<p>Can anyone address where Colgate falls on the "Everyone helps each other and is very cooperative" ......to......."everyone is out for their own grade" ie cut-throat spectrum? I have read that quite a few freshman classess are designed to "weed-out" the weak. Looking for some feedback. Thanks</p>
<p>I have no idea where you would have heard this (you say “read” but I can’t imagine any responsible publication making this claim). Every college that ever existed has some students who see themselves in competition with everyone else. And every college also has students who don’t think that way at all. As a graduate of Colgate, myself, I can say that there was some of both when I was there, but mostly I found people were generally helpful and interested in how other students did. And no academic department ever wanted me “weeded out” of their program. In fact, they wanted me enrolled in their courses, of course! </p>
<p>The university and the academic departments want students to succeed, and they both want students to remain at Colgate. What possible incentive would there be for trying to get people to leave the school? I can’t think of any. My daughter is a Colgate junior and she has never experienced any “weeding out the weak,” whatever exactly that is supposed to refer to.</p>
<p>Perhaps “weeding out” students from introductory courses was misunderstanding a normal process that happens at all colleges where students try out different courses and majors and “weed” themselves out of those they don’t like. If freshman classes are designed to weed out the weak, I never saw anything like that. </p>
<p>My daughter, now a Colgate junior, has never seen any such process. Why would a university want to treat its students that way? Colgate, unlike many larger universities, is a small community of people who generally get along, work very hard, and cooperate. There is little chance anyone would want to “weed out” anyone since that would lose the university students, and why would that be of any use to anyone? A very small number of students drop out every year, but that happens everywhere, and it could as easily be due to emotional or personal issues or even illness or injury as anything academic. </p>
<p>This claim sounds pretty Darwinian and a little strange and quite creepy for someone to suggest (Not you, but whoever the original person was). I could see why something like this might happen at super-competitive schools, though I doubt it does there, either, but it really sounds more like the kind of thing you’d see in a movie or fictional account of how top colleges work. In real life, things are not this ruthless, and I wouldn’t treat this claim as real because it isn’t. Colgate is a supportive community where people want you to try things and want you to succeed. No “weeding out the weak” except in bad fiction or Social Darwinist diatribes.</p>
<p>I second ColgateDad’s response. I am also a Colgate grad ('09) and have found that most everyone indeed is helpful and supportive of one another; I never felt a cut-throat, out-for-yourself vibe. </p>
<p>I can attest as a science major that there were several classes early on that weeded out potential pre-meds and hard science majors. This, however, is due to the rigor of the classes and grade-deflation, not at all to anyone trying to “weed out” students. </p>
<p>Professors are extremely supportive and happy to meet during (and after) office hours to go over course material, many tough classes have free (weekly) tutoring sessions run by senior students, and students here are much more focused on learning than ruthlessly competing for grades.</p>
<p>Please dont read anything inherently negative wrt Colgate in my posts. In fact my son is seriously considering ED. the small concern came from a quote in “The Insider’s Guide to the Colleges” 2011 edition, which reads “The intro classes are designed to cull the weak”. I do realize this is just one random quote. Simply looking to CC for more reliable first hand info from stdents “in the know”
There are alot of different attitudes out there. Everything from Swarthmores stance of pass/fail only in the first semester to Cornells (probably unfounded) reptutation for needing to guard your lab work. Looking to hear where current students feel Colgate falls on the spectrum.
We are looking for an academically challenging school that manages a balance between work and social life, where students are friendly and supportive, with access to top notch faculty, that will provide a well respected education, strong in the sciences with up-to-date facilities, in a gorgeous location. So far Colgate seems to fit the bill.
Simply looking for what the downsides are.
Thnaks for the input</p>