<p>Hello.
For schools usually attributed as, "match," or, "safety," for Ivy-Plus-level students, what ones have a really intellectual personality, similar to the personality that you would see at those top-tier schools, and also are at a level of prestige and opportunity, preferably in an urban or suburban setting?
Thanks!</p>
<p>Bonus: :) What are the most intellectual schools in Canada, as most are at the match and safety level?
Again, thanks!</p>
<p>[Edit: Changed a question mark to an exclamation mark.]</p>
<p>Intellectuals usually write more clearly… and what is an “Ivy-Plus-level student”? But now that I have that out of the way, I believe you are asking for recommendations of US colleges that are not Ivies and have easier acceptance criteria, but would also appeal to an intellectual student. For what it is worth, IMHO, not all Ivies are intellectual hotbeds. You will also find true intellectuals at places like Swarthmore and U of Chicago with admissions rates as low as most of the Ivies. Although certainly neither are matches for anyone. Harvey Mudd is another reach that draws intellectuals in with the mix of a strong STEM program that also encourages non-STEM interests as well. But don’t mistake selective admissions and Ivy names with intellectual environments, sometimes they are and sometimes they aren’t. </p>
<p>Reed is a college that comes to mind. Some of the women’s colleges (if you are female) are easier to get admitted to and have a more serious academic focus (Wellesley, Mt. Holyoke). Possibly Carleton or St. Johns (the Great Books colege), Oberlin has a fair share of intellectuals, too.</p>
<p>I have no sense of Canadian universities, can’t help there.</p>
<p>In general, a student will be an outlier at the top end of the scale at any school that can be an admissions safety.</p>
<p>However, a safety school that is large and has a relatively wide range of students in terms of academic ability and motivation will have enough such outliers to offer a peer group and induce the faculty to offer honors or other more rigorous course options.</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus @intparent Thanks!
Yeah, I just read over my post; I had written so sloppily! Sorry, I was in a bit of a rush. With Ivy Plus, I was referring to a term that I had heard before used in reference to schools of the top tier and of Ivy level, like Stanford, MIT, and Chicago. A student at that level was in reference to a competitive applicant at those schools.
I also completely agree that prestige and selectivity does not translate into intellectualism, but was using the term to show that the match and safety schools were that to an applicant competitive at a top tier school.
Thanks for the suggestions, though; I’ll definitely check them out!</p>
<p>Gosh, I wrote so terribly! And, again, I am in a rush, so this will probably come out sloppy too!</p>
<p>Ugh, and now I’m noticing all of these grammatical mistakes … I am making myself look like a fool.</p>
<p>Ah, you means Ivy-plus-peers I get it. You are in 9th grade or so? So how about just getting a book like Fiske Guide and read about what is out there and form some opinions on what you like. It is too early to make a college list. The colleges that appeal to top students with intellectual bent will vary by personality and interests, it will be a personal decision. A lot of SLAC will come up Swarthmore, Reed, Pomona, Wesleyan, Carlton.</p>
<p>For top student safeties in the U.S. we’d often use our good state schools or school with honors college, where admission is often more predictable. If you have good safeties in Canada, you likely don’t need one in the U.S.</p>
<p>A biased answer: Northeastern is a very common safety school for Ivy tier applicants. In the heart of Boston and surrounded by many other great schools.</p>
<p>Northeastern isn’t a very intellectual school with its focus on co-ops. Tufts would be a potential match school.</p>
<p>For “match” schools, check out some of the urban/suburban LACs outside the US News top 10 or 15:
Wesleyan, Macalester, Bryn Mawr (women), Colorado College, Barnard (women), Reed.
The number of options increase if you also consider rural LACs (like Grinnell).</p>
<p>For safety schools, start with public institutions in your home state. If it has an honors college, consider adding that to your list of match schools.</p>
<p>Agree that Northeastern doesn’t have much appeal to a student with a more intellectual bent. The rest of these suggestions are also good, although not sure I would put Colorado College on the list. But Macalester, Wesleyan, and Tufts are all good choices. </p>
<p>Another safety for an Ivy caliber student that has a very intellectual atmosphere is Bard College. And, for women, I absolutely second the suggestion of Wellesley, Mount Holyoke, and Smith.</p>
<p>And I agree Northeastern does not have an intellectual atmosphere.</p>
<p>I second the idea that Northeastern, along with other Co-op schools, wouldn’t be a good choice for a student looking for an intellectual atmosphere. Assuming Ivy-competitive stats, for matches, you could look into William&Mary, Reed, the women’s colleges if you’re a girl, Macalester, Kenyon, Tufts. Depending on interests, I’d keep Carleton, Pomona, Middlebury, and Swarthmore as “reachable reaches”.
