Schools where people love to learn

College Search & Selection
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<p>Yo.</p>

<p>So I like to learn. A lot. Other people really like playing football or lacrosse or whatever; I'm passionate about learning. One small example just so you understand: A few days ago, I ordered a textbook on quantum physics. I mean, how cool is that? All those little molecules act so strangely, but they make up everything we see and know! Will I ever be a physicist? I dunno. Probably not. But I still like knowing that sort of thing.</p>

<p>This has some pretty fortunate ramifications on the ever-dreaded college choice. Namely, it doesn't really matter where I choose (at least as it applies to this particular desire)... Loving to learn means that I'm going to do it regardless of the 'prestige' of a school or its quality of teaching or whatever. </p>

<p>Still though, I'd kinda like to be in an environment where there are other people who like to learn. I go to a small school and I'm the only one who enjoys that amazing moment of discovery. It gets old after a while, never being able to talk to anyone.</p>

<p>So here's the question: Are there colleges/universities that have a pretty high concentration of this kind of student? What are they?</p>

<p>I've sort of assumed for a long time that going to some fancy "prestigious" school will do the trick here, but I've really been questioning that lately... Are those school really just full of really driven, hard working people? Naturally, there's nothing wrong with that, but I'm not sure those places are really what I'm looking for if that's true. I'm driven, too, but that's not the primary characteristic I'm looking for. </p>

<p>Leafing through the mail I've received, the only school that appears to have really pushed this as a integral part of their mission is UChicago. Is that legitimately large part of their culture, or is that just an advertisement? Are there other places like that? </p>

<p>Thanks SO MUCH for your time! I really appreciate it!</p>

<p>P.S. It seems like quite often on CC, people respond to threads like this with messages like "What are your stats?" or "What can you afford?" or that kind of logistical question. I can figure out what's feasible and what's not feasible... I'm just looking for a few outside opinions on this one specific question. Not that I don't appreciate it, I just don't want you to spend your time doing something that I can figure out on my own.</p>

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<p>intended major and home state ?</p>

<p>I am not understanding your question.
If you don’t want a party school, look at religious colleges.
If you wanna be with people that study 24/7, any top tech school will do like CMU, RPI, GTech, WPI etc.
If you want elite academics Duke, UMich, UIUC, ivy’s, Northwestern, UChicago, Vanderbilt, UC-Berkeley etc.</p>

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<p>Swarthmore
UChicago
Rice
Northwestern
Michigan</p>

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<p>xtremepower he means schools where students are actually there to get an education for the sake of getting an education, who love to learn interesting things even if it has nothign to do with their careers or boosting their GPA, probably an intellectual environment I’m guessing. Schools where people study 24/7 with no aim other than acing a test can be the least rewarding for the type pf person the OP appears to be</p>

<p>I would say:
Sarah Lawrence
Pomona</p>

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<p>xtremepower, see SummerAus’s post. Perfect summary. (: I live in MO and am undecided, but I don’t think that has a super large amount of bearing on what I’m asking. </p>

<p>Thanks for your thoughts!!</p>

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<p>Haiku, you sound like my daughter, except we do not live where you live. </p>

<p>One place she is applying is the state university, but an honors living learning community. I suspect that while lots of people go to state, the only ones wanting the extra work of the living learning community (at least the type of LLC she is going for) will be those who love conversational classes and spending nights discussing, whatever they want to discuss I guess…intellectual stuff. AND…my daughter has ordered books like that, for the fun of it too!</p>

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<p>the ‘love of learning’ culture at Chicago is probably real. That being said, you could probably find the same type of environment at any fairly good LAC. A professor of mine said he did a ton of independent studies in his time at Wesleyan, so much so, that after four years he didn’t have enough credits to graduate in any particular major (out of luck he was able to graduate through history.) But i’d imagine you could find this culture at the other WASMP, or similar colleges, without much difficulty.</p>

<p>Whether you should pick a research university or a LAC really depends on your interests. A good research university might offer more for you to learn, but in general your classes might be bigger than they’d be at a LAC; while LACs might have less classes but they’d afford you with more personalized and individual attention than a larger research university. So find out what’s more important to you, and afterwards, you can make a decision about what types of colleges/universities you want.</p>

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<p>Besides U Chicago, check out Reed, Carleton, Grinnel, maybe Swarthmore.</p>

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<p>You are asking people to suggest schools you may not be able to afford, so you are wasting other’s time rather than saving it, imo. Ditto with schools you’d never be able to get into if your stats are not in range at all. </p>

<p>My daughter was attracted to Chicago for the same reason. And Brown, where she ended up. But I think that atmosphere is available at a great number of colleges and LAC’s. Yes, Chicago promotes that culture to attract those people and I think people who go there are very brainy. Another college who seems to actively promote intellectualism in particular is Reed.</p>

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<p>I immediately think of U’Chicago, Swarthmore, Williams, Pomona, Reed, Amherst, Carleton, and Haverford. Honestly, any of the top LACs and universities.</p>

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<p>William & Mary, Davidson, Rice, Georgetown, Pomona would be colleges that promote and instill lifelong learning for the sake of knowledge itself.</p>

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<p>Brown’s another good option that i neglected to mention. Another thing that might be worth looking at is colleges where cross-enrollment expands your options. Some colleges that come to mind here are the Claremont consortium and the five colleges.</p>

<p>[Claremont</a> University Consortium](<a href=“The Claremont Colleges Services – The Claremont Colleges Services (TCCS) is the central coordinating and support organization for a highly regarded cluster of seven independent colleges known as The Claremont Colleges located in Southern California.”>http://www.cuc.claremont.edu/)</p>

<p><a href=“https://www.fivecolleges.edu/[/url]”>https://www.fivecolleges.edu/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>St. Johns College, Annapolis of Santa Fe
Shimer College, Chicago</p>

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<p>Two good books that discuss the kinds of schools in which party culture eclipses learning are “The Five Year Party” by Craig Brandon (2010) and “Beer and Circus” by Murray Sperber (2001).</p>

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<p>Carleton, Swarthmore, Oberlin (especially ExCo), Grinnell, Earlham, Middlebury, Reed - most Top 30 Lacs would have an intellectual vibe (you might want to avoid those that attract “preprofessional” students, whose interests are primarily what they’re going to do with their degree, not learning for its own sake.)</p>

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<p>My D falls into the ‘loves to learn’ category. She applied to a lot of LAC’s, but also Chicago, Northwestern, U Rochester, and WashU (the only place that waitlisted her!) She is heading to Pomona in 3 weeks and I think it will be the perfect place for her. She chose it over the universities I mentioned, also Swarthmore, Bowdoin, Wesleyan, Carleton, Haverford, Oberlin, and Colby. She did not like Amherst when we visited, never made it to Williams.</p>

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<p>Any of the top 20 LACs</p>

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<p>You can go well beyond whatever LACs USNWR has put at the “top,” even many regional LACs have a strong learning culture; certainly most of the “Colleges that Change Lives” schools.</p>

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<p>I second the “colleges that change lives” list, great idea :)</p>

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<p>I would take a look at Caltech. Their curriculum is more theory based, compared to MIT and other top tech schools, if that is the direction you want to go of course.</p>