<p>Ignoring top tier schools like Caltech, MIT, Harvard, U Chicago and so on and looking more to the kind you could get into with 3.6 GPA and 2300 SAT with very mediocre ECs...</p>
<p>Which ones have the most rigorous education? Where could I go so that I would stay up until 2 AM doing my homework and then curse my professor for assigning the hardest problems to us? What place will mercilessly fail me until I fully understand the concept?</p>
<p>Cornell University</p>
<p>Take a look at the academic ratings for schools on the Princeton Review.</p>
<p>Georgia Institute of Technology is not that easy.</p>
<p>If that GPA is unweighted, you have a shot at UChicago. Terrific SAT score. Write a couple of brilliant essays. They’re more forgiving about weak ECs than many other top schools.
Also look into honors programs at state flagship universities.</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon has a pretty rigorous academic schedule but the good thing is that the recruiters take that into account when hiring starts.</p>
<p>Rankings from 2009 Princeton Review Academics: Students Study the Most:</p>
<p>MIT
Olin
Reed
CalTech
Harvey Mudd
Bennington
Harvard
Middlebury
U of Chicago
Swarthmore
Grinnell
Holy Cross
Davidson
US Coast Guard Academy
Williams
Haverford
West Point
Cooper Union
Bryn Mawr
Princeton</p>
<p>[Test</a> Prep: GMAT, GRE, LSAT, MCAT, SAT, ACT, and More | The Princeton Review](<a href=“Colleges Where Students Study the Most | The Princeton Review”>Colleges Where Students Study the Most | The Princeton Review)</p>
<p>Here are Academic ratings for the above schools per the 2009 Princeton Review. You can look them up yourself for any college under Academics & Majors at:
[Test</a> Prep: GMAT, GRE, LSAT, MCAT, SAT, ACT, and More | The Princeton Review](<a href=“http://www.princetonreview.com/]Test”>http://www.princetonreview.com/)</p>
<p>MIT 97
Olin 99
Reed 97
CalTech 87
Harvey Mudd 99
Bennington 95
Harvard 99
Middlebury 98
U of Chicago 97
Swarthmore 99
Grinnell 96
Holy Cross 98
Davidson 97
US Coast Guard Academy 87
Williams 99
Haverford 98
West Point 97
Cooper Union 88
Bryn Mawr 94
Princeton 98</p>
<p>Reed, Mudd, Swarthmore, Cornell. And don’t write off U of Chicago, either.</p>
<p>I’d say I did as much work while at Carnegie Mellon as I do here at Caltech. Both schools I spent about 10-15 hours per assignment per week. I’d say the quality of teaching and effort put into problem sets by professors/TAs at CMU was much higher than here at Caltech, though. I feel that I tended to learn a lot more in a 10 hour problem set from CMU than I learn from a 10 hour set here.</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon University’s Academic Ratring per Princeton Review is a 99 which gives credence to what you say.</p>
<p>Namurt–</p>
<p>Rigor of program will depend on…</p>
<p>– Your course of study. Some majors tend to be more time-intensive than others.
– Your professors. That professor that challenges you to your limit and then some exists independently of the school’s rank on US News or Princeton Review.
– Availability of graduate programs or independent studies to deepen your learning.
– What sorts of internships, research positions, and work experiences you have alongside your academics.</p>
<p>See, I’m at Chicago, but I have friends who are working harder than me at schools you wouldn’t necessarily associate with “rigor.” That’s because they chose major(s) and pathways that are challenging.</p>
<p>Agree with unalove but I believe it depends more on you. College is not high school. The professors point the way and the rest is up to you. You can take the minimum requirements to graduate or you can make your college experience as rigorous and intellectual as you wish.</p>
<p>To give you an example, while I was in Wisconsin, one of my Chemical Engineering classmate took all graduate ChE courses in his senior year. Many took independence studies. In Michigan, there were at least half a dozen juniors and seniors in all my graduate Computer Engeering classes. And that was more than 30 years ago. Today undergraduate research is quite common in a lot of research universities even for freshman or sophomore students.</p>