper every week, but the students in the honors classes just had to write two longer papers."</p>
<p>And then there are the schools where the students have to write long papers every week and in every class, on top of reading hundreds of pages a week for every class.</p>
<p>And while you’re at it, I would like to know what job I can get where I can make a lot of money (> $250k per year) and not have to work too hard. (<= 40 hrs per week)</p>
<p>I think Packmom likely has the right explanation for at least one of the parents. She knows her daughter is not academically motivated but will do the minimum, so she needs a place where the D’s minimum is enough but which will be an acceptable choice in the eyes of her friends and neighbors.</p>
<p>The others probably fall into the category of thinking the top schools are overrated, and have convinced themselves wrongly that their kid could get in to such a school if only he wanted to because he’s very smart (cough cough). But of course, he doesn’t want to because he’s “normal and well-rounded.” So, they think the really academic schools are for kids who are crazy or socially stunted to want to work so hard, and are looking for the next best thing where the kid can work less but achieve the same prestige and career results. After all, social skills are more important in life anyway, blah blah. So they want a school that sounds impressive but where their kid could still have lots of fun.</p>