One of the things I’m looking for in a college is a culture of intellectualism- where students enjoy and are encouraged to think rigorously about philosophy, art, and literature.
What are some great universities that are notable for fostering this?
(obviously, all good schools are going to be intellectual, but what I’m looking for is a distinct focus on this, as opposed to a more pre-professional culture in a school like UPenn)
Among others:
Swarthmore
Reed
U Chicago
Williams
Wesleyan
Deep Springs
Pomona
Harvey Mudd
Columbia
Kenyon
Oberlin
Grinnell
Carleton
What about among the Ivies?
@marvin100 Kudos for that mention of Deep Springs… I know a student there! lol
As do I, @theskittlebug !
Ivies:
Columbia/Princeton/Harvard/Yale, esp.
Bard, Bryn Mawr.
I wish there was a list somewhere for below the top tier as well…I know every college has groups of students like this, but I know there are places where it is much more common.
Below top tier, Catholic colleges are a good bet for talking about philosophy, because usually their students were exposed to philosophy if they went to a Catholic high school and7or thru college phil classes that are required.
Below Top Tier, what about Beloit and Kalamazoo? St Johns and Lawrence? These get a decent percentage of their grads into PhD programs. St Johns for English and Humanities, for example…
.
Regarding Ivy League schools, opinions vary. The author of the book Excellent Sheep, a former Yale professor, writes somewhat cuttingly about a few of them:
“My examples come from Yale [whose students the author has already characterized as having aspects of ‘excellent sheep’], since that is where I taught. If anything, it probably deserves its reputation as being the best among elite universities (as distinct from liberal arts collleges) at nurturing creativitiy and intellectual independence. Notoriously preprofessional places like Penn, Duke, or Washington University, or notoriously anti-intellectual ones like Princeton or Dartmouth, are clearly far worse.”
I would question, however, “notoriously” according to whom?
(Excellent Sheep [2014], Deresiewicz, p. 15.)
@merc81 I’m not that well-informed about HYP – why does he call Princeton anti-intellectual? (I get the Dartmouth dig.)
Here is an interesting thread on this topic:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/19252566#Comment_19252566
I’ve been very impressed by the intellectual dynamism of many students who chose Amherst and Williams; in the West, Rice and Pomona come to mind.
Brandeis
Ancedotal of course, but these jump out at me:
UChicago
Yale
Columbia
Amherst
Williams
Swarthmore
Pomona
Reed
Carleton
Haverford
Bryn Mawr
St Johns (the small LAC in Maryland)
Harvey Mudd???
Would that be the one graduate majoring in art?
Other than one IR major, all graduates majored in a STEM discipline…
I went to Rice and I loved it, but I disagree. It is hardly a hot bed of liberal arts intellectualism.
It is mostly known for graduating a lot of engineers and sending a lot of kids to med school. It is more of a pre-professional culture rather than a pure intellectual culture.
Pomona, Reed, Swarthmore and U Chicago are the schools that come to mind first for me.