<p>Along those lines, something interesting to look at, on Princetonreview go to a school and click on statistics then go to academics and look at the academic rating of various schools including Bennington, Amherst, Duke, and many others. You might be surprised.</p>
<p>"The answer is simple. they're not. words and phrases are thrown around here by psuedo intellectuals like "intense workload", "intellectually stimulating", and "hardcore" in order to justify certain colleges to one's self. It's also used by people who want to say "school X is more intense, and therefore better than school Y." Needless to say most top tier colleges have relatively equal amounts of work. I don't believe for a second that Swarthmore, W&M, and Chicago are so incredibly intense when their average GPAs are 3+."</p>
<p>Im gonna disagree.
People are crazy at chicago...they never stop studying.<br>
Im only in high school, and i go to a top california public school, and i can say undoubtedly that Chicago is crazy. I can get almost straight As at my school with a good amount of effort, and study time. Ive also taken classes at Sierra College (local community college considered the best in Northern california, and the top Junior college feeder school for top UCs.
Those were easy in comparison with my time spent at chicago this summer.</p>
<p>I took 3 week intensive Japanese at U of C, and vowed that i would get an A.
And i didnt succeed. With the 3 hrs of class a day, and 12+hrs of homework/studying, 7 days a week, I came out with a B+.
Ive never worked so hard in my entire life.</p>
<p>bigtwix:</p>
<p>One thing (among the many) that Jags doesn't get is that cultures vary by school. A 3+ GPA at Swarthmore or Chicago may very well be the product of a great deal more work than a 3+ at, say, Harvard, even though all three schools have very academically talented student bodies. Certain cultures tend to reinforce studying, and others partying. Two similarly accomplished student bodies with the same average GPAs may look similar, but the culture at one might be to study 30 hours per week and, at the other, 10 hours per week.</p>
<p>But, I have no data. This is speculation, only.</p>