<p>I'm not entirely sure how to describe this, but...The University of Chicago, for example, talks a lot (at least in the promotional material) about the "life of the mind" and sort of encouraging/celebrating that . . . Basically, what are some other schools with a similarly intellectual student body; not simply smart (I can look at rankings or something for that) but curious and more into "learning for the sake of learning"? </p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Look at Swarthmore, Grinnell, Reed, Rice, Rochester, Brown, the Claremont consortium, Cornell, Johns Hopkins. I applied ED to Chicago, but my backup list was Barnard first, then Rice, Cornell, Hopkins, and U Penn in no particular order. I later found other Chicago students with similar ideas.</p>
<p>OneMom's list is good. Also look at Yale, Columbia (because of the core), Tufts, Amherst, Wesleyan, Vassar, Carleton, Haverford, Bard, Hampshire. </p>
<p>Really, LACs in general will be a good place to look, since LACs don't attract as many pre-professional types. Not all of them will be quite as intellectual as UChicago, but many will have a "learning for the sake of learning" mindset, at least to some extent.</p>
<p>If Cornell and Penn are contenders for that list, then I'm going to include Washu as a suggestion. Very bright student body and they're not all pre-med students or pre-professionally focused. One of the "moments" during a pre-application visit that really attracted S to Washu was walking through the quad and having a group of four student come up behind him loudly and animatedly discussing "Beowulf;" since he had just read the new translation himself, he caught my eye and smiled. Depending on your major, I think you'll find intellectually oriented students at any number of colleges. Visit and sit in on classes that interest you and you'll see what I mean.</p>
<p>Amherst, Williams, Tufts</p>
<p>Many of the Midwestern LACs (Kenyon, Oberlin, Grinnell, Carleton, et al) come to mind. </p>
<p>
[quote]
Depending on your major, I think you'll find intellectually oriented students at any number of colleges.
[/quote]
Yep. 75% of Duke's (and WUStL's) biology majors are pre-med. At a place like Swat, the same 75% is aiming for grad school. There can be a big difference in the feel of the two programs! On the flip side, my fellow Classics majors are just as intellectual as any Chicago student (if not more so!).</p>
<p>Reed, Swat, and Carleton come to mind.</p>
<p>Asking this question on tours was, in my experience, VERY illuminating. I would just ask how common it was for people to discuss academics, ideas from class, random 'intellectual' stuff, etc. outside of class, and I'd try to do so in a fairly neutral way so it wasn't obvious whether I was in to or turned off by the idea. Some guides looked at me like I was crazy for even asking and tried to put my mind at ease, saying basically that class hours were for intellect and anything else was for homework or partying. Other guides (like those at the school I chose) absolutely jumped on the question and couldn't say enough about how engaged but still down-to-Earth the student body was. And they were right...I ended up at a school where the conversation could turn from politics to American Idol to philosophy to Cosmo and back again all in the span of a half hour, and that was perfect for me (I went to Scripps, and from what I hear, this is particularly common among women's colleges).</p>
<p>Obviously, like anything heard anecdotally or on a tour, this should be taken with a grain of salt. Nonetheless, there aren't too many questions you can ask that can really give you a feel for the type of student at a school. I found this one particularly helpful.</p>
<p>I opened a thread on this once. I think the top research universities fit the bill, e.g. Harvard.</p>
<p>I like student615's idea a lot, though I do think that it's a little too dependent on the tour guide, who is only one student in a school of thousands. </p>
<p>You'll most likely find intellectuals wherever you go, but I think you'll find higher concentrations of intellectuals at schools that seem to cater to them (Chicago does this by using the "life of the mind" campaign, core curriculum, etc., but other schools may do it differently).</p>
<p>Another good indicator of intellectualism is looking at the percentage of students who go on to earn PhD's. As student615 anticipated, womens' colleges, which she felt tend to be "intellectual," score highly, as do LAC's and, of course, the usual suspects.</p>
<p>Thank you all so much for your suggestions. I'll definitely ask that on any tours I go on. . . great idea.</p>
<p>Oberlin. Without question.</p>
<p>Wellesley, Bryn Mawr, Mount Holyoke, maybe Smith?</p>
<p>well i can say from experience that, Chicago is like they say. I took japanese there this summer at the summer program.
I got like a trillion hours of homework a day (10 on average). But intensive language there is supposedly the hardest summer courses.</p>
<p>So intensly intellectual though.</p>
<p>One thing about top schools is that they're all pretty intellectual. One thing that people on this forum sometimes criticize U Chicago for is that it markets itself mostly on its intellectualism, and that leads some to believe that it's more intellectual than other schools. It really isn't. You can rest assured that many of its peer schools -- probably about the top 30 schools -- will be intellectual enough.</p>
<p>Barnard along with Columbia.</p>
<p>Reed, UChicago, St. John's College, New College of Florida, Hampshire.</p>
<p>I hate to say this.. but I would not consider Duke an 'intellectual' school.</p>
<p>However places such as Brown, Swarthmore, Chicago, and Grinnell (everything I hear about this school is solid!) come to mind..</p>
<p>Well, I am so impressed that CoolaTroopa said that. It must have been painful, but he certainly has earned a lot of respect for recognizing that about Duke.
I agree also with kyledavid80 and the fact that "U Chicago markets itself mostly on its intellectualism, and that leads some to believe that it's more intellectual than other schools. It really isn't." Perhaps the fact that it is also known as "the school were fun goes to die" has something to do with it.</p>
<p>A school where students go to for the "sake of learning", without being afraid of experimenting and taking courses that they are really interested in, without compromising the academic standards and with one of the lowest acceptance rates in the country which makes it extremely competitive comes to mind: Brown</p>
<p>How about Amherst College, MovieBuff?</p>