<p>I'd like to get an idea of what kind of schools are like this. Good students who justify cheating to get ahead or make the leap (not poor students who cheat to just pass the class, etc) would also be included in this definition for me. </p>
<p>Also, is there a good way to tell what schools might be more competitive than others? I've heard that JHU Premed and Berkeley Med are fall into the cut-throat group, so it seems like it's the medical schools that would be (understandably) super competitive?</p>
<p>I'm actually looking to go into medicine, personally.</p>
<p>for some reason, georgia tech rings a bell. i think i read in the fiske guide the competition is INSANE, and you are graded compared to how your classmates perform so you do some pretty crazy things to get ahead.</p>
<p>i could be completely screwing up the name of the school as it could have been something else, but im pretty sure.</p>
<p>Yeah, shame on people that actually want to be able to pay off their med school loans after training 12 years for a career. Everyone knows that living in debt and being constantly on the brink of going under is much more fulfilling.</p>
<p>Please take political discussion to the Cafe.</p>
<p>GrimReaper, are you saying you want to go to such a school? I don’t think there are too many schools where people are willing to or can cheat wholesale, as this will get you permanently derailed from goals if caught and expelled.</p>
<p>You might like to look at schools from another perspective: which schools have the best admit rate to medical school? Some LACs and some schools with more cooperative rather than competitive cultures often do better percentile-wise than weeder schools.</p>
<p>Typical Answer: Not my school. However, the school down the street? It’s HORRENDOUSLY competitive there!</p>
<p>Best Answer: Any time you are isolating people with a common goal and letting them know that there are limited resources available to achieve that goal, you’re going to find competition. So a serious pre-med program anywhere, even Party Hardy State U, is probably going to be quite competitive. But if you are taking classes with students who are less concerned about achieving a certain goal, or are all interested in achieving different goals, you’re probably going to feel much less competition. My college friends and I are all in different majors and all have different career aspirations. We couldn’t compete with each other even if we tried!</p>
<p>Students in competitive environments often study together and help each other, as it’s mutually beneficial if each student does his or her share, so I don’t think that’s a good metric for “competitive culture” or “collaborative culture.”</p>
<p>Thank you for all your responses, everyone! I appreciate it!</p>
<p>Brownparent - I’m not sure. I actually have excellent moral integrity, but I currenly come from a school that’s crazily competitive. I’ve also been to a smaller, more “collaborative” high school before and I seem to feel that I thrived better on the competition. I can’t describe it, but it’s like, the competition drove me to work harder because I knew that I would fall behind if I didn’t work. At another, more laid-back school where learning was promoted rather than competition, I didn’t do any work and just did the bare minimum to get by. This also tends to happen in real life for me, I don’t do any work if I have no disincentive for it and I would imagine that this would hurt me in college. I feel no pressure to do anything from incentives so I don’t think collaborative works for me :(.</p>
<p>doctorb - I actually don’t want to make big money :D. Ever since I was young, I’ve always wanted to work in developing countries where doctors are lacking. I grew up in a very very poor country before moving to America so this resonates on a personal level as well.</p>
<p>WaitingDad - I hope you were joking but haha :P</p>
[quote]
No need for students to be cut-throat anymore with ObamaCare coming. Who would want to go into medicine? <a href=“-_-”>/quote</a>
Mostly public schools really. They seem to do the most weeding-out. And as I think another poster acknowledged, Northwestern. Also, as you mentioned, JHU; additionally I’d add Cornell and WashU I think. The competitiveness seems to hit a lot of superb schools that are right outside the USNWR top 10 for whatever reason.</p>
<p>Northwestern… not cutthroat in the sense that people cheat but apparently the classes are really tough. One of the reasons I chose not to go there or JHU.</p>