<p>So this may be a little biased depending on who answers, but who tends to have the happiest college students, who are the happiest "elite" colleges, and what makes the students at the universities or LACs so content year in and year out?</p>
<p>(I don't want to define "elite" but I would say for me it is a top 30 school, which is itself open to debate.)</p>
<p>stanford and brown kids are stereotypically the happiest. when i visit stanford, i just FEEL happy lol.</p>
<p>i’d like to say that duke kids are pretty damn happy too - i rarely encounter such an intense school pride and overall cheerfulness than from dukies.</p>
<p>WashU in St. Louis.</p>
<p>UVA, no doubt. I have to disagree with eatsalot; I know a few Dukies who ended up transferring.</p>
<p>According to the Princeton Review, we have the highest “Quality of Life.” I’m not sure if that in particular translate directly to happiness, but most kids seem pretty satisfied.</p>
<p>There is also a Princeton Review question about Happiest to measure it directly, tall saint.</p>
<p>But you can also look at retention and transfer-out rates. I know that Brown has less than 10 students transfer out each year, and a good portion of those transfers tend to be athletes looking for a different sports culture.</p>
<p>pomona kids are rumored to be happy. i hear harvard kids arent. but really there is no way to measure this</p>
<p>All of you forgot RICE!</p>
<p>Rice beats Brown and Duke and equals Stanford in happiest students and quality of life in my opinion. We are ranked #2 behind WashU in quality of life according to the 2009 Princeton Review rankings and #15 in happiest students in the 2009 Princeton Review rankings. The residential college system at Rice makes it more inclusive and fun. The quality of life and the residential college system (like the houses in Harry Potter) are two of the main reasons I turned down Duke, Emory, and Northwestern for Rice. Plus, we are one of the most affordable elite private schools in the nation; I got the best financial package from here, so that is the other main reason I turned down these same schools!</p>
<p>My bias aside, schools known to have good quality of life/happy students include: Stanford, Brown, Duke, WashU, Yale, Pomona, Princeton, Claremont McKenna, Clemson, and many of the LACs.</p>
<p>I find that nearly every top private schools seems to have very happy/satisfied student bodies and all for their own unique reasons.</p>
<p>
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The quality of life and the residential college system (like the houses in Harry Potter) are two of the main reasons I turned down Duke, Emory, and Northwestern for Rice.
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I think you’ve mentioned which schools you gave up to attend Rice like a million times. Give it a rest.</p>
<p>“I find that nearly every top private schools seems to have very happy/satisfied student bodies…”</p>
<p>I would probably agree with this, save a for a few notable exceptions. Harvard’s student body has long been rumored to be less than happy. </p>
<p>Also, Swarthmore, for reasons that are completely lost on me, has been battling a reputation for some time now that its students are not happy.</p>
<p>Many of the warmer colleges tend to have very happy students, perhaps partially because of the sunshine (SAD can be disheartening). </p>
<p>I would add UNC Chapel Hill, Davidson, UT Austin, and William & Mary to the already mentioned list of UVA, Duke, Stanford, Pomona, and Rice.</p>
<p>I’m surprised no one has posted a direct link to the Princeton Review list:</p>
<p>[10</a> Colleges with the Happiest Students - MSN Encarta](<a href=“http://encarta.msn.com/college_article_happystudents/with_the_happiest_students.html]10”>http://encarta.msn.com/college_article_happystudents/with_the_happiest_students.html)</p>
<p>Tulane students are supposed to be really happy… They are in that list chaoskita also, I read their reivews and I was convinced that I HAD to APPLY there.</p>
<p>D came across a site that has a lot of college “lists.” Included is a list of “Happy Colleges”.</p>
<p>I am not sure if we can post other web sites, BUT you can find the site by putting the words Inside and College together as one word and add .com. ;)</p>
<p>Not a bad site. It may provide insight in to colleges that you never considered. It lists “Hidden Gems”, etc.</p>
<p>Hillary2012: I’m a current Swarthmore student. Based on my experience, most students here are having a great time at Swarthmore. Overall, I had a great year, but Swarthmore didn’t turn out exactly the way I expected. Some possible reasons why people here may be unhappy: they’re disappointed by the social scene, they work too much, or they just don’t like the small college atmosphere, which can be quite insulated. </p>
<p>There are usually activities to do at Swarthmore on the weekends, but they tend to be repetitive–it’s the same thing every week: some music event, a play, a movie, a party. And people who party tend to find that the party scene gets old pretty quickly–they dance and party with the same people at the same place at the same day of the week. Also, I think some people don’t like all the work they have to do–since we do get a lot of work at Swat, people definitely should try to find their work enjoyable. Otherwise, they’ll get bored and lonesome. And I think some people don’t really deal very well with the stress that comes with having a lot of work. They may lose a lot of time to hang out with people so that they can study more (This is a bad idea.). Finally, since the campus is quite isolated (as most liberal arts colleges are), some people get a sense that they just need to escape.</p>
<p>I think that if people had more free time here, they might be happier. I think everyone at Swarthmore, at some point, would rather be outside playing than working on a term paper. Still, in my experience I’ve found most students very happy here–they’ve found ways to deal with / ignore the negative sides of Swarthmore.</p>
<p>At Boston College, the freshmen retention rate is close to 96%, so I guess people at BC are reasonably satisfied, thus happy, with their experiences.</p>
<p>Where does BC rank on the “Happiness Scale” in that Princeton Review book? I would really like to know.</p>
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<p>people transfer from everywhere, mang.</p>
<p>I would say people who go to schools that grant full-scholarships only must be pretty happy, except the military academies (I believe they’re actually some of the most unhappy people)… But I think Olin College of Engineering is like that and maybe a few others?</p>
<p>
And you have over 1,000 posts??</p>
<p>I think people are forgetting that some schools intentionally do not hold your hands for 4 years. they let you fall and despair over your hardships, but they also allow you to bounce back. the UC system is notorious for ignoring the suffering of their students in whatever career they hope to achieve (medicine, law, business, engineering) for the sole purpose of toughening them up for life after college. following in their footsteps i’d rather be prepared than high after getting the diploma ;)</p>