I have been hearing that recently many schools have decided to make their academic climate a major factor in their identities-by which I mean, whether they are an intellectual or pre-professional school. What are the most noteworthy examples of each?
Most less selective colleges (e.g. less selective local state universities and private colleges of similar selectivity) tend to have students choosing predominantly pre-professional majors.
But if you mean better known schools that are more selective, you might say that schools that build their curricula around co-ops like Northeastern, Drexel, and Cincinnati have a pre-professional orientation.
The least pre-professional schools would those that do not offer pre-professional majors or where very few students choose them. Most of these tend to be more selective ones.
Pre-professional is not necessarily the opposite of intellectual.
Opinions vary. The author of Excellent Sheep, a former Yale professor, writes his impressions regarding a few schools in this passage, for example:
I would question, however, “notoriously” according to whom?
Agreed. This false dichotomy is one of the more ridiculous things that gets perpetrated on CC. There are many career-minded students who are very engaged with their classes, continue discussions outside the classroom, etc. Many of my best and brightest students have been engineers or pre-meds (the dreaded pre-professional students!).
The most selective colleges are generally far more similar in popular majors and career destinations than they are different. Is there any top college that has more art history or religion majors than econ majors?
Despite the professor’s quote above, many of the top universities and liberal arts college are great places for intellectual exploration. And you will be able to find like-minded peers and faculty at most of them.
Probably the colleges most famous for an “intellectual” bent are U of Chicago, Swarthmore, Reed, and Bard. But many others offer that as well.
Preprofessional schools jump out from their majors and descriptions. I agree with the person above who named Northeastern as a quintessential example of a preprofessional school. There it is all about internships and real life applications.
Most undergrads probably seek a mix of both intellectual joy and preprofessional preparation. But if you prefer one to the other, you will know. I remember when we visited two universities in a row, and after the second one, my son commented on how much he liked that a student speaker was talking about her fascination with a specific topic in history and was so excited about how brilliant one of her professors was in that area. He contrasted that with the college we had visited the day before, where he noticed everyone was talking about internships and how well students did getting jobs afterwards, but he had not heard anyone talk about how excited they were about something they were learning. That stood out in his mind, and his comment gave us an idea of what is important to him.
All in all, though, professional preparation and intellectual exploration and enjoyment are not mutually exclusive, and ideally college will provide both.
Reed might come closest.
Reed College bachelor’s completions, 2015-16, from College Navigator:
19 Art/Art Studies, General
19 Philosophy/Religion/Religious Studies
14 Economics
Some pre-professional schools have humanities programs or humanities living learning communities for students who desire more intellectual exploration.