For safeties (true safeties but still with intense intellectual kids), look at New College of Florida, Wooster, SMary’s of MD, Beloit, Kalamazoo, Earlham.</p>
<p>For many Ivy-level students, their state flagship(depending on the state) would be considered a match or safety, with an honors college of high-caliber students and faculty. I’m not sure if you’re canadian or just interested in going to school in Canada.</p>
<p>Thanks to all for the suggestions!
Yes, I’m Canadian, and my safeties will probably be in Canada.
If someone is knowledgeable about it, I hear that Canadian schools focus mainly on objective data. Is this true? Would it make it much easier to get into a higher-level Canadian school? Most students from a region will just apply to the local major school; would this make it easier for a student with top-tier-level stats?
Also, what is the intellectual atmosphere like at UBC, Toronto, Waterloo and McGill?</p>
<p>Again, thanks to all! Reed is interesting me; I’ll probably look into it. Also, would schools like NYU and BU be considered matches? What are the intellectual atmospheres like there?</p>
<p>And, yet once again, thanks!</p>
<p>NYU and BU? Not that intellectual. Very expensive, strong but not elite. A lot of pre-professional majors. NYU seems a lot like McGill (except for the price tag). I think BU isn’t as strong as those two. </p>
<p>You might find University of Rochester on the more intellectual side and quite likely to admit you. </p>
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<p>If Tufts gets one wiff you consider them a safety or Ivy-backup, you’re toast. They really hate that. WashU, not so much, but they get tired of it too.</p>
<p>How do you know? Both of those schools are extremely selective and have been for quite some time. It could be that the institutions are just looking for different qualities than a place like Cornell. </p>
<p>To the OP, consider Mount Allison University in Canada. </p>
<p>Canadian schools focus on objective data; mainly grades. </p>
<p>In terms of intellectual hotbeds, it is difficult to measure the intellectual environment of a university. As a broad generalization, however, I would say that within some universities the intellectual environment can vary tremendously by field of study, campus and in some cases college. For example, U of T has three campuses and an Oxbridge college system in operation on the St George campus. The three campuses vary greatly in their selectivity as measured by grade averages. For example, the admission entrance grade averages for the Mississauga and Scarborough campuses are generally lower than for the St. George campus. The perception is that the intellectual environment also varies among the colleges on the St. George campus.</p>
<p>I would suggest that you look at the following website to compare the assessments of students who attend the Canadian universities you mentioned. You will see this can be broken down by campus as well as by field of study:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.globecampus.ca/navigator2/”>http://www.globecampus.ca/navigator2/</a></p>
<p>I would also suggest you look for information on the admission averages for Canadian universities as one way of measuring the academic quality of the candidates they attract. Here is one general website and one for U of T:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www2.sd38.bc.ca/~jojones@sd38.bc.ca/fov4-00092a73/?OpenItemURL=S0741EE69”>http://www2.sd38.bc.ca/~jojones@sd38.bc.ca/fov4-00092a73/?OpenItemURL=S0741EE69</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://discover.utoronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Previous-grade-range-average-UofT.pdf”>http://discover.utoronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Previous-grade-range-average-UofT.pdf</a></p>
<p>They ARE highly selective, but both still have reputations as a place where people who can’t get into Ivies go. They want to be student’s first choice, not their back-up school, and never hint that they are a just a back-up. I wouldn’t consider Tufts or WashU a match for anyone other than faculty kids.</p>
<p>It’s amazing then that in WUSL’s CDS it lists level of interest as merely considered, far below factors like volunteer work, actual work, recommendations, or almost every other factor. Even the ED acceptance rate was a mere 2% higher than Rice’s. It still rejected >74% of ED applicants. </p>
<p>Reputations often do not equal reality. </p>