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<p>MOST students EVERYWHERE have poor writing skills. I’ve known social science PhDs with poor writing skills. Being able to write well is, in fact, a pretty rare skill.</p>
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It is a rare TALENT, but it is a skill that can be TAUGHT. Top schools realize that, and make sure to teach ALL their students, regardless of major, good writing skills.</p>
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<p>Simply not true, for the reasons I stated, though those paying 40K/yr for a private school education would like to think so ;).</p>
<p>You choose your friends and peers at college…</p>
<p>If you want high achieving peers, go find them at your college and hang with them. They are there at every college and in every major. People have lots of reasons for picking one college or another, and many people pick for reasons other than academics.</p>
<p>It’s an oversimplification to say that schools that focus on math/science are filled with non-achievers in liberals arts classes. And after you spend a year in college, I think you’ll agree.</p>
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I have NEVER said that, but rather posited it for discussion based on what others have said. Please disagree–that’s the point, to debate–but also please stop misattributing opinions to me.</p>
<p>You might, of course, be addressing the quote above to VP. But she is a parent and thus unlikely to discover any insight after a year in college.</p>
<p>^^ Right. I guess I didn’t gain enough insights after completing college and grad school :)</p>
<p>To throw something new into the mix - </p>
<p>I myself attended an Ivy for grad school in an area of the humanities. During my years in grad school, I heard quite a few professors complain that in the upper-level undergrad humanities courses they were teaching, science/tech majors taking the courses for electives, who were NOT interested in pursuing a career in a humanities area, were doing much better than most humanities majors - performing better on exams, writing better papers, and demonstrating greater insight during class discussions.</p>
<p>Perhaps it would be instructive to see where tech majors who anticipate taking challenging electives in humanities, or who might consider changing their major to English or history, decide to matriculate. Keep in mind also that many very accomplished students are uncertain of their majors, but begin with a math/science sequence only because it is more difficult to transfer into a math/science area (because of numerous prerequisite sequences, many accompanied by labs, during the first two years) than out of one.</p>
<p>I know this (quality of coursework and peers in humanities departments) was something my own children considered, among all types of schools.</p>
<p>In this country we’re fortunate that a really motivated student can find enough resources to challenge himself, whatever the major in most schools. But when you talk about the average kid in class, it is certainly conceivable that in some majors you have to work harder than in others. eg. DS commented that he and his classmates taking discrete math or Computer operating systems struggled and there were few As, while in the Philosophy class, he didn’t know anybody who busted his rear end, but "A"s were more generously dispensed. It clearly doesn’t mean that one individual couldn’t have put in (and got out) a lot more in the Phil class, but that wasn’t the norm.</p>