Which colleges for genuine intellectuals?

Applying to College
1

<p>What colleges would you suggest for students who truly love to learn for learning's sake (liberal arts subjects) and would enjoy being around others of the same mind? </p>

<p>This would be a school where a lot of people like to discuss literature, history, philosophy, and the like. Not a frat school, for example (although I know there are intellectuals everywhere - even in fraternities). This would probably not be a top-ten school, and one which will let in the sort of intelligent person who may be a very good but not a perfect student (because while they love to learn, sometimes they are busy reading their own choices rather than jumping through hoops for school). </p>

<p>Any suggestions?</p>

2

<p>UChicago!</p>

<p>I also heard that Reed and St. John's might fit this criteria, but I know nothing about them, so someone correct me if I'm wrong.</p>

3

<p>"where a lot of people like to discuss literature, history, philosophy"</p>

<p>-Go sit in a Starbucks.....</p>

4

<p>LOL - gee thanks KK.</p>

<p>Any more suggestions? Reed and UC sound great. I don't know anything about St. Johns.</p>

5

<p>Almost any of the LACs, most of the Ivies, UChicago, Bard, Reed, Swarthmore, etc.</p>

6

<p>-HYP-Columbia (not everyone, but there are significant groups at all)
-Certain groups at MIT-Caltech
-Reed, UChicago
-Lots of the more liberal LAC's</p>

7

<p>St. John's College of Annapolis Maryland or Santa Fe, New Mexico. </p>

<p>Annapolis campus is one of the oldest U.S. universities (over three centuries)</p>

<p>I reccomend researching it- attrition rate is INTENSE. Graduates 90%+ to go on to masters/PhD programs- big school for discussion...NO TESTS. </p>

<p>I met an almnus who got an ACTING job right out of college...amazing :-D He swore his career on St. Johns.</p>

8

<p>I was going to suggest MIT, Chicago, Brown, Caltech, and Stanford, along with LACs like Swarthmore.</p>

9

<p>for traditional intellectuality, U Chicago and Reed. Columbia is great too.
U Chicago and Columbia both have extensive core curriculum.</p>

<p>Reed has none (im pretty sure).</p>

<p>St. Johns is crazy. The most intellectual school on earth.
Super small classes, 4 year core curriculum.
The core i think is called "the great books" curriculum.
You have a few science classes, i think a few language classes, and the rest is purely books (at least to my knowledge)</p>

<p>i was told that the schools philosophy is that by studying the "great books" by the great authors of the world, that they can impart some of their greatness upon the students etc etc.</p>

<p>Here is a list of books you read in the first 2 months of freshman year.</p>

<p>Illiad- Homer
Meno- Plato
Agamemnon- Aeschylus
Gorgias- Plato
Lives - Plutarch
History- Herodotus
Republic- Plato
Clouds- Aristophanes
Apology-plato
Crito-plato
Phaedo-plato</p>

<p>yeah, those are the books you read in your first 2 months at St. Johns. Well you don't just read them, you study them to death and become as knowledgeable about the book as the authors themselves.</p>

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<p>Like someone above said, Brown.</p>

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<p>Thank you everyone - truly great suggestions to check out! Any more?</p>

12

<p>I second Reed College.</p>

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<p>Swarthmore and UChicago</p>

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<p>Re BIGTWIX' comment about core curricula, Reed requires that all freshmen take Humanities 110. It's basically an introduction to classical history and literature - like a yearlong version of St. John's curriculum, actually. There's also a mandatory senior thesis.</p>

15

<p>Berkeley, Chicago, Rhodes, Cornell, Reed.</p>

<p>This thread actually gets recreated fairly often, if you search. There was a whole list created on one I saw.</p>

16

<p>Just go to any school with a diverse population and you'll get this. It's silly to me for people to make arbitrary lists, especially when most people have never even been to those schools.</p>

17

<p>I disagree with you.
The OP want to know of Intellectual schools, not just schools with intellectuals.</p>

<p>Schools were everyone that goes is super intellectual. Where everyone would rather study on weekends, than party.
Where people do their homework as best as they can, and then do extra research on their own time to gain more info on the subject.</p>

<p>Sure pretty much every school has intellectuals, but when almost the entire school is intellectual, it is a whole different atmosphere.
Thousands of genius minds going to college for the sake of learning, rather than going for the sake of getting a degree.</p>

18

<p>As people have said, UChicago, Reed and St. Johns come to mind right away, as super intellectual schools. Other schools that might attract the kind of student you are talking about are Sarah Lawrence, Bard, Hampshire and Evergreen state. All aren’t as selective as top schools, and have quirky academic programs that appeal to a certain type of (liberal, for the most part) intellectual. </p>

<p>That said I also wouldn't discount some of the top schools in the nation — esp. LACs. You might really like Swarthmore, for instance. From everything I know (from visiting and other sources) it's a school that attracts top students who are top students because they love learning, not because they are grade grubbers. </p>

<p>Also, there are quite a few schools that aren’t quite like what BIGTWIX has As people have said, UChicago, Reed and St. Johns come to mind right away, as super intellectual schools. Other schools that might attract the kind of student you are talking about are Sarah Lawrence, Bard, Hampshire and Evergreen state. All aren’t as selective as top schools, and have quirky academic programs that appeal to a certain type of (liberal, for the most part) intellectual. </p>

<p>That said I also wouldn't discount some of the top schools in the nation — esp. LACs. You might really like Swarthmore, for instance, from everything I know (from visiting and other sources) that's a very intellectual school. </p>

<p>Also, there are quite a few schools that aren’t quite like what BIGTWIX has described, but are still pretty intellectual. These are schools where maybe not EVERYONE is "intellectual," but many if not most are. They normally aren't stereotypical UChicago style hard-core about it (ie. many like to put the books down sometimes, esp. on the weekends), but the atmosphere of loving learning for learning's sake definitely exists. For instance at my school, Wesleyan, most of my friends really love what they're doing, and even though we aren’t always thrilled to be working all the time, we've been known to stand around in the hall talking about Nietzsche for two hours as a form of procrastination. </p>

<p>Other schools that I believe are similar are Carleton, Haverford, Oberlin, Vassar, Grinnell, Brown, Yale and many others that I never checked out and therefore don't know much about (ie. probably a lot of other top--and not "top" LACs, as well as some Unis).</p>

19

<p>
[quote]
most of the Ivies

[/quote]
</p>

<p>no. just... no.</p>

<p>maybe yale. and that's a big maybe.</p>

<p>cornell? definitely not, hyper-competitive greek school</p>

<p>harvard? definitely not, learning for the sake of being the best maybe</p>

<p>dartmouth? it's one big drinking social club</p>

<p>penn? can anyone say pre professional? also a party school</p>

<p>brown? maybe, but a lot of people go to a school reputable for weed-smoking and easy course requirements for a reason</p>

<p>columbia? mayyyybe we're getting somewhere here.</p>

<p>princeton? see above descriptions for dartmouth + harvard.</p>

20

<p>i would say the most intellectual is columbia of the IVY's. Only an intellectual person could be interested in the Huge Core Curriculum.
But, i would definitely not say it is as hard core as some other schools, but still great academics.</p